A Steady Heart In Time Of Coronavirus (Part 2)

During this time of coronavirus, a time of collective fears and difficulty, it is crucial to find ways to steady the heart and to connect compassionately with ourselves and with each other. A steady heart will allow us to meet whatever arises with presence and courage, intelligence and love. In this 2-part series, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach offer powerful practices and teachings that can open us to loving awareness, and contribute to our well being and the healing of our world.

Transcript

Welcome back,

My friends.

I am really glad to be with you and to have this time to reflect together on how we can respond to this world crisis we are in,

To the fears and the losses with compassion,

With a wise heart.

And one of the pandemic cartoons circulating right now is a picture of Sisyphus working at home on a laptop and there is this huge boulder by his side and his expression is kind of an identity crisis,

Kind of confusion.

And it is just not life as usual for anyone.

This pandemic has toppled all routines,

All plans,

Large and small.

It is interesting to recall your worries and concerns,

Whatever you were focused on a few weeks ago or maybe longer depending on where you live.

Everything has changed.

And I imagine like me many are listening and have fears that are much more survival based,

Physical survival,

Financial survival,

Maybe for yourself or others who are dear,

Maybe for so many in our world who are living on the edge right now.

It feels very close in to me personally.

My pregnant daughter-in-law is a nurse working at the largest hospital in the San Francisco area and she is very committed to staying on.

So she is extremely high risk.

And my son's father,

Dear friend,

Who lives with them is also quite ill and he has got a severe heart condition.

He wouldn't survive the virus we don't think.

So they are trying to sequester him.

And I share this because so many are in kind of impossible situations with no good answers.

So my fears are for so many.

The pandemics are toughest on those who are most vulnerable.

Those with the least money,

The least access to resources are the ones that most contract the virus,

Die from the virus,

And if they don't die are financially devastated.

So as my friend Valerie Carr puts it,

This is a time to see no stranger.

So as a lot of… with a lot of people I am in process I feel even as I speak the vulnerability of it,

Anticipating real loss,

That rawness and tenderness,

And I am also feeling an enormous sense of possibility,

Of potential,

That what is unfolding as suffering can do can wake up more love and more compassion in us and our world.

And many are familiar with the Bodhisattva aspiration.

A Bodhisattva is an awakened being.

May whatever circumstances arise serve the awakening of this heart,

Of all hearts.

May whatever circumstances – death,

Dying,

Loss – this prayer feels very deep right now and very strong and important.

I know I am not alone that sensing the potential in this pandemic to call forth love,

To awaken hearts.

And our conscious prayer,

Our conscious aspiration is so powerful.

It is like the deeper our contact with real vulnerability,

The roots deep down into the realness of the vulnerability,

The more powerfully our aspiration,

Our prayer reaches out like those branches of a great tree towards light,

Towards love.

If you are intentional,

Suffering can turn you towards your most precious spiritual resources,

That inner refuge of courage,

Compassion,

Wisdom,

Calm.

I would like to pause here and invite you to reflect for a moment.

You might take a few breaths.

And scanning in a way how things are for you right now to sense the vulnerability you have most contacted inside yourself,

What feels most challenging,

What has been distressing.

And for these moments give yourself permission to open to that,

To let yourself feel that.

And as you do you might sense into yourself and ask,

What is my heart's deepest aspiration?

What is the prayer of my heart?

Sensing what do you hope might be called forth in you?

How do you want to be?

Who do you want to be in the midst of this?

So we will continue to look together the practices,

The inner practices,

The practices with each other that allow us to align with our aspiration,

Whether it is for presence or compassion or calm.

Many of you know,

As Jack mentioned,

That we teach a meditation teacher training.

It is mostly online and there are participants from fifty countries and a number from China and several reported that the Chinese government recently officially recommended that to reduce stress and support community during these times everybody in China should practice mindfulness meditation,

Which is good news.

I and some colleagues are currently offering a webinar on mindfulness to the House of Representatives and staff and so now I am waiting for their official word that we physically distance and we wash hands and we quiet our minds and we arrive in presence.

May that be our instructions.

So for all of us when we are feeling separate and anxious and reactive we need a pathway from fight-flight-freeze to clarity and calm.

And to truly free ourselves from the grip of fear that pathway needs to involve bringing mindfulness and a deep compassionate presence to the fear.

And especially during these times it is so important to have a way back because the anxiety is so contagious.

So I remind us,

Many of you are familiar,

Of how we can use RAIN – Recognize,

Allow,

Investigate,

Nurture – to carry us back to that inner refuge of calm,

To wake up through the fear.

And I often think of the psychologist Luis Cozolino who says,

It is not survival of the fittest.

It is survival of the nurtured.

We need a way to be mindful and connect with what is here and to hold it with kindness.

I will share with you a most recent RAIN story on my own experience.

A few days ago I was reading about the Arizona prisons and giving out free hand soap because they were exposed for not having such a basic thing for prisoners where the horror of the virus spreading is very,

Very real and there is no such thing as being able to take a refuge in a place that is quiet and separate from others.

So I was by the river meditating where I meditate often and feeling those most vulnerable,

Those that are dear ones that are facing so much.

So I started with RAIN and recognizing,

Okay,

Fear,

Just naming it.

And it really helps to whisper the name when it comes up.

You know,

Just to name it,

It calms the limbic system some.

And then A,

Allow,

And just giving space.

And it is not like wanting it to be there.

It is just for now agreeing to give some space to what is here.

And investigating in RAIN what is important is to let it be somatic,

To really come right into our bodies with that willingness.

So that is what I did,

This willingness to feel the vulnerability and I placed my hand on my heart because that is where I felt it.

And that both helps me to keep my attention where the feelings are,

The felt sense,

But also it begins to nurture.

And we need nurture all the way through.

Felt right into the epicenter of it,

Breathing and a kind of a surrendering resistance as I did.

And just ask that vulnerability,

That fear,

What is needed?

What do you need?

And the response was pure loving,

To belong to love,

I need to trust and feel a little belonging to love.

And so in those moments I called on the whole universe as love.

Just this… It was this intimate field of love washing into the vulnerability.

And the words that were whispered were beloved,

Beloved.

Just those words,

That feeling of belonging to love.

I talk about after the RAIN.

Those are the moments after the nurturing and the loving presence with what is here.

And that is a sense of becoming that loving awareness.

Just becoming the ocean that is holding the waves.

And in those moments – this is what I really wanted to name to you – the fear,

That clutch and clenching of vulnerability became the world sphere.

It was impersonal.

It was like this huge loving awareness was holding these tender streams moving through.

And what I keep rediscovering with RAIN,

With bringing presence to what is here,

The secret is loving the fear,

Loving ourselves into healing.

And we can't will that.

And initially it doesn't feel like love when we are first present with it.

But if we keep having that willingness to be present it starts opening up.

So I want to invite you to pause again here because even a light RAIN can help to open us out of the clutch of fear and sense that open awareness and tenderness that can be present with all the streams.

So again you might take a few long deep breaths.

Scanning again for where any sense of vulnerability,

Any sense of fear that wants your attention,

That is calling your attention,

Lives in your body,

Lives in your heart.

And with whatever arises,

Whatever is predominant,

Just to recognize it,

Just to honor,

Okay,

This is what is here,

Perhaps mentally whispering a word that goes with the feelings you are feeling right now.

And let your intention be to allow.

And then gently place your hand wherever you feel vulnerability.

It might be the throat or the chest or the belly.

So you are both investigating and feeling into the experience and you are also beginning to accompany it with a witnessing and loving presence.

Take a few full breaths,

Breathing in to where you feel the vulnerability,

Guiding your attention with your hand.

And from the wisest most awake place in you,

Your awakened heart,

Sense what is most needed in this moment and offer some gesture of care,

Of nurturing to your vulnerable heart.

It might be words,

An image,

Energetic tenderness.

And letting go of any doing,

Just rest in the presence that is here,

Noticing the quality of the presence.

You might sense any shift from the vulnerable self when you began a light brain to more spaciousness,

More tenderness,

More presence.

If you would like to open your eyes,

Please do.

The more that we cultivate this capacity to hold the vulnerability within us,

The more we can connect with each other with a loving presence,

An awake presence.

Again that line,

This is a time to see no stranger.

How much can our hearts include others?

There is that beautiful saying that everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Can we see that?

We know we have a strong conditioning to feel we are separate.

And in pandemics this actually can be amplified by the fears that others will get us sick.

So to reduce the sense of separation,

To increase love,

I would like to conclude these talks that Jack and I are doing with three domains of deepening attention,

Each one of them to reduce separation and increase love.

And the first one is to intentionally reach out to connect with others by phone,

Online,

Online texting,

Sharing with others online.

For some you may be involved with spiritual friends groups or other sanghas.

Some of you might be familiar with RAIN partners.

You can get all the resources for that on my website.

A way of being real with each other actually deepens our capacity to hold what is going on in our world.

You can do Zoom yoga classes,

Zoom dinner parties,

Enjoy and connect.

So that is the first one.

The second that reduces fear and increases love is to engage in ways that help.

When we are traumatized we feel a sense of powerlessness,

We freeze.

Part of healing trauma and healing all fears is to connect in a way that engages.

And each one of us brings a very true medicine to the world.

We can reach out to someone who might be lonely.

We can contribute our time,

Money,

Initiatives to help each other,

Volunteer,

Deliver food,

Medicine.

In Ireland through tweeting what became viral was this way of matching those who are elderly who needed medicine with those who could volunteer and help.

So that is the second is to first reach out,

Connect,

The second engage and help and the third is to celebrate the goodness that is here.

Walk outside,

Enjoy the beauty of spring,

The dearness of those who we might be working with at home or living with and the care of so many who really want to serve the good.

So we turn towards the light together and we celebrate.

There is now Zoom dancing parties,

People sharing poetry,

Songs.

In the New York Times last week there was an article and it started with this about Italy.

It started with the national anthem.

Then came the piano,

Chords,

Trumpet blasts,

Violin serenades and even the clanging of pots and pans,

All of it spelling from people's homes,

Out of windows and from balconies and rippling across rooftops.

Finally on Saturday afternoon a nationwide round of applause broke out for the doctors on the medical front fighting the spread of Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak.

In China patriotic truck drivers risked infection to bring desperately needed food to the people of Wuhan.

In Iran there were videos that showed doctors in full scrubs and masks dancing to keep spirits up.

And then this.

This is a poem many of you have heard because it went viral and it is so beautiful to reflect on this together from Richard Hendrick.

Yes,

There is fear.

Yes,

There is isolation.

Yes,

There is panic buying.

Yes,

There is sickness.

Yes,

There is even death.

But they say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise you can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet the sky is no longer thick with fumes but blue and gray and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi people are singing to each other across the empty squares keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that in a hotel in the west of Ireland is offering free meals and delivery to the house bound.

Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighborhood so that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today churches,

Synagogues,

Mosques and temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless,

The sick,

The weary.

All over the world people are slowing down reflecting.

All over the world people are looking at their neighbors in a new way.

All over the world people are waking up to a new reality to how big we really are,

To how little control we really have,

To what really matters,

To love.

As Jack mentioned,

In so many different ways we have been training for this to hold this living dying world in our hearts and to respond with compassion,

To take our shelter in love.

So we'll close in that spirit.

Again I invite you to close your eyes.

Sense others around the globe reflecting together that we all are caring about waking up our hearts.

You might sense in these moments again your aspiration.

What is being called forth in you?

What is your prayer?

Sensing any vulnerability in your own being that's asking for attention.

And just gently offering your attention,

Whispering out loud,

Any words of comfort that resonate.

Bringing to mind someone who can use your healing attention.

A dear one who might be caught in their own fear.

Again whispering your words of care,

Of well-wishing for this person.

Bringing to mind someone who is different – perhaps by race or class,

Country – who you might forget is not a stranger,

Is just like you,

Wants to love and be loved.

Be kind.

Everyone you meet has a hard battle.

Sensing that for this person and offering your prayer.

And to all now,

Your own vulnerable heart,

Dear one,

Someone who is different,

To feel the whole world,

The whole world's pain,

Is part of your heart,

Can be held in this open-hearted space of compassion.

Close with the words of Lin Unger.

She says,

Do not reach out your hands,

Reach out your heart,

Reach out your words,

Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move invisibly where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love,

For better or for worse,

In sickness and in health,

So long as we shall all live.

Thank you,

My friends,

For your precious attention.

Wishing you all blessings as together we move through this with awakening hearts.

Blessings.

Reviews

Listening to that in 2025, a few years after Covid was really powerful. Remembering the fear, the hope and seeing how quickly the world moves on and forgets. It's beautiful to stop and appreciate those who spent that time pouring love into the world and supporting others.

Thank you

I am familiar with the RAIN trauma informed response teaching; however, Tara Brach is so eloquent in her ability to embue this teaching with spaciousness, tenderness and love that I was more readily able to access it.

Fantastic as usual Tara, thanks

Thanks Tara..my deepest gratitude ❤🍃🙏

So beautiful and peaceful—I feel comforted and safe, which is everything right now. Thank you so much, Tara 🙏🏻❤️

So comforting. Thank you, Tara.

Thank you so much

In gratitude for your deep teaching

Excellent. Thank you so much 💕🙏🏻

Excellent, calming, realistically hopeful

That was so good & needed, bless you!😭🙏

Thank you. Grateful. Sending good wishes.

Thank you so much!

Beautiful and heartfelt as always. Thank you Tara
Stay safe. Prayers to your family of health and blessings

Thank you so much. Your words mean so much to so many. Blessings to you. Namaste.

Thank you, Tara, for your wisdom, compassion, and encouragement to embody our best selves now and always. “We have been training for this.” 🙏🏽

Thank you for this love offering. My heart softened and expanded and deeply embraced my sadness and fear. 🙏🏻❤️

Very nice to begin my day. Many things I connected with; RAIN, reach out with heart, presence.
Thank you Tara for your presence. Yes, this is what we have been preparing for.