Meditation On Allowing And Aversion

Arriving into your body like feathers or snowflakes falling. Our experience is allowed to be whatever it is. Notice if there’s aversion, a "turning away from" something in your experience – story, sensation, sound, memory or emotion.

Is there something uncomfortable in the body, mind, or environment?
Just because something feels unpleasant, does it mean there’s something wrong?
Is there another option?

Transcript

Please rest back out of your troubles,

Out of your worries into yourself.

Just gently arriving into your body like feathers falling or snowflakes.

Welcome as you are.

And then welcome as you are and arriving softly.

The possibility of welcoming in the moment.

The sensations,

The sounds,

The thinking,

Whatever is going on.

Maybe like raindrops.

Maybe things are happening but nothing to catch hold of.

Definitely we can get a sense of aliveness but it seems to be within us,

Within the moment of experiencing somehow.

Just arriving and arriving softly like sunshine falling or raindrops,

Feathers.

Allowed to be yourself without knowing what that self is but allowed to be.

And perhaps a sense of the field of experience like a wide landscape,

A wide plain or sea on which those raindrops of experience are falling.

Sense and sensations,

Thinking and emotion,

Energy,

A sense of I,

A sense of presence,

Of here-ness.

Working with aversion,

Aversion to what's painful in body or mind.

Or what's painful in situations and relationships.

So we could start by getting a sense of aversion being turning away from.

So even in this simple situation of arriving,

Giving ourself a chance to arrive.

Letting the momentum of what we have been doing to start to slow down.

And getting a sense of what this meditation session tastes like,

Feels like today.

Because the momentum of what we were doing before starts to slow down and uncover what's going on inside ourselves.

Which might be more quiet or it might be more noisy or busy.

More chaotic or more harmonious.

Just as we might enjoy being outside during a change of light from afternoon to evening or evening to night or night to morning.

We can give time for a transition from what we were doing before into meditation.

And maybe starting by giving a sense of a wide field where we are welcome as we are.

That sense of myself is allowed to be whatever it is and allowed to rest into the ground.

And as we,

If we feel welcome,

There can start to be a sense of welcoming the sensations and sounds of the moment.

Welcome,

Welcoming.

And sometimes even just getting a sense of what life is like,

What life is.

Of all that openness,

All that sensitivity,

That already wide field that can already hear and sense the body.

That openness and sensitivity itself might trigger a kind of aversion.

It can freak us out a little bit to see how open,

How powerful,

How sensitive,

How here we are,

How there is no escape from here and from life.

So we might notice some kind of sinking into opening to life and then all of a sudden we're distracted.

We're in a story that can be one form of aversion,

Aversion to the kind of pain of our own openness or aversion to our fear of openness.

And then as we get in touch with what's going on today in our living,

Daily living,

There are usually some things comfortable and some things uncomfortable.

And we can get a sense of our patterns of aversion.

Sometimes there might be more aversion to what's comfortable.

And often there's aversion to what's uncomfortable.

So we could play a little bit with this today,

Noticing if there's a turning away from something in your experience.

If there's a sense of not liking or contracting around or against something uncomfortable physically,

Emotionally,

Mentally,

Situationally,

Relationally,

A story or a sensation or a sound.

A memory or an emotion that's in the background or the foreground.

And just to have the chance to get to know more what's actually going on,

What exactly is going on.

If there's something uncomfortable in the body or in the mind or in the environment,

We might start to notice the interweaving.

If it's an uncomfortable body sensation that might easily get tied up with unpleasant things in the mind.

Later and future thinking,

For example.

And maybe feeling that whole package and then feeling also a kind of very subtle or instinctual kind of not liking of the whole thing.

And feeling that in the body,

If possible.

A pain in the knee and we remember those other pains in the knees or we imagine where,

How it might lead to some emergency.

And that involves a movie in our mind and it involves emotion,

Tension in the body,

Probably.

And that whole package,

That whole bubble feeling in the body.

Our interest in it,

Our investment of energy into it,

Often unwillingly,

Compulsively returning to the story.

And our resistance to it,

Feeling the whole thing in the body.

And if it starts to become overwhelming or take over,

Preferably,

Of course before that,

Maybe joining with your feet,

Feeling your feet,

Feeling the ground,

A longer out breath,

A sense of being in good company with others in the meditation,

With the nature near you,

With your own sincerity.

And maybe feeling somewhere that feels good in your body or a memory of a good time and letting that change your inner chemistry again.

Or you may find that the alarm system is just on most of the time.

And that alarm system being on is like a vacuum cleaner that keeps sucking up everything that could possibly be negative and giving interest to it.

But with an interest and a resistance,

A yes and a no.

Probably thinking or imagining or feeling or emoting and not wanting to be,

But also thinking that maybe we should.

That whole package feeling,

That whole bubble in the body.

The compulsion,

The resistance and how it feels.

And then your feet,

A longer out breath,

Somewhere comfortable in your body.

Discovering your own rhythm that you could encounter what's difficult in your psyche,

In your experience,

Usually for a much shorter time than you think you should.

And then letting it go before it takes over,

Coming to your feet,

To the ground,

To somewhere that feels comfortable in the body or opening your eyes to see something direct or juicy,

Or through a memory of a time that felt juicy,

Good,

Whole,

Wholesome,

Supportive.

But especially maybe feeling the mechanical nature of our compulsion to turn our attention towards negativity or difficulty,

Pain,

And at the same time to somewhere be pushing it away.

And one key that can unlock that machine can be to really ask a question.

This is painful,

This is unpleasant,

But does that necessarily mean that something's wrong?

What if it's just unpleasant,

Chaotic,

Or painful,

But what if nothing's wrong?

Allowing it to be,

But not allowing it to be all there is,

Not allowing it to take all your attention all the time.

What if there's a pain in the body or being painfully alarmed much of the time,

Painfully worried,

Painfully insecure,

Painfully comparing,

Competing,

Up and down,

Painfully in a repetitive thought or emotion or story,

And if possible,

Acknowledging where there's somehow a turning towards and a pushing away,

A sense that,

Oh,

This is something wrong with me.

And what if it's not?

What if it's just unpleasant and not your fault and not your creation,

That you didn't make it with your own hands,

But you're kind of swimming in that,

Those waters,

Body and mind living in that atmosphere.

And what if by sometimes in brief moments just simply feeling the quality of it as it is,

Not expecting to be in control of our compulsion nor of our resistance,

But noticing the fact of aversion and the fact of our attraction to negativity as it is,

Feeling it in the body.

We worry and we're kind of trying to suck some juice out of that worry.

And we're afraid of how much we're worrying and we know it's not helpful.

And we somewhere think it's something secretly wrong with us and that whole thing we can feel in the body.

And then we feel what else can I feel?

Seeing the channels by direct perception,

The ground heaviness,

Texture,

The breath,

The feet,

Warmth,

Coolness,

Wet,

Dry,

Dense,

Fluffy,

Direct perception of sound or color,

Or taste.

Any direct perception can help interrupt the habit energy,

The program.

And even if we interrupt only for half of a half second,

The joy of that,

That slight half-half moment of freedom to interrupt.

We can also change the channel by finding a comfortable place in the body or something that feels juicy to look at or listen to or remember.

And feeling the aliveness of what feels comfortable or good or juicy.

The permission for meditation to be juicy is the key.

So,

And giving a long time to let that memory or the direct perceptions to start to interrupt the habit energy and change the inner atmosphere and chemistry of the body and mind in a way that works for you.

So perhaps again arriving softly,

Letting your body be heavy,

And as your body gets arrived,

And as you might start to feel welcome as you are with all that goes on,

All that's chaotic,

All that's in harmony.

Welcomed drop by drop and welcoming.

Arriving and allowing to arrive.

Sounds and body.

Weight.

Contact.

And allowing kind of space in which there's contact with the ground.

Centering in the body.

Volume of the body.

Maybe even if it's kind of spreading or melting of the body.

Within a space of awareness.

So,

And perhaps centering gradually somewhere within the body.

As if there's a magnet there.

Gradually,

Gently attracting the mind.

Gradually,

Gently allowing some more harmonious arrangement of the mind.

Gently the mind pulled to that center.

And loosely perhaps within the same space as the ground and the volume of the body and centering somewhere specific.

The waves of breath washing through.

So,

And when we notice,

So when awareness knows that we've been distracted.

Just enjoying that brief moment to feel a version in action,

A turning away from where we were gathering and centering.

Perhaps there was a sound and then a train of thought.

Perhaps at the end of the out breath,

A kind of spacing out.

And maybe getting pulled into a habit energy.

But somehow,

Something that's not me noticed that I got distracted.

And we can gently arrive again,

Like falling snow,

Falling feathers,

Falling raindrops.

And when we've arrived a bit,

Allowing again the sensations of the mind.

Allowing again the sensations and sounds to arrive as they are.

When we're distracted,

Really enjoying that moment of catching ourselves,

Of something,

Catching something.

And to feel in the body that small moment of aversion,

Of turning away from where we were centering.

Not as something that you've done wrong,

But something that happens mechanically.

That we've also been trained in distraction.

And yet something can still kind of slowly pour back contact with ground and centering and waves of breath.

Sounds coming through like raindrops.

On a lake or on a river.

Continuing in your own flow of meditation,

If possible.

If you happen to have some time and willingness,

Interest.

Or if you wish,

Just feeling now as we come towards the close of this session together.

What is your wish for your own practice?

That kind of secret intimacy with life within yourself.

And what would be a more joyful way of practicing that would be like really feel like a gift to yourself?

If practice could start to be a way of being with life that you can't wait for,

Like being in love with something or someone.

So what would be your wish for the way your practice could evolve towards being a love affair?

So juicy,

You can't wait.

May there be peace on our earth and in our hearts towards awakening for all.

For the benefit of many.

Thank you.

Reviews

Feeling fortunate to have discovered your guided meditations on this app! Wow. I did three in a row. A thought that arose during this session was that your words are plump with wisdom.

Very valuable. Thanks from my ❤️. It touched on deep issues happening now: trouble working on my 4th Step “We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” So difficult to accomplish when writing the memories of my behavior makes me fearful and filled with dread! Noticing aversion and gradually building compassion for past/present/future self. Your meditation gently points towards making friends with the uncomfortable and noticing that perhaps the habit of senseless negative racing thought patterns & worry is connected. Very Deep. I shall return with Gratitude. Many blessings to you in Cataluña from the forests of New Mexico where the people are holding tight to love and praying for ALL TO RISE IN LOVE AND COMPASSION. 🙏🏾 Gracias. ❤️♾️❤️‍🩹

helpful in intensive times, helping to pass the waves ... enable rest.

Absolutely sublime. What I've been trying to do, but needed help to keep noticing, to get that practice in. Thank you, I will be repeating this!

As my 7 year old daughter would say, "one hundred stars"
This is the finest and most delicate meditation medicine.
Thank you Jaya Ji

Some great pointers here for practice.