The basic premise or the basic faculty that you're using when you reflect on that.
Is very much related to this introspective,
Analytical self where you can actually turn inward and analyze your state.
You can analyze the state of your body.
There's a sort of somatic awareness that you can do.
But you can also investigate the state of your own mind.
And something we take for granted.
Where We don't really know much about this mystery in our heads.
There's this voice that speaks in our heads.
Sometimes there are these mental images.
There's this world.
And maybe we can best see that when we think about dreams.
How fascinating that we close our eyes to sleep and we lose one version of conscious awareness.
And it gets replaced with this sort of hypnagogic dreamlike state.
And on top of all of that,
We have this ability to investigate internally.
Way.
And what the Faculty of Insight is all about is cultivating a healthy and resilient sense of self.
The idea here is that that inward investigation or analysis of what our state of mind is,
What's going on on this world inside,
Is the basis for this sense of self that we have.
And that sense of self can be unhealthy,
And it can be fragile.
Or it can be anti-fragile,
It can be resilient,
And it can be flexible.
And the beliefs we hold and the thoughts that we have,
They can become Possessing of who we are or they or we can hold them in kind of a healthy way And that's what we're going to explore in the practice today So welcome christine.
I see stressed but happy.
I think a lot of us are in that space right now So thank you for sharing that um The basic nature of what we're going to practice today is we're going to take a brief moment five minutes to investigate our thoughts so to actively,
Uh,
It's sort of an awareness practice to practice internally and investigate the thought space of our awareness.
And then for the second five minutes,
What we're going to do is actually do some analytical self-reflection on the subject matter and the quality of those thoughts.
So this can be a sort of intimidating meditation.
It can feel a little different from the usual awareness of breath or loving-kindness.
Take your seat,
Whatever position you usually approach.
And if you're new to this,
Just find something comfortable,
Upright,
Yet relaxed.
If you'd like to close your eyes or if you feel comfortable closing your eyes,
You can go ahead and try that.
If you like to keep your eyes open,
I recommend choosing a specific place to sort of fixate your gaze to help you stay grounded in the practice.
Okay,
So let's take a moment to just settle in here.
Before we dive in,
Bring to mind whatever brought you.
To this practice today.
So what's motivating you to be here with me and with all of us to do this now?
What's inspiring you to have this practice or these practices be a part of your life?
What are all the little forces and choices and decisions that have come before?
Either earlier today or throughout your entire lifetime or maybe even before your lifetime,
All of the specific conditions that needed to be met just so you could be here right now doing this and just bask in that and let that motivate and inspire you forward.
Whenever you're ready.
Bringing your awareness to the space of the mind.
You might notice.
Internal talk.
That sensation of a voice.
In your mind.
Reflecting,
Analyzing,
Fantasizing.
Planning.
You might notice mental images.
It could be clear,
Vivid images.
It might be.
.
.
Sort of fleeting.
Whatever you notice is fine.
Maybe you notice nothing.
The internal space of the mind,
That's perfectly normal.
It's perfectly fine.
And unlike.
Paying attention to the breath or body sensations.
Zoning in on the mind can be kind of fleeting,
Feel a little bit like whack of mole,
Can feel a little bit hard to grasp.
It's okay.
Just see what you notice.
And try to keep your attention in the space of the mind.
This might feel hard to grasp.
It might feel easy.
You might find yourself.
Distracted by sensations in the body,
Sounds in your environment,
Or.
.
.
Feelings,
Emotions,
Frustration,
Boredom,
Tiredness.
All of that is fine.
Whenever you notice,
Just celebrate your ability to notice that.
And come back to see what you can detect in that space of the mind.
Sometimes it helps to have.
.
.
A sense of readiness like you're playing catch and you're waiting for the mind to throw the ball and you're going to catch it.
Sitting there ready for the next stop to appear so you can identify it.
If you're getting good momentum with this,
You can continue on a little bit longer.
Or what I'll ask you to eventually do.
Start to turn on that self-inquiry,
That analytical aspect.
To try to understand what are the themes.
And what are the thoughts and what are the images that are appearing?
Try to get a sense of what's on your mind.
At this moment.
Maybe you're experiencing a lot of thoughts about work.
Or maybe you're reflecting about something that happened yesterday.
Maybe that's what's on your mind.
Maybe you're rehearsing,
You're planning the words that you're going to say at a meeting later today.
That's something that happens to me often.
Whatever it is that you're noticing,
Of course,
The mind can go in all kinds of random directions,
But get a sense if there's any kind of theme,
If there's any major topic or major area,
And maybe that's about a specific event,
But maybe it's a type of thinking.
A lot of worry,
For example,
Or a lot of planning.
See if you can get a sense of some of the themes or topics that are arising in general.
I'll give you some space to do this now in case you don't have anything popping up immediately.
There's really no place for any kind of self-criticism or judgment here.
And it's very,
Very important,
Especially when you're working with thoughts and mental images,
That we're not trying to say that certain thoughts should be on your mind,
Or certain thoughts shouldn't,
Or that there's any right or wrong here.
The real goal of these kinds of insight practices is to really be the kind of objective observer.
And say,
You know,
What's on my mind,
Whatever it is,
Is okay.
I just want to understand and be okay.
And once you notice a certain topic or theme,
And if there isn't any sort of bigger theme,
Feel free to just go ahead and pick one individual thought to work with.
But what we're going to try to explore doing is reframing and getting maybe a fresh perspective on that thought.
So let's say I'm having a lot of thoughts about a meeting that's coming up.
The idea here would be to ask some questions about those thoughts.
So why is that thought on my mind?
You know what?
Is the quality of that thinking?
Am I worried about that meeting?
Am I excited about it?
You know,
Maybe even what is the tone of voice of my inner monologue as I reflect and think about that meeting?
So try to really understand and turn on that analytical mind to try to understand.
What is the approach that you're bringing to thinking about this particular topic?
And see if you can zoom out a little bit and see how other perspectives might be true.
And then that's only one way to approach the topic.
That's only one perspective on it.
Again,
We're not trying to judge anything here.
We're just trying to look at this topic,
At this theme,
At this thought.
From a different perspective.
You might ask yourself.
In what cases might my perspective on this topic not be true?
Or what am I missing?
In the way that I'm thinking about this.
If there are other people involved in the situation,
Other people who might be at that meeting.
How might they be thinking about this meeting and how might that be different from the way I'm thinking about it?
To see if you can get a larger perspective.
See if you can hold your own perspective in a healthy,
Flexible way.
Okay,
For these last few moments,
Just letting go of the reflection.
I know it can feel like hard work.
Just taking this time.
To let everything be as it is.
Take a break.
Give yourself the moment.
When you're ready,
Slowly transitioning out of the practice.
Give yourself whatever you need.
You might need a deep breath or a little bit of a stretch.
And
