G.R.O.U.N.D. In The Here & Now

G.R.O.U.N.D. is both a solitary practice, meaning a practice to do as a meditation and a portable practice that you can do in everyday life. It’s not completely dissimilar from S.T.O.P. although it’s a little more investigatory, partly because it has two additional steps but mostly because while S.T.O.P. is intended to take a breath or two or three, G.R.O.U.N.D. is a practice you can work with for your whole sitting period, whether that’s five minutes or 30 minutes.

Transcript

Welcome to the Wake Up Call.

Everyone,

This is Judy Cohen.

This is Wake Up Call 296.

And the title for today's call is Ground in the Here and Now.

So last week I offered a variation on the STOP practice,

Which was stop,

Take a breath,

And then the variation,

Which is a kind of a deeper dive into the O,

Observe.

So get curious about what's happening internally and externally.

Observe what your choices are in the moment and then observe what your intentions are.

And then P proceed.

And STOP is a portable practice.

So it's a practice to use in everyday life,

In the moment,

And then you're about to say or do something,

You just stop and take a breath and observe and then proceed.

Yesterday,

I was on a Mind and Life webinar with Jon Kabat-Zinn and the scientist Amishi Jha.

I was listening to them.

I wasn't a guest with them.

And Jon was saying,

Really,

That's our practice all day,

Every day,

Is stopping,

Paying attention to what's happening right in front of us or right inside of us,

And proceeding based on what our heart is telling us.

So ground,

Which is what I want to offer today,

Is a solitary practice.

It's a practice to do as a meditation practice.

And it's not completely dissimilar to STOP,

Although it's a little more investigatory,

Partly because it has some additional steps,

But mostly because STOP is intended to be in the moment,

Take a breath or two,

And then move on.

Ground is a practice that you can work with for your whole sitting period,

Whether that's a meditation or a meditation.

So your whole sitting period,

Whether that's five minutes or whether that's 30 minutes or whether that's an hour,

Whatever you're sitting for.

And I'm offering ground because personally,

I've been needing a lot of grounding these days.

And so I wanted something that could help me to both look in and look up.

So looking in,

There's this big overarching theme of moving back or,

I don't know,

Maybe moving forward into some kind of normal life,

Which brings up the question of what is a normal life?

What is it like to be out in the world?

How is it to navigate,

To talk,

Even to dress?

There was this New York Times article,

Maybe you thought about dusting off your old clothes recently,

Which frankly I haven't even quite done yet.

What conversation to make and also how to relate to feelings of maybe not wanting to do any of that,

If those feelings arise,

Of wanting to stay secluded,

Essentially on retreat where we've all kind of been for a year.

And then looking up,

There's the imperative to understand what being of service in the law and in the world means right now.

Many of us have been as busy as ever or busier,

But not all of us have been.

And even if you've been crazy busy this last year,

There's an opportunity to pay attention on a more granular level to impact and also on a more global level.

And that is all driven by intention and determination,

Which is the last part of Ground.

And in the middle of looking in and looking up,

The question for me is how to maintain or sometimes find some equanimity.

So I've been practicing with Ground for several weeks and it's been supporting equanimity for me.

And I want to unpack it first right now and then,

And then guide it.

Okay.

Here's a beautiful.

I thought a beautiful picture of some rhododendron groves.

And that's how it looks up here in Portland these days.

Just flowers everywhere.

It's really amazing.

Okay,

So Ground.

The G in Ground stands for Ground and the invitation is to Ground in three ways.

So first,

Get grounded on the earth.

Get your feet or your body onto the earth itself or imagine your connection if you're a few stories up or if you're a bunch of stories up in a building.

And just take a few moments there to get grounded to the earth.

Second,

Get grounded in community.

In other words,

Open into that larger sense,

Which might of belonging.

So that might be your firm or your organization,

Or that might be your family,

That might be your group of friends.

It could be your town or your city or your state.

It could be your country.

It could be the world.

Could be humanity,

All living,

Living humans,

Or it could be all living beings.

Might be your community.

So take a few moments there.

And we're not going to do,

I'm not doing the practice now,

But we'll do it in a minute.

Ground in community.

And then the third piece of the G is ground in your own personal experience in the moment.

So the sensation of sitting or standing or lying down or walking and whether you're warm or cold,

Hungry or thirsty or sated,

Hopeful,

Pessimistic,

Settled,

Agitated,

Glad,

Depressed,

Clear,

Confused,

Whatever's there.

So that's the G.

That's the G in ground.

And then the R,

G-R,

Remember that this moment is all there.

The past is gone.

The future is a dream.

We can only be in the here and now.

And being present,

Remembering to be present is an embodied experience.

So remember it as an embodied experience,

Not a theoretical one.

So remember to be physically present in your own body and in your own circumstances in each moment.

And then O,

Open to what's here in each moment.

So you've grounded in your personal experience.

You're remembering that the experience of each moment is what there is and now open as fully as you can to that experience.

So whether it's gladness or sorrow or peacefulness or impatience or courage or fear,

Maybe it's a desire to be out in the world.

Maybe it's a desire to stay secluded.

Maybe it's confusion about all of that.

Whatever arises in each moment,

Open to that.

And as you do that,

Probably you'll see right away how the experience is changing and so also staying open to observing the changing nature of experience.

And then U,

So G-R-O-U,

Go underneath.

So what's underneath if there's sorrow or impatience or fear and what's underneath if there's gladness or courage?

Can you go underneath and can you tap into the peaceful abiding,

Could call it awareness,

That really is the awareness of the peaceful abiding.

Awareness that resides inside,

Inside each of us and all around us,

That really deep quality of equanimity that enables us to be here for whatever is a rising moment to moment.

That undisturbed and I would say undisturbable sense of belonging to the earth,

Of belonging to everyone,

Of belonging to yourself.

And in that belonging the peace and also the readiness and the ability to spring into action.

So underneath G-R-O-U-N,

Notice from there.

Can you notice that peaceful abiding core in other people,

Even in the really difficult people?

Can you see through whatever obfuscations are there?

Greed,

Ill will,

Delusion.

Can you see to each human being's true nature,

Which is the same as yours,

The same as mine,

The same as all of ours,

Peaceful and connected?

And can you do that even when you're seeing someone who can't see it in themselves?

And even more interesting,

Can you do that not as an article of faith,

But as an embodied knowing that peaceful abiding resides at the core of every human being and it's available to explore and to move from if we pay attention.

So G-R-O-U and then D is determination.

Can you summon the determination to see that core in everyone,

To remember?

That's how we're connected.

And because we're so connected,

Everything we say and do matters.

And so we really need to be kind to everyone or translating it into the law.

Can you find the determination to help out whenever possible to use your power and influence only for the good?

To be forceful,

But never be a bully,

To be brilliant,

But never snarky,

To be a passionate advocate that always care about and become passionate towards everyone.

So this practice of ground is really supporting equanimity for me in this moment.

And it's supporting what I'm experiencing,

Supporting me being with what I'm experiencing as these multiple conflicting and sometimes confusing questions.

The questions of how to move out into the world when it's okay to retreat,

Questions I have about the safety of Black and Asian Americans and all humans in this country and what I can do,

Questions about voter suppression laws that are happening and what I can do,

Questions about what kind of justice is even possible in my country right now.

And I was writing this and I was thinking maybe the questions are the practice and maybe you remember that quote from the poet and philosopher Rilke who said,

Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.

Okay,

Let's sit and let's practice with ground and see how it goes.

Okay.

Just take a comfortable posture,

Whatever posture will most support your practice this morning.

And first just the first thing to do is just get grounded.

So sense into your body sitting,

Standing,

Walking,

Lying down on the earth.

And if you're not right on the earth,

Just imagine the earth wherever it is beneath you,

One story down,

10 stories down.

Really that sense of connecting to the ground to the earth.

And then connect to community,

Whatever community means for you,

Right,

Right in this moment.

Allowing that sense in the body of being connected to something larger.

Maybe even a small group,

But larger than yourself.

Whoever is present in your own community right now.

And then connect to yourself.

And let's move on to our,

Remember,

This moment is what,

What we have.

It's all we have.

So just remember to be present in this moment,

Be embodied in the experience of this moment.

And then,

Oh,

Begin to observe what's happening in this moment in your own experience.

What are the sensations?

What are the thoughts?

What are the emotions?

Can you go underneath?

The sensations,

The thoughts,

The emotions,

Can you tap into that sense of peaceful abiding or of awareness?

Or of interconnectedness,

That unshakable core?

The embodied experience of that.

Can you see if you can notice as you call to mind the people you love,

The people in your community,

The community that you grounded in the beginning,

Can you notice that each of them have the same core of peaceful abiding of awareness?

Even if maybe they don't see it,

They don't have the tools to see it,

Or it looks that way to you.

Can you notice that as you call to mind the people you love,

The people in your community?

And then can you invite yourself to,

To really be determined when you go out into the world later today,

Whether that's on a screen or whether that's actually out.

To really to see that in everyone,

To remember that's what connects us.

And to do no harm,

To put your energies into seeing that goodness,

That core goodness in,

In everyone,

However difficult that may be and to do good in all ways as much as possible.

Thanks everyone for being on the Wake Up Call.

Great to see you all.

Take care.

Have a good and safe Thursday and weekend and I'll see you next week.