Reflective Meditation,
A receptive listening series with Linda Madaro.
For many of us,
It is easy to feel people,
Especially when they share their vulnerability,
Their challenges,
Or even their creative process.
Hearing someone expound the Dharma can be engaging.
Listening to music uplifting and reading other people's writing can bring a sense of creativity and connection with all kinds of people,
No matter where they live,
No matter what their experience,
Similar to ours or different.
While it can be inspiring,
You can also feel suffocated by someone else's favorites or their unfamiliar style and taste.
Especially when we're not able to leave,
Like being stuck in an elevator when a person is giving you their version of life,
Which is not your own.
We can feel helpless and trapped.
While it's too simple to say we love to be inspired and hate to be suffocated,
We do tend to come away from Buddhist teachings thinking that we should be somewhere in the middle of these two,
Moderate,
Balanced,
Equanimous.
So often we want to react to everything with a calm detachment,
But equanimity before its time is not maturity.
Our worlds are interpersonal and our affinity and preferences color our view of people.
For example,
Are you less likely to disagree with somebody that you admire?
Is it difficult to feel warmth for people you don't know?
Or are you incredulous when friends make choices that you just can't quite understand?
I invite you to be candid with yourself in meditation about what you love and what you hate.
Inspiration or suffocation,
Everything in between,
Both or neither.
Getting your way through an open practice can be confusing and you might not yet know what to follow.
You can start with what comes easily or anything that you find yourself interested in in the meditation and you don't have to make yourself be interested in something you're not,
Although it's likely that that capacity will develop from this practice.
Curiosity and choice are natural antidotes to apathy and lack of caring.
Following your interests and trying out some new things can lead to spontaneous friendliness toward yourself and others.
You'll sit for 20 minutes and then there will be some time for you to reflect back on the sitting afterwards.
Okay,
We'll start now.
Coming out of the sitting takes some time and reflect back over and recall a few things that happened during the meditation.
You might only have a vague idea or you might have some things that you remember more clearly.
You don't have to remember everything.
It's not even possible.
Were there times in the meditation sitting that you were able to choose what you wanted to do?
Were there times where you weren't able to?
Did this feel more like a relief or a burden?
Did you notice any emotions come up in how you were with them during the sitting?
Let me know if you'd like to talk about your experience.
It may feel weird to do so,
Especially since you don't know me,
But the conversations about your meditation sittings can be a place to be heard and seen in ways that are not typical.
