Reflective Meditation,
A series of receptive listening with Linda Madaro.
Is your life worth listening to?
Wanting to be heard or to be understood or to express what it's like to be living in this world now?
We repeat our stories to ourselves and to others.
Meditation can be a safe place to listen and to take in what you have been saying.
But in most meditation practices,
Stories have gotten a bad rap.
It seems acceptable to tell stories during a Dharma talk or during a guided meditation or in the evening before bed.
But allowing stories into the meditation sitting?
That's taboo.
Well,
That would depend on the meditation instructions,
Wouldn't it?
Meditation instructions tell you a story about what you should do in a meditation sitting.
In our approach to meditation,
Our story is that we want to hear your story.
We are interested in your experience in the meditation sitting.
What happened,
What you remember and what it means to you.
The Dharma is personal and intertwined with experience,
All of its ups and downs.
The stories you tell yourself about your hopes and your dreams,
About your family and your friends,
About politics,
About existence,
Need air time,
Time to breathe.
It's likely that you think you've already listened to that story enough,
Examined it in therapy,
Overshared it in your support groups or with friends.
But what I'm trying to get at is that it could be helpful if you listen to yourself again and again in meditation so that you can become more familiar with the nuances and catch some different flavors and context to your stories.
In the meditation sitting,
You don't have to do it right or pretty it up for anyone.
If you're having a reaction to your voice or to dialogues or to monologues even that come in during the meditation sitting,
What are your reactions about?
If you're willing to listen to your stories carefully,
They'll change.
If you're willing to listen to your stories in the sitting and after the sitting,
They'll become more refined,
More provisional,
Less believable,
Maybe even more insightful.
After a while,
Sometimes a very long while,
Your stories can wear themselves out.
It will take some time to trust this process,
A process that encourages you to sit still and relinquish control of your mind.
In the meditation sitting,
You can let your heart and mind wander all over the place.
But if it feels too overwhelming,
You can perch your attention on your body or your breath.
To get started,
Let's take a comfortable posture and sit for 20 minutes together.
You can have a notepad or computer handy.
After the sitting,
You can write down a few things that you remember to reflect upon later.
Let's sit for 20 minutes.
Okay.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you
