So these mornings we're focusing on establishing awareness,
Establishing mindfulness.
In the most basic way we're learning to pay attention and to see what complicates our attention,
Where we get caught,
What makes it difficult.
Because the place where we get caught is also the place where we're going to feel stress.
And this is very important.
The place we get hung up is often how we are most likely to suffer or how we're most likely to cause problems in our life.
So we start paying attention to those places which we all have the capacity to do.
And I want to start this morning by sharing a famous Buddhist simile.
Many of you probably know it.
The Buddha was sitting with a group of people like us and he asked the question,
If an archer comes along with a bow and an arrow and shoots you with the arrow,
Would that hurt?
And they say,
Well yeah.
And then he said,
Well if he comes along and shoots you with the second arrow,
Would that hurt even more?
Yeah,
Two arrows would hurt more than one.
And then the Buddha said,
Well life brings you,
Life brings you the first arrow and you shoot the second one.
And we do this in so many ways.
Let's say I'm walking down the sidewalk and I'm looking at my phone and I trip and I fall and I scrape my knee.
That's life.
That's happened.
Like that's a happening.
That's the first arrow.
But if all of you see it and I'm a teacher of mindfulness,
He's supposed to be paying attention and I was paying attention to my phone and I was walking like,
Oh wow,
How embarrassing is that?
I've been seen as this multitasking,
Distracted person.
What a phony.
You know,
Geez.
So now I'm ashamed of myself.
And this is the second arrow and the third arrow and the fourth arrow that I'm shooting left and right.
And there are times when we just let the first arrow be like,
Oh,
I tripped,
I scraped my knee.
It hurts.
I don't have to add any more to this.
Yet we're all in the habit of adding a lot of second arrows.
So part of what we're doing here is learning to see that,
To be present in a very simple way.
And the simpler the presence,
The more we start noticing what we do that's extra.
The second arrow,
The reactivity.
And it's really important to at least acknowledge and to say that however slowly this process is for you,
Or however quickly you're seeing these second arrows,
Or maybe you don't see the arrows at all.
Please know that you're not meditating wrong.
You can't do it wrong.
So if you have a second arrow,
What my teacher recommends,
And I really like this,
Is to smile.
Ah,
I saw that.
I saw that second arrow.
I'm learning the tricks of the mind.
I'm learning what my mind does.
And this is really important to see.
To see what's happening.
And in that way you're doing the practice really well.
Maybe you're not following the breath,
But that's not the point.
The point is clear seeing.
So if you get distracted in a lot of thought during meditation,
It's not wrong.
What you do then is you see.
That's the case.
Look at all my thinking.
Wow,
It's so much.
But oh no,
You're not supposed to be thinking in meditation.
Wait a minute.
I think that's a second arrow.
Let's just start again.
Start again.
It's so simple.
When in doubt,
Just start over.
Start fresh.
When you're caught and you see that you're kind of pummeling yourself with arrows,
You know,
How do you find your way back?
Ah,
You take a deep breath and you start over again.
Last week I talked about breath.
The breath is a place that we train ourselves to calm down enough,
To settle the mind,
To concentrate the mind enough so that we can begin to stay present.
Kind of create a continuity of mindfulness practice.
And today's subject is the body,
Embodiment,
Paying attention to our physical embodied experience.
You know,
The body is always in the present moment.
Our thoughts and our minds can be somewhere else,
But the body is always here and now.
So part of the task of this awareness practice is to bring the body and the mind together so they're at the same place at the same time.
There's a harmony.
They're not at odds with each other.
When we sit in meditation,
The practice is to bring your mind to your body so the two can harmonize.
And some people are really challenged with their body,
Like right away when they practice meditation.
And sooner or later,
Sooner or later,
Most people are challenged in some way with discomfort in the body.
But even without having to practice with discomfort,
The body is this sort of wonderful arena for practice.
It's so central that many teachers will say that the real temple,
The real Buddhist temple,
The real monastery,
Is your body.
Learning to live in your body and through your body.
My teacher often recommends when people ask him,
You know,
What book should I be reading?
He says to them,
You should be maybe looking at the reading the book of the body.
That's how important it is.
And sometimes in meditation,
What we're feeling doesn't feel pleasant or even neutral.
It might actually be really unpleasant and painful.
So in the spirit of maintaining a relaxed body and mind,
When we're doing meditation,
You're always welcome to change your posture if you feel your posture is uncomfortable and you're better off changing it.
But if all you do is change every time that you're uncomfortable,
You're shortchanging the power and learning from the meditation that we're doing.
To drop down and feel the body,
Even if it's uncomfortable.
The art of this practice is to discover,
Okay,
My knee aches.
Now how can I just let the attention be there as if it's not a problem?
It's just something to be felt.
If you do feel it's a problem,
And you feel like you're getting antsy and irritated,
Or feel like there's something wrong,
Or there's some,
You're afraid,
Then by all means,
Move,
Move your posture,
Change what you're doing.
But sooner or later,
What happens with people who meditate,
They realize they're better off not moving so much.
They realize that some of the reasons they move are because of impatience,
Or restlessness.
There's a feeling like,
Oh,
I have to move because my foot fell asleep.
But to just begin to relax and trust the body and let the body feel itself,
All kinds of things open up that are really,
Really useful.
And it's really useful to practice with discomfort.
But you should only do it when you feel like you want to do it.
You know,
If you've been meditating for a while,
And every time there's this little ache,
And you move,
And you move,
And maybe it seems like you're moving every couple minutes.
At some point,
Maybe you're ready to just try learning a different way to be with that discomfort.
So when the discomfort is not so bad,
Maybe you had a good night's sleep.
You've had a good breakfast.
There's some motivation.
Maybe I'll explore this a little bit.
Let's try to explore this.
And so you explore the pain,
The discomfort for a bit.
And then,
Okay,
That's enough.
And then the next day,
A little bit longer.
And slowly,
We'll learn about it,
You know.
But it's up to you.
When you're feeling ready for that learning,
For that practice of training and discomfort,
That's when you do it.
But you don't have to.
So I'll stop here this morning.
Take any questions about this or anything else that's arising in your practice.
And I thank you for your consideration,
Your kind attention.
