Establishing Mindfulness: Recognition

I want to look at the power of recognition. In the classic, acronym RAIN popularized by Tara Brach, the R in RAIN is recognition. To be able to recognize more clearly what is happening.

So how we notice, the way in which recognition happens is the art of mindfulness meditation. One of its central features. Recognition is the way in which we know what is happening as it's happening. Just the simplest knowledge, the recognition of what is occurring.

Transcript

So we've been exploring the establishment of mindfulness practice for the past couple weeks and today I want to look at with you the power of recognition. In the classic acronym RAIN that was popularized by the teacher Tara Brock, The R in RAIN as the acronym goes is recognition, To be able to recognize more clearly what's happening. So how we notice the way in which recognition happens is kind of the art of mindfulness meditation and one of the central features to our practice. Recognition is the way in which we know what is happening as it's happening. Just the simplest knowledge and recognition of what's occurring. Just settling the body and recognizing stillness in the body and movement in the body. Recognizing how thoughts appear and captivate us for a period of time and how they disappear. So in our life there's often a lot of issues that we have to face and figure out you know what to do about whatever's happening and it's not always easy to figure things out. I think we're all learning from this practice that if we're agitated and flailing around in our agitation it's a lot harder to know what we should do and what's helpful. Like when something happens there can be confusion because of the agitation. So independent on kind of solving the problems of our life what meditation provides and what's helpful around this practice is becoming calm. That's one of the functions of meditation. Meditation practice is not here to solve our problems. Sometimes we use it in that way. Sometimes people invest too much expectation that somehow the meditation that we're doing is going to solve our problems. But I think maybe one of the functions of our practice is to help us to become more calm. Calm enough so that we can see that oh I just need to kind of float right now for me to see more clearly what's needed. I'm not going to do anything in this moment. Maybe just even recognizing you know there's so much agitation and I'm really caught in this problem. There's worry and fear and anger. It's just useful to recognize that all those things are at play. Because sometimes what happens is we sit down and we get still but we can still be in that problem-solving mode. Like oh I'm just gonna sit here and be quiet and solve the problem of my life. Kind of planning for a better past. Or redoing what happened in the past in the mind. Trying to figure it out. Or we start to go into the psychology of ourselves. The challenges that we have. There's often a motivation to try to change something. To become safer or to get what we want or to avoid something. And these are all reasonable things in the mind. But the hook in that kind of thinking can be quite strong. Like the hook to try to be safe or the hook to try to get what we want. And the hook to be the kind of person we want to be. Or defend ourselves or rationalize ourselves. It can be pretty strong. So I offer this as a reminder that meditation practice it's not about solving our problems or used to think them through. But rather it's used as a place to create the conditions that are supportive and helpful. So that we can have clear seeing and clear recognition. And then from there we can adjust the mind and the action. So there's this sort of decoupling meditation practice from problem-solving. It can be helpful to recognize that. Just realizing that you can maybe solve your problems better if the mind is calm. So to be willing to sit in this way that's settling. That's relaxing. That eases the agitation if you're tense and caught up. And there's a number of ways to do that. And one of the ways is to recognize just that you're tense. Or to recognize that you're agitated. And then if you really recognize it like take that time to really clearly recognize what's happening in the body. Sometimes it's easy to recognize something but in that recognition we have a reaction to it almost immediately. Like I'm agitated and this shouldn't be here. I need to get rid of this agitation. But the idea and the practice is to really just recognize it without the reaction. And just allow it. It's okay to be agitated. I'm just going to recognize it and allow it. So there if we're going to use that classic example of rain. Recognize is the R. Allowing is the A. Just okay so here it is. So that kind of recognition and then kind of the consideration would be you know would it be helpful to relax? Is there tension in the body? Maybe there's something very simple that I can do. Some adjustment I can make to relax the tension. For me sometimes it's just sitting up a little straighter because the tension kind of lives in my lower back sometimes. And so I can just kind of bring more attention to sitting up a little bit taller. And that can relax the tension. Sometimes there's tension in the brain. In the mind. And so then the question becomes is it possible to relax it? Like dropping into the breathing. Maybe that moves us away from the thinking. Sometimes there's a sense of like the compulsion of thinking and problem solving. So oh just to relax this. Oh this is problem solving. Perhaps agitation in the body and in the mind is fueled by fear or by anger. Or by desire. And then it's helpful to clearly recognize oh this is fear. This is anger. This is desire to see it. So the idea is really to hang in there until the recognition is very simple. It's not complicated. Like we're just giving recognizing what's there and giving it permission to be there. So for example I'm breathing. And then just to recognize okay breathing is happening. And not to connect it to other things that may be happening. Just breathing. If there's sound, Just sound. Hearing is happening. So as we settle into our practice to keep it as simple as possible. We're not getting caught up or reactive or judging what's happening. It's just a simple clear seeing. And it's not easy. It's not an easy skill to learn. But it's a powerful one. Because it helps us to be free in the midst of whatever is happening. Like to stand and be still in the middle of our complicated life. And just to be able to take it in and recognize what's happening. But not be swayed by it or reacting to it. It's just there. It's just seeing. So this is pretty radical this idea. This sort of the art of simplicity. And our practice, Meditation practice, Is kind of the laboratory to discover really how to get simple. To find that simplicity. To keep it really really simple. And maybe what happens is, What I've experienced, Is there's a there's a sense of freedom from what we're recognizing. A couple weeks back we talked about depression as a mind state. So it could be that you could recognize you're feeling depressed. And it's difficult, The experience of depression. But as mindfulness gets stronger, It's possible to recognize, Oh this is depression. And somehow for that moment of recognizing that depression is descending, The fog, It clears a little bit. Maybe it's just for a moment. But just noting what you're recognizing, Saying the note a few times, Depression, Depression. Until we're really standing in the note, The noting of it, Not the depression. You're standing in the note. So we're identifying more and more with what we're recognizing, Not the emotional state that we may be experiencing. Like, Oh there's sadness. And then the sadness, It may not diminish, But it is clearly known. It is clearly known. And there is certainly a time and a place for our preferences, Our desires for things that we want and what we don't want. There's definitely a time and place for that. So simple recognition is not doing away with our preferences forever. But our meditation practice can help us establish this very simple art of recognition. The practice recommendation is that we're not distracted by our desires and our thoughts and our commentary, But we're just simply recognizing that they're there. All of the ideas that we have about what's supposed to happen in meditation complicate this very simple act of recognition. But with practice, The simplicity of recognition can be there. Just this breath, Just this step if you're doing walking meditation, Just this chewing of my food if you're practicing while eating, Just this sitting in the chair, This walking down the hall, All this is simple recognition. And at some point, What we're recognizing is recognition itself and that recognition is actually free of association. It's free of commentary and preferences and desire. This movement of recognition, Of knowing, Of being aware, Becomes our own kind of object of awareness. So this is one of the establishments. So meditation practice and mindfulness, One of the potentials it has is to help us start to recognize how we complicate or engage or use awareness in the service of our agenda and our preferences. And sometimes it's wise and sometimes our attention is hijacked by the things that don't really support us. So again, Recognizing that. One of the first precepts that I learned while serving at Zen Hospice Project was the precept of welcoming everything, Pushing away nothing. And in our meditation practice, We're learning that. Welcome everything. Welcome all of it. Don't add the judgment on top of judgment. There is kind of an art to welcoming it and allowing it to be there, Which is paradoxically a movement towards the simplicity of recognition. When we're not for or against things, They can just be there. And there's room for us to recognize it as it actually is. So thank you for your consideration. I invite you to practice recognition as you move through your day to day.