Safety Within

We can create all kinds of storms inside our minds. In doing this, we were contributing to a lack of safety for ourselves. In a very subtle way the worry is harming or agitating ourselves. In this thought experiment, we can see how our own inner life can add to the unnecessary feelings of not being safe or feeling stressed. And this is not necessary, but we add to the situation.

Transcript

So today's topic is what I'm calling safety within.

And this time of year in the mountains it can be very windy.

For those that live here you know the wind can rattle the the whole house and the house kind of it you can hear it creaking and the movement of the wind is so powerful.

And I kind of as I was experiencing the wind the other night imagining you know a person sitting in meditation,

Myself sitting in meditation,

Kind of worried about the wind you know what goes through the mind is you know what if a tree comes down or will I be safe you know do that does the furniture the outdoor furniture need to be kind of battened down,

Secure the perimeter of the house.

And so there's all this agitation and preoccupation and tightness around thinking about the storm.

And maybe some of you know this experience with weather events in particular it may be easy to imagine but what if it turns out that it's not storming or it's not windy and there's no wind predicted in the forecast yet there's all this concern about the wind or the storm not being safe and how to manage being safe and not really having a real-world reference points for that safety.

The agitation is created by imagining a future where there is something to brace against.

You know while sitting and we this often happens when we're in in our meditation practice or even in our daily life all of this sort of self-caused drama in this little universe inside of our skulls you know.

And we can create all kinds of storms in our minds you know in doing this we what is happening energetically in the body is we're contributing to a lack of safety for ourselves.

In a very subtle way the worry that we are feeding is harming or agitating ourselves.

And in this kind of thought experiment that I'm offering we can see how our own inner life can add to the unnecessary feelings of not being safe of not and or feeling stressed in daily life.

And this is not necessary it's a habit pattern and so we add this worry this stress this experience of not being safe to many situations.

So when we know that our that we're using our imagination and adding stress to our minds like when there's a knowing there it might be easier to let go a little when we know that whatever it is that we are ruminating on may not have come to pass may not come to pass.

If we know things are not real it may be able to turn back to a calm place within.

Maybe it's possible to actually look for this calm place this peaceful place within.

And oftentimes it's returning to the breathing and as we breathe we perhaps say to ourselves relax relax and we can settle down back into this calm place.

And so it's easy to understand that but then what if it's really you know you're sitting in meditation and it's really blowing outside.

This happened on our Monday night group up the Crystal River it was really blowing all day long the wind was quite big.

And you know if there's a big storm to watch the internal experience in the body the wind has a way of activating the nervous system and it's quite energetic and can be destabilizing.

And you know when it's really whipping and the structure that you're in is moving you know it's sort of like we have to sort of remind ourselves you know how do I feel safe how do I feel safe when it's storming outside.

How do I find my way when my nervous system is kind of jacked right now and there's a lot of energy.

So finding our way in these real life situations and I'm using weather events but it can be many things in our lives that cause the nervous system to get hyper vigilant.

You could have some construction happening on your house and it doesn't go well or you can get a phone call and the doctor says you need to come in and have that that area biopsied or I want to discuss your test results with you can you come in and then the the nervous system gets jacked gets jacked and then we don't feel safe.

And what the practice the daily life practice that we can do is that right in the middle of it with practice of of meditation you know with practice of awareness right in the middle of this experience that has us on high alert we can see what is my contribution to this agitation.

Oh this is a habit pattern I this is my habit pattern of high alert.

So are we are we contributing to the situation is it so deeply conditioned and habitual that we're just like oh my nervous system is just on high alert I'm afraid.

And what can happen is when that physical sensation of fear of not feeling safe safe of not having control is activated the next thing that often happens is we get caught up in the ideas and the thoughts and then we start to loop and it starts to build.

So what could be seen as just a cloud of fear floating by then becomes this massive cloud and then it's storming and then we really are feeling not safe within.

And this is how we unintentionally harm ourselves with stress.

So so much of the practice that I have learned and that I am continuing to learn is to cultivate calm to cultivate an inner calm an inner peace it's really important it's more important really important it's more important than the habitual ways that we get agitated and worry about something that actually isn't happening right here and now.

And the reason I bring this this thought experiment to you this morning is to point out that even when we're concerned about real world issues and there's a lot of real world issues even when they come up in our meditation our practice when they come up the experience internally is feeling less safe when we get preoccupied with the issues of the world preoccupied with what's happening with the test results or with the weather and it's a subtle harming because stress as many of you know is unhealthy in the body it causes all kinds of problems.

Problems there's a trade-off you know so if we're really activated and stressed out a lot of the time thinking about what's wrong and worrying worrying worrying we don't have access to that deep wellspring of calm and peace and settledness and so what our practice provides really is we start to see that it's not worth sacrificing our calm and our ease for what is really a rumination in the mind a practice in the mind that we've habituated.

It's much you know as we sit I often offer the instruction to relax and this is not unique to my teaching I actually learned this practice of relaxing from my teacher and I'm sure he learned it from his many 50 plus years of practice that relaxing creating calm and peace in the body is so deeply beneficial it's a place of deep integrity we feel more connected to ourselves more whole in ourselves and safe within ourselves the agitated mind it kind of eclipses something within us the agitated mind it limits us it tightens around us but if we can find a place of peace and calmness then what occurs in the body is it's unlimited there's a there's this wellspring that's like okay this is what's happening and I don't in it I don't need this to take away my ease I can connect with my body even if the body is hijacked and there's a lot of energy and anxiety and vibration relax relax find the spaciousness within responding to the world from this place of calm and peacefulness creates really a more safety more safety for ourselves and more safety for others if the mind is jumping around and agitated and then we act in the world we're acting from this agitated place so we won't be seeing the situation and ourselves very well we are not tapping into this deeper understanding and we lose touch with what's important to us in buddhism there's this world it's kema is the Pali word which translates to safety or security and it also translates to peace and calm and the fact that one word encompasses both meaning like both the meanings of safety and security and peace and calm points out that these two translations are not separate from each other safety is connected to the place within where calm and peace are found and how we contribute to safety to our calmness and our inner well-being is how we contribute to it is actually in the practice that we do this sitting still this floating on the breath and i encourage you to think about and reflect on this a little bit like reflect on how the habitual pattern of activation or responding and reacting to activation and edge like and the agitation or the preoccupation how that motivates you like what do you do with that generally do you get going or are you able to at times access this calm and peaceful place within and you need to really take time to look into the physical sensations when the when the body is physically calm maybe that's at the end of the day as you are drifting off to sleep and the body's heavy and and the you're feeling quite relaxed and then then you wake up and you read the news and then all of a sudden you check in with yourself and then there's this energy this buzzing like can you just even hold your own hand and breathe for a few minutes to train the mind and the body to calm down because once we we know and we touch into this calm within then we can breathe with it we can settle and relax with whatever is happening and it becomes such a great value this inner stillness and quiet it's really safe and the reality of of creating this is the primary person that we're protecting ourselves from is ourselves you know we're protecting um we're protecting ourselves from the the surface mind that gets agitated and anxious and we may have very valid concerns there may be something in your life that has you worried but perhaps it's a it's better to stay calm in the body in the mind spacious so we can address it and when when the situation that we're worried about isn't real when there's no real wind storm then maybe we can remember that it's better not to sacrifice our calm for the agitated mind so um thank you for your consideration on how calmness helps us feel safe helps us feel safe thank you again for your kind attention and i i open it up for reflections and questions

Reviews

Thank you Lisa! Really profound!