Stillness Of Mind: Full Moon On The Lake

Rest your awareness on your Being. Come in from other times and other places and settle here, in this moment, with your breath and your body. When thoughts come, let them be ripples on the surface rather than something to follow.

The full moon in July is a day of gratitude for teachers and teachings. What have you learned about the mind, the breath, and your nervous system, and who brought those teachings to you?

Lynn shares teachings from 5,000 years of yoga meditation wisdom, a reminder to be careful what you put into your mind, and stories from her own teacher Swami Veda, including his teaching about open hands and letting go of what is no longer here.

Transcript

Bring your mind in from other times and other places. And rest your awareness on your being. It's the first part of that that's probably the most difficult. Rest your awareness on your being. What does that really mean? Well, It means that we're here. We're not in other times and other places. We're not in a nervous system response. That we're here in this moment. Notice what you see. Take a few deeper breaths. Does that feel comfortable? And what is the general feeling of being here? And then what is the specific? It's a full moon, So that's a little bit different than a regular day. I was out a couple times last night just looking at the moon. It was so beautiful and the sky was pretty clear. I could see it really well. Thinking about other times and other full moons, That often happens. Our minds are very associative. The full moon in July is also called Guru Purnima. Guru is teacher. Dispeller of darkness. Someone who brings light to us. So the teachings bring the light to us and often they're brought through different people. Purna means whole, Complete. In India and people who are from that culture know about that culture celebrate or commemorate the full moon in July as a day of feeling gratitude for the teachers. What does that bring up for you? If you are a student in yoga meditation, You're probably familiar with that day. Maybe you've done special practices that day. When I lived in a community in Western Canada, In Calgary, Where we had a group of students, We would often do a 24-hour silent retreat meditation on this day. So I have many memories of that. I wanted to broaden this out in terms of what are your experiences with teachers? Many of us are on Insight Timer. There's lots of teachers, But there's lots of teachings as well. So if you think about, You know, I've really learned how to breathe. I have learned a lot about nervous system. I know now when I'm in a fight, Flight freeze response. I have more freedom in my mind. I don't have as many compulsive thoughts or co-efficiency beliefs. So when you think about teachings that are related to how we are our being, Our consciousness, What comes to mind for you? And let's sit with that for a couple of minutes. If people come to mind, See their face, Maybe hear their voice. Some might be people you knew personally, Some like the Dalai Lama, For instance. Some people have met him. Everybody has an experience probably of it's a kindness on his face or something. So let's give ourselves a few minutes to tune in with teachers and teaching. What have you really valued? And also let gratitude come into this as well. Many teachers are so wholehearted with what they share, So generous. Notice your body and breath. Notice where your mind goes. Teachings, Teachers. What has really changed for you over whatever period of time you've been involved in any kind of spiritual work, Teachings, Practices? My mind is largely known to me now. I'm not stumbling around in the dark, So to speak. I've been meditating 33 years. It's a long time. Pretty serious about that daily practice. At the beginning, They encouraged us to have a dedicated space where you sat for meditation every day and to do it at the same time every day. That helps us to get into the habit. That's been helpful, Although it took me many years to actually do it at the same time every day. So that's something that's very stabilizing and I can really see the benefit. Another big thing is that we learn how to witness our thoughts. And so it's not just this chaos in the background of compulsion and what about that person and shame rolls in sometimes. Or deficiency beliefs. So one of the things that's really changed for me is that as I started watching my mind, I started realizing that I can't believe everything that's in there. And now neuroscience talks about that. Our brain literally believes that we think. So if we have a lot of catastrophic thinking, Our whole nervous system responds as though that's true. That's a profound knowing that our brain believes what we think and that we need to be careful what we put into the brain. And then how we work with them. One of the things that comes to mind is the stillness in the mind. There's a lot of obstacles to that, Which we work with all the time. And then the fruits of that, The result of that is that we, To some extent, Are able to find more stillness in the mind. Let's go into a little meditation around that. If you were sitting on the side of a lake and the full moon was shining down on the waters of the lake. Many of us have experiences that we could recall or perhaps an image And let yourself tune in to the light on the water. Let the water be still. If you're looking at a lake with a full moon, Sometimes the water is so still you can see everything and other times it's choppy so the light gets refracted a little. But in our mind, We could let that lake be still. You might notice the color of the moon. Sometimes it's very white, Sometimes it's more yellow. In the fall, Often the harvest moon is kind of orange. And then look at the roundness, The fullness of the moon. And let your mind become more still. And if thoughts come up, They're more like ripples on the surface. Let your thoughts be in the background. Don't follow the thoughts. And then the ripples on the leg will also start to become quieter, More still. And notice your breath. Allow your breath to be smooth. Continuous, Notice your body, Let your body be relaxed. We have a lot of tightness in our neck and shoulders, The chest and upper back. It's hard to let the breath have ease if our body is really tight. Let your body soften. We're turning away from thoughts in the mind, Letting the mind be still. And we're also giving the mind something to do. I'm saying instead of going into all of this other stuff you like to obsess about, Right now just focus on your body, Softening your body and smoothness of breath. The visual of the full moon and then the full moon's light on the water of the lake. Let your mind be still. Filled with light. And notice what was your experience over the last couple of minutes. And if there were thoughts in your mind other than the practice, What were they? That's good information to have. Well, I'm worried about that project at work or what that person said or money or whatever it is. We have lots on our minds. And when we have a moment of stillness, Often that urgency from the nervous system pushes through. We also have, For the most part, Not very well-trained minds. So when we say, OK, Mind, I want to focus on the stillness, The full moon, The light on the lake. I'm going to turn my attention away from other thoughts. It's not going to be 100% for most of us. So we could also accept that. I'm better at it perhaps than I used to be. And for me, I'm pretty good at doing that now, Unless there's something that's bothering me. And then I'll notice it's a lot more intrusive, Those thoughts. One of the things I'm really grateful for is the wealth of knowledge I've received from my yoga meditation teachers about the mind and how it works. These teachings are 5, 000 years of yoga meditation wisdom and there's so much available to us there and yet obviously our minds have not changed that much because what they were identifying thousands of years ago is still at play for us here in this modern life. Only now we have a lot more stimulation in the mind. So it's even harder. But so the principle is be careful what you put into your mind, Like be careful of your thoughts, But also be careful of the kind of movies you watch, The kind of social media that you're bringing into your mind, The people that you're around. The true nature of the mind is sattvic, Pure, Light, Joy. And so how can we access that lightness, The stillness of the mind, Is we have to give it some good conditions. And one of those conditions is that we're careful about not putting too much junk into the mind. When we notice that we have negative thoughts or we have a lot of fear, Anxiety, There's many ways that we can work with that. I've got a lot of guided practices on here too about working with fear and anxiety. But one of the most immediate things we can do is recognize that's the type of thought that's going on right now. It's distracting me from the stillness. Can I breathe? Can I relax my body? What could I do that would help with that? Let your mind bring back that visual of the full moon. The beautiful roundness of the moon, The color of the moon. And then the light of the full moon shining on the lake. But the lake is still Thinking about the day that we honor our teachers and teachings, The full moon in July, My meditation teacher, Swami Veda, When I first met him in person, I'd been listening to tapes and there was a local teacher who I was connected with for a few years. And then he was coming to town. He's from India and he travels all over the world. And he was coming to Calgary where I lived in Alberta and Canada. When I walked down the stairs, I could feel these waves of love coming from him. And that was the first time I'd ever really experienced that kind of energy. People would talk about, Oh, You know, I was in this temple and I felt this peace. And I'm like, Well, I don't know. I'm not feeling any of it. And yet, When I walked into his presence, I could feel that so strongly. It was just love. Waves of love. And as I got to know him better, I could really see and feel the compassion that he had, The kindness that he had. His mind was so still that he wasn't disturbed by us. Sometimes people would have an opportunity to kind of share what was going on with them. I had that opportunity once, Just him and I alone. And what I realized was that he was just listening. I was talking about something difficult that was going on and he was just listening. So it wasn't activating anything in him. He wasn't feeling sorry for me. He wasn't angry on my behalf. None of that. He was just listening. And that gave me the opportunity to really share what I wanted to share. And there were so many other times too, He would give such good advice. One time we were working with a difficult situation with a teacher. He put his hands into fists and he said, If you are holding on to that relationship with closed fists, There's no possibility of a new one. The old one's gone. Open your hands and let it go. And then with our open hands, Maybe there's a possibility, Maybe not. When we're clenched up like that, There's no possibility of something new. I've used that so many times over these decades of bringing back that knowledge of, Yeah, I actually just need to let go of what isn't anymore. Or what I want to be and it's not like that. I work with that quite a bit off and on in my courses and teachings and lives. It's just so true. We can't control the world, We can't control each other, We can't control the environment, But we can always work with letting go of what's hooked us. And we can open our hearts. Open your heart. Let yourself feel. There's the visualization on the lake of the full moon and the stillness of the mind. But the mind is also a mind body. It's our heart as well. Sit with your heart. And with love. And the light of our true self. I am very grateful for my teachers and that I'm part of this lineage where the teachings flow through me as well. I'm really grateful for all of us to get together here and that can deepen into our own lightness and stillness and depth and love and compassion and all the good stuff.