Giving To Life With Gratitude - The Radiance Sutras # 50

This class is a different take on giving and receiving - with gratitude. After an introduction tuning into different levels of our being we explore a poem that came out of one of Michael's meditations, then we soak in Sutra 50 from The Radianve Sutras by Dr Lorin Roche.

Transcript

And we'll kick off.

So welcome to you all for this um,

Great Insurgent School of Meditation,

Community Meditation.

Most of you who are with me now live know me,

I'm Michael,

And some of you may not,

So I'm Michael.

Um,

This afternoon,

This evening,

Or this morning,

Depending on where you are or when you're watching this.

I'm going to invite you into meditation.

It's a bit of a different type on giving and receiving meditation.

Maybe,

Maybe we could call it a giving receiving gratitude meditation.

Um,

I'm going to talk for a little while.

When I talk,

Sometimes it's meditative,

Or you can just listen as if it's a bit of a lesson.

And then,

Um,

I'm going to share with you,

Um,

Maybe a poetic writing that came out of one of my meditation practices a couple of months ago.

And,

Um,

Just let you,

Let you be with that and have some,

Have some space around that to soak in it for a little while.

And towards the end,

We'll,

Um,

I'll share a sutra with you as well.

And again,

Let you listen to the sutra,

Soak in it for a while,

And then,

Then we'll,

Then we'll close up.

We'll sort of transition back into,

Back in the,

More into,

More into this world that we live in.

Um,

Then I'll stop the recording.

And then afterwards we,

Those who are here live,

We can have it,

Have a discussion about it.

So I want to invite you to get as comfortable as you can,

Wherever that is,

However that is,

You can turn your video off if you like,

So that no one has to see how you move or how you relax.

If you are someone who journals and you need,

Need to have that pen and paper close and have a look at your journal,

Pen and paper,

Close and handy,

Just take a moment to,

To,

To gather yourself.

If you feel like you want to have a little sip of water beforehand,

Just sort of preparing yourself so that you're in,

In the optimal position to come into a restful state.

If that's what you want,

Maybe you might want to move.

It's totally up to you.

As I said before,

This is going to be an exploration to start with on,

On giving and receiving,

But also on,

On,

On gratitude to,

That we're actually receiving life.

And we'll have a look at what is it that now we've received this life,

That we can give back.

How do we give back?

How do we give back?

So let's start.

We'll start with feeling into what is it that tells you that you're here in your body?

How do you know that you're alive?

Perhaps it's our senses.

And if you want to explore feeling or being aware of your sense of sight for a start,

Maybe looking away from your screen and just engaging with the room or the area that you're in.

And giving yourself a moment to be in awe of this sense of sight that we have.

Feeling into all of the different textures of being able to see.

The miracle that we can see different colors.

That at night time,

We have different parts of our eyes that can pick up movement.

And we sort of see in black and white at night.

That we can have a peripheral view of the world that picks up movement.

Sees if there's something to draw our attention to.

And then we can quickly shift our eyes and our face towards that.

And be using the more acute part of our sense of sight.

Where we can determine whether that was something to be scared of or not.

Something to engage with or not.

We can perhaps be grateful that we have the sense of hearing that we can also attune to the world around us.

The sense of hearing is 360 degrees.

We can pick up direction of sound and quickly attend to it with our eyes.

If we're walking in the woods and we heard the crack of a stick behind us.

Or the rustle of leaves close to one of our feet.

We'd be very quickly drawn to that.

Evolution has built in our senses this safety net.

Smell and taste as we were evolving.

We would use smell and taste to determine whether something that we're going to eat was good for us or bad.

But we've gone beyond just being sensory.

We have this incredible brain.

With trillions of neurons in it.

Each having tens of thousands of connections and somehow our brain has developed so that we can make sense of the world.

There's an instinctual level to that.

Instinctual life in us that has us surviving to start with.

But also then instinctually bringing us to thriving in the world.

So we're called to recreate.

We're called to make ourselves at home.

We're called to rest when we need to.

But we've been given this instinctive nature to thrive,

Survive.

But we've gone beyond just instincts.

For some reason or other we've been given the gift of critical thought.

But even more we've been given the gift of emotional thought,

Emotional feeling,

Emotional intelligence.

We sense the world and our instincts are underlying the way that we react to the world.

But then over the top of that we have an emotional perspective to life.

That is full and it's rich.

When we look at the sunset we don't just look at the light that's coming.

We don't just recognize the picture.

But we can actually have a feeling in us that there is something beautiful there.

We're able to perceive beauty.

And when we see things that threaten our lives,

Threaten our ability to survive and thrive.

We have emotions come up with them.

Fear,

Anger,

Grief even.

And these are richer experiences than most beings on the planet get to feel.

Somehow or other has been born into a Human body.

It has given us a life that is rich,

A life that is full.

So whether your perspective is that life has evolved in this way or that it's been planned.

Whether the power that's created this is called life.

Whether it's the universe,

Whether it's God,

Whether it's Allah,

Whether it's nature.

Whatever label you put on this process of this development,

This creation of this body that you're in now.

Whatever it is,

We can look at it and say it's been generous.

Evolution's been generous.

My parents were generous.

My grandparents,

All of my ancestors were generous in bringing me into the world to experience life.

In this moment,

I've been given life.

I exist and I'm experiencing richly,

Deeply.

Sometimes it's graceful,

Joyous,

Beautiful,

Awesome.

Sometimes it's sad,

There's grief,

There's pain,

There's suffering.

But we are experiencing the world through layers and layers of existence.

Through our senses,

Through our instincts,

Through our desires,

Through our emotions,

Through our feelings.

If you subscribe to it through our subtle body,

Through our bigger body,

Through our fuller self.

We've been given the gift of life and we're here now.

So as we've received,

How is it that we can give back to the world?

How is it that we can give back to life,

To God,

The universe,

Whatever it is that has brought us here?

How can we give back?

I am in service to my soul.

Each moment lived through the lands of love,

Compassion,

Grace.

Every breath a tribute to precious life.

Each thought a tiny flash of divinity.

The kiss of air on skin,

The touch of sun's warm light.

The song of birds,

The flowers scent.

The earth's deep pull to home.

Reminders of appreciation for this most precious gift of all.

For life.

With all its heartache.

With all its suffering and pain is full of possibilities.

Of love.

Of sunrises and starry nights.

And what is life asking from us?

A gentle word.

A smile.

A tender touch,

An understanding ear.

A warm embrace to carry through the traveling of the years.

And in a flashing instant we have come and we have gone.

But like a pebble in a pond.

We ripple on and on.

Living in the hearts we touch the souls that recognize.

The essence of themselves is in that ripple on the pond.

We've been given the gift of life.

Of precious fleeting.

Our sample inquiry is how do we give back?

What are the qualities of the ripples that you'll send off into infinity?

The power of life has infinite possibilities.

It's expression through us unique.

Potent in your own way.

Filtered and expressed through this form that is you.

And All around you,

In every moment,

The world is offering you a feast for your senses.

Songs are playing,

Tasty food is on the table,

Fragrances are in the air,

Colour fills the sky with light,

Fills the eyes with light.

You who long for union,

Attend this banquet with loving attention.

The outer and inner worlds open to each other.

The outer and inner worlds open to each other.

Oneness of vision,

Oneness of heart,

Right here in the midst of it all,

Where you are,

Your expression of existence.

Mount that elation,

Ascend with it,

Join together,

Become identical with the ecstatic essence,

Embracing both worlds.

The spark of the Universe expressed as you,

Experiencing the Universe,

Filtering it and sharing your own essence that is unique,

Rippling out,

Touching the hearts of others,

Who may never ever meet you.

They walk down the street and just see something different about someone on the other side of the road,

Someone who is grateful for existence,

Grateful for life,

In all of its levels.

Through the full range of experience.

Thank you.

.

.

Maybe we can attune ourselves to what it is that we're experiencing again,

In this moment,

As a way of transitioning.

Perhaps there is an emotional aspect to your experience right now,

That you recognize.

Maybe you label it,

Maybe it just is talking to you through some sensation,

But feel into what you're experiencing now,

On an emotional,

On a sensational level.

Perhaps you're aware of some instincts that have been stirred in you.

Maybe your attention is drawn to those that you're feeling right now,

In this moment.

Maybe you've become aware again,

Where is the center of the earth?

What shape is my body taking?

Recognize that I'm sitting or lying,

Feeling the air on your skin,

Feeling the clothes on your skin,

Recognizing where the weight of your body is sinking down in towards the earth,

Through which bones,

Which part of the flesh is being squashed by the weight of your body.

Perhaps you can tune into the smell in the room that you're in,

Recognizing the sounds that are around you.

You might feel to gently start to enliven your body,

Asking yourself which joints feel like they need to be moved.

What's the range of motion that they would like to experience?

Now just to remind myself that I'm in my body,

That my body and I are warm.

What's the expression of this movement of your limbs,

Your joints?

Do you feel like it's a gentle flowing movement or do you want to create strength and aliveness,

Prepare yourself to move on again?

And as I've said before,

For me the last of my senses to bring myself back into the moment is often the sense of sight,

Where I've been in my inner world,

Where my eyes are closed,

If they've drifted closed,

And as I bring myself into the outer world,

I'll allow it to come in through slowly,

Gently opening eyes.

And perhaps I stretch and yawn.

And I can just inquire.

Do I want to bring this idea of giving and receiving gratitude into a practice,

Into my life more fully?

How am I going to do that?

Is it simply through an awareness of my senses,

Instincts,

Emotions that tell me that I'm alive,

That remind me that I am human,

In this form now,

That it's a gift?

How can I bring this as a practice into my life?

And how do I then express gratitude to life,

To the world,

To the universe,

To God?

How do I express that back out into the world?

So thank you for joining this evening and for those of you who are practicing later.

Right now as a group who've come together live,

We're going to share a little and look forward to catching up with you who are online a little later.

Reviews

Loved this - light pink gentle ripples going out into the world 💗