Thank you for tuning in,
And welcome.
Today is January 5,
2024,
And I'm making this recording inside the Poplar Grove Zendo,
Where I have been attending the New Year retreat.
Today is the penultimate day.
It's a very real,
Alive space,
So you may be hearing the roof creaking as it expands in the sun.
There are also birds.
Somebody's raking the path outside,
And there is wind.
There is almost always wind here.
I haven't been very active on this platform or any other for the longest time,
And my intention this year is to change that,
Become more active,
Offer more.
So let this be a start,
And let's get going.
And let's get going by coming into stillness,
Assuming whatever position comes to you,
Whatever position asks to be assumed.
You may sit upright,
Unsupported,
With your legs folded.
You may be perched on a chair.
You may lie down.
You can stand if you wish.
It's not about how you sit or whether you sit or stand.
It's about the quality of attention and your intention when doing so.
So let's at the outset touch on some main points of practice,
This practice of sitting,
Of being with what comes,
Body.
We meditate in our bodies and never anywhere else.
This may come as a surprise,
And I feel myself smiling eternally at that reminder,
For I too get swept away.
But the essence is to come into intimacy with whatever it is that is happening physically.
So perhaps as a way of grounding ourselves inside ourselves,
We take a generous breath in,
And as you let that air out,
Allow your attention to drift down to your feet,
To notice the way they have landed on the floor,
Noticing the toes and the ankles,
And the points of contact your feet make with the ground,
And any other points of contact your body makes with the floor.
If you are seated,
It may be your sitting bones resting on some surface from which your spine extends,
Following its natural curves with the head balanced on top.
But without trying too hard,
See if it's possible to do a little less.
What would it mean for you to let your arms soften,
Allowing them to fold in your lap or onto your thighs,
Wherever feels stable and comfortable.
In your practice of attending to bodily sensations,
You may include the breath,
Which in many ways is a gateway to the now,
To being fully present.
So whether it is in the belly or the ribcage or in the shoulders,
Lifting as you inhale and sinking as you exhale,
Where you feel it most vividly,
Direct your attention there now,
Turning towards that space with curiosity.
Mind.
As much as we meditate in the body,
The body includes the mind,
And so it's to turn towards that aspect of experience with the same curiosity,
And so to notice thoughts,
That there is thinking,
Which is a natural manifestation of the energy of the mind.
It's what minds do.
They generate thoughts.
This is not a problem.
So including in your awareness now any movement of the mind,
Whether that be thinking or some way you relate to what you are thinking about.
So we speak about the heart-mind,
Which includes the emotional spectrum of experience,
And all that,
Knowing that while we do not turn away from what the mind brings up,
That it may not be to our benefit to follow that tangential thinking pattern and get lost in reverie or planning.
That while we give our minds and our hearts the attention they deserve,
That in formal practice we return back to just the raw experience of being here now.
If you are sitting with your eyes closed,
What would it be like to open them right now,
To include in your awareness and your experience light and shapes without staring around,
Looking around,
Or getting into some preferential discourse about what you see,
But simply seeing,
Allowing,
Welcoming your experience fully.
Spirit.
I don't exactly have a relationship with the word spirit,
To be honest,
But perhaps this segment about the purpose or intention that may be useful regarding meditation practice going forward.
What is it about?
What are we doing in our non-doing?
Insight Timer has been providing us with some wonderful nuggets of wisdom in the form of quotes,
And yesterday's came from Sylvia Bornstein,
Who said,
Surrender means wisely accommodating ourselves to what is beyond our control.
And in a way,
With this sort of meditation practice,
We are surrendering to the now.
We are pausing to be with things as they are,
Whatever they are,
In the middle of our lives.
How is this wise?
Well,
My hunch is that it may be incredibly empowering to develop the capacity to be with what's manifest in front of us,
To create some space,
Some distance between what appears and how we respond.
It is in that space where there may be an opportunity to step into a different field,
Onto a different path.
And we practice that by sitting still,
By being awake inside our bodies,
Attending to the fullness of our experience from moment to moment.
