Reflecting On An Anniversary With COVID

From a sunrise meditation, I offer some teaching on reflecting over the past year what we have grown into and bloomed forward within this year of COVID. We practice connecting to the beautiful, positive, and resilient qualities that have emerged to connect us to healthier ways of living.

Transcript

I wanted to share this morning on our sunrise meditation.

It's been going on for a year now.

And I don't know if you have been,

But I have been reflecting quite a bit in the last few days about what this last year has been.

It's a different kind of anniversary,

I guess you would say.

And thinking about that and looking back and kind of marking different memories and recalling what's happened.

I was finding myself getting really initially kind of pulled by all the difficult things that we've traversed.

That's very easy and very available to come right to the foreground of the mind.

All of the stress and the difficulties and the having to change constantly and not liking that.

And feeling the anxieties and the fears and the losses and the isolation.

It can go in all these different ways.

And maybe with our practice it can go to the other direction.

Which is what's all the fruit,

What's all the bloom of what all of that actually may have given us.

This is a beautiful time of year.

Spring is popping forward.

And I was out on a walk yesterday in my neighborhood,

Which I've done many times in the last year.

And become very intimate with my neighborhood in a way I've never had before.

And I was looking at all of the different blooms that are in different stages right now.

There's these really beautiful trees,

Unfortunately I don't know the name of them.

But they produce these brilliant red flowers only for a little while before they become the leaves of the tree.

And they're all over San Diego.

And we have one tree in the neighborhood with one red flower right now.

The rest are all in waiting.

And I was kind of struck by the different variations of how blooms are kind of popping forward.

Some of them are fully out on my walk.

I asked permission for a few to come with me so that they could be with us this morning.

But there's all kinds of different phases that these different plants are expressing themselves in.

And I thought it was a beautiful metaphor to think about what's bloomed forward for you in this last year.

It's probably different things.

Maybe some things are really bright and at the foreground and fully present in your life in a way that maybe they weren't a year ago.

Maybe some are still kind of beginning to open or filling themselves up in different ways.

But I thought it would be helpful for us to maybe reflect on that,

Marking our year of sunrise together.

And for me,

And I invite you to do the same as I am sharing and talking this morning,

You know,

For me it's been really appreciating the ability to slow down.

That's not my nature.

Like I have a lot of habits that like to keep me moving very fast.

And it can be easy even in this year when we've been asked to slow down just by the nature of the pandemic to not want to do that.

But it's really taught me that and the fruit of enjoying that flavor in my life and to also respect the rhythms a little bit more.

I know that it's been lovely to really sit and be present like this canyon every day teaches me a different rhythm to really respect and listen to.

That's nature so obviously good at that.

We sometimes forget that.

But you know how how lovely that is that I have a little more connection to those rhythms and respecting where I'm at and being able to support myself.

I also feel as I was saying about taking my walk really intimate with this landscape.

This particular landscape.

I mean,

You know the busyness would keep me moving away from this particular place.

And I now feel a very deep connection in a way I don't think I had prior to this year.

I wake up and I see my friends,

The birds and the hummingbirds and the plants and the way that they take form and change and grow.

And then I the last piece and this is what I wanted us to practice on this morning together is in that intimacy,

A real deep connection of interbeing.

In our presence to be here,

Thich Nhat Hanh's definition of being,

Interbeing that,

You know,

He talks that everything relies on everything else in order to manifest.

These are these are things we feel and sense when we're in our practice.

But the truth is,

We're always in interconnection that doesn't stop and we may have felt this year because of the aloneness that was required less of that sense of interbeing.

But I actually as I was reflecting on talking about this,

I was like,

Oh,

I feel interbeing in way new ways that I didn't before,

Particularly you all and zooming.

Like,

We have a web of connection that we didn't really even know how much that was here for us,

You know,

Present as a way to notice and feel our interconnection with one another.

And so maybe you've realized this last year that,

You know,

You're more connected,

Even though we may not be physically present to the relationships with your family or the relationships with your community or our Sangha or even the globe.

Right,

There's all these different ways that maybe we're waking up to our deep,

Deep interconnection,

Which is always here,

But maybe just wasn't as foreground for us.

So,

I was watching a movie last night,

And I wanted to make sure I got the name correct.

It is called Call of the Forest,

The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees.

And the main,

Main author Diana Bredesford Kroger is kind of the main person in the movie,

But she talks about the wisdom of the interbeing connection of the forests.

And I was watching this movie and just delighting in all the really lovely things that they've discovered,

You know,

In science,

You know,

That the trees need to grow slowly to be successful together as a collective,

They have this deep web of rooted connection and fungi that travel between to send chemicals and messages and support.

You know,

They all have to grow in their unique places,

But they're supported by one another.

And I started thinking this,

This feels like what happens when I show up in this community.

And we're each these beings and we have this literal web,

Just a different kind of kind of energetic sending of signals that are hopefully letting us thrive and letting us feel like we've been able to experience what's happened this last year with with way more resilience,

Way more support,

Way more sense of that interconnection and that interbeing.

So I thought it might be delightful this morning to sit with the sense of our own tree-ness,

Right?

And remembering your tree-ness,

Right,

Has the amalgamation of all the conditions that you're currently sitting in.

But in the spirit of interbeing,

Right,

We're not,

We're not unconnected,

Right?

And even if it's through this,

This particular portal that we are present,

We can still feel that interconnection.

I was sharing with a friend yesterday that I'm always surprised,

Beautifully,

When we're sitting together in my garden,

They know we're sitting together.

It's almost like they get louder,

They get closer,

They get,

And I'm like,

Yes,

I'm sitting and that's probably helpful,

But there's a presence that's coming through the way we connect like this.

And I think that's worth really letting ourselves appreciate and know that that depth of interbeing or interconnection has come through this,

Through this year that we've been together like this.

So,

With all of that,

We will practice together.

And so you can find whatever comfortable posture supports your body,

Where your tree is residing today.

And with the sound of the bowl you can settle in.

So arriving together.

And just feeling into this moment,

Into what's here as you settle into practice.

Maybe the heart,

The mind,

The body touched in some way.

These moments are here for us to feel our connection with,

To feel present,

Sensing,

Feeling more deeply into this truth of our interconnection.

So as we settle in,

I invite you to allow yourself a few moments to feel and be present to your immediate surrounding.

The soundscape is expressing itself.

The particular light,

Quality of air that's here surrounding you.

The sense of the physical place,

The sense of the ground,

The terrain,

Plant life,

Structure of your home.

And seeing if you can really allow awareness to receive all the tear,

All that's supporting you.

Attuning to this intimacy of presence to how all of this arises as the product of so many different conditions that allows your being to reside right here.

And now each moment that we're touched by registers in this inner landscape,

Creating that sense of not separate,

Connected.

So attuning more inwardly,

Feeling your body and points of contact.

And the physical way the body feels connected and supported to what's beneath you or behind you.

As we feel or sense that connection to support and stability,

Allow yourself to really let the body receive,

Be held and supported by this earth,

By the container that your body is in.

And as you feel that sense of groundedness,

See if you can really let it sense into how it permeates into the ground,

Into the place you sit.

You're being intimately connected to right where you are,

Threading roots down into the place,

Into the ground.

Feeling how this rootedness where you are,

What you're in connection to is part of all that you're connected to.

Maybe sensing that reciprocity.

And then maybe also feeling not only from this rooted connection,

Reciprocity,

Feeling how your being rises up.

It's alert,

It's engaged,

It's vibrantly connected to these conditions around you,

Changing and adapting and growing.

So feeling the length of your spine,

The brightness,

Vitality of your body.

Being curious about as you fill your body in this way,

The way that your being is expressing itself in this place you reside.

Maybe it offers light,

Care,

Different parts of your being are shifting and changing to adapt and support the conditions that are here with you.

And in whatever way it's helpful,

Just imagining or allowing an image to come in to feel or sense this tree-like,

Plant-like,

Flower-like,

Whatever you choose,

Nature of your being.

That's rooted,

Growing,

Evolving,

Adapting to the conditions in the place that you reside.

And so sitting in this open awareness of interbeing present to what's arising within and around.

And seeing if we can connect to this not separateness,

This togetherness.

You might want to choose to feel this intimately through the way the breath exchanges itself.

And the way sounds move,

Vibrate,

Shifts,

Change within us,

Around us.

And resting in a more expansive container of.

.

.

All of this is a mystery just arising and passing,

All conditions influencing one another for this moment to be.

And the mind might like to see this.

The mind might like to try to figure out this interbeing.

That's just what minds do.

That's their way of engagement with the world.

And so letting that be here too and sensing this way of feeling the body,

Being fully present deeply to the moment.

And watching how all of this arises together.

The body,

The representation and amalgamation of everything around us.

All parts are the same thing.

All parts are the same.

All parts are the same.

As we sit in this way it can be helpful.

To really allow the awareness to be fully open.

Resting in the spaciousness of the moments of interbeing or connection arising.

But you might also find it helpful to feel or sense some particular experience that's happening around us that we sense is maybe separate.

The sound.

Quality in the air.

And then get curious about seeing if you can experience where or how that experience is arising within you.

So we can gently move the attention intentionally in this way to feel,

Begin to connect.

And then a steadiness of awareness to the moment.

What's here is being cultivated,

We can really begin to allow that to stretch and extend out.

So I invite you to be curious about feeling the threads,

The web of interconnection that we truly have.

Simply one breath out allows for the plant to grow a little more.

The way we receive sound allows us to soften,

Be fully present to hearing,

Opening to the way the world is.

And how our ability to be present and attuned to the way that life is fully,

Leading it with kind of ease,

Openness.

That there's a permeating way that we connect to support our life.

And so for the remainder of our practice,

I invite you to feel into the way that you're a tree like plant like flower like nature is threading and webbing itself into all of the connections of life.

In your homes,

Gardens,

In your community,

With this Sangha.

Knowing that trees are growing in so many different places and we are part of that web of connection here now.

Supporting one another.

And how this forest is supporting the larger community.

And even the globe.

And I guess everyone has questions.

To the last few minutes of this practice.

Letting yourself feel within the mind,

Within the heart,

And within the body.

What's alive,

What's present,

Having sensed and attended to this interbeing.

Maybe the heart is delighting with joy.

Maybe gratitude is bubbling up in the cells of the body.

Maybe the mind open,

Spacious,

Receptive.

And now our practice,

Attending to this interbeing,

Allows for these gifts,

These deeper places within us and within our connection to all things we can drink from.

And the goodness that that blooms forward into our life.

And then offering as we come to close,

Bow of gratitude to the interbeing connection of presence to all the beings here.

And practicing now,

But also to all the beings that have been sitting together in this last year.

The heartful,

Intentional choice to be present.

And how that way of interbeing and connection has supported our wellbeing.

Allowed us to grow and to be supported and nurtured and cared for.

And closing with gratitude.

I'm gonna read one last quote from Thich Nhat Hanh as we close.

You are me and I am you.

Isn't it obvious that we enter our?

You cultivate the flower in yourself so that I will be beautiful.

I transform the garbage in myself so that you will not have to suffer.

I support you,

You support me.

I am in this world to offer you peace.

You are in this world to bring me joy.