Welcome.
Thank you for joining this practice.
Today I want to reflect a bit on the question,
What does it mean to be free?
I'll acknowledge that I'm not sure.
And yet I've prepared some reflections for us to consider as we begin to think about practicing a meditation together.
What does it mean to be free?
Freedom to feel,
Freedom to care for myself and others with compassion,
Freedom to move,
To change,
To grow,
Freedom to transform,
Freedom to take new shapes,
Freedom to shape new futures,
Freedom to choose.
Freedom requires access to material,
Emotional,
And spiritual supports.
Freedom necessitates inner work.
In my Buddhist practice,
I seek to understand freedom by connecting to a felt experience of the abiding energies of loving-kindness,
Compassion,
Joy,
And equanimity that are all right here right now if I pay attention,
If I tune in,
If I radiate out the energy of pure awareness.
Those ifs,
The if I pay attention,
If I tune in,
If I radiate out the energy of pure awareness.
They're big ifs,
They're not small ifs.
It takes a mindful awareness for me to tune in to to pay attention,
To extend outward,
Even a glimmer of some of those qualities.
And yet this is why I engage my spiritual practice.
Practicing meditation that allows me to tune in,
To pay attention,
To radiate,
Gives me a glimpse of an inner freedom that because I've felt it,
Even if it's just for a moment,
I begin to trust can be modeled and enacted outward through my action,
Through my relationships,
In community with others.
This is all big work,
Lifelong work in many ways,
And definitely not easy work.
But fundamentally,
I engage my spiritual practice so that I may be a co-creator of our collective liberation,
So that I may begin to understand at a spiritual level what liberation,
What freedom even means.
The practice that I'm going to share with you today is a practice that for me supports the cultivation of a kind of inward freedom from the binds of hatred,
Greed,
Delusion that caused so much suffering.
But it's not a magic pill.
It's not one and done.
This is a practice for me that is a commitment to life because freedom is a moment-to-moment practice of presence and connection to life.
Freedom asks that we lead lives in connection to something greater,
The interdependence of our mutual existence.
It asks that we know and honor the sacred in ourselves and others.
So while I am offering a brief version of this practice today,
It's intended as a life practice,
A moment-to-moment practice,
And always practice on and off the cushion,
As many say.
Without further ado,
I'll invite us into practice.
We'll be working in this practice with a few phrases.
We'll be focused on a phrase,
May I be free,
And a phrase,
May all living beings be free.
I encourage you to also play with this practice.
Perhaps there is a loved one.
You may say,
May you be free,
And extend out this wish to a loved one.
Or maybe somebody you're in conflict or in struggle with,
May you be free.
So this practice can extend in many ways,
Different iterations and ways of practicing with this wish for freedom.
This aspiration for freedom.
So I'll invite you now into a posture of meditation,
However that may be for you today.
Maybe sitting on a cushion or a chair,
Maybe lying down,
Perhaps even standing up or walking.
And as you settle in,
I'll invite you just to pay attention to the body,
To notice the energy of the body,
Allowing yourself to adjust the body so that you feel alert and yet relaxed.
Taking a moment to become aware of the breath,
Breathing pleasantly,
Naturally.
And I'll invite you to bring a smile to your face.
The power of a smile to shift the energies that we're carrying can be quite profound.
What happens if you smile right now?
Notice how that feels in your cheeks,
Your jaw,
Your face as a whole,
Your body.
Settling in to this period of practice,
Inviting yourself to presence.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
Focusing on the breath,
The sensation of the breath just as it is.
Allowing yourself to smile with the out breath,
To release.
Filling up with the in breath,
Releasing and smiling with the out breath.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May I be free.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May I be free.
Bring these phrases into your awareness as you notice the breath,
May I be free.
You return to the filling up of the in breath,
The release and the smile of the out breath.
And the aspiration for freedom.
The phrases can act as an anchor for your focus.
You can also let them go and just feel the sensations of the filling up,
The release,
The smile and the aspiration for freedom.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May I be free.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May I be free.
Being gentle and compassionate with any resistances or tensions that arise.
Inviting yourself to acknowledge them,
To accept their presence here and return to the breath,
To the smile.
Breathing in the possibility of change,
Of movement,
Of presence.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May all living beings be free.
May all living beings be free.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May all living beings be free.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May all living beings be free.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
I smile and release.
May all living beings be free.
May all living beings be free.
Gathering your hands at your chest in the form of prayer or hand to heart or little hug.
Feeling the breath,
The heartbeat.
Closing the practice with this aspiration to connect with freedom.
May I be free.
May you be free.
May all beings be free.
I smile and release.
Thank you for practicing with me.
Thank you for asking these questions and radiating out this energy with me.
Till next time.
