So what I'd like to do is move into a bit of practice on reconnecting to the feeling,
Or to our world of feeling,
Yeah?
So perhaps we're pretty connected already,
I hope so.
And if not,
Then this practice will help.
And if you are already connected in quite well,
This will just enhance that,
Yeah?
So maybe we'll start by just guiding a practice a little bit,
And then we can get into some more details around it,
And some Q&A.
So just sit in a way that's relaxed,
Yet alert.
Something that you can feel at ease,
But at the same time,
Not fall asleep.
And so we'll just take a second to drop the awareness into the body.
So as we drop the awareness into the body,
We fully feel first its physical presence.
Just beginning to let the awareness and body connect.
And then we're gonna start to bring in the view of this particular practice,
Practice of handshaking or letting be.
So dropping the thinking mind into the body,
We just let the awareness touch in with whatever needs to be felt right now.
So here we're just allowing.
Well,
Bearing witness with the awareness.
And bearing witness here is not a outsider looking in.
We are fully feeling whatever comes up in our experience.
And we just wait with that.
So right now we might not have so much in our mind or have so much in our experience.
There may be a numbness.
Some of us may feel some anxiety.
Whatever's coming up,
Just bring the awareness to touch base with that.
And here we're not suppressing whatever comes up.
We're not indulging in it.
We're not gonna run away from it.
We're also not applying an agenda to fix or change whatever our experience is.
So here we're starting to let the energetic content in our bodies speak,
Allowing them space to express themselves.
As they express themselves in the feeling world,
We just gently touch in with awareness,
Connecting with them.
But as we connect,
We don't have to do anything with them.
Just listening,
Being with it,
Fully feeling the experience.
So the kindness and compassion here is bringing a sense of non-judgment and allowance to whatever wants to arise.
And then the kindness to ourselves is that we're resting there with awareness.
And this is a very engaged practice,
But at the same time,
We're not doing anything.
We're just resting there with whatever wants to speak,
Whatever wants to be heard,
Whatever needs to be felt,
However painful.
So the looking towards I talked about earlier,
This is how we look towards in the feeling world.
As we can't always use or rely on the cognitive or thinking mind to fix our feeling world.
So instead we go directly to the feeling,
Feeling the feeling,
Just allowing.
So can we drop our agendas?
Can we drop our control?
Needing everything to be comfortable,
Needing to understand everything,
Needing to know exactly what it is.
So here we don't have to label anything.
We just rest with it.
If nothing in particular is coming up for you right now,
That's okay.
Just try to provide this allowing space.
When we provide this space,
Sometimes we just have to be able to do it.
When we provide this space,
Sometimes something arises that maybe didn't have room to arise before.
So for me,
I often have a buzz of anxiety in my body,
However subtle.
So we just go to that feeling,
Feeling that energetic resonance in my body,
That buzz.
It's not a comfortable stance,
But this is how we heal in our body.
This is how we approach.
This is how we look towards.
So knowing suffering,
Understanding suffering,
Is not just any conceptual intellectual process.
Here we're getting to know suffering deeply within our bodies.
We're dropping the thinking mind,
Just feeling in the body.
So we need a little bit of guts,
A little bit of courage,
Especially if we've hit something that's painful or something painful came up.
And with that guts,
We have the courage to not try to control or manipulate our experience.
Just be with it.
So really,
We're not trying to seek out a cozy meditation here.
We want to be very clear about that.
If we want wakefulness,
If we want to wake up,
We have to get over this notion that meditation is a cozy,
Good feeling.
Of course,
Meditation can provide that from time to time,
But that's not what our aim is.
That's not what we're looking for on the Buddhist path.
But here we're also not pushing anything.
We're not forcing anything.
We just let whatever needs to come,
Come in its own space,
In its own time,
In its own way.
When we manage to hit a wound in the emotional body,
There's many layers to these wounds.
So we just let the layers open on their own.
We're not opening anything.
We're just resting with awareness,
Providing the space.
I'm sorry to say,
But we're losing our humanity slowly.
And this is how we get our humanity back.
Once we have our humanity back,
We're fully human,
Then the path of liberation can really open.
So really whatever comes is all right,
It's okay with me.
I'm sure it's okay with your neighbor.
So we just watch,
We sit,
We feel with awareness.
With that awareness,
It's one hand shaking another,
Very gentle friendliness,
Curiosity,
And a willingness to be with suffering,
To be with the pain that wants to come up that needs to be heard.
So this is the real compassion we can offer to ourselves.
To be really messy,
Be honest.
It's not sanitary,
It's not clean.
Doesn't necessarily look awesome to your friends.
But here,
We're just providing the space to be fully honest with ourselves.
So ease comes from reconnecting to our basic okayness in our body,
Our basic sense of well-being,
Which is our birthright.
It's something that culturally we have moved away from,
A lot of us.
We've been schooled and educated out of.
We've lost our community and our culture,
Our sense of interconnection.
So this adds up over time,
Disconnecting us from others,
Disconnecting us from the body,
Disconnecting us from our sense of okayness where we don't need a conditioned phenomena,
We don't need something from the outside to affirm our value on the inside.
We just know we're inherently,
We're innately valuable,
We're innately worthy.
So this comes from touching in,
In this way,
Trusting with the awareness,
Letting the awareness fully feel what needs to be felt,
Whether it's pleasant,
Neutral,
Unpleasant.
And I really encourage you,
If you have a highly analytical mind like me,
Just drop the need to know and just feel.
We're constantly processing our experience.
We're trying to manipulate and control it.
The feeling world just needs to be felt sometimes,
Not processed by the thinking mind.
So see if you can continually drop into your body.
So the anchor of this practice is the body,
Just dropping into the felt world of the body.
And to our surprise,
When we fully allow without an agenda,
We give room and space for something to shift and open.
But it opens through going through.
So just for another few minutes,
We'll just continue to let the journey unfold of what we've been bearing witness to.
Wherever this energetic resonance or wound in the body,
Wound in the emotional body,
We're just feeling we don't quite know what it is.
Wherever it wants to move,
We just move with it.
We don't fight it.
When resistance arises,
We just touch in and let be with the resistance as well.
The letting be is not doing something.
It's just showing up for it without an agenda.
It's not a sign of surrender,
But a surrender without losing our power.
So within our okayness,
Just our basic sense of human wellness and wellbeing,
Lies our innate compassion,
Lies all the possibilities for how and with whom we offer love towards.
Often we are the most difficult people to love.
As we're taught that the more we put out,
The more love will get back.
That's just not true.
The care has to come from within first.
It has to be felt.
It has to be felt.
