Klesha liberation meditation.
Before we begin this practice,
Just a reminder that this is quite a strong practice that can release an enormous amount of energy and may also put us in direct contact with difficult emotions.
Therefore,
I recommend you do this practice only when you feel the conditions are right.
It's important that you feel safe,
Grounded,
And mentally and emotionally at ease,
And that you have a meditation teacher or spiritual friend you can be in touch with to provide you support and guidance.
Retreat provides the ideal conditions for this kind of practice.
In the spirit of the radical embrace,
I invite you to take a few moments before we start this practice.
Just welcome any parts of yourself showing up right now.
And just notice them and allow them to be here as they are.
Maybe even inviting them to join us in this practice.
There's nothing that need be left out here.
So we'll begin by establishing a posture that works for your body.
Make sure that you have at least three points of contact in touch with the ground.
Where the weight of the body is fully supported without straining any other parts,
Particularly your limbs,
Back or neck.
Once you feel comfortable and relaxed in your posture,
Take a little bit of time to feel the ground beneath you.
Noticing sensations here.
Noticing as well the space all around you.
And the sky above.
Allowing ground and space to be resources in this practice.
And noticing any feelings of safety,
Steadiness,
Wellness,
Spaciousness.
Expansion.
Ease anything else that can be supportive to you just now,
And allowing these sensations to permeate the whole body.
Resourcing and nourishing the whole body.
Sensing into.
The dignity of the posture.
When you feel ready.
Beginning to bring awareness to the breath.
And follow the in-breath to the heart center.
Allow the breath to rest here.
And notice how you're feeling right now.
The sensations in and around the heart,
And any thoughts,
Emotions,
Memories,
Images arising in the mind.
Just noticing what's here and allowing it to be as it is.
As we rest in the heart center,
We can also remember our intentions for practicing.
Whatever it is that's brought you here to this path and guides you on it.
Remembering your own deep heart wish to learn how to work creatively with your experience and liberate afflictive mental states.
Notice how it feels to bring your intentions to mind.
As we rest with our intentions,
We can also bring to mind inequalities that can support us in meeting and liberating the clashes.
You might wanna say these to yourself either out loud.
Quietly in your own mind.
Patience.
Love.
Curiosity.
Compassion.
Joy.
Softness.
Any other qualities that come to mind.
Now I invite you to bring awareness to your whole body breathing.
Allowing the mind to become absorbed in sensations of air coming and going in the body.
As you open to these sensations,
Noticing their feeling tone as pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
And invite you to pay particular attention to any pleasurable sensations that have the taste of freedom.
Tingling,
Warmth,
Softness.
Bubbling up of energy.
Expansion,
Ease,
Peace,
Joy.
Dwelling in these sensations and allowing them to move in and through the body.
In their own time,
In their own way.
Allowing yourself to enjoy them for as long as they last.
Allowing yourself to be resourced and nourished.
By these sensations.
Feel free to hang out with pleasant sensations for as long as feels supportive to you.
And once the mind feels sufficiently quietened,
The invitation is to begin to open to the whole rich tapestry of sensations coming and going in all six senses.
And noticing the space of awareness.
From which all of these sensations appear and dissolve back into.
Resting back.
And the awareness.
And familiarizing with the qualities of openness.
Clarity and sensitivity.
Of this awareness.
From this broad open awareness,
We can begin to turn towards the mind itself.
Looking in on itself,
At what's here.
The thoughts and emotions arising and passing away.
Just like any other sensation.
Allowing them to simply come and go.
Noticing their qualities,
And staying in touch with the felt sense in the body.
One thing we can notice here is how when we don't get caught up in the content of the mind,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Memories,
Images,
Impulses,
Urges are free to self-liberate in the clear light of awareness.
We can even enjoy that.
As we open to the mind in this way,
You might notice how some But not all thoughts or emotions have the flavor of a glacier.
They're somehow stickier than other thoughts and not as easy to allow to simply come and go.
There's some kind of habit of grasping after,
Resisting,
Or ignoring an aspect of our experience here,
Or comparing ourselves to others in some way.
These states feel contracted.
Narrow,
Tight.
Binding in some way.
For example,
You might notice you're lost in a fantasy about the future.
Are ruminating about the past.
You might be doubting yourself,
Thinking the practice is a waste of time.
Or that you can't do it.
Or maybe you've gotten caught up in a story about someone else.
Maybe someone you don't like very much.
So as soon as you notice any thoughts or emotions.
That have the flavour of a glacier.
There's an invitation to just really appreciate the clarity with which you've noticed this.
There's also awareness here.
That knows what's here.
And then there's an invitation to use just enough effort to unhook from whatever's happening in the mind and drop your awareness down into the feeling sensing body.
You might ask yourself.
What's here?
What am I distracted from or what can't I be with right now?
Most likely there'll be some sense of clenching,
Contraction.
Tension,
Tightness,
Numbing,
Or some other uncomfortable feeling somewhere in the body.
So with awareness,
Patience,
And a great deal of love.
You can simply turn towards and breathe into these sensations.
Meet them as gently and unconditionally as you can.
Becoming aware of and loosening.
Any agenda to try and get rid of them.
Just be with them as they are.
You can use the breath here if that's comfortable as well,
Breathing with and into them.
Notice how when you stay with these sensations,
They are also free to move and pass away on their own,
Just like any other sensation.
See if you can dwell in this movement for as long as it lasts.
If there's nothing that has the flavor of a klesha,
Then the invitation is simply to stay open to the mind.
Continuing to abide in the arising and passing of whatever's here.
If you've been dwelling in the movement of sensations in any place of tension or contraction,
You begin to notice how the thoughts and emotions are not the same as the physical sensations that we associate with them.
So for example,
A thought about the future.
Which has the flavor of craving,
Wanting a different experience than we're having right now.
May show up as clenching in the belly.
And when we drop into that clenching in the belly and it starts to move and change.
It's clear that the only thing that connects the clenching.
And the fantasy is the habit that keeps them bound together.
When we're able to abide without getting caught up in the fantasy.
We see more clearly that the klesha of craving doesn't really exist in any substantial or permanent way.
It is simply a combination of thoughts,
Emotions,
Sensations,
Impulses,
Urges that we associate with it.
So here the invitation is to really see the empty,
Impermanent nature of the klesha.
And allow any energy bound up in the habitual patterns of holding.
To begin to liberate.
Notice any sense of relief.
Release or ease that comes.
With this liberation and enjoy that.
We can do this over and over again,
Opening to the mind.
Noticing what's coming and going here.
If anything feels habitually sticky.
Dropping into the body,
Staying with any sense of contraction.
And watching the whole thing unfold.
On by.
You could even say fall apart,
Dissolve.
Notice the energy releasing and enjoy it.
Allow that release of energy to resource you.
If at any time you start to get lost.
Confused or overwhelmed.
You can simply pendulate back to a resource like the ground.
The space all around you,
The breath.
A pleasant sensation somewhere in the body.
Even a memory of a time you felt safe and at ease.
And spend as long as you need to dwelling with and enjoying.
Those sensations.
When you feel ready,
Beginning again.
You might even decide to stop meditating and do something else that feels more resourcing.
Feel free to do as many pendulations between applying effort in the practice,
Noticing glaciers,
Allowing them to liberate,
And then pendulating to a resource to nourish and support you.
Part of the practice is learning how to do these pendulations in a way that feels skillful,
Supportive.
Generative.
Creative.
And then at the end of the practice,
There's an invitation to let go of any and all effort that you've been making.
Here you might lean back in the posture or even lay down.
Resting the hands,
Palms up in the lap.
Opening the eyes.
Maintaining a soft focus.
Including all sensations,
Thoughts,
And emotions coming and going in a big,
Broad,
Open,
Curious,
Loving space of awareness.
Again,
Dwelling in the qualities of this awareness,
It's openness,
Clarity,
And sensitivity.
Rest here in this awareness.
Allowing it to nurture you.
And when you feel ready,
Ending the practice and allowing any fruits of the practice to support you as you go about the rest of your day.
