Dignity

An exercise on how meditation brings greater worth to you and your life.

Transcript

Welcome back to your daily meds.

You know,

Each time you set aside 10 minutes like this,

You're investing in your day and in your life.

It may not seem like much,

But it signals a change of direction.

Instead of allowing reactivity to take its toll,

You're pushing back against it.

You're countering it by looking into your mind,

Seeing where your motives come from,

What your subconscious goals are.

They're not always clear.

There's plenty of room for confusion.

Trying to figure it out sometimes makes things worse.

And we have other ways of coming to an understanding,

Other ways than figuring out.

And that entails sitting with it,

Just watching,

Getting to know what's confusing you without trying to solve it.

That's what meditation is for.

And although it sounds easy,

It can be tricky.

The meditative mind is only one part of what you need.

You also need the working out part of your mind as well,

The discursive mind.

But these two don't operate at the same time.

They're complementary.

Sometimes you work things out.

Whether you get it right or not is a different matter.

But sometimes you can't.

You're not familiar enough with it yet.

You need to just sit and watch and get to know it.

And that's what meditation is for.

With meditation,

You're learning to sit with discomfort,

With confusion.

And this is when the urge to act,

To solve your problem is overwhelming.

But this is exactly the time to not act.

Instead,

Pay attention.

Pay attention right now to your breath.

Feel the breath entering your body.

Feel your body expanding to embrace it,

To accept it.

Feel your entire body all at once,

From the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

This is the container of you.

Be aware of knowing you're in your body,

Knowing yourself in a certain way.

This act of knowing is very special.

And at the same time,

It can be rather hard to understand.

So don't try to understand it.

Just experience it.

Let go.

This is the way to truly know yourself.

Beyond this,

Nothing is fixed.

There's no you which sits somewhere else in your body or in your consciousness.

All you are is happening right now,

Right here.

And you are at the very center of it.

You are awareness.

You are consciousness.

You are also a body.

And all of these things are inseparable.

But we tell the story to ourselves of who we are,

Where we come from,

What we aspire to,

Our bad habits and our good habits,

Our personality.

But we don't always look too closely at character.

And the character of a meditator is one of dignity.

The dignity of the individual is part of the declaration of the human rights.

It's an invention.

It's a legal device.

It's a way of being.

It's an invention.

It's a legal device.

In fact,

Dignity isn't handed to you or granted to you.

It's up to you to create it.

To create your worth.

And in seeing your worth,

You experience dignity.

This is why I meditate.

Surely this is why you meditate.

So as you breathe and your mind clears and slows down,

The question arises,

What do you do with this life,

With this breath,

With this body,

With your time?

The natural answer that comes to everybody is to give it worth.

This is what we do.

To make something of it.

Something worthy of respect.

And this happens by paying attention to your behaviour and the consequences of your behaviour.

How it comes back to reflect on you.

How it makes you feel about yourself.

The reflection you want is one of dignity.

Where you stand up for honesty and fairness,

You speak up.

You don't hide.

You're forthright.

You're courageous.

You don't flinch.

You take risks knowing that you might be isolated.

You might even be wrong,

But you do it in the conviction that at least you'll learn from it.

You'll grow from it.

And that you're thinking from your heart.

Not just calculations but connections.

To help when you can to be a role model.

Or perhaps simply to be a friend,

A companion,

A listener,

A fellow traveller.

Because life is short and beautiful and bittersweet and there's no time to waste.

And dignity is not a matter of standing alone.

It's a matter of standing with others.

It sometimes feels when we're meditating that we stand alone.

But it's just temporary.

That's just to get your balance.

That's formal meditation.

Real meditation happens when you're with other people.

When you're doing things.

Ultimately your goal is to stand with others.

To establish an axis of dignity.

Remain still as you visualize this.

Keep the breath always in the centre of your attention.

Allowing your mind to be aware of what's going on around and inside you.

And at the same time,

You're also being aware of what's going on within you.

Stay in the centre of your attention.

Allowing your mind to be aware of what's going on around and inside you.

And at the same time listen to my words.

A very simple message about your dignity.

Right now.

Your determination to act in a dignified way.

Your self-image.

Dignity is reflected in your posture.

With this image of yourself,

Your sense of this body and your consciousness,

Visualize yourself standing upright,

Dignified,

Mature,

Courageous,

Risk-taking.

And always,

Every day,

Taking your few minutes to introspect.

To make sure you're in touch with your breath and your body.

And don't forget,

That's the natural home of your mind.

Of your consciousness.

Of your physical presence.

Breathe with this.

Accept the responsibility and the joy.

This is how life becomes meaningful.

Don't wait for somebody to hand you meaning.

Give it worth.

If you don't know how,

Try.

Experiment.

This is how you become healthy.

Worthy.

This is how you contribute.

You give back to the world that you live in.

You make it a better place.

You make life itself worthy of honour and respect.

Each breath can be filled with dignity and worth.

Imagine that now as you count to three and slowly open your eyes.

And remember that what you're worth is not what you own or the skills you have or the friends you know.

What gives you worth is your attitude.

An attitude of dignity.

And that's all for now.

See you next time.

Reviews

Thank you! It's great that you can teach how to do dignity :-)

To repeat and repeat!! Thank you 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Awesome meditation.
Definitely informative and grounding.

This is marvellous - inspiring- thank you.

Lovely. Clear, concise, focused. Thank you.

I've heard this many times, yet recent events made this resonate in a new way and I will return to listen.

This is great. Two thumbs up. 👍👍

Listened 3 times each time I learned a little more. Thank you

Really lovely. Glad I listened to this on MLK Day .
🌀🌿🌀

Awesome thank you ❤️🙏🏼establishing an access to dignity....beautiful 🌟

Incredibly empowering! Dignity… Such a huge concept to incorporate into one's thinking and daily practices. Thank you Bhante Stephen for helping me reach deeper into Who I am and long to be.

Insightful and encouraging, thanks Stephen. Includes some meditation.

I've just listened to all of your meditations and I find them valuable.Thank you.

Not a meditation, but a very worthwhile talk to re-listen to several time. There is a background noise like a dril, ignore it!

This was the BEST meditation I have found on his app! Listen with headphones!

thank you for this meditation this morning

Nice theme delivered in a soothing voice

Simple yet penetrating!

Really great words, thank you🍁

Powerful. Exactly what I needed at this moment. Thank you.