Settle into however you're going to practice today.
Allow the body and breath to slow down.
If the mind is racing,
That's OK.
Just stay committed to the practice.
Bring your attention to each and every moment.
Allowing the body to be your anchor into each moment.
Today,
Let's just be all about questions,
Not answers.
What is this that's showing up?
We just ask this over and over.
We might bring to mind the story of the blind monks who are all touching different parts of an elephant.
They're all describing what they feel.
And they're all describing something rather different.
And if they're convinced that what they're describing is the whole thing,
Then they're partially right.
But they're also mostly missing something.
There's just a lot more to the picture.
So as we sit and investigate whatever is arising,
Just continue investigating.
Keep going.
The most typical direction from a good meditation teacher is just to keep going,
No matter what you find.
Keep going.
In today's practice,
We're specifically interested in investigating feeling tones.
In this context,
These are the very brief reactions that show up immediately after a sensation.
It's just that lightning-fast reaction to whatever shows up.
On the spectrum of liking it,
Disliking it,
Or finding it neither of those at all.
It's the first momentary response that I describe as the wordless reaction.
Like,
Ooh,
Ah,
Eugh.
It was very quick.
Whenever you notice a sensation.
Just see if there's then this.
That kind of resonates across the body.
It's not a story yet.
It's simply the reaction to the sensation.
See if you can catch those moments.
Keep awareness open,
And whatever sensations arise,
We are open to whatever our immediate reactions to those sensations are.
See if you can notice these brief moments of feeling tone.
They can arrive from pretty much anything.
Smell,
Touch,
Taste,
Sight,
Sound,
Thoughts,
You don't need to hunt for it.
They're happening all the time.
So just cast your net and see what you notice.
I invite you to see how subtle you can get.
Much of the time we just notice negative feelings.
We often have a bit of a negativity bias and tend to find a slight amount of discomfort noticeable.
But if there's something slightly pleasant,
We ignore it.
Pleasance might just simply be a full breath in the lungs.
Cool breeze.
Maybe just the basic sounds happening in our environment are actually kind of nice.
If our bias is towards negativity,
We don't even notice them.
So my invitation is to be a bit more sensitive today.
Just noticing our experience.
There's no problems here with the liking or disliking.
It's still useful.
Smelling gross things is still good.
It keeps us healthier.
But just notice how much we might add to that.
As we continue to investigate these feelings.
Just invite you to have a play with wondering,
Where are they?
We're not seeking an answer.
Just see if you can notice where you actually experience them.
Are they always in the same place?
Are they different,
Depending on the feeling?
Just investigate.
And if you choose to do something about it,
That's fine.
Just give yourself an extra moment before leaping into action.
Now that we've been sitting for a while.
Let's check in again with the feeling tones.
When our practice began.
How intense or loud were these towns compared to now?
How much did it seem that they were dire and that we had to do something about it?
And as we've sat for a while now,
Do they still feel that same degree of urgency?
The main thing we notice in formal practice is that they don't last long.
And for the most part,
The way they actually sustain is that we keep telling stories about it.
We add things to it,
Feed it.
And that's how we get stuck.
Again,
There's nothing inherently wrong with any of this.
Our practice here is to see the nature of this.
And see through it.
For the last minute.
To start over.
Imagine and pretend that this is the first minute.
All right.
If this marks the end of your practice for today,
Just slowly begin to transition out of the formal practice.
Keep that net wide open to catch the feelings.
And if you've been rather still,
See if you can notice the subtle feeling tones that show up with just simply moving,
Stretching the body.
Keep in mind that we're practicing for the rest of our lives,
Not just to have interesting experiences while we're on a cushion.
So throughout the day,
See if you can notice those instant reactions.
I think of this as being on a spectrum from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant.
And in particular,
I invite you to become more aware and sensitive to the light,
Pleasant ones.
And we can start to really reframe much of our experience by noticing this.
Yeah,
We don't always have to act.
We don't always have to make feelings into something.
And really the ability to sit with unpleasant feelings might be one of the biggest superpowers that a person can develop.
And we're so conditioned to have some kind of feeling tone,
And if it's pleasant,
We feel like,
Oh,
We gotta do something about it,
Gotta get more of it.
If it's unpleasant,
We rush to change it,
To stop it,
To do something about it.
And also,
Even looking at neutral feelings.
The neutral feelings frequently cause us to want to do something about those too.
To seek out something pleasant or even seek out something unpleasant and just.
To create some sort of feeling of action.
So developing this capacity to sit with any of these feelings,
Just letting them happen,
It's of such benefit.
So let's end the practice today with one final breath together,
Breathing in.
And out.
May this practice be of benefit to you and everyone around you.
Thank you for joining me,
And thank you for your practice.
