Let's begin by bringing attention into the body and into full body breathing.
And feel how,
With every breath,
The entire body is breathing.
See if you can experience the breath from every part of you.
Not only in the nose,
The throat,
The chest and the belly,
But also the shoulders,
The arms,
Fingertips,
Back,
Legs,
Toes.
Inside and outside.
And notice how the breath shows us where we're tense.
Where we're closed off.
And just investigate.
All meditation practice.
Needs to be embodied.
If this is something occurring only in the mind,
We're really missing the point.
Fully present mind and body.
Notice sensations as they arise.
Notice how briefly they actually show up.
Because the moment that they show up,
They've already begun to change.
So if we stay mindful.
.
.
Just see how the sensations are constantly changing.
And now begin paying attention to feeling tones.
And see how those feeling tones relate to the sensations.
Do we find any aspects of our experience pleasant?
Unpleasant.
Neutral,
Just anywhere along the spectrum.
And then see if those feeling tones generate some type of craving.
Watching more.
Watching this.
Just any subtle feeling of wanting.
We're seeing if we can notice how after the initial feeling tone shows up,
There may be a reaching for something.
A leaning.
If we liked the feeling tone,
We may lean towards wanting more.
And if we didn't like it and found it unpleasant,
We're going to try to push it away.
Keep it further.
So this is a bit of a push,
Pull,
Or reaching.
Towards or away from something.
You might think of it as gravity.
Just take whatever term you like,
Whether push,
Pull,
Reach,
Crave,
Gravity.
And just notice that impulse of wanting to do something about feelings.
Now when you notice that impulse,
That little movement,
The energy of wanting to do something,
Can we just hold that in awareness?
Allow it to rise and pass away.
Can we simply experience it without being identified with it?
And simply see that it's happening on its own.
If at any time you're finding that attention is stuck in thought loops,
Always allow that to be a reminder to come back.
Come back into the body and into the moment.
Without judgment,
Without self-hate or blame.
Just thank the mind for doing some thinking.
Come back to open awareness.
Come back to the breath,
The body,
And awareness itself.
We're not really here to get rid of craving.
We're just here to experience it.
The word purify or purification comes up a lot.
And that's really what we're here to do,
Is to purify craving,
Clean it.
Not necessarily remove it,
But rehabilitate it.
There's nothing wrong with having cravings.
There's nothing wrong with you for having cravings.
This isn't about rooting out and necessarily eliminating all craving.
It's just seeking to understand.
And what's really being asked.
What's really going on here?
Sometimes if I find a craving particularly persistent,
A type of investigation just naturally happens.
What feeling is spurring this craving on?
Or what feeling am I seeking?
Because sometimes we might catch only the craving itself.
And sometimes wisdom will show us to just let it dissolve,
And other times it just keeps coming back.
We might find that being curious about it is all that's being asked of us in the moment.
And that's all right too.
Just stay mindful,
Regardless of whatever path you practice might take.
And to notice the impermanence of all this,
If we just leave the craving.
Without telling a story about it.
Without adding anything extra to it.
How long do the cravings actually last?
By just practicing doing nothing about it,
We might see that it just dissipates most of the time.
And over the next minute or two,
Feel free to begin transitioning out of formal practice.
Coming out of practice just as mindfully as we've been in it.
Observing the shifting nature of our perceptions.
Your mindfulness shouldn't really change.
See if we can maintain the same awareness as we come out.
Well,
I hope that today's meditation brought some additional insight into the nature of craving.
And that,
As you go through your day,
See if perhaps you can wind back.
Whenever you notice this kind of activity happening.
Mindful living is just dancing on the edge to me,
Skating right on the razor's edge.
And mindfulness is just remembering to get back on every time we slide off,
Being present in it over and over again without shame or hate.
Without creating more division inside and outside.
And the more we practice this,
The more that we start to understand what's really going on underneath the cravings.
So let's end with one final breath,
Breathing in.
In and out.
Okay,
Well thank you so much for joining me,
And thank you for your practice.
