Conscious Living Collective - Understanding Meditation

What is your "WHY" behind meditation? In this session we explore the motivation behind and purpose of meditation. Show up as you are, ready to explore, ask questions and connect with like-minded people. Weekly session include Q&A and Guided Meditation.

Transcript

Welcome to another session of Conscious Living Collective, Where we explore practical ideas of conscious living to help us all live a better, More fulfilled life. My name is Tomek. I'm a teacher, A scientist, And most importantly, Like yourself, A seeker. Very interested in exploring those ideas and live indeed more conscious, More fulfilled and more empowered life. So how are you today? Welcome to another session. Hello Cody. Hello Caroline. We have Tomasz. Hello Tomasz. We share the same name. Certainly, With that spelling, It must be a Polish. Tomasz must be from Poland. Welcome Tomasz. Welcome Raman. Hello Sharon. Oh, Hello Vy. And Vy wishes us all Valentine's Day, Which here in Australia has been yesterday. Nevertheless, Hello Katie. Hello Mary. Good to see you all. At least the first few minutes I spent welcoming you and asking you if you are here for the first time. I'm always curious. For those of you who join me as the regular, Welcome. Good to see you all. I can see Caroline. I can see Nina. Beautiful. Sharon says, I am zoomed nicely today. No, Definitely I decided to switch things around and put different modes on inside timer. So please give me your feedback. Let me know if that helps you to enjoy the session. Is it better in portrait or landscape? Please do let me know by all means. Leslie from Ohio. Welcome to this session. Cody asks how is everyone's Valentine's? Like I said, Valentine's Day here was yesterday, But all of you still, Most of you still experiencing it. Hello Sarah from Manhattan, New York. Beautiful. Fantastic. And Diane. Beautiful. Some of the regulars. Thank you, Caroline. I'm glad you enjoyed it. You know me for those of you who do know me, I always try to improve things. This is the trait I have, My perfectionism, Which sometimes is works to my advantage and sometimes is not, But hope. I hope this time it will help you to enjoy this session even more. And the topic for today's session is understanding meditation. It goes without saying that Insight Timer started as a platform for meditators, Which by the way, If you haven't heard, Just reached 20 million people. So over the years, Insight Timer gathered 20 million people from different works of life. This is an astonishing achievement and I want to congratulate Insight Timer on this wonderful occasion. But the idea behind Conscious Living Collective is, As it stands in the title, To come together. I am a facilitator of this conversation, But it is up to you to ask questions and make comments and contribute and together we can create that conscious, More fulfilling life. So right at the beginning of this session, I want to ask you, What, Why do you meditate? What is the why behind your meditation and what is meditation to you? I'd be very curious to know. In the meantime, Hello V, Hello Robert, Hello Holly. Hey, Christine, Christiane from US. Of course I remember you. Welcome to the live session. Raman says, Peace. Beautiful. Diane says, Coming home to myself. I absolutely love the Diane. It certainly resonates that intention behind meditation is very important. Robert says, Increased awareness. Absolutely great intention to meditate. Anybody else? What do you guys think? We have peace, We have coming back to yourself, We have increased awareness. Cody, Because it makes me feel calm and it feels like a big, Warm hug. Certainly. I love that. Holly says, Openness. Nina, Grounding, Centering, Lessens anxiety or pain. It goes without saying that even Inside Timer calls itself the number one app for stress, Anxiety, And the third one is sleep. Because it seems that indeed meditation these days is mostly used to fulfill that very basic needs of coming out of the space where we don't feel great. And as Diane mentioned, Calming back a bit more to yourself. And what does it mean to be yourself? What would you if you think about how would you like to feel on a moment to moment basis? What that feeling would look like, What that feeling would feel like? V says, Finding myself inside and out. Phenomenal. Yes. Meditation does that to us. And interesting enough, As I will try to explore in a second, What we find both inside and out may not necessarily be pleasant. Do you agree with me? That sometimes when you meditate, You find yourself perhaps even more disturbed than before you started meditation. It certainly happened to me many times. Even though my intention was to again find inner peace, Come back to myself, What I found is the opposite qualities. But then over years and years of meditation, I have realized that this is also me. That fear, Anxiety, Disturbance, Stress. These are also qualities that I embody because if I didn't, Most likely I wouldn't feel this way. And I think right here at the start, I think it's important to acknowledge that meditation indeed is a tool of exploration. Of exploration what is, As V nicely noticed, What happens within and without. And sometimes what we find may not be very pleasant, Particularly to our mind that is conditioned in a certain way. And as we mentioned during many, Many, Many previous sessions, Seeks that instant gratification. But nevertheless, It is part of who we are. It is part of human condition. So without putting any grandiose expectations on our meditation practice, I think we can all agree that meditation helps us indeed to explore what is happening in the present moment in a very conscious and aware way. Would you agree with that? Caroline says just continual exploration of my essence. It's amazing what we discover in the quiet times. Indeed Caroline, Thank you so much. I'll be meditating with Caroline both on Insight Timer and part of my Patreon program for quite a few years. And indeed, This is what we all experience, Exploring the essence. However, The essence may be experienced differently, Depends on the person. Thank you, Caroline, For sharing that. Laura says one year since complete physical and mental breakdown, Tried meditation instead of meds and one year later, I'm happy to say I'm back on track and healthy. Thank you so much for sharing this. They say that one meditation a day keeps doctors away. Not sure if that can be applied in every case, But nevertheless, This is a testimony to the power of meditation. Meditation as a tool has a transformative power. And I think that's why we all here, Because we've heard that meditation has that quality of transforming us and hope to achieve something similar to ourselves. Thank you, Caroline, For your kind support and donation. I appreciate, Obviously, Every kind of support that you can offer me. So thank you, Caroline. Yeah, Laura, Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that with us. That's what the Conscious Living Collective is here for. I always encourage you to share who you are, Show up the way you are without keeping anything back. And the more open you are, I think the more beneficial you find it, The more beneficial you will find those sessions. We are here all together. And one thing that I want to highlight is that we all share the same human condition, Which we know for a fact is very often messy and stressful. But at the same time can be beautiful and fulfilling and mesmerizing and have all those qualities and compasses all those qualities of human experience. Sue, Thank you for being here. Welcome. Someone says helps me accept my feelings, Not fight them. This is an incredible actually intention when sitting in a meditation. As I said before, We are a bundle of various states of awareness and consciousness that we experience through meditation. It's a vast spectrum. And it is important to learn, I think, And practice that acceptance, Accept all those states that are unpleasant and undesirable. Allow ourselves to use meditation as a tool to be consciously present to what is happening in those moments. And also those moments when we feel opening and clarity and have those big experiences. Thank you so much. So many comments. Thank you very much, Guys. I really appreciate it. Christiana says I am mindful and meditate in all situations now. Sometimes I find that I decide to just live in the moment. It's the best. You really help me, Tomek. Thank you very much, Christiana. Christiana, It's an old friend of mine. We have a long history and Christiana followed me on this item for a long time and I'm so happy to see you here. And indeed, That transformation of meditation as well for me as for Christiana brings that awareness of every moment to moment. It's not just on the meditation cushion when we sit, But also it creeps in in a positive way to every aspect of our life. And I'm particularly interested in actually seeing those mindful moments when I do not sit in meditation, But I walk down to the beach when I speak to people, Bringing that awareness, Expanding that consciousness. It can be very, Very fulfilling indeed. Laura says unburied emotions and anxiety and being human and taught me to embrace life as it happens. Good and bad. Amazing. Thank you so much. Holly says I also use meditation to generate creative energy. Helps so much with generating flow. Thank you so much, Holly. I think this is it. It goes without saying that meditation as a tool has the potential of bringing us back to ourselves and the true self outside of thoughts, Emotions, Disturbances, Even the sensations of physical body is very creative. I find myself in those moments where many of what I'm this identified with all those emotions, Thoughts, Bodily sensations that my consciousness naturally wants to engage and create and and feel that freedom of expression. And in those moments, I fall for lack of better words, I feel quite alive. It is it is very pleasant experience. However, At the same time, We know that life sometimes brings us lemons. And and even though we try to make a lemonade out of them, This is not always easy. And I want to acknowledge that we are not coming here to conscious living collective to get instantaneous enlightenment and from now on, Expect only good things happen to us. On the contrary, The things that life around us will continue. And we come here to embrace it all in a more positive, Aware and a conscious way to skillfully to learn how to approach it more and more skillfully. I was listening to a very interesting podcast by Dr. Rick Hansen and his son with Jack Confield, The most famous, I guess, Buddhist meditation teacher also here on Insight Timer. And he made a beautiful distinction in meditation that meditation has that two components that come from the Theravada Buddhist, At least in understanding of Theravada Buddhism tradition, That meditation has the careful presence aspect, But also skillful response. So meditation is not necessarily a tool that is passive. It just allows us to receive and stand on the sideline. But actually, Once we developed the conscious presence and that deep, Clear awareness, It allows us to respond to any situation, Any emotion, Any thought, Any bodily sensation, Anything that happens in a very skillful way. I make a note in a preparation for the session that meditation indeed helps us to being aware and through that help us to make better choices for ourselves. It's a very practical tool. Sure, It may begin us for so many with calming us down. Again, What is calming us down or relaxing me? This coming back to our essence as Caroline mentioned, Coming back to ourselves because that's the baseline, Believe it or not, For our existence. At least that's what I'm striving for. To skillfully manage my stress, The importance of emotional intelligence. Psychologists acknowledge that, Scientists acknowledge that. It is important to be trained in the skill of emotional intelligence, To intelligently, Skillfully manage all those strong emotions. And then once you get to that relaxed, Stress-free, Maybe even state, You can see more clearly that essence. It allows, It shines through. I like the metaphor that I think for, To me was introduced by Father Thomas Keating, A propagator of centering prayer, Christian contemplative method, Who said that meditation, It's like looking in the puddle of water, Full of mud. You give patiently look at it as the mud settles down. And all of the sudden, If you're patient enough, You start seeing through the clear water. And you see that the puddle, Which is the metaphor for our life, Is not just the mud, But there's so much more. But it requires patience and it requires sharpening that tool on a daily basis. That's what I try to do. That's what I do, Actually. That's why we're here. That's why we all call ourselves meditators, Because we want to experience this life, See through the mud, Skillfully, And see what's underneath. But at the same time, We do acknowledge the old bits and pieces, The particles that get in the way, That's absolutely fine. That's part of the canvas of our daily experience. So many comments. Thank you so much. Katie, Meditation is just everything now for me, For my healing, As well as my connection with the world. Tomek, You and your family here on Insight Hammer has just meant the world, And my day starts and finishes with this. Thank you so much, Katie. I appreciate, Obviously, You saying that and your presence here. Thank you so much. That's really wonderful. Hello, Marina. Welcome. Holly says meditation helps me to respond to life rather than react. That's very much it. Thank you very much, Holly. By training ourselves in the art of presence, Conscious awareness, We create a space. The classic quote from Viktor Frankl that says between the stimulus and response, There is a gap. And we expand that gap that allows us to make more conscious, Beneficial choices, And to respond rather than react. As Holly mentions, This is truly wonderful. So yeah, Nina says, I've been struggling with vaccine reaction for 10 months, Not getting better yet. Meditation helps me get through tough days, To breathe through tough moments enough to see the light. Thank you so much for sharing that, Nina. And I'm sorry to hear that you struggle with the side effects of vaccination. That's very sad. I'm sorry. So as you can see, This is not just flowers and meadow and achieving some extraordinary states. But through mindful awareness, We develop ability to cope with those tough moments. I think that's perhaps for most of us, Certainly for me, Is the bread and butter of meditation. When I sit to meditation, I certainly don't start with on high. Right? You start, I face the reality, I recognize all the particles that flow in that puddle. And do my best, Learn in the process and do my best to deal with them with acceptance, With self-compassion and see patiently where that's going to get me. And after meditating for, Say, I started in 2008, Whatever, That's 14 plus years, I can say that I'm not the same person as I was back then without simply paying attention to what happens around me and being driven by false belief systems, Simply reacting most of the time rather than responding to life situations. It is something, It is a tool, Meditation, It is a tool that over a longer period of time has a potential of transforming you. David Richardson and Daniel Goleman, Written book Altered Traits, That points out that in a scientific way, Looks at long term meditators, How those states of consciousness that we experience during meditation over a long period of time being transformed into traits. So that natural peace of mind that we very often, So many of us look for in meditation becomes more steady, More constant, Becomes a baseline for our behavior rather than the usual ordinary stress, Anxious, Anxiety, Fear, And so on and so forth. So there is hope for us. But one of the things I make a note of in preparation for the session is that meditation aligns us with who we really are. And as Jack Confield puts this beautifully, Meditation is a practice of remembering who we really are. We are not the stressful, The anxious thoughts, We are not the emotions of fear and shame and not enoughness. We are not those bodily sensations. With that surface, There is more. But the question is, How many of us really want to take time to discover it when we deal on a daily basis with so many things that require our attention? I can only speak for myself, But it takes me a lot of effort to take my mind of the daily activities back to ask myself question, Why am I really here? Why am I doing it? Why that struggle with the daily reality? It is something that more and more of us, And particularly all of you, I believe here, That I gather in front of your phones and screens, Are asking yourself, What this is really all about? This is just about paying bills, Being a good citizen and living a decent life? Or is there something underneath that it is important to discover? I had a very interesting and difficult conversation with a friend of mine who's going through a tough time, That he admitted to me that he experienced depersonalization through going through a meditation, Going to meditation retreat and coming back after it was a long 30-day, I believe, Meditation retreat. He experienced depersonalization. He completely lost the sense of, Through deep meditation practice, The sense of importance of those things that most of us consider very important, The career, Job, Day-to-day experiences. It was very transformative, But very tough experience. And one of the things that came out of the other side was that everything that he so strongly kept through his ego personality, Through the belief system, Through his upbringing, Wasn't really true. It wasn't who he really was. And that process of transformation and coming back to yourself very often, As it happened to be in the case of my friend, Was a very painful and dramatic process. In the Christian tradition, They call it sometimes the dark night of the soul. It's not a sparking, Beautiful day. It's a dark night of the soul. It's a very tough time, At the end of which, However, We emerge back with ourselves, Which I dare say it's worthwhile. Don't you think that it is important to be yourself, Or to feel, Even more importantly, Yourself, And have that sense that I'm not acting because somebody told me to, Or society expects that from me, Or somebody stands above me with a whip and tells me if you don't do it, Then you're going to be punished, Rather than I'm doing something because I'm aligned with the mission, With the values, With the purpose. But before we become aligned with all those things, We need a practice, Meditation, Or any other practice that will help us to discover who we are. Because I believe, And certainly it works, That's the case with me, I very often do not know who I am. I question it all the time. And I think meditation can be a tool of that self-exploration, Can take us through the process of discovering and remembering, Using the words of Jack Confield, Who we really are. I think this is important to every single person, Although once again, Not every single person will want to admit it. There are many people that will continue living unconscious life, Wrapped up in daily tasks, And that's absolutely fine. There's no judgment. That's their choice. Or is it? Is it just autopilot? I don't know. Thank you so much, Dima, For your kind support. I appreciate it very much. I just want to look at your comments, Since this is. . . I don't want to just go on a rant and keep talking to you. I want that interaction. Thank you so much. Sue says, Meditation helps me to get to know myself better and to stay true to myself, Also to trust myself more, To deal with difficult situation instead of actively trying to avoid them, Which causes anxiety for me. That's very true, Dima. This is it. We encourage to face our challenges rather than resist them, Saying what you resist and persist. That's how a mind is designed. If you look at the neurobiology of the mind is we are so much more prone to ponder upon those negative things. And every time we resist, We actually enforce that very behavior or very thought that causes us the suffering. So very thank you, Sue, For sharing that. Okay. So last point I tried to make before we jump into meditation and we try to use the very tool we talk about to get to know ourselves better is that once we start using meditation skillfully and again, Both bring the careful presence, Mindful awareness and meet the skillful response and the meditation practice, The passive and active ingredients, We face our suffering and we discover that actually in the meditation process, And maybe that's why not everybody wants to try it, That eventually we find ourselves as in suffering. We discovered that suffering is a part of the human condition. And the other thing, The suffering comes from the fact that we indeed are alienated from ourselves. That somehow some way, Most of the time that we spend is not being aligned with who really we are. And as in case of my friend, Remembering who you are may be a painful experience and that's why we don't want to do it. But again, I can only assume that at least some of us who are here in this session who are part of the insight time and community and conscious living collective are interested in getting to the bottom of it or at least begin the process because it is something that is ongoing. To really achieve the Buddhist say about liberation, To understand all those emotions and look and experience those emotions and on the canvas of your consciousness without reacting, Without responding and experiencing them enough times to understand they are not our enemies. And that's what end of suffering is. End of suffering is not the absence of pain because pain is the natural, Again, Natural part of our being. You get hurt, You get old, You get sick and you may be in pain. But suffering is different. Suffering indicates to be alienated and not fully understanding or be ignorant of our human nature. And this is something that I think we are experiencing today. We trust technology so much, Technology to save us from ourselves. But maybe it's a trivial thing to say, But nobody can save us from ourselves except of yourself, Except of you. And that will happen in that quiet moment when you sit and you gather enough courage to say, All right, Now I'm embarking upon the journey of finding out what is happening to me. And you will find all those emotions that you've been avoiding all your life. And then with enough persistence, With enough practice, Sharpening more and more using that very tool of meditation, You start seeing through, You know, Patiently that the mud in the puddle settles down, Settles down, Particle after particle just drops, Drops, Drops. And then eventually you see the light, Usually not the entire way, It's glimpses, You know, That's certainly what happens to me. It's not the full on, Full on straight beam into my eyes, Perhaps I couldn't even handle it. But the glimpses slowly, Slowly dribbles and like, Oh, Okay, This is a possibility. So that's nice. Right. And as some of you mentioned, Yeah, You become more at peace with yourself and become more at peace with the human existence and human experience. Yeah. Oh, Thank you so much, Laura and V for kindly supporting me and allowing me to be here on Inside Timer. Your support is very important to me. So thank you so much. Hello, Marine. Good to see you. All right. So that process of coming back to yourself, This is something that I think it goes without saying it is very important to every and each person. But I understand the same time, It's not easy to go through it yourself. And that's why we have Conscious Living Collective gathering every week and pondering upon those topics. That's why I offer mentoring one on one sessions where you can come and say, Listen, It's tough. And I say, Awesome. Let's sit together. Tell me what's on your mind. Maybe together, Hand in hand, We can explore what's stopping you from being truly yourself. That's what this mentoring program I offer in Inside Timer is. That's what all my meditations I offer are for. But you are not alone in this process. I want you to know. And there are many different ways of approaching the topic. And meditation, Daily meditation practice is just one of the tools. But it doesn't cover all the resources available to you. So yeah, Mentoring, Meditations, Workshops. Okay. So how about we meditate now and see how we go. Just a couple of minutes of that centering meditation where I want to invite you to consider meditation as a tool in which there are two branches or two arms. There's a careful presence where we focus on our breath and come back to our breath. But there's also the skillful response. Every time you find yourself wandering, Every time you encounter a tough emotion, A disturbing thought, You acknowledge it and skillfully learn how to deal with it and come back to your breath and say, I'm not that emotion. I'm not that thought. You're not something I can tell you, Something that only you can experience on your own with your own thoughts, With your own emotions, With your own bodily sensations. Wonderful. Okay. So let's jump into meditation and let's see how all those comments and how collectively we can face this challenge of human existence in meditation practice. Yes. So we always begin by sitting and shifting into a position that embodies the intention of your intention behind this meditation. What would you like to do right here right now? What is your purpose? And acknowledge that we are here altogether, That you are indeed not alone and supported by me and by, From what I see, 70 of us from around the world. I hope that's encouraging. I hope that helps you personally, Individually to have a good experience. And if it's tough, Well, There's a 70 of us here who go through a similar struggle. So yeah, Let's do it. So shift again, Position that embodies that, What you want to do. For instance, Me, I always sit upright. So I stay alert so I can practice mindful awareness. So I do not fall asleep during this meditation. So I can connect with my breath. And because right now I don't need that external stimuli, I allow my eyes to close. So me putting my feet on the floor and feeling my hands in my lap helps to center me and give me that physical comfort to begin with. And then I tune into my body and I start feeling what is happening there. Oh, There it is. Presenting something, Talking to 70 of you from around the world. So there is a bit of tension. But now I know this is a good tension. I'm trying, I'm doing my best to present, To be with you. And that naturally brings a bit of tension, But I like it. It's okay. I allow it. I do not resist it. Now I feel all the sensations in my body. I connect with them. I acknowledge that as a matter of fact, I feel very lucky to be with all of you, To meditate with you, To be in your presence, Supported. And that gives me comfort. And now I connect with my breath and begin to feel how my stomach moves forward and backward as I breathe in and breathe out. I start connecting with the sensations of the in-breath and out-breath. And very soon, My thoughts start wondering, I'm asking myself a question. Is that working for you? Asking myself a question, Am I doing it right? But I know those questions come from the part of my worried mind that is always there and that's okay. After all these years, It is fairly easy for me to say, Ah, There you go. These are those thoughts I've heard literally thousands upon thousands of times. So I'm not surprised anymore because they are there. It's part of my human experience. And now I can come back to the in-breath and out-breath. Coming back to myself one breath at a time, Knowing that my breath is as real as it gets. It's always here. Being aware of my breath brings me always to the present moment because I cannot breathe in the future nor in the past. As long as I'm aware of my breath, Sensations of my breath, I know I'm right here right now with you. And this is indeed an encouraging thought, So I choose to continue doing that. And of course, Soon enough, My mind wanders again. And that's okay. I come back again. That is like your own breath, Whenever you come back again. And I encourage you to take this practice one breath at a time. Even if you got lost in your thoughts, You only need to come back to one breath at a time. Start being aware of a single breath. That's what it takes. And because breath, Each breath is an integral part of you, You know for a fact that being aware of that breathing brings you back to yourself. Helps you to discover one of the layers of your human experience. Wonderful. So now, Couple of breaths later, You are still yourself, You are still here in the presence of all of us from around the world. And give yourself a pat on the shoulder. That you did well. You embrace your personal individual experience and you're still here, You survived. And you can repeat that at any given moment, At any situation. So to conclude, Let us all take one deep cleansing breath in through your nose. And out through your mouth. And when you're ready, Open your eyes. Welcome back. Okay, Fantastic. Thank you so much for all your support. Sue, I know that you say that your donation did not appear on the screen. That happens very often, But I usually receive your support at the end of the session, So that's okay. Thank you. And thank you to all of you for meditating with me. It is always a wonderful experience after a session like that, A session of sharing. Thank you so much for all your comments and questions that without which this session would not be possible. I do not want to just talk to camera knowing that my words hit a void. I want you to know, I want to understand that and know that you receive it and respond and we can co-create a space together. Thank you so much. Thank you, Cristiana. Thank you, Caroline. Thank you, Nina, Raman, Laurie. Dan says, I quote unquote, Feels much lighter when it connects to part of we. Thank you, Katie. Thank you, Diane. Thank you, Robert. And so many for those of you who joined us later, Just to let you know that I published those sessions on my YouTube channel, But also I published them here on Insight Time and Audio Version. So you will be able in a couple of weeks to relisten to those sessions or on YouTube they show up on my YouTube channel, They show up much quicker. And if you missed some of the part of the session, Feel free to use that recording to help you out and make comments there or come to our circle, Tomek's circle, As simple as that and connect with all of us there. That'd be wonderful. Thank you much, Katie. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Kathleen. That's so very generous of you. Yeah. So we will meet again next week. I rotate the time of the session between the, I call it the US and the Europe. So all of you have a chance to participate and be part of the Conscious Living Collective. I hope you enjoyed it. And you're always welcome to send me a message on Insight Timer. You are always welcome to follow me on Insight Timer in order to receive notifications about upcoming events. But right now, For those of you who are here, I want to tell you next event, Next week, It's going to be a couple of hours later, Which is going to be 6, 7 p. M. Here in Sydney, Which is, I think for some of you, In Europe that's morning, But in the US that's, Well, Depends on the time zone. It might be middle of the night or it might be very, Very late. I don't know. I don't know. Thank you so much for your presence, For being here. Thank you so much for your support. And as always, I look forward to connecting with you again next week. Take care of yourself. Have a wonderful week and a pleasant day. Until next time.

Reviews

Loved the session, will definitely be joining you all again.