Hello and welcome to this guided meditation on dealing with our more negatively perceived emotions,
Feelings,
And thoughts.
My insight for this meditation came from direct experience and was inspired by the story of the Buddha inviting Mara to tea.
It's said that while the Buddha was alive and practicing in his monastery,
He was in his modest home and his attendant,
Ananda,
Who was responsible for remembering all of the Buddha's teachings and getting them written down,
Was outside monitoring the comings and goings because everyone wanted an audience with the Buddha.
Everyone wanted to come to see the Buddha.
Everyone wanted to talk to the Buddha.
Ananda noticed someone approaching from far away and as soon as they realized who it was,
Ananda was thinking of ways that they could make this person go away.
This person was Mara and Mara was there at the time of the Buddha's enlightenment taunting and teasing the Buddha,
Saying that nobody would even care,
No one would witness his enlightenment,
So why is he even doing it and offering him riches and wives and status and tempting him with greed and lust and fear and anger and every time the Buddha just continued to meditate.
And at the time of his enlightenment,
When Mara taunted him that no one would know that he became enlightened,
The Buddha said the earth is my witness and he touched down the earth.
And here was Mara again after many years of being away and Ananda's thinking to himself,
Oh no,
Here comes Mara,
What am I gonna do,
What am I gonna say,
The Buddha,
Oh the Buddha's busy right now,
Can't come to the phone right now,
You can't go in,
You can't see the Buddha,
The Buddha's busy.
But when the Buddha understood that Mara was at the because Ananda hadn't understood the nature of non-duality yet.
But the Buddha invited Mara in and served Mara tea,
Sat with Mara,
Talked with Mara,
Gave space to Mara.
And Mara represents our fear,
Our delusion,
Our anger,
Our greed,
Our lust,
Our judgments,
Any type of negatively perceived emotion or thought that we have.
When Mara was sitting with the Buddha at tea,
The Buddha asked Mara,
How is it going for you?
And Mara said,
I'm tired of being a Mara,
I don't want to be Mara anymore,
Everyone hates me,
No one accepts me,
I'm lonely,
And the people who followed me before now all want to become Buddhas,
I want to be like you,
Everyone loves you and gives flowers to you.
And the Buddha said,
Oh,
Mara,
You don't want to be like the Buddha.
You don't want to be like me,
You have to be Mara.
Because without Mara,
There is no Buddha.
And anyway,
People,
People always make statues of me and throw money at me and offerings.
And they say that I've said things that I haven't said before,
And they do things in my name that I never told them to do.
And when they come to me,
They ask me for riches and status and wives,
And I'm here to teach liberation.
But nobody asks for that,
You don't want to be a Buddha.
So we both have to make the best of our situation.
Because when we make the best of our situation,
We all have the potential to learn and grow.
When we make the best of our negatively perceived emotions and experiences,
When we make the best of our discomfort and our contraction,
Then we have the ability to grow.
We understand that without our suffering,
Then there would be no liberation.
Without these experiences of pain and being able to understand them deeply and look,
Look at them,
And realize that from them can grow flowers,
We wouldn't have our flowers.
And when we sit with this for a while,
And we sit with Mara and we look,
We see that they're the same.
That Buddhahood and Marahood are the same,
There is no difference.
That we can make Buddhahood out of Marahood.
And we can become a Mara if we don't cultivate our Buddha nature.
What does this mean for us?
As people practicing meditation,
Living our lives in the modern world,
It means that we can make good use of our suffering,
Of our pain,
Of our anger,
Of our despair,
Of our discomfort.
Because all of these things,
All of our judgments and perceptions,
All of our sadness,
Our doubt,
All of these very human emotions and experiences are showing us where we have opportunity to grow.
It's showing us where our boundaries were crossed.
It's showing us where we care very deeply.
Showing us something about ourselves,
About our experience that we wish to transform into Buddha nature.
This last week,
I was in an uncomfortable situation and I was having a lot of anger come up.
And I kept remembering this phrase,
Invite Mara to tea.
And I envisioned my anger as Mara.
I envisioned my anger personified coming to my door and I invited my anger in to sit and after a while,
My anger was accompanied by sadness and by fear and doubt.
And my anger told me,
Mara told me what they needed,
What they were here for.
And I was able to give space to that and transform my anger and notice my anger in new ways and notice that I personally wasn't communicating my boundaries clear enough.
And that led to a radical shift in my life and now I'm able to get the space that I need.
But if I had ignored my anger,
If I had stuffed it down or said,
I'm not supposed to have this anger I have to be nice all the time and keep doing this thing and allowing my boundaries to be crossed,
Then I would have built up more resentment and I wouldn't have gotten what I needed.
So now I'm offering this visualization meditation to you as a practice to help you transform your negatively perceived emotions into a flower.
So let's settle in,
Find a comfortable seat or laying down position,
Closing your eyes,
Begin to notice your breathing,
Breathing in together,
And on the out breath,
Releasing and feeling yourself land in your seat,
Being supported by the earth,
By the cushion,
By the floor,
By the bed,
By the couch,
Wherever you are choosing to receive this.
Breathing in and breathing out,
Settling in.
This is such a gift that you're giving yourself.
Imagine that you're sitting at your kitchen table and you hear a knock at the door.
You get up and walk to the door and you see that it's Mara.
You see that it's the suppressed anger,
Resentment,
Fear,
Doubt,
Sadness,
Whatever emotion that you're dealing with has come.
Just notice in your body where you feel any resistance.
Before you open the door,
Let's take a deep breath in,
Noticing the resistance and breathe out,
Releasing.
It's time.
You open the door and maybe like they're an old friend,
Invite them in.
Give them a seat at your kitchen table.
Pull the chair out for them.
Let them sit and then go to your stove and start to prepare some hot water for tea.
Ask Mara what they would like.
When the water boils,
Pour the hot water over the herbs.
Take a big spoonful of honey.
Put it in the cup,
Stir.
Pour another cup for yourself,
Making sure to add honey.
Take your cups to the table.
One for you,
One for Mara.
Just sit there.
With each breath,
You're offering a little more space.
You see Mara relax a little bit every time.
So Mara,
Why have you come?
How did you get here?
Listening with your full attention.
Nodding.
How can I help?
What do you need?
You take Mara's hand and say,
I'm here for you.
I will take care of you.
And you watch Mara soften as your feelings tell you why they are here,
What their purpose is.
You drink your tea.
Mara drinks theirs.
Can you listen to anything else Mara has to say?
Is there anything else?
Mm-hmm.
And now imagine yourself giving to Mara what they need.
This Mara is a part of you.
So feel yourself receiving this compassionate care,
Being heard,
Being accepted,
And being cared for.
And the more you breathe with Mara,
The more you give space to Mara.
The more you care for Mara,
You notice how Mara is becoming lighter,
Lighter in density,
In color.
And we know that Mara can come back at any time.
So you go to the kitchen and you wash the two cups and you put them up in the cupboard,
Ready.
And whenever you need to welcome your guest again,
Imagine yourself sitting back down in your kitchen chair,
Breathing gently.
Now imagine yourself walking out of your front door to take a walk,
Giving yourself space,
The space of the outdoors.
You see light,
Cottonwood fluff,
And dandelion seeds.
And you're reminded of the lightness that Mara has now.
And look how much space.
These seeds are free to fly wherever the wind takes them.
Slowly,
Gently walk yourself back to your body.
Feel where you are connected to the earth.
Bring some gentle movement into your limbs.
Together,
Let's take a deep breath in and breathe out.
One more time,
Breathing in,
And breathing out.
When you're ready,
You can gently,
Slowly open your eyes and bring your awareness back into the space.
I thank you for your practice,
For your dedication to making good use of your time.
Of all of our emotions and experiences,
May we all quickly become enlightened so we can help all beings in all directions.
Thank you.
