Yoga Nidra, Metta & Jhana Meditations

So what we're going to do today is our Jhana practice,

Which is that serene content-making practice that I'll talk more about when we get to it.

But we'll start with a body scan and some breathing and some meta-goodwill.

So yeah,

Let's start with our body scan and really make yourself comfortable.

And put your attention on the top of your head.

And see if there's any tension there that would like to relax.

Move your attention to your forehead and your eyebrows.

And there too,

See if you're holding any muscular tension and just allow it to go.

Notice the muscles all around your eyes and let them release as well.

The muscles on the sides of your face.

And now the muscles all around your mouth.

Let that release.

See what happens to your expression and see what it does to your emotions.

And feel where your jaw hinges.

And just look at the relationship between your jaw and your chin and your neck.

And allow it to be as comfortable as it possibly can right now.

Let your shoulders and your wing bones really relax.

And let your arms and your hands drape.

Send ease into the joints in your shoulders and your elbows,

Your wrists,

Your shoulders,

And your shoulders.

Send ease into the joints in your shoulders and your elbows,

Your wrists.

So feel that gentle draping,

That flowing down,

And ease in all those joints.

And let that ease flow right down into your hands and your fingers and let your shoulders and your fingers feel the flow.

And let it flow.

Your fingers so that you feel real relaxation in your hands.

Just on your seat,

Let the back of your seat hold you and the seat of the chair.

And allow yourself this ease and relaxation.

Let your spine stack up and then let all the muscles in your back relax and let the architecture of your body relax.

Present ease to your hip joints and your knees and your ankles.

Rest your feet on the earth and really let it support you.

Feel here too,

Feel ease in your feet.

And notice how you feel and notice any relaxation that's come over since we started.

And really rest in that.

And now let's move on,

Keeping that ease that we've gathered.

Let's move on to our meta or goodwill practice.

So that we'll continue to lift and stabilize our hearts.

See an image of yourself in your mind's eye.

And send yourself the goodwill wishes.

May you be safe from inner and outer harm.

May you be happy and content.

And may your heart be at ease with the truth of your life.

May you be safe,

Safe,

Content.

Hearts ease.

Any good feelings that come up,

Put those in the foreground.

Just let yourself rest in that.

And check the state of your breath and your body.

And make it as comfortable as possible.

And this comfort will help you to continue sending out kind,

Generous wishes.

So really allow yourself any ease that you can arrange.

And now let the dear one or benefactor come to your mind's eye.

And again,

We'll send out the wishes.

And they just,

The wishes just get sent out.

You don't have to cause it to happen.

It's just the kind wish.

So for this dear one or benefactor,

May there be some way for you to be safe from inner and outer harm.

May you be happy and content.

And may there be some way for your heart to be at ease.

Safe.

Content heart's ease.

And renew the image of your dear one.

And again,

Send the wishes.

May there be a way for you to be safe.

Content.

And heart's ease.

And feel the results of sending these good wishes.

And let yourself just rest in that.

Content heart's ease.

And now a little bit of breath practice.

And there are several that you can do and choose what's comfortable for you.

Whether it's just a plain relaxed breath or whether it's alternate nostril breathing.

And it's your choice.

And play with the length of the in-breaths and the out-breaths.

And see what feels most enlivening and most relaxing.

And again,

It's your choice.

And you get to experiment and see what feels good.

Nest.

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Take a couple of natural,

Relaxed breaths and just take in what the effect has been so far.

And let yourself enjoy that.

Notice any changes and put any positive changes in the foreground.

And now gathering that positive feeling that's building will continue with the breathing again of your choice.

It's been a while.

And now again,

Some natural relaxed breaths just to take in and gather the effects of what we've been doing so far.

And now we move on to genre practice,

The serene and content-making practice.

And the way we get there to this state of contentment is not by saying,

Now I will be content,

Which will just lead to feeling discouraged,

But instead following the instructions step by step and finding the enjoyable aspects of each step as we go along.

So it's like if we were trying to get from here to New York City,

We couldn't see it at the outset.

And what we would do instead is we would go down the street,

Make a left,

Get onto the first highway,

Merge onto the second,

Again,

Step by step,

And then we would see it.

So it's the same here.

And here are the instructions.

You just put your attention on the gentle sensation of the breath at the spot just below your nose,

Just above the center of your upper lip.

It's called the anapanasati spot,

The knowing in and out breathing spot.

So a natural gentle breath,

And just feel that.

And keep being aware that you are breathing.

Good.

And every time your mind wanders,

The instruction for that is that's well known to happen.

And it's a chance to put forth goodwill towards yourself and choose to bring your attention back to your breath.

So again,

Treat your mind wandering as an opportunity for goodwill.

And remember,

Your brain is the language of passion.

And keep making the choice just now to seclude your heart and mind from all your worries and cravings by putting your attention on knowing that you're breathing.

And that's all you have to do.

Just keep choosing to move your attention with patience and goodwill back to the spot you're focusing on.

And that's all you have to do.

And now gathering this seclusion from our worries,

Take in how you feel.

See how you feel now as compared to how you felt when we started today.

And again,

Let any good feelings of heart and mind come to the foreground.

And consider the following,

The traditional dedication of merit,

Which is to consider how it would feel to let today's good feelings go with you and remain in the foreground and be the basis for your action towards yourself and others.

Let's see how that feels.

And listen to the sound of the bell open your eyes when you're ready.

And listen to the sound of the bell open your eyes when you're ready.

And let me say a little bit about how this Jhana practice works.

So the practice was developed because the Buddha understood that our minds wander and as they wander,

Or the cause of the wandering,

Is that we feel need,

We feel fear,

Anxiety,

Fatigue,

Restlessness.

That's just like universal and human.

But it's not necessary.

So it does happen to everybody,

But it can change.

And so the notion with Jhana practice is to find an object to put your attention on that's more neutral.

And it may be the breath or it may be some spot in your body that has a neutral or positive feeling that has none of these qualities of need and fear,

Anxiety,

Fatigue,

And restlessness.

And that by repeatedly choosing to put our attention there,

We're repeatedly moving away from these uncomfortable feelings.

And that what happens over time is that a state of contentment develops,

That over time becomes stronger and stronger,

More serene,

More content,

More stable.

So again,

Ask me questions if you have them.

I could feel that I came in here today with a lot of things on my mind.

It's tax time and let's do that.

And it tends to bombard you.

And now I feel like,

Oh,

It's prioritized.

Oh,

Good.

I'm so glad.

There's no immediacy or anything else.

To be able to put that aside and not have it at you is really great.

And that's what it did today.

That's nice.

Oh,

Good.

Good.

So now,

Did you have more tisos in the middle?

No,

I also came in feeling very stressed.

So this has really helped.

So then along those lines,

The question is how,

You know,

And that the last traditional practice called dedicating merit,

Where you kind of dedicate or gather the merit or the good feeling that's arisen and you consider taking it with you.

And the question is how to use that in a way where you're getting,

Not only getting everything done,

But getting everything done in a way that's more pleasant.

Yeah.

So I don't know if you have any questions about if you want a home practice during the week or how to do that so that it's.

.

.

That would be really good.

Again,

Yeah.

So that,

Excuse me,

So that you have this little bit of refuge in the midst of everything that we want to get done.

Everything that's swirling around.

Yeah.

Everything that's swirling around.

Everything that swirls.

To feel like you have control of that swirling,

Right,

Would be a good thing.

It doesn't change what has to be done.

It just changes how you view it.

Yeah.

Actually,

So that's a really useful comment about a relationship to the swirling.

And I think that this is,

You know,

We do this heart's ease practice of wishing ourself heart's ease.

And I think that as one experiences the swirling and the out of control and the discomfort,

That if you can take a second to remember,

Oh yeah,

Discomfort,

There's an antidote,

Let me for just a second wish myself heart's ease.

Yeah?

Yeah.

You don't have to spend a long time.

And then as you practice it again and again,

You'll remember more and more quickly when you experience it.

And then you can use the not so pleasant daily tasks as an opportunity to send yourself kindness.

It kind of shifts your relationship to these necessary tasks.

Yeah?

It makes it like waking up Monday morning more inviting.

Right.

Right.

Yeah?

So try,

Yeah,

Just like a minute of wishing yourself heart's ease when you notice that things are not to your liking.

Yeah.

Good.

Other questions?

Good.

Thank you.

Thank you.