Facing The Pandemic With The Support Of The Dharma 1/26

You see,

That's something that I really like and cherish with meditation.

It's the ability to go from highly evolved technological talk from the Noah directly to just nothing,

Back to the breath,

Drop the story,

Be there and then back.

And I think that's something that the people who practice meditation since a long time learned,

Is the ability to disengage from whatever is going on on the outer,

From whatever is going on in the mind,

In the Emotion level.

And just get in touch with a place of ourself where it's not moving,

Where nothing is moving.

So,

That's part of the exploration and that's kind of endless,

The exploration of the,

This still space that is within us.

So,

That's already something that I would like to,

To engage all of us for this seminar,

Is just to give ourself the possibility and to remember to,

In the middle of our days,

From time to time just stop.

Just stop one minute,

Two minutes,

Three minutes or even a few breaths and take this radical shift of intention.

Yeah,

It's just a,

It's a very interesting thing I find is just we change the intention.

Our intention is to cook and put this salt and this and that and suddenly everything,

So it's cooking and then the mind say,

What could I do now,

I should put the plates and also maybe at this moment we can say,

Oh,

I take three breaths.

And then the intention changes and the whole experience of the moment changes.

So,

It's kind of a,

It's kind of at the same time fun and helpful.

So,

In this session I will,

I will start with speaking a little bit about the,

How this seminar will be articulated over six weeks,

Six weeks and the program and a little bit maybe the content and then after I will introduce the first topic of this week.

So,

On,

On Thursday,

Which is today,

On Thursdays,

It will be,

Every Thursdays will be always a more or less the same Inshallah,

But sometimes it changes,

But it should be more or less the same,

Which is that we,

We will start with a,

Like we did just now,

Just coming back to silence so that everybody arrives together.

And then after there will be a time for,

An introduction on the topic of the week,

Every week,

There will be a different topic and the topic will always be of course around meditation,

But different aspects of meditation that I find very helpful to explore and that every topic is endless to explore.

So,

So some of you and so like myself still exploring the same topics since 20 years,

For instance.

So coming back on these two peaks,

But also with the perspective of why is this interesting and important to practice in this context of this crazy situation that we're in with this time in the society and the coronavirus.

Yeah.

So it's not like it's going to be all on the coronavirus and COVID and this like this,

But just to make the link with this confinement period and this period of insecurity and this,

You know,

Just seeing what the Dharma can,

What place can the Dharma take in this time,

In this period that we're in.

Why is meditation?

I think meditation is a very useful and major tool to go through this period and maybe the next one that is coming.

I think learning to come to peace of mind for instance is very important.

Also knowing what is important for us,

Like our directions will be major.

Yeah.

And developing the ability to,

To feel and the empathy will be very important so that we find what we want,

How we want to stand in this time.

So exploring maybe sometime timeless teachings,

But in this context that we're going through.

So the talk that will be on Thursdays will be introducing what I want to pick like this.

And then after there will be a guided meditation that we'll do together.

And all of this will be recorded.

And after the session the next day,

Then Tom offered to record,

Work a little bit on the sound and then send it to you all the next day.

So like this,

You will be able to listen again to the talk if you want to,

And to practice the guided meditation if you want to.

The idea is to really go into meditation for the six weeks.

You have to make it priority in our life.

That's the main,

Main idea.

So that maybe re-dissining the talk,

If it was speaking to you can be helpful to give,

Mainly the talk is to give willingness to,

To have wind on our sails.

Like the talk is made to,

To blow wind on the sails,

We say in French,

You know,

You understand this image.

It's like something that pushes like,

To again feel enthusiasm for the practice and then going for it,

Going for seeing up to where we can go with meditation.

So you will receive the recordings of this as a way to support.

And then on Mondays,

We'll have just one hour and not one hour and a half as you noticed.

And on this one hour,

It will be a time for feedback of on how it's going,

Your meditations.

There will be also an intention in the week.

Yeah.

There will be a focus of the week.

Let's say,

In respect to the theme,

I will introduce later.

Well,

The one from this week I can say is,

I will invite you to come back many times to the breath during the week and see how it feels when we come back to the breath.

So as I was mentioning before,

Just stopping in the day,

Anchoring on the breath for three breaths,

Let's say,

And then feel what change does that do?

What does it make?

Yeah.

So that will be the topic of the weekend.

The next week will be another topic.

Some things to try out,

Let's say,

Not in formal meditation,

But on our context.

Yeah.

So this seminar is really built so that it's not only two hours and a half,

But it's engaging us during our days.

Yeah.

We will hopefully,

If it works,

Then you will think about it many times.

Yeah.

And then you'll say,

Oh yes.

Okay.

Oh,

I come back to my breath a little bit.

Yeah.

And then you will also come back to it,

Not because you have to do it or not because it's good to do it,

But just with an intention of discovering and experimenting,

Experimenting.

What does it do to come back to the breath?

It's not that it's good.

Let's not say that it's good or bad.

Let's say we don't know.

What does it do?

And trying to notice how we feel when we come back to the breath,

Not just coming back to the breath and noticing.

Yeah.

So that's,

That would be a very much more understanding in our experience will come.

And on Thursday,

There will be a feedback from you.

Those who want to say,

Oh,

I've tried.

I was in this situation.

And then I remembered my breath.

I came back to here and it did that.

I noticed that.

And then the group has a,

We are together as a intelligent being searching together.

There's a group dynamic and group intelligence hearing what the other one is saying,

Maybe informs us on something we had not noticed,

But happening for us,

For instance,

Or open new ways of exploring.

So that will like a big part of the seminar is on,

It's not on learning techniques or things like this.

It's on trying out stuff.

Yeah.

And be creative around meditation and how we can take more space and place into our lives.

And the second part on Thursday after the,

Your feedback,

There will be feedback and time for questions also.

Maybe I said something and you're there.

What does that mean?

How is that possible?

Or maybe there will be times where there is contradiction.

I said this and then the minute after I said you pose it many times this happens.

Yeah.

That's very important to understand how these things go together.

If not,

How,

How can we proceed if there are contradiction like this and we leave it like this,

We don't dare to ask the question or to confront and saying,

Oh,

You said this and now you say that.

And then this,

This we're stuck with that.

So,

It will be on Thursday that there will be time for exploring also contradictions and trying to understand them.

Very important.

And then after there will be another guided meditation.

So the guided meditations are always at the end of the session.

And there's a reason for that because what I will suggest is that we don't stop to meditate when the meeting end.

What I suggest is that I will start guiding.

We'll all sit there fully peacefully.

And then I will guide.

Yeah.

Give some ways of experimenting with meditation,

Ways of looking.

And I will say at the end of the meditation that now it's the end of the session or I'm ending my guidance,

But don't stop unless you have something to do.

More important than staying there doing nothing.

Yeah.

If not,

If you don't have something really important to do,

Nobody waiting for you,

Maybe you can stay there.

No need to move.

You see,

And you can keep practicing.

If you,

Let's say you're an interesting space.

It would be very sad to ring the ball and,

And for everybody.

We're not in a formal retreat style where we need to move together from here to there.

We're in our homes.

Some of you will have enough time after the,

Our meetings.

So I want to offer the space so that you can keep going with meditation.

So the meditation will never end with a ball.

Yeah.

And then after the screens will just turn off one after the other when,

When some leaves and then there's,

Yeah,

I will also close the screen and then it,

You don't hear people going away.

So if you keep your eyes closed,

You don't know it doesn't change anything for you.

Okay.

So today,

Is there anybody who would like to have a,

At the end of the session,

It is possible also,

I will explain how it is possible that for some of you,

Who wants,

I can give some basic instructions on the sitting posture,

Which is you can sit or lie down.

You can practice or stand or walk.

You can practice which style of meditation you want,

But sitting is often main.

So,

And some,

If you struggle with your posture or if you don't know how to sit,

Then I can explore that with you after this meeting.

If anybody wants that,

Then raise your hand.

Okay.

Rita,

Tom.

Okay.

Alice.

Okay.

Enough people.

So what we'll do,

You'll see,

And that's where it becomes magic and highly technological.

We'll be meditating together and I will guide and then I will create another room that's zoo is it's crazy stuff.

I will create another room and I will invite you.

So I should write the names of who wants to.

Yeah.

And then it means we'll be kind of extracted from the people who are so deeply into meditation for many hours more.

And we will be in a room where we can show that they want here without doing anything.

Yeah.

Tom.

I have Tom,

Rita,

Alice,

Marcus,

Tom,

Rita,

Alice,

Marcus,

Anybody else move,

Move fast so that it,

No.

Okay.

Okay.

So I will do that.

Okay.

So I want to say first is very strange.

This computer stuff,

But it's nice.

I see you.

Yeah.

I,

I know all of you.

It feels nice to see you and thank you for joining.

And,

And I,

I feel some sense of contact.

Yeah.

I,

There are some of you that I don't see,

I don't see Volti,

Ivan,

Sean and Debbie,

But still I feel,

I feel the group.

And also I want to say if sometime,

Hello,

Volti.

Yes.

Welcome.

So when,

When you want to take you out of the image because you feel some pressure knowing that you're seen just close your camera for some time,

But sometime please come back because I feel alone.

If there are too many,

If there are too many people out,

Then I feel more alone.

So feel free to come and go with your camera.

Yeah.

And that's no,

Absolutely no problem.

Okay.

So are there any,

Any questions about the format?

Yeah.

I want to say for recordings,

You will receive only sound recording,

Not the images.

Yeah.

So it will be just an MP3.

Okay.

Are there some things maybe,

You were saying that the retours and the questions will be on Thursday.

Do you not mean Monday?

I do mean Monday.

I'm always doing that.

Yeah.

Debbie,

You there?

Yes.

I,

I,

I meant Monday.

So the one hour session,

The second one of the week.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you,

Debbie.

Any other big mistakes like this you could spot or questions?

Yes.

At what time it begins association on Monday?

It's always a lot of time.

Time is very difficult because we've been with time.

Yeah.

Europe time.

Sorry.

Europe time.

At what time?

Nine.

Nine.

Same.

It's always the same.

It's the same.

Thank you.

The same and different.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

Pleasure.