Morning,
I'm Helen Pengelly,
Spiritual Coach and Mentor and Founder of Heal with Helen.
What is the Right Attitude meditation series this week.
And in this week's meditation,
We are working towards accepting and watching both good and bad experiences.
It says you have to accept and watch both good and bad experiences.
You only want good experiences.
You don't want even the tiniest unpleasant experience.
Is this reasonable?
Is this the way of the Dharma?
So as humans,
We want to be happy,
Nothing wrong with that.
So that we kind of think that means we have to avoid anything that is unpleasant that we don't like,
That we don't want.
True happiness comes from within,
It's not affected by what's going on around us,
Because life is never going to be perfect.
There are always going to be things happen that happen that make us sad,
And upset us makes angry.
And when things that we want to be different.
But we through our meditation practice,
We're learning to accept all of them.
And the more we can just that doesn't mean,
You know,
Passively accepting and thinking,
Oh,
We can do nothing about it,
Because sometimes we can.
But what it means is,
Is that we see things for what they are.
And we don't let that shake us.
And then we if we've got a clearer mind,
And we might have,
You know,
Difficult,
Challenging things that we need to deal with,
Then it becomes easier to deal and go through those times when,
When things aren't going the way we want.
And conversely,
It also means that we don't just try and make everything good all the time.
And,
And strive,
You know,
To sort of ignore things aren't going well,
Or just say,
Oh,
We only want things to be good.
Because that's,
That's human,
Isn't it?
And that's what the Buddha saw that,
That human life is suffering.
And we create our suffering by the way we respond to situations.
And usually that's wanting things to be other than the way they are,
Or clinging on to things,
When they're going well,
And not wanting to change because nothing's ever completely good.
Nothing's ever completely bad.
And if we can hold all of that,
In our experience,
We look,
We can look back over a day and think,
Oh,
That was a terrible day,
This went wrong,
That went wrong.
But then when we take a step back,
We can look,
Okay,
Well,
There was some good parts too,
And vice versa.
And so we're going to do that in this,
In this week's meditation,
We're going to be observing,
Watching with our mind,
And seeing where it's going.
And if it's avoiding feelings of unhappiness,
Sadness,
And,
And just try to cling on to the good feelings,
The nice feelings.
And then we're moving away from that and seeing if you could just hold all of it,
You know,
Not clinging on to the good,
Not pushing away the bad,
But having all of it,
And holding it all become,
Becoming a bigger container.
So we can be hold all of our experience with equanimity.
So we get into a comfortable posture,
Back straight,
If you're in a chair,
Legs uncrossed,
Feet on the floor.
Just pause the video if you need to go and turn off notifications or put your phone on silent just to make sure that you're not going to be disturbed in the next sort of 15-20 minutes or so,
You can sit for longer,
If you wish.
And then when you're ready,
A couple of deep breaths to centre around yourself.
And if you find it helpful,
Close your eyes.
Just coming into contact with your body and the breath,
Checking in with yourself.
How do you feel emotionally,
Physically?
Thoughts are present.
Just acknowledging whatever's there,
Without trying to cling on to anything that's good,
Or push away anything that's bad.
Just observe the mind,
What are its tendencies?
Is it trying to avoid anything?
It's a tiny,
Even a tiny,
Tiny bit unpleasant.
Not the way that it wants it to be.
Trying to push it away or change it,
Seeing if you can let that go.
Just be with things as they are.
Sometimes we can build up things in our mind.
And then when you let go,
You see,
Actually,
It's not that bad.
It's not that unpleasant.
After all,
In our meditation practice,
We're trying to see things with a clear mind.
See the true nature of reality,
Without being clouded by our own judgments of how things should be.
And if you find the mind is racing,
You can always come to the feet,
Just re-grounding yourself,
Feeling that connection with the earth,
Feeling your weight going down through the sitting bones.
Through the chair,
Or whatever's supporting you,
Connecting with the body.
And you can also use the sensations in your body as your object of your meditation.
And notice if there are,
If where the mind is being drawn to,
Is it being drawn to pleasant sensations?
Is it wanting things to be different,
If something's a bit uncomfortable?
Is it trying to avoid the unpleasant bits?
Is it making judgments?
Remember,
You're getting to know your mind,
Its habitual patterns,
And then having a choice about how you're going to respond.
So in our meditation,
We're just observing,
We're just witnessing,
Without needing to do anything about thoughts or judgments that come up in the mind.
You can just let them go.
Just becoming aware of what takes you away from the present moment,
What's keeping you stuck.
What's the mind doing now?
Does it only want pleasant experiences?
Is it trying to avoid anything that's uncomfortable or unpleasant?
It's observing,
Being the witness to your mind's wanderings,
Becoming the master of your mind,
Instead of letting your mind be the master of you.
Are you able to sit with your whole experience,
Not grasping onto anything,
And not pushing anything away?
Remember,
You can come back to the breath,
The body,
The connection with the earth,
Just to ground and centre yourself.
Just observing the mind,
Letting the thoughts come and go,
And noticing if you do get caught up in your thoughts,
Was it because you were seeking the pleasant experiences,
Or trying to avoid or change the unpleasant ones?
Acknowledge that moment of awareness,
And let those judgments go.
Just noticing what's present for you right now.
Are you only wanting good experiences?
Are you able to let that go and accept the unpleasant ones as well,
Without letting it affect you,
Shake you?
There's no right or wrong,
Just observing things as they are,
How the mind responds,
Moment to moment.
What's the mind doing now?
Do you only want good experiences?
Don't you even want the tiniest unpleasant experience?
Observing,
Noticing.
Are you trying to avoid even the smallest thing?
Make sure you feel a bit uncomfortable.
Now,
As we come towards the end of the meditation,
Just take stock of what you noticed.
You might want to,
After the meditation is finished,
Grab a notebook and just write down anything that you observed,
Anything that came up,
Things that you wanted to observe,
That you wanted to avoid.
The mind's tendencies to cling on to good experiences,
Avoid unpleasant ones.
Remembering that this is a practice that we take forward into the rest of our day and the rest of our week,
And noticing if we can change that,
Be present with the whole of our experience.
Without wanting things to be different,
Letting go of that which we have no control over.
Thank you for meditating with me.
