Arrange yourself in a very comfortable position.
So you're striking the balance between a place where you'll be pretty much at ease in your body,
Happy to be in your body,
But still very sharp,
Awake,
And clear.
Eyes can be opened or closed.
When I'm sitting by myself,
I will alternate between having my eyes open and closed.
But usually on camera,
I close them because it just kind of feels weird not to.
But you can do as you wish.
The upside of keeping your eyes open is you're less likely to get sleepy or tired.
But also,
We go through most of our day while we're awake with the eyes open.
So we're training the mind not to have to shut out the world in order to be connected to our practice and to the part of ourselves that's able to stay centered and balanced as we see the world around us.
But you can experiment with this.
Let's take a couple of deeper breaths.
And when we do this regularly,
This kind of conscious couple of deeper breaths,
We create a habit pattern of both changing gears in the nervous system and also kind of heralds like that process.
It's like a ritual that reminds us,
Oh,
Where am I at?
Where's my heart?
Where's my attention?
Where are my emotions?
What's my mood?
And it gets us interested in a very useful way about what's going on with us.
And then let's tap into our curiosity and simply ask ourselves,
What is the mind knowing,
Seeing,
Hearing,
Smelling,
Touching,
Tasting,
Thinking about?
And this is like one of these games where we learn a lot.
We can think of it as a game.
But it's a really amazing game to be able to simply acknowledge whatever phenomena the mind is encountering,
One of these things that are coming through the five sense doorways or cognition,
Our emotions,
Thoughts,
Memories,
Plans,
And practicing not getting stuck to them like they're sticky.
What we see is sticky.
It catches us.
What we think is sticky,
We get stuck to it.
And here we're practicing being like Teflon.
It just kind of bounces off us.
And sometimes it does,
And sometimes it doesn't.
But we want to acquire the skill to be able to hold on and to be able to let go as we choose.
And it's the wise part of the mind that knows the value of this.
And so we also get friendly with ourselves.
We're becoming a really great friend to ourselves.
We're saying,
Hey,
You can choose.
You can decide when you want to be more involved in something and when something is feeling like it's too much,
How to put it down and take a step back,
How to have some healthy distance,
When it's time to re-engage,
How to engage more playfully,
More heartfully,
More functionally.
And the skill set of watching and letting go is a key part of that skill set.
So we'll sit quietly for a few minutes,
Get curious.
What is the mind knowing?
Whatever you notice,
Can you notice and let it go?
Remember that this is your special time.
Your reformal practice is your special time where you give yourself permission to not get entangled in what the mind is presenting to you.
While we're awake through the course of our day,
There's very often the sense of obligation that every thought that comes up has to be sorted and dealt with and organized.
And we are doing that to a certain degree,
But this is a very special way of doing it.
We're kind of deliberately and,
Again,
In a wise way,
Deciding not to get too caught up into it.
And it's not aversion,
Right?
We know what's going on.
Aversion is more of a knee-jerk reactivity where we just kind of,
Before we even know what's going on,
We just kind of push it away.
Here we want to say yes in a very real way to whatever it is that presents itself,
And then very deliberately decide not to get entangled.
What is the mind knowing?
Can you acknowledge it and just let it be?
It's almost like you're shopping,
Right?
And you're walking through the aisles of items,
And you're seeing tons of stuff,
But you know there's only a couple of things that you really need.
Everything else,
Just kind of you register,
And you're like,
No,
Don't need that,
Don't need that,
Don't need that.
And sometimes we window shop,
Right?
We go into a store.
We have no intention of buying anything.
We're just browsing.
And that's what we're doing here.
We're just browsing,
No intention to pick anything up or to take anything with us,
Just simply checking things out in a very,
If possible,
Very relaxed way.
If we do get caught up into a reactive kind of pattern with something that we encounter,
Can we not get reactive to being reactive,
To perpetuate and deepen the process?
That's a big one,
To not get reactive about being reactive.
And when we get skillful,
We might say,
Oh,
The mind is knowing being caught up in reactivity.
Look at that.
OK,
So today I want to talk a little bit about an item off the Dharma list.
And they're called the itipada,
And it's the four bases of power or success.
So a big part,
And even some schools of the Buddhism and the Dharma,
They say that true contentment comes less and less from what we get than from what we let go of.
Letting go seems to be a great source of well-being.
And we can explore that.
But the reality is that in life,
It's just like breathing,
Right?
Half of breathing is taking in,
And half is letting go.
And they are completely inseparable,
Right?
And that's part of life.
We have to eat.
We consume.
Our body absorbs the nutrients,
And then there's waste.
So this being alive,
This being embodied,
That's just part and parcel of the process.
We take in,
And we let go.
And just how do we do that skillfully?
How do we do that wisely?
And so very often,
Like in the mindfulness practice,
Where we're doing the samatha part of the practice,
We're practicing letting go of the entanglement that usually comes with observed phenomena.
That's a skill set that's really useful and important.
But then this is about things that we do to engage skillfully and wisely.
So the first base of success or power in our practice is desire.
And it's also funny,
Because they say that the three main things that screw us up,
That get us into trouble,
Are greed,
Hatred,
And delusion.
But there's a difference.
There's desire.
There's the desire to do good things.
There's a desire to live in a healthy way,
To help others.
So obviously,
All desire is not bad.
There are certainly desires that spiral out of control and become unwholesome.
And those are a problem,
Or those are maybe something to be paying more attention to.
But we want to nourish the healthy desires.
And so to address that and say,
Well,
What am I craving here?
And is what I'm craving feeling wholesome and useful towards dismantling the habit patterns that tend to generate suffering for myself and others?
Or are they not?
And we want to,
As dharma practitioners,
And as yogis,
And as seekers,
Be more and more honest with ourselves.
And I think that very often in pursuing our desires in an unwholesome way,
We play games with ourselves and with others.
And we're like,
OK,
Well,
I don't really care.
All I know is I want what I want.
And we can ask ourselves,
Well,
Am I doing that?
How's that worked out for me so far?
What does it feel like to go down that path of reasoning,
And actioning,
And speaking?
And how does it feel to behave in a more wholesome way?
And we want to use our mindful awareness,
This calm,
Quiet awareness,
To feel the body,
To feel the emotions,
To notice the thoughts that arise around our behavior patterns.
So we can start to identify,
Like,
Oh,
This feels really good.
This feels like it's opening the heart,
And relaxing the body,
And puts me into the flow of the universe in a healthy way.
And then conversely,
When it's not,
We really want to be aware of that,
And be like,
I feel like I'm getting into a tight,
Dark,
Aggressive state,
Or whatever it is that feels unhealthy for you.
And to be acutely aware of that,
And to feel that deeply,
And those emotions that arise around that,
And the thoughts arise around that.
And then when we get sick and tired of engaging in habit patterns that feel destructive and unhealthy,
We'll decide to change them.
So unless and until we really acknowledge them,
We won't probably be motivated to do anything about them.
So we have to have that desire,
The desire to be in touch with the reality,
Whatever that means for us,
And then to act upon it when the time comes in a wise way.
So desire is the first base of power or success.
Persistence,
Right?
So I bet everybody here is good at something.
And whatever you're good at,
I'm sure you worked your butt off to get that way,
Right?
You put in the hours,
The sweat equity.
You worked,
And slaved,
And suffered,
And sacrificed to be good at what you do.
And this is the same thing,
Right?
Without the time,
And attention,
And care,
And sometimes suffering that comes along with getting good at doing anything,
We have to be persistent,
Right?
We have to be regular with our practice.
We have to be vigilant about watching the mind,
Watching our habit patterns,
Watching our physical reactions to what we're thinking,
Feeling,
Saying,
And doing.
And if we drop the ball,
We lose momentum.
And sometimes we drop the ball for a few seconds,
And sometimes we drop the ball for a few years,
Right?
And I went through a cycle in my practice where I practiced a lot,
And then I dropped the ball for years.
And then I came back out of that loop of years.
I was like,
Oh my god,
I just wasted a couple of years here.
I don't know if it was a waste.
I guess that was a necessary part of my process.
But vigilance and persistence is a key ingredient if we're eager,
If we're hungry for not perpetuating unnecessary suffering,
Then it's wise to figure out,
Well,
How do I stick with this?
How do I stay persistent and connected to the inquiries,
And the journeys,
And the actions that help me to stay focused here?
So persistence.
Intention,
Mind,
Or thoughtfulness,
Right?
So very much like persistence,
Like what is our intention here?
What are we actually doing?
Why are we here?
What motivates us?
What drives us to do our practice,
To kind of be treading this path,
To be studying,
And seeking,
And doing all these things?
So to really be curious about that,
And to be thoughtful about all these things,
To practice radical honesty with ourselves,
Right?
And that's a process that we can do alone,
Or we can sit with ourselves,
Get to the quiet place with ourselves,
And just sometimes there are very hard truths.
So as long as we're not freaking ourselves out,
And to the point where we don't want to practice anymore,
So maybe there's a lot of stuff to unpack,
And we have to do it incrementally.
But with persistence,
And desire,
And the healthy forms,
We can kind of keep excavating.
Sometimes we need to talk to somebody,
A wise friend,
Therapist,
Doctor,
Right?
We're very lucky in this day and age to have so many great places to turn if we decide we want to go into understanding our impulses,
Our inclinations,
The way that we function.
And so it's not a failing as a meditator to sometimes reach out for help if we feel like we're stuck,
Or we don't really understand how to move forward beyond a certain hurdle or impediment that we're working with,
Or struggling with.
And again,
It's not a failing to ask for help when we need it.
It's a very,
Very wise and very,
Very healthy thing to do.
So being really interested in what our intention is,
Where the mind is,
And being thoughtful about these parts of the process.
And then having a curious investigative mindset.
So there are really great brain scans that are kind of showing stuff that is really supportive of what the Buddha said,
And what the Dharma practitioners have been saying for thousands of years.
Now we have some really nice science to back it up.
And it turns out that the brain centers that seem to link up to generate curiosity and an investigative mindset short circuit the parts of the brain that are very much stress and anxiety producing.
So that's really wild.
Let's say we're having a panic attack or we're feeling really anxious.
If you get curious about that,
If you get curious enough,
The curiosity will short circuit the anxiety.
It will kind of strip away the energy from the anxiety and the panic.
And it will put it into the curiosity.
So it's literally like,
Oh,
I'm having a panic attack.
That's interesting.
What does that feel like?
Oh,
My heart's racing.
My respiration rate is way up.
Having intrusive thoughts,
They're really freaking me out.
Interesting,
Right?
And you can't fake it.
But the more that we practice,
Like a muscle as well,
Our investigative and curious mind,
That's a linking of brain centers.
And the more we access them,
The stronger those links get.
Those neural pathways get stronger.
And we can go to them more easily and more directly.
And that's an amazing and important thing to be able to do so that when we're in a toxic state,
If we're caught up into a state of unhealthy reactivity,
We can know,
Oh,
Let me investigate here.
Let me be honest with myself and just simply say,
Well,
What's going on?
And it doesn't have to be this heavy moral judgment of like,
Oh,
I just misbehaved,
So I'm a bad person.
I said something or did something that doesn't feel wholesome.
I'm hopeless or anything like that.
It's the opposite.
It's like,
Oh,
Let me feel this thing deeply.
Literally,
How does it feel on the body?
My belly,
My heart,
My throat,
My legs,
My genitals,
Whatever,
It's like,
Where do I feel it?
How does it feel?
And then experience it emotionally.
How does it feel?
And it goes both ways.
If something feels beautiful and wonderful and lovely,
To make sure that we don't miss the opportunity to experience that and to enjoy it thoroughly.
And then even to get curious.
And only because it makes up a bulk of our existence.
Like,
Challenging times certainly happen.
Beautiful,
Amazing times certainly happen.
But a vast majority of our time,
It's not so epic on the up or down side.
And if we're not fully present for those moments,
That's a huge part of our lives that we've missed out on.
So we can't fake this either.
But to kind of really start to get curious about and to maybe start to plant some seeds about the miraculousness of every moment,
The fact that you can take a breath,
The fact that you're conscious,
The fact that you're even alive,
It's a statistical impossibility.
The number of things that had to happen for you to become a human being,
It's like a trillion to one,
Literally.
And then to take a breath and to wake up in the morning and to have self-regulating systems,
Like a heartbeat and a pulse.
And just to be alive,
It's like the numbers of things that have to happen are impossible.
And yet,
Through the course of our day,
We're bored.
We're caught up into minutiae,
Like someone cuts us off in traffic and we're ready to have a rage.
We forget about the miraculous nature of just simply being incarnate,
Being able to see,
Of seeing a tree blowing in the wind.
These are almost like hippie cliches.
But the reality is that it's nearly impossible that any of this stuff is happening and that we can perceive it.
And yet,
We get so caught up into our stories and dramas that we forget the miraculous nature of the normal day to day boring stuff.
So if we can kind of,
Like an artist or a poet that's reveling in every moment,
Like the little things in life,
The way that life flickers off a leaf,
Or the sound of the wind blowing,
Like this is it,
Man.
This is like our ability.
This is our chance to really bask in those kind of little things.
And those little things,
They're not little.
Those are huge.
Ask somebody on their deathbed how little it is to take a breath,
To be able to smile,
And to walk,
And to move around.
And we'll get some probably pretty useful feedback.
So we'll sit again.
We'll do a short loving kindness practice and a short gratitude practice.
There's a question,
What part of the brain is curious?
There's a great book by Lisa Barrett.
It's called How Emotions Are Made.
And for a long time,
They thought that this brain center controls this.
And that brain center controls that.
And she's on the cutting edge of the neurobiology and neurochemistry of how the brain works and how emotions are made.
And it seems like all the science is now pointing towards it's a completely fluidic dynamic inside the brain.
Like your brain centers are different than my brain centers.
You experience joy differently than I do.
The brain centers that fire and trigger to create those experiences are different for each individual.
So there's no hard.
I mean,
There seem to be categories and categorizations and groupings.
But it's a lot more fluidic than they ever thought.
So in the Dharma,
We have a saying,
Because of causes and conditions.
Like why do we feel the way that we feel?
Causes and conditions.
Why are things the way that they are?
Causes and conditions.
Like on a certain level,
It doesn't matter.
All that matters is that we're aware of what's going on and that we have a mindset of like,
OK,
This is what's happening.
How am I going to behave and respond in a way that's good for me,
Good for other,
And good for both?
So it's like very ethically driven,
Very interested and curious.
We can be curious about where curiosity is coming from,
Super,
But not to get too caught up,
Because at the end of the day,
It's about,
Well,
How's the heart?
How's our mood?
How are we relating to ourselves and others?
So on that note,
With the metta practice,
And we'll just do all of us together,
Ourselves and every other being,
Living being on the planet,
And maybe everywhere else,
As we will do the practice today as we.
So try to let these recitations resonate with you.
Feel them as deeply and thoroughly as you can.
May we be safe,
Free from inner and outer harm and danger.
May we be happy,
Free from mental and emotional suffering.
May we be healthy and have a good relationship to the body.
May we be content and survive in the world without too many difficulties.
May we know compassion,
Empathetic joy,
Meaning may we be genuinely happy for others that are happy without resentment or envy or jealousy.
And may we know equanimity and stay balanced in the midst of life's ups and downs.
So a few minutes considering what we are grateful for.
So along with these things of the dharma lists of the basis of power,
Desire,
Persistence,
Intention,
Investigation,
Kind of the positive things about the practice,
Gratitude is way up there.
So getting curious,
Being honest with yourself,
What are you grateful for?
And then we can always get curious also about whether or not the things that we're grateful for feel wholesome,
Right?
Because obviously there's a lot of stuff going on in the world where people are having some kind of sadistic pleasure in things or some kind of unwholesome desires for things.
And again,
Without the heavy moral labeling or judgment,
Just for ourselves,
Just getting curious about is what I'm grateful for,
Is it a wholesome thing for me?
Meaning is it healing?
Is it kind of cutting down on suffering for me and others or not?
And this is perhaps a bit of a burden that we place upon ourselves as dharma practitioners,
Getting interested in this kind of thing.
But that's what we do,
Right?
We want to see if we can be as wholesome as we can be and just keep on clarifying for ourselves what does that mean.
So what are you grateful for?
What can you feel appreciation for?
And again,
If you can go from an idea to a felt experience to a lived experience,
That's what we're looking for with all these practices,
Right?
It's just not ideas.
These are hopefully powerful currents that run through our lives.
So just a couple of final notes for today's session.
A lot of us are coming to our practice as compromised beings,
Right?
We've had intense experience in our lives,
Challenging things have happened,
And deeply ingrained habit patterns,
Neural patterns,
Physiological,
Physical patterns.
And to be really compassionate and patient with ourselves as we exercise persistence.
And so not to give up,
But then also to understand that things may not change right away.
We say with the dharma,
It's good in the beginning,
It's good in the middle,
And it's good at the end.
So hopefully,
Every time we sit,
There are moments where we feel like we're suffering less.
We're feeling better,
We're more capable of experience joy and lightness of heart and glad to be here type of feelings.
Some days are better than others,
For sure.
And when the going gets tough,
To again,
Try not to give up.
To try to remember that this is a process,
And that everything is a process.
And that as long as we're alive,
As long as we're breathing and conscious,
That there's good work that can be done in continuing,
Extricating ourselves from the muck and the mire of the stuff that holds us back.
The stuff that holds us down and makes us feel not so great.
And there's a certain degree of faith that I think that we have in our teachers and the teachings around people that we find inspirational.
But hopefully,
There's also the faith that you're generating within yourself and for yourself that there are moments in every sit,
Or there's moments,
Hopefully,
Often enough,
Associated with your practice and your journey that you do feel a little less burdened.
And that's why it's really important not to cling to those in a desperate and unhealthy way,
But to make sure that you note them and acknowledge them because they become inspiration.
And they'll be there for you when you remember,
Like,
Why am I doing this?
Or I feel so horrible right now,
There's no hope.
And then you'll remember like,
Oh,
But you know,
There were those moments,
You know,
Where I felt pretty good,
You know,
And I felt unburdened,
I felt lighter.
So maybe there's just something in the way now.
Maybe there's just,
You know,
A mindset or an attitude or some kind of,
You know,
Something going on that's interfering with my ability to be in this more healthy feeling place.
But I know that it's been there before.
So perhaps,
And almost definitely,
I can get there again.
So this isn't blind faith.
This is experientially based faith.
And that's the most potent faith because you've had the experience.
So if even in any moment right through your practice is a glimmer of lightning,
A glimmer of less burdensomeness,
Note it.
And that's gold,
Right?
That's gold in your psycho-emotional bank account.
So make sure that you remember that that's there.
And in theory,
That's limitless,
Right?
The amount of positiveness we can have in that bank account.
Apparently,
It's already loaded,
Right?
And all we have to do is remember that we have the key and to figure out how to unlock the doors that are in the way of it.
So,
You know,
That's more speculative,
Perhaps,
At some points.
But that's some really interesting teachers have that perspective on it.
All right,
Friends,
Thank you so much for joining.
The Dharma Lists,
You can find it posted,
Just a link if you can copy and paste,
Morphisyoga.
Com.
That's my website.
There's a Dharma Mindfulness section under that.
There's the Dharma Lists.
You know,
I read off them today.
They're really great.
Get familiar with them.
Think about them.
Remember,
Try to be persistent with your practice,
Both formal and informal.
Informal is any time,
Anywhere,
From the moment you wake up to the time you go to sleep.
Check in.
What is the mind knowing?
Can I have a relaxed and non-grasping relationship to what the mind is knowing?
Metta practice,
Where's the heart?
Can I care about myself and others?
And gratitude practice.
What am I grateful for?
Anywhere,
Any time,
Right?
These are habit patterns,
Right?
So we get into the habit of,
Instead of criticizing ourselves and others,
Of finding faults,
Saying,
Well,
What's wrong with this?
And what's wrong with that?
And why is this this way and that way?
That's a habit pattern.
We can notice that that's happening,
And then we can make a decision.
You know,
We can guard against those types of thoughts and be like,
Eh,
You know,
That's enough of that for today.
Let me think of what I'm grateful for.
Let me think about how I can care for myself in a really wholesome way.
What do I need to do to take care of myself?
What can I,
Can I have a relationship to these thoughts and emotions where they're not enslaving me?
I can acknowledge that they're here,
And that acknowledgement becomes a foundation for acting in a more useful way.
So these are all options that we have.
And again,
As long as we're alive,
Conscious,
And breathing,
We always have options,
Right?
The door is never closed to changing our relationship to whatever is going on.
Okay,
Friends,
Thank you so much for joining.
These are donation-based classes.
Any and all donations are greatly appreciated.
And hope the rest of your day is filled with peace and well-being.
Take care.
