Balancing Effort With 3 Spectra Of Experience

Sitting comfortably,

Settling into a rooted foundation through the lower body,

In whatever posture you're in.

And a light or buoyant feeling in the upper body,

As much as we can find that.

You might sway a little or allow the spine to be non-rigid,

Receptive to the breath,

Receptive to the unwinding that comes through the body as we settle.

Feeling the sitting tuning into the body and feeling through the body right away the mood or emotional tone,

The energetic tone that's here.

We can think of the tone in the body-mind,

Body-heart-mind,

As coming through as energy,

As feeling or emotion,

As different patterns of thought or mental activity.

These are never separate.

They're different types of energies that come through.

Beginning with body,

Sense the energy that is general alertness,

Kind of our general energy level.

So high energy,

Low energy.

Too much high would be like restlessness,

Too much low,

Dullness,

Slothfulness,

Sleepiness.

Feeling the energy in the body,

Is it easy to stay sitting upright,

Feeling bright,

Or is there a kind of drag down into the slump?

Is there a kind of brightness in our basic presence?

If we find that our energy is high in a good way,

Then we relax into that.

If we find our energy is low,

But in a good way,

Like in the direction of calm or tranquility,

We relax into that.

If we find the energy is too high in a kind of busy or restless or not tranquil way,

Then we might give our attention to calming.

Lengthen the out-breath,

Breathe a little more deeply and emphasize the out-breath.

Lengthen through the front of the body and let the back body settle down and back a little.

Relax through the whole body.

If energy is too high,

We settle it as best we can and then we accept the result,

Whatever we've got for now.

If energy is low,

Particularly if it's dull,

Slothful,

Sticky,

Sleepy,

It's hard to be aware and clear in those states.

And so really lifting up the energy,

Deep breaths in,

Lifting through the sternum,

Firming up the posture or bringing the posture to a kind of brightness,

Especially through the front.

Filling the eyes can help brighten the body.

Sometimes if we just go with sleepiness,

Fogginess,

We drop into it for a few moments and come out the other side a little brighter,

That's also a pathway.

But the general direction is toward brightening.

We begin by sensing the spectrum of energy in the body,

Low to high,

Aiming for balance or a little above balance,

A little bright.

We make our adjustments and then we settle back again just into sensing,

Witnessing,

Feeling the body.

A second spectrum to check in with is the basic spectrum of emotion that we call Vedana or feeling or affect.

This is the spectrum of our experience being generally pleasant,

Generally unpleasant.

This can be just a basic mood check-in.

How are you doing?

Mostly feeling good,

Mostly not feeling good,

Somewhere in the middle.

And again,

With this spectrum,

We lean toward balanced and a little up.

So balanced,

Not miserable,

Not ecstatic,

But balanced and a little on the pleasurable side.

And so if we're really spinning about something where it's pleasurable but there's a lot of grasping or a lot of activity,

We might practice setting it aside for now.

Whatever that is,

I'll come back to you,

I promise.

And settle into just this moment in its more ordinary field.

If things are particularly difficult,

There's a lot of unpleasant.

Sometimes we can also do the maneuver of saying,

Oh,

Dear one,

I will attend to this soon and set it aside a little bit.

As if to say whatever it is,

It won't be solved in this meditation.

The meditation is a medicine for the heart around that difficulty or to carry it through that difficulty.

But we set the difficulty aside if we can.

Often we can't.

And in those cases,

Then we might turn toward orientation,

Bringing our attention into our space,

Connecting with something that is pleasurable.

Or if the discomfort is not too bad,

We just bear it.

This is discomfort.

This is painful.

We stay with the open heart as best we can with the painful.

The first spectrum is bodily energy.

The second is emotional energy,

Pleasant to unpleasant,

Happy to sad.

I like it,

I don't like it.

I'm the neutral zone in the middle.

Sensing the feeling tone that's with you in this moment.

And then the third and last spectrum,

We can think of these as body,

Heart,

And mind.

The third spectrum I like to check in with is the spectrum of focus.

It's really the strength of the mind and the attention in this moment.

When I direct my attention to something,

To a feeling,

To a sensation,

To the posture,

To the breath,

Is the mind malleable?

Will the mind stay?

Will the attention stay with that?

Focus is the primary quality of mind that we really,

I think,

Could hold in our attention almost all the time.

Is the mind gathered or dispersed,

Able to settle or spinning out?

And partly this means is the mind under my control or my influence or out of my control.

To sense this spectrum,

If you're not sure,

Turn your attention to the breath,

Our primary meditation object,

Or to any meditation object that you use,

Sounds,

Body,

Anything else.

I'll speak to the breath,

Feel the breath coming and going.

If you're new to breath practice,

You can pick a spot in the body to feel the breath,

Pick one and stick with it for a while,

Like the nose tip or the throat or the chest or the belly.

Or a little more subtly,

But deliciously,

The sense of the whole body breathing.

Connecting with the breath,

Feel it rising and falling in this place,

At this spot in the body.

And the measure of focus,

The strength of the mind in this moment,

Is how easy it is to rest the attention there without it leaping away,

Flitting away.

Focus increases with interest and energy.

Focus is really dispersed,

Hard to land,

Brightening the energy can help,

But also relaxing the body and calming can help.

Getting interested in what you're paying attention to can help.

Getting in love with the breath will sometimes say,

Really feel the breath of life moving in and out of this body.

Each breath completely new,

Radically new,

Never breathed before,

Really become intimate with the breathing body and the more that intimacy and the sense of the sweetness of intimacy with our own bodies breathing and settling,

The more pleasurable that becomes,

The easier focus becomes.

You find a way to stay with this one experience.

As you have a sense of these three spectra,

Bodily energy,

Emotional tone,

And mental focus,

You get a sense of how to craft meditation.

Meditation as an art,

A little more leaning in here,

A little more softening here,

A little more effort here,

A little less over here.

And somehow we learn that active isn't the opposite of relaxed and passive is not the same as relaxed.

We stay a little active as we deepen into tranquility and settledness.

Resting with this,

Resting with the breath,

Rising and falling,

Inclining toward balanced energy,

Balanced emotion,

And strong concentration.

We come again and again back to the intimate contact with this moment and the object of meditation.

The spectrum of focus,

We don't go for balance,

We go for as much as possible.

This one is an ever-increasing strength.

And focus is strong and the heart and body are at ease enough to be still.

We let body and mind settle very deeply.

Mind stays bright.

We'll practice in this way in silence.

If it gets too busy for you shaping your state,

Drop all of that and just rest.

Bring the attention back to the body and breath when it wanders away.

And that's the same thing,

Really.