When we develop the capacity to say yes,
No matter what our experience,
We discover the openness and freedom of awareness.
Saying yes is not agreeing to unhealthy behavior or an affirmation of a belief.
Rather,
It's an honest and courageous willingness to be fully present with life as it is.
The following guided meditation can shine a light on your habitual way of resisting or controlling experience,
And help you to develop the capacity for unconditional presence,
For saying yes to this living world.
Take some moments to settle into a position,
A sitting position that's comfortable,
That allows you to be relaxed,
And also alert.
You might let the eyes gently close and take a few full breaths,
Letting the breath help to bring you fully right here.
Scanning your life,
Sense if there's any situation that's asking for your attention,
A situation that's difficult,
That might be evoking a reaction of anger or fear,
Of grief,
Of sorrow.
Let whatever situation might be here come into the foreground of your awareness and sense what's really challenging about it.
Take some moments to let yourself go to the most difficult part of the situation.
It might be a relationship with someone that's evoking a sense of irritation or hurt or insecurity.
It might be the loss of a loved one,
Power struggle with your child.
Maybe it's a illness that you're struggling with or hurtful behavior that you now regret.
Take some time to get in touch with the feelings that surround the situation.
You might sense what is it that provokes the strongest feelings,
What really feels wrong,
What you're afraid of.
You might sense what you're believing,
What bad might happen,
What this means about you or your future.
So that as you sense into the situation,
Really sense the feelings in your body that come up.
Be aware of sensations in the stomach,
The chest,
The throat.
In order to see firsthand what happens when you resist experience,
When you try to avoid feeling what's difficult,
You might experiment by saying no to what you're experiencing right here.
Sensing the pain of the situation,
Sensing what you don't like,
Mentally direct a stream of the word no to the feelings.
No to the unpleasantness of fear or anger,
Shame or grief.
Let the word carry the energy of no,
Rejecting,
Pushing away what you're experiencing.
No communicates this is bad,
This is wrong,
I don't want this,
I don't like this.
What's it like to communicate no to an experience in your life?
What does this resistance feel like in your body?
Do you feel tightness,
Pressure?
What happens to the painful feelings,
The anger or the fear,
The grief or the fear of when you say no?
What happens to your heart?
You might imagine what it would be like in the days and weeks to come if whenever this situation arises you said no.
You move through the world with the thoughts and feelings of no.
What's your sense of yourself?
Do you like yourself when you're saying no?
And take a few moments to breathe,
Perhaps shift your posture a bit,
Maybe open your eyes.
Now as you settle,
Recall to mind the same painful situation,
Even allowing yourself to go to the most difficult part of it,
Sensing what you're afraid of,
What feels wrong.
This time,
Let yourself be the Buddha under the Bodhi tree.
Or perhaps a Bodhisattva of compassion,
An awakened being.
And sense what happens when you say yes to exactly what's arising inside you.
Direct a stream of the word yes at your experience.
Let the feelings float,
Be held in an environment of yes.
Or if not the word yes,
Let the spirit of yes,
The softness,
The allowing,
Be felt.
You might imagine bowing to whatever is arising,
To the sadness or the fear,
Or perhaps communicating it's okay,
It's okay,
Or this too,
This too can be included in my heart.
Whatever's arising,
Explore what happens if you meet it with the gentleness and the openness of yes.
Even if there's waves of resistance in your body,
Even if there's a sense of no,
Explore what happens when you include that with yes.
Include that in the larger field of yes.
Yes to the fear.
Yes to the hurt.
Yes to the grief.
Perhaps you're feeling numb or restless right now.
Yes to that.
What's it like to say yes?
Is there softening and opening in your body?
Is there more space and openness in your mind?
What happens to the unpleasantness as you say yes?
Does it get more intense?
Does it become more diffuse?
What happens to your heart as you say yes?
Imagine in the days and weeks to come,
Whenever this situation arises,
If you could pause,
Feel what's happening in the moment,
And directly meet that experience with yes.
Right in this moment,
As you agree or aloud whatever is here,
Say yes to this moment.
What is your experience of who you are?
Continue in silence,
Releasing thoughts,
And resting in an awake,
Open awareness.
Let your intention be to say yes to whatever experience arises.
When acceptance is felt fully in the heart,
It becomes surrender,
Surrender into the truth of what we are.
Notice what happens as your heart opens fully to the changing expressions of this sacred life.
