Pleasant And Unpleasant Sensations In The Body

So this morning I'd like to continue and unfold the meditations and suggestions for the retreat.

Just to say that every day we'll be kind of adding another possibility for the practice and really important to remember that you should go at your own pace.

So it's not like,

Oh they're kind of offering something else,

Now I should be doing this.

But rather listen to the suggestions,

Listen to the offering in as receptive and open a way as you can,

Then see how that meets your experience and see what's useful.

So really go at your own pace.

Over this retreat we'll be offering quite a range of suggestions and quite a trajectory that could be our practice for our whole life.

So it may be that something that we offer now will be useful somewhere later on for you and that's kind of part of why we're offering it.

But there's no expectation from our side for you to kind of go at this pace that we're suggesting.

It's a very individual thing and it's really important to,

I think one of the most important things that we're doing through practice is we're learning to listen to ourselves,

We're learning to listen to our experience and to then respond to our experience in a way that's skillful.

If that's all you remember from what I'm saying this morning,

That would be really useful and we will remind you,

We will remind you of this over the days.

So it's always helpful when we practice or actually in our lives,

It's always helpful to take time to check in with ourselves.

How am I doing right now,

What is present?

What is the body experience?

What is the mind state?

What's happening in the mind?

What are the energy levels?

These are things that we can get into a habit of doing at the beginning of each meditation session and then hopefully they will become kind of something that's natural to us and we check in in different situations of our lives and that can really inform how we respond to life,

What choices we make in the practice and then generally.

So for example,

If we're feeling right now kind of heavy,

There might be a heaviness in the body or heaviness in the mind,

Then we can acknowledge that and then see what happens if I breathe in a way that enlivens.

For example,

One way would be breathing from the ground up,

Enlivening the body or if we're feeling there's too much energy in the system,

There's restlessness,

What would happen if I breathe from the top and down and emphasize the rooting,

The grounding.

So we can attend to experience in that way but we have to check in and know what's going on.

Sometimes this can be very,

Not our preference,

I think for most of us we really want to actually coast through life.

We want someone to tell us do this,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four and then we just do that all the time.

We don't have to think about it.

We don't have to engage with it.

So again,

This is something we can acknowledge that at least some of us we have that preference and we have that habit.

We can acknowledge,

We can have humour around it and hopefully some kind of love and kindness around it.

Again,

It's the human mind and say okay but that's not the way things are.

So how can I attend skilfully and hopefully enjoyably?

So just a kind of a little recap of what we were doing yesterday.

And for most of us it would probably be helpful to continue with these practices that we were doing yesterday as the kind of primary practice that we're doing and then from that we'll be going into variations that we'll suggest over the days.

And equally if you have a different practice that feels like an anchoring,

Grounding,

Collecting practice that's useful for you,

You can use that.

So I know some people here are using Metta already as a primary practice.

That's really encouraged to do or it may be something else not from this tradition that you know and you're using.

But just a reminder,

So yesterday we were exploring the breath in two ways.

One was breathing with a kind of emphasizing a longer,

More comfortable breath.

Yeah,

That was kind of what Nathan was bringing in in the morning.

Breathing in a way where we're inviting the breath to be longer,

More comfortable,

Inhabiting the whole body if possible.

Yeah,

So that was kind of one way of using,

Utilizing the breath that we were exploring in the morning.

And then in the afternoon we're exploring,

Experiencing or meeting the breath as an energy and feeling it coming in and out of the body in different areas.

Yeah,

So it may be that one of these was more accessible for you,

More approachable for you and that's fine.

Just use that as the primary thing that you can do.

Maybe that neither of those was and there was something else that we mentioned or that you know that was useful.

That's also fine,

Equally fine to use.

With both these approaches to the breath,

The emphasis or what we're prioritizing is can we breathe in a way that feels the most helpful,

Yeah,

And the most pleasant,

Yeah,

Or the most comfortable,

The most kind of,

Yeah,

Pleasant can be a tricky word for some of us but in a way that increases wellbeing maybe is a way that might be easier to accept.

Does that make sense to people so far as an overview?

Yeah,

Okay.

So one thing you may have noticed as you've been doing the practices up to now is that as we're breathing in a way that prioritizes you know helpfulness or a sense of wellbeing,

We're releasing tension both in the body and in the mind.

There's a release of tension both in the body and the mind and when I say mind,

I'm using it in the word in Pali is citta.

It means heart and mind.

So I'm using it,

I'm always meaning both heart and mind,

Yeah,

We're releasing tension both emotionally,

Mentally,

Yeah,

And physically in all of these ways.

So as we breathe in a certain way that has an effect on the body,

That has an effect on the heart and mind,

Yeah,

That's something we're interested to see.

So again,

We're not kind of going to get too intense in looking for that effect,

But we just keep reminding you of that and we can keep saying,

Yeah,

What happens in the body?

What happens in the mind when I even just have the intention to breathe in a way that brings more wellbeing?

Yeah,

We can play with that.

And Nathan mentioned this,

I think in his first talk,

The way the relationships that we can start to see between the breath,

The body,

The mind and the heart.

So very simple example,

When we think about when the body is experiencing,

When we're surprised by something,

Yeah,

And there's this,

The body does this and the breath also does something,

Yeah,

They all come together,

Right?

They all come together.

When we're tired,

Yeah,

Body feels tired,

The breath changes,

Right?

The breath becomes,

If you think of what the breath is like before you fall asleep,

Actually becomes quite shallow,

Yeah?

So breath also,

And the mind also becomes something else.

So they all arise together and they're responsive to each other,

Yeah,

They respond to each other.

Or if we've just walked up a hill and the body's exerted itself,

The breath will be a certain way,

Right?

The breath will respond to the body,

Yeah.

And also the body then responds to the shape of the breath.

Yeah,

So if we breathe more deeply,

If we breathe more deeply,

Then the body will come down,

The mind will calm down.

So all the body,

The heart-mind and the breath all affect each other,

Yeah,

They're all interrelated.

And this may seem very obvious when I say it,

But it's not the way we usually relate to it,

Yeah?

We relate to them as separate entities,

Separate events.

But when we see that connection,

Yeah,

That opens up a doorway for us,

Yeah?

Because we can start,

Or we already actually have been doing this,

We can use that,

Yeah?

We can use that.

So we can say experience is fabricated,

Yeah?

Not fabricated as in imagined,

Yeah,

Not real,

But fabricated as in coming together,

Made up of different elements,

Yeah?

So when we realize that,

We can start playing with some of these elements.

We've already been playing with the breath as an element that we can use.

We've already been talking about using the body posture,

Right?

So if we're feeling tired,

Yeah,

We emphasize the alertness,

The uprightness and the opening in the chest,

Yeah?

So we're using the body posture to affect also the mind state and the body itself,

The sense of sleepiness.

Does this make sense to people?

Yeah.

So yeah,

This is really,

It's a really,

These two things,

The fabrication and the interconnected kind of nature of experience are kind of the deepest aspects of the teachings that the Buddha offered to us.

This is a very immediate way that we can start to see it,

Yeah?

That we are affected,

So the body is affected by the mind,

The mind is affected by the body,

Yeah,

Same relationship with the breath.

And then of course,

We're also affected by the weather.

I said the other day,

How much air there is in the room.

I forgot to ask,

Do people need windows open?

Would that be helpful?

Yeah.

Does anyone feel like,

Yeah,

It has on it?

Yeah.

Yeah,

So you'd think as a meditation teacher,

I would know that already.

And it'd be the first thing I'd ask when I come in.

But isn't that amazing,

You know?

Like that really simple thing of,

Ah,

There's less air,

That affects the mind,

It affects the body.

Another really interesting thing and I encourage you to experience,

I can feel it on myself now,

In this kind of weather and coming into meditation,

We tend to wrap up really well,

We want to be cosy and warm.

That also affects the mind and affects the body.

So sometimes in meditation,

It can be really helpful to take off a layer.

Yeah,

We can become aware of that.

What happens if I take off a layer and do a zip?

Yeah.

With care,

You know,

If you're like me,

You've got a cough,

Then you also need to stay wrapped up.

But a combination,

Being aware,

Okay,

This is affecting.

So the temperature,

The amount of air,

The weather,

The environment,

All of that is affecting us,

All of that is impacting us.

We are dependently arising beings.

Yeah,

Which is amazing.

It's amazing to open up to that.

Also a little bit scary.

There's a lot less certainty in that,

There's a lot less control.

But yet this is how we are.

We can't change that.

So why not face it and take the opportunities that it allows,

That it affords to us.

So the body,

The mind,

The heart,

The breath,

All connected.

When there's more space in one,

There's more space in the others.

When there's more contraction and tension,

That affects the whole package.

And when there's less,

There's tension in the body and the mind,

And then we can breathe in a way that releases tension,

Then that affects the degree of tension in the body and the mind also.

So they're all coming together.

So as much as possible this morning,

I'm hoping to remind us of this,

This interconnected,

This mutually dependent,

Dependent arising nature of experience and how we can play with it in our actual practice,

How we can bring that into practice with the emphasis on playfulness.

So it doesn't need to be heavy and serious.

Again,

The interconnected nature,

Our tendency when we're learning a new skill or we're developing a skill is to take it seriously.

To make this very much about how good or not good I am.

Can you go up just a decibel?

Yes,

Of course.

Only one,

Just a little bit.

Could you repeat that?

That's very important.

Just the last sentence?

About the mind,

The breath and me.

So the mind and the breath and the body are all mutually dependent.

They all influence each other.

If there's tension in one,

There'll be tension in all.

And similarly,

If there's tension in the mind,

We,

Or in the body,

We can attend to that through releasing tension somewhere else.

So breathing in a way that releases tension or relaxing the tension in the body will have an effect on the mind.

It's good that you asked me to repeat that because it's important to say here,

This isn't some kind of magic trick.

That we can completely get rid of tension and contraction in the system.

But it's a way of working with it skillfully.

And so it may be like some release for a moment.

Some release for a moment,

Some relief for a moment.

But the more we do that,

The more we learn experientially that this is possible and we gain confidence and we remember more frequently to do that.

So that interconnectedness really,

Really important.

And really remembering that this isn't something to kind of then make a measurement of ourselves out of,

Oh,

I'm tense again.

I'm doing something wrong.

I'm forgetting to breathe in a way that's suitable to how my body or my mind is.

I'm doing it wrong,

But rather what can I do now?

The playfulness,

The creativity,

Bringing that in as much as we can.

So we'll be dipping in today into seeing how we relate to pleasant,

Unpleasant and neutral experiences in the body.

So as I said,

The primary thing is the breathing or the body sense,

If that's what you've been using.

But then we're also interested to see how am I relating to the pleasant,

The unpleasant or the neutral experiences in the body very,

Very lightly in the realm of body sensations.

So we've already mentioned,

I think I mentioned it last night that we had a tendency of mind to notice the unpleasant or the negative more.

This is a tendency of our mind and there's been quite a lot of research around this in the field of neuroscience.

And what they've actually shown is that the ratio of impact between pleasant and unpleasant experiences is seven to one.

So for us to have a balanced experience,

For us to say,

Oh,

This was an okay meditation,

We would have to have seven more times pleasant things than unpleasant.

To feel like it was 50-50.

Our perception will be 50-50,

But actually it would need to be seven more times pleasant than unpleasant.

It's quite mind boggling.

And this goes back to survival.

When we were hunters gatherers,

We needed to pay much more,

This is the theory behind it anyway,

We needed to be much more aware of danger so that we would survive.

So we pick up the danger,

The unpleasant,

The negative has much more of an impact.

It's seen,

Heard,

Sensed more.

So I'm just putting that out there.

It also has incredible implications about what it means about our mind,

About our perception,

About what we take to be facts.

Huge.

But right now,

Just this,

Just knowing that.

And so this is part of why it becomes an interesting and valuable skill to develop to actually notice the pleasant and pay attention to it.

Because we're actually then rebalancing.

So another thing that neuroscience is telling us nowadays and actually that spiritual traditions have been saying for thousands and thousands of years is that the mind isn't fixed.

So we have a mind,

It's a certain way,

But the mind has flexibility to it.

It's a learning organism,

It can change.

It can change.

So we have the negativity bias,

For example,

We're wired to notice the negative,

But this is something we can change.

We can train the mind to notice the positive more and kind of rebalance that.

So one thing that we can do is intentionally notice the pleasant.

And as we do that,

And if you try that,

You'll see that all kinds of stuff comes up,

Especially with meditators.

It can feel self-indulgent.

Noticing the pleasant,

That's not a spiritual practice.

Or it can feel like escapism,

Or we're escaping reality because we're noticing the pleasant.

Something to really look at in question.

The Vietnamese meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh,

His meditation technique,

It's very powerful,

It's also to do with this process of fabrication,

Is to just have a very light,

Very gentle smile as you practice on your face.

And again,

This is something that neuroscience has also researched.

He's been teaching it for decades.

Their research is much more recent,

Is that if we make the physical movement of a smile,

Even if we don't feel at all happy at the moment,

It affects our mind.

Again,

The relationship between the body and the mind.

So this is bodily fabrication.

It's how experience is being created through different elements.

And some of these are in our control,

Or we have access to them.

So yeah,

You can try it.

It's really nice.

Just a light,

Just a very light smile as you practice.

And what effect does that have on the mind,

On the body,

On the practice?

So we can intentionally kind of bring in the pleasant in that way,

Or we can just have the intention to look for the pleasant experience.

And then notice,

You know,

Right now in the body,

We're not creating anything that's not here.

We're just tuning in.

Can be the pleasantness in the breath as we've been doing,

A pleasant feeling in the body.

And we're interested to also see how does that affect my experience when I do that?

How does that affect my experience when I do that?

If it feels quite accessible,

And it may have already happened yesterday through some of the meditation techniques,

That there's some sense of aliveness,

Of energy,

Of pleasantness arising,

Then seeing if we can really bring the focus to that,

To that pleasantness can also really come with metapractice a lot of the time.

And I'm sorry,

I keep mentioning it this afternoon.

We'll start with the metapractice for those who aren't aware of it yet.

And then we can kind of bring the awareness to the pleasant.

And if it's quite strong,

We can even play with spreading then that pleasant feeling through the body.

But if that feels like completely weird,

Then just leave it for now.

Park it for now.

But if it feels like it's relevant to something that's been going on for you,

Then try it.

And similarly,

We can be interested in the neutral experiences,

Which actually make up the majority of our experience.

Just the places that feel neither particularly pleasant or unpleasant.

Not particularly pleasant or unpleasant,

But just neutral,

Just there.

Right now,

The sensation in your little finger,

What happens if you just bring awareness to that?

So we can play with that.

And sensations in the feet or the hands or some areas of the face.

We can feel them when we bring the attention.

They're not completely inaccessible to us.

And then explore what happens to the neutral when I bring attention to it.

And then the big one for most of us is the unpleasant.

What happens when we bring attention to the unpleasant and how can we work skillfully with it?

And this is the big one for most of us,

Partly because of this negativity bias that I was speaking about.

This is what tends to pull our attention,

Is what's unpleasant.

And then it really tends to take over the whole space,

Becomes the totality of the experience.

We'll be working primarily with physical sensations today because they're more accessible and usually less sticky.

We usually run away less with the physical.

But different ways of working with the unpleasant physical sensations.

If we pay attention to our bodies,

We'll notice that at any time,

Almost unless you're really in some deep absorption or state of rapture,

Other than that,

There'll be some level of unpleasantness in the human body.

It's part of having this amazing,

Amazing thing.

This human body,

There'll be some degree of unpleasantness,

Often very mild.

A tickle,

An itch,

Some degree of tension.

Doesn't have to be extreme.

But some degree of unpleasantness.

And we all have habits of attending to that,

Which will usually be some form of distraction or aversion.

Well,

Distraction is also a form of aversion.

But pushing away,

Contracting around,

Trying to get away from in some way.

So I'm going to go a little bit more into this and give some suggestions of working with it.

And then we'll have some time to practice.

So one interesting thing that we can notice is that there will be an unpleasant physical sensation,

And then there'll be the reaction to that.

So those two are actually two things that arise.

Mutually dependent,

But also not the same.

The actual physical sensation and the reaction.

And if we look,

I often find that actually the mild experiences are the easiest to see this in.

A tickle.

Yeah,

If you have kind of longish hair like me,

You'll get hairs touching your face at some point when you're meditating.

And that can be kind of a little bit irritating.

And if we notice what happens,

We usually will very quickly want to get rid of that through moving it away.

That's the reaction.

There's the reactivity,

The pushing away,

The rejection,

And the resistance that comes.

So the first steps of working with the unpleasant is noticing there's something unpleasant here and noticing that I am rejecting it in some way.

Even if I'm meditating and I'm quite aware of not moving,

So I'm not doing that movement,

There'll be the urge to do it or there'll be some form of other type of contraction around that.

Yeah,

The pushing away.

Is this familiar in your experience when you reflect on it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the Buddha called,

And then there'll be mind stories around that as well.

The Buddha called this the two arrows,

Gave a simile of two arrows.

There'll be the actual physical event and then there'll be the reactivity to it,

Which is like the simile was,

It's like a person being shot by an arrow,

Which is the original thing,

Which is not in our control.

And then we're shooting ourselves with the second arrow,

Which is our reactivity.

Yeah.

Either physical or mental to that.

I don't want this.

I can't stand this.

I need to get rid of this.

If only this wasn't here,

I'd be able to meditate,

All of these.

And I'm bringing them up and I'm smiling because I know them very well myself.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they come up for us.

They come up for us.

And part of what we're interested in is beginning to discern.

What is the level of the physical pain and what is the level of things that the habitual conditioning is adding on?

Yeah.

And what extra layers of suffering are being added on to the experience?

Yeah.

So we're starting to be interested in that.

And what this often manifests as is that we're then actually what we're experiencing is not the physical discomfort or pain,

But the extra layers of rejection that are added onto it.

Yeah.

So the extra layers of rejection that are added onto it.

That's what we're actually experiencing.

Not actually experiencing the sensations themselves because we've kind of come away into the wide range of the reactivity that's on top.

So part of skillfully attending to this is acknowledging,

Okay,

Discerning.

Here is the physical discomfort and here is the reactivity to it,

Discerning the two.

And what happens if first of all,

I can acknowledge and accept that I'm reactive right now?

Yeah.

I acknowledge and accept that there's reactivity,

That there's pushing away.

Does this make sense to people?

Yeah.

So,

We're interested to meet both the sensations and the reactivity.

And like I said,

The first layer is just to acknowledge the reactivity to see if we can bring some space to that and then to see if we can meet the sensations directly or as directly as we can.

Yeah.

The actual sensations directly.

And it can be interesting to see the games the mind plays here because often what creeps in there is,

Okay,

I'll meet the sensations.

I'll explore this so that the pain goes away.

We call this deal making.

I'll pay attention to you so you disappear.

This is really strong in us and it'll creep in and that's fine.

Yeah.

As long as we remember to just kind of see,

Is this what's going on?

Is this what's going on?

And if it is,

Can I soften around that?

Can I soften around that?

So,

Noticing there's an unpleasant sensation,

Noticing any layer of resistance to it,

Seeing if we can make space for that resistance as we acknowledge it.

Okay.

Can I breathe around that?

Can I make space for that?

This is what's arising.

And then seeing if we can relax the resistance or around the resistance enough so that we can start exploring the sensations themselves.

Meet the sensations themselves.

It's a very,

It's a gradual process.

And as we come towards the sensations,

We can also begin by actually breathing around or making contact with the periphery around the sensations.

So we're not kind of going inside,

You know,

But we're actually doing this gradually.

Yeah.

Meeting the,

Where are the edges of this tickle?

Where are the edges of this pain?

Yeah.

So checking that out,

Exploring that out.

And the breath can really help us with that.

Yeah.

Breathing around the pain or having a sense of the wide body around the pain.

So I'm going to touch on a few ways we can then start exploring the sensations themselves and see what kind of sparks interest in you.

Like you won't want to work with all of these probably,

That would be too much.

And then apply that.

Yeah.

Use those.

There's different ways.

Before I go through these,

Just an emphasis on we're learning a skill here and we're going against quite strong habits in mind.

So really seeing this as a training.

Yeah.

We're training in a new skill.

So it's really helpful to go slow and to start working on the lighter weights for most of us.

Yeah.

So not necessarily go to that really bad chronic pain that has been with me for the last 15 years,

But to see if we can start with something smaller,

Milder initially,

If it's possible.

Yeah.

And also sometimes pain will be overwhelming.

So especially there may be a very intense pain that may be overwhelming.

So there's also the possibility of working skillfully with the pain through shifting the awareness somewhere else.

Again,

That's not escapism.

It's a skillful way of working with something that becomes overwhelming.

So we're either widening the awareness to the whole body and then that is just one thing in it or we're actually moving the awareness to a place in the body that feels pleasant or neutral.

Yeah.

And again,

That will always be somewhere.

Always.

Yeah.

Like I said,

The hands,

The fingers.

Somewhere in the body,

The feet,

Some aspect of the breath,

Somewhere there will be someone and we can just,

You know,

Might take,

You know,

Constantly shifting and bringing back,

But that's also possible if the pain is very intense and feels overwhelming.

So pain,

Any pain sensations will be made up of heat.

Yeah,

Either heat or coolness.

It'll be made up of some vibration or movement and it will also have a kind of be somewhere on the spectrum between hard and soft.

So we always have these characteristics and we can start to explore this particular sensation.

What is it made up of?

Yeah.

What are the vibrations like?

Is it sharp or is it dull?

You know,

Is there heat or is there coolness?

Is it kind of constant,

Feels like it's constant or does it come in waves?

Does it kind of come up and down or is it more level?

Yes.

We can start to explore.

Is it changing or is it the same?

Yeah.

What's another thing that we can start looking at,

Are there gaps?

Because again,

Our perception will be that it's constant,

But are there gaps?

And we can use the breath as we're breathing.

Is it different on the out breath and the in breath?

Is it different in the gap between the in breath and the out breath?

We can start exploring that.

Can I open to the breath coming into the area of pain?

Or around that area of pain?

What happens when I do that?

So yesterday,

If this was working for you,

We were breathing through different parts of the body,

We can also bring the breath directly to a painful area and imagine it coming in and out of that area.

What happens there?

So these are a few ways,

And I think there may be more on the notice board,

I can't remember,

But these are a few ways that we can use.

And we'll do a practice together now and I'll mention them so you don't need to memorize them.

And like I said,

They're also on the notice board downstairs.

So you can refer to that if you need to.

Are there any questions about what I said so far?

Okay.

So let's take our,

We only have about 15 minutes for a practice.

So settling into your meditation posture.

So taking a few moments to settle into the posture.

Okay.

Using the awareness in the body.

Using the contact areas of the body with the seat and the ground to settle the awareness in the body.

And from that sense of groundedness,

Rootedness in the contact areas,

You can expand and stretch the awareness through the body.

So we're opening it out into the whole body.

And this can be an anchor for us of opening out,

Stretching out the awareness so that we have a wider field to rest in.

The whole body.

You must imagine it,

The body sitting in a bubble or a cocoon of awareness of that knowing quality,

That sensitive quality.

Knowing experience.

And if it's helpful,

You can include the breathing in that field of awareness.

And letting the,

Either the breath flowing in and out of that wide awareness.

Filling up the space of awareness as you breathe in.

And the out breath as the body lets go,

Letting it rest more deeply within this wide field of awareness.

So the breath happening within this wide field of awareness.

Knowing whatever primary object has been working for you.

Breath coming in and out of particular parts of the body within this wide field of awareness.

Or the whole breath going long,

Going deep,

Spreading through the whole body.

Or a different practice if that's what you've been using.

So letting the awareness be wide,

Open,

Grounded and inclusive.

Opening to see if there's anything in the body experience right now,

Including the breath,

Which feels pleasant.

Letting the awareness still staying wide but kind of be more,

That being more prominent within that.

Bringing attention to the pleasant.

It doesn't have to be a dramatic pleasant,

It can be just a sense of comfortable,

Soothing,

Nice.

Seeing what happens when you come to that,

Bring yourself to that.

Stay muted.

And letting go of that particular experience,

Relationship.

Just noticing if it's helpful to open out,

Stretch out the awareness again.

It naturally contracts,

Becomes smaller.

Opening it out.

And opening to feel if there's anything in the experience right now,

Which has an unpleasantness to it,

That's uncomfortable and if possible choosing something pretty mild,

Mild discomfort.

Holding that uncomfortable sensation or area in awareness.

If you notice any resistance to it,

Any rejection,

Seeing if you can open to that also,

Soften around that also.

And gently allow the awareness to or the breath of both.

Just begin exploring the edges,

What feel like the edges of that uncomfortable sensation.

And when you're ready,

Coming closer to these unpleasant sensations,

These uncomfortable sensations.

Seeing if you can meet them a little bit more directly,

More intimately.

You can do that either through exploring what makes them up,

What are they made of.

Heat,

Coolness.

Softness or hardness.

What kind of movement or vibration is there?

You can explore whether there's constancy or changeability in these sensations.

Okay.

If the mind wanders away,

Just reestablishing the sense of the body and the breathing.

Contact with some unpleasant experience in the body right now.

And if you wish,

You can also try,

Explore,

Investigate with breathing into the sensations and around the sensations.

Letting the breath both flow around what feels uncomfortable and if possible,

Also through it very gently,

Finding your own way.

And with any of these techniques,

Noticing if anything changes as you attend in this way.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So to recap,

Using breath or body,

Primary object,

Continuing to breathe,

So to recap,

Using breath or body,

Primary object,

Continuing to do that,

With an emphasis on breathing or bringing attention to the body in a way that feels helpful and increases well-being.

And if you're interested to explore your relationship to the pleasant,

Bringing attention to the pleasant and seeing what happens with that,

And if we can really support ourselves to open to what feels pleasant,

Wholesome,

Comfortable,

Nice.

And it's a fine line here,

Yeah,

It's not about coddling ourselves.

People know this word coddling,

Like pampering.

It's not about like spoiling a child.

It's not about,

Oh,

I'll do what feels,

You know,

I'll go and cuddle up in bed right now.

Yeah,

It's not about that.

It's about really kind of in the moment,

In the experience right now,

What happens if I tune in to what feels more pleasant?

Yeah,

Just kind of seeing that.

Is that distinction clear to people?

And then either when the unpleasant arises or intentionally looking for that some of the time,

Yeah,

What happens there?

How can I kind of relate to it in a skillful way?

Like I said,

The unpleasant will arise,

The uncomfortable will arise.

It's part of having a human body.

So we can,

Yeah,

We can use that.

So we can we can include this also in the walking practice.

Yeah,

We can include this also in the walking practice,

Both tuning in to walking in a way that kind of emphasizes the sense of well-being.

Yeah,

And sometimes tuning into subtlety,

To detail can really do that,

Like tuning into the more subtle aspect of the movement of the body,

Of the particular parts of the body,

Like the feet or the legs.

That can actually increase the sense of well-being or beauty with that.

There can be a sense of like delicacy in the movement of the body.

Wow,

You know,

At what the body can do.

So we can tune into that.

And then when the unpleasant,

The difficult,

The challenging arises,

We can see about how can I open to this skillfully in any of the ways that I've just offered.

Yeah,

Through exploring what makes up that experience or through using the breath to come in.

And to flow around.

And with that sense of seeing the subtlety,

Seeing the delicacy of things,

It can be very much in our own body,

But it can also be in the environment around us.

Nature is really great for that,

You know,

Sometimes just seeing the way a branch kind of angles,

Yeah,

Or a hillside flows.

And there's just like such a delicacy to that,

Such a beauty to that.

Just opening to notice that all those,

The way the paragliders sometimes like flow through the air.

Yeah,

So opening to see that also around us.

That's the instructions.

We'll have some slots for one to ones this afternoon,

So we'll put them up about lunchtime and if you wish,

You're welcome to put your name down just to say you don't have to have an issue.

That doesn't need to be a big deal or something,

You know,

Burning in order to qualify for an interview.

Yeah,

It's an opportunity and a retreat that's relatively small like this to explore your experience if it feels useful.

So there's no pressure to put your name down,

But also to really emphasise you don't need to have an issue to come.

And if at any time the slots are full or it's not a time for one to ones and you feel like you need to talk,

Yeah,

There's something going on that would benefit from attention right now,

Then please either leave us a note or find us and we'll find a time to speak with you.

So yeah,

That's it.

If anyone has any questions about the practice,

Then feel free to stay.

I'll stay in the hall.

Or if you'd like to listen to questions from others,

You're also welcome to stay and otherwise enjoy a walk in practice.

Thank you for listening.

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