Streamed continue to exist June 20, 2024
Meditation
Welcome to tonight’s meditation. Let’s start out like we did last week, with some mani mantra. Should you’re not used to doing this, that is the usual mantra of Avalokiteshvara: it’s om mani padme hum, and we’re going to do it for like five minutes. It’s good in the event you do it with quite a lot of energy. The entire point is to lift energy, right? Get you energized. All spiritual practice of any kind raises energy, because most of you, on a median day, with a median amount of energy, your mind is optimized to make use of all that to fuel your neurosis, right? It’s perfectly optimized to make use of all that up, and so to interrupt out of our neurotic mind into some possibility of change in any respect, we have now to lift our energy—whatever meaning to you. I’m just going to call it energy. Spiritual practice of many many many sorts raises energy, and so that permits us to chop through the neurosis and into something recent—cut out of our habit patterns. Except, if, whenever you’re raising energy, and, let’s say you’re doing a mantra practice out loud—om mani padme hum—and we’re doing it, and also you’re just still sitting there spinning in your neurosis, your neurotic systems will just use up, suck up all of the energy, and just make you spin faster in your craziness.
So, remember, whenever you’re doing the mantra, to stick with the mantra, stay along with your heart. Make sure that that additional energy you’re creating goes towards cutting through, not only spinning in your bullshit, okay? So, again, the mantra is om mani padme hum, and there’s a there’s a habit for people to sort of say om manee podmee whom—it’s “padmay,” right? We sort of need to make those ending vowels rhyme or something, but they don’t rhyme.
Now, just resting within the energy of that Mantra, staying wide open, stepping outside any sort of entanglement with thought. Just resting within the wide open, wide awakeness, and feeling yourself breathe. Let’s try this together for some time here. No less than for a moment, just contact wide openness—even when it’s only for a moment. Only a mind like open sky, just absolutely clear, vibrant, unentangled, no imagination, no thought, just openness.
Then, from there, let’s do a bit Tonglen, for yourself, or for somebody you already know very well who’s suffering. You breathe in all of the suffering on the in-breath, imagining it to be like black smoke that you just’re respiration in. Hot, dusty stuff—thick, difficult. Respiration in all of the suffering, taking all of the suffering on yourself, and on the out-breath, giving them any peace, any relief, any joy, any sweetness, any love, any light. So, you’re taking over their pain, giving all of them your relief. We’re doing this from the place of wide openness. That wide openness has an infinite capability to tackle this difficulty. It’s not prefer it’s just our own little personality attempting to take it on—that might be an excessive amount of. We’d be overwhelmed. But, as wide openness, skylike, wide awakeness, we have now unlimited capability, so we’re taking it on, taking it on, taking it on. Then giving freely all the great, all the enjoyment, all of the peace, all of the relief, all of the health, all of the love, all the sweetness, to them, in order that they feel relief.
The visualization on the out-breath is like white light, so that you’re respiration on this dark, dark smoke of all the problem, after which respiration out this white light of relief, peace, joy, health, love.
Good. Then let’s expand our circle of concern, possibly to 10 or 12 people we all know. Because we have now this infinite capability, we tackle all of their sufferings, and breathe out that much relief, that much joy, that much kindness, that much love. Don’t hold back. Notice any fear or reticence to take it on. It’s interesting, here we’re not holding back, and we’re not reticent. It’s like a hearth sale at the top of time, we’re taking all of it on, and giving freely all the pieces we’ve got.
Excellent. Then, let’s expand our circle of concern again, to incorporate all of the people you’ve already been doing, after which everyone on this room. That is our Sangha, that is our practice group, and so we include them in our giving and taking, our Tonglen practice. So include the pain, suffering, illness, difficulties, of everyone on this room. Notice it’s weirder with strangers. Do it anyway. Breathe it in, after which give away all the great things, all the enjoyment, all of the peace, all of the kindness, all of the satisfaction, all of the health, all of the love, all of the belonging—give it away. Give it away, give it away.
Excellent. And now, let’s expand it yet one more time, to incorporate every being within the universe. Not only humans, with all their suffering—and imagine me, there’s quite a lot of it, but additionally every animal whose house is poisoned or destroyed, or children who’re killed, or trapped in a vivisection lab somewhere. All animals, all alien beings, other worldly beings, in all places, on every planet. Breathe in all that pain, difficulty, suffering—really feel it as a sort of choking black smoke. After which, on the out-breath, give away all the pieces you’ve got. Again, due to our vast awake awareness, there’s good enough ability to take this all in, and provides away total relief, soothing the phobia, respiration peace into the craze and grief, calming the tremendous sorrow, healing the sick, loving the unloved. And just notice how that changes our basic stance, from that mood of, well, I’m just going to maintain ensuring my pile of beans is larger than your pile of beans—it’s all sort of a zero-sum game, to simply give away all of the beans, because there’s no lack of beans.
This practice shouldn’t be about by some means having a giant emotional experience—although that may occur, but that’s probably not the purpose. Just notice how your heart becomes softer, less defended, more open, more goopy. And the sense of the atomized, divided, guarded, separate, self softens, and opens, and becomes permeable, and even connected—possibly even revealed to be what it actually is, which is completely nonseparate.
Okay, good. Now you may let go of that, and what I would like you to do is, within the very open way, your mind really relaxed, unengaged with thought. On each in-breath, feel the breath going into the lower dantian, into the spot a couple of inches below your navel, right in the middle of your body. It’s like an energy spot there. Just feel the breath going into that, and on the out-breath it flows up the central channel, out the highest of your head, and into space. The out-breath releases all the pieces into space. So, in-breath, just a traditional in-breath—may be slow, but doesn’t must be huge or anything, just a pleasant breath. Feel it filling or going into that spot below your navel, not on the skin, but deep in the middle of the body. Then on the out-breath, it goes up the central channel out the highest of your head, and your mind just dissolves into space, into sky.
For some people, having seed syllables related to this helps. So, on the in-breath, into the lower dantian, into the below the navel chakra, we will say, om, om to yourself, silently, as we breathe into that center, feeling it energizing and warming. Then on the out-breath, out the highest of your head, mind dissolves into space, becomes just open clarity. There the seed syllable we’ll use is —hree. It’s really H, R with a DOT under it, I, H with a DOT under it, but just consider it as Your complete mind, all thought, all mental constructs just dissolve into wide open space. You possibly can let that out-breath, in the event you wish—after all, do what’s comfortable, but you may let that out-breath be quite a bit longer than the in-breath. Just notice how the mind just turns into vapor, and dissolves into space, evaporates into sky, and also you’re just left with shining awakeness, completely uninvolved with any thought.
On the in-breath, you may do it again, silently, like, “ooooooooooooooh.” Going into that, really energizing that chakra, really feeling it crammed with heat and light and peace and energy and clarity. Then, on the out-breath, it’s HREE—all the pieces up and out the highest of the top. It just evaporates within the sky. After all, don’t make any effort to reconstitute the mind on the in-breath. It could try this of its own accord, but when it doesn’t, that’s advantageous. We’re probably not doing a visualization here, you don’t must picture any of this in imagination. You simply sort of feel it, or change into it.
Over and once more, the mind dissolves into space, it evaporates into open, awake, skylike, awareness. It’s not possible to have any thought there, or, if the thoughts are happening, you’re not attaching to them in any respect, not being with them in any respect. There’s just awakeness and openness.
Good. Then, on an in-breath, just drop awareness into that belly chakra, and just stay there, feeling the energy there. Remembering we’re not projecting, we’re not imagining that we’re projecting consciousness down from the top, the energy center, we’re just inside it, feeling it from inside it. Noticing the vibratory, continually changing, powerful, sense of energy there, vitality. Just stick with that, from inside it. Chances are you’ll notice how, with each in-breath, it form of charges up, and with each out-breath, it radiates outward. So, we’re not doing the dissolving the mind outside, above the top, but somewhat, just staying with this energy center. As you stick with it, it’s possible you’ll notice it get warmer, more energized, more obvious.
To the very best of your ability, remain completely uninvolved with thought. Again, we’re not stopping considering—it might probably try this as much because it wants within the background, but just don’t engage, stick with the sensation, the energy feeling, within the body. Doing this visualization, this being nonvisualization, being with the energy, it’s possible you’ll notice that your whole body feels sort of energized. It might be very easy to concentrate on that energy, and ride it into an altered state from that. Just do not forget that you can try this, we’re not going to try this, however it’s there as a possibility.
As an alternative, notice what’s contained in the energy center, contained in the energy. Within the energy center, what do you’re feeling right inside it? Right in the middle—it’s vast openness, vast space, infinite space. Should you’re the middle, that’s hard to see, but in the event you’re in that center, it’s just Infinite space—not as a visualization, not as an imagination, but as a direct feeling. The middle of the body is open to infinite space. Then, outside the body, like we saw after we were doing the HREE, is open to infinite space, inside and out of doors, just infinite space. There’s no boundary between them, there’s just wide open, wide awakeness, absolutely clear and vibrant, relaxed and open, including all the pieces, excluding nothing. Remain disengaged with any considered any kind. Just be with the experience, vibrant, clear, crisp, relaxed, spontaneous, openness. Wide awake, no boundaries of any kind.
Notice the tremendous stillness of this open awakeness—it’s utterly still, perfectly silent, absolutely boundless. Brightly, shiningly, awake. Absolutely still, clear, silent, openness—regardless that it’s open like sky, the stillness is solid like a diamond, like a mountain of diamond, just absolutely rock solid still. Perfectly silent.
Good. Now, from this space of still, silent, wide awakeness, notice the flavors of sensation and movement within the body. They’re not still—the emotions of energy, the emotions of standard sensations, the movement of the breath and the beating of the guts, and so forth. All of the stuff that’s not still—notice that it shouldn’t be in any way separate from that stillness. They’re different—one is moving, and one continues to be, but they’re never separate. We could almost say that the movements, the sensations, expressions of the stillness. Hear the sounds of the world around you. They’re different than the silence—it’s sound, it’s noise, so different from the silence, but never separate. Not in any way separate, ever. You possibly can’t have the sound without the silence. They arrive together.
Notice the movements of the mind, without engaging with those movements. The activity of thought—it’s like a continuous babbling brook—so different from the stillness, and yet never separate. The thoughts arise out of the stillness, and only may be due to stillness. They’re at all times together, they contain the stillness.
Good. In case your eyes are open, notice the world around you—repeatedly in movement, a riot of color, shape, form. Expression so different from the vast boundless, open, clarity, but never separate from it in any way. It’s the expression of the openness, the daughter of the space. So, noticing the stillness, the silence, the openness, the clarity, and all the emotions within the body, all of the sensations of energy, all of the thought activity, all of the sounds, all of the sights, and all the pieces else—never separate. The one requires the opposite, and accommodates it.
Now, I would like you to take a look at what’s having this experience—don’t give it some thought, don’t try to resolve it, don’t imagine it, just look. What’s having the experience? Is it feelings and thought activity? Is it stillness, silence, openness? Just look. Just look. What’s having this experience? Look, straight away. Find it. You possibly can’t find it by interested by it, you may have to look.
Okay. Let’s end that there.
Q&A
Should you’ve got any questions for me, or stuff coming up, raise your hand. Do not forget that the Web is listening.
Questioner 1: Hi. My query is about working with feelings and emotions, and realizing the space behind them, underneath. I feel it goes through realizing emptiness for me, meaning, let’s say, if I’m working with anger, and the energy of that moment, I find the space is after I noticed the emptiness. But, for another sort of emotions, like anxiety I’ve been sitting with, I find it more like a composite, somewhat than a less complicated sort of an emotion…
Michael: It’s just fear, so it’s an emotion.
Questioner 1: Yeah, right, and I feel it’s composite because there are multiple things that I even have to appreciate, like emptiness of self, of sensory experiences, of there’s also greed, there are so many alternative things inside anxiety. And the energy behind it’s so fiery, and moving, just moving from here to there. But it surely’s not clear from where to where. It’s not even a thought, it’s just moving—very high speed. So, what to do with composite conditions like that, which is that there are such a lot of things to dissolve or realize. It’s just an excessive amount of, too many things inside it.
Michael: Sure. There’s quite a lot of things that we give a single name to, which can be product of composite elements like that. For instance, the sense of self in any respect is a bunch of thoughts and emotions and body sensations, and memories, and all that. So regardless that we’re calling it a way of self, it’s composed of a bunch of pieces or elements. So, if we have now a powerful sense of ability to see emptiness, we just see the emptiness of the entire thing without delay, because even when it’s different pieces, it doesn’t matter, they’re all empty. So we just see the emptiness unexpectedly. But, if that’s not available, you then just break it up into the composite elements, and go one by one. Here’s the emotion part, see the emptiness of that. Here’s the considering part, see the emptiness of that—like that. And, you only do it time and again, and eventually you may see the emptiness of the composite. So, you only have to take a seat more, but on this case it’s not only just sitting there sitting. You’re being pretty deliberate about what you’re specializing in. That’s only one method to do it. As I say, the concept that there’s a thing there that’s product of other things is already a construction. So, really, you may just sort of see the constructedness of the entire thing—and that’s emptiness, right? But that’s harder, so if that’s not available, then we back up and just break it into pieces. Divide and conquer, right?
Questioner 1: But then, after we take a look at the emptiness of the entire thing for anxiety, what’s that thing? It’s just the entire.
Michael: Just take a look at it. Even calling it an entire thing, we’re noticing its constructedness, in order that’s already pointing towards emptiness, right? So just the entire experience, it’s only a mental fantasy that has components, but after all we will undergo that one bit at a time and see the emptiness of every of those so-called components.
Questioner 1: Yeah, I mean, I don’t wish to undergo that.
Michael: That’s the down and dirty, pedal to the metal vipashyana way. Otherwise, you only loosen up to the experience and see the emptiness of the entire thing. Harder to do, but much easier.
Questioner 1: Yeah, thanks.
Michael: Yes, who’s next?
Questioner 2: Hey, so after we were doing this, and sometimes after I do body somatic stuff, I used to be feeling quite a lot of energy construct up around here [gesturing to the forehead, brow and bridge of the nose], even when specializing in the dantian. I feel that when that happens, sometimes it feels painful, probably not painful enough for me to wish to stop sitting, but enough to have an impulse to repair it, or let it move some other place, or let it sort of equalize with the dantian down lower. I’m wondering, when that happens, is it higher to essentially inspect it and look into that. Trying to search out that the space in between in the center, which type of works, or is that’s digging into that sensation, reifying it by some means. Versus attempting to look out and at all the pieces else apart from it.
Michael: The reply is, it depends. Basically, that might all be considered a distraction from what we’re attempting to do, right? So, in the event you can just keep going, just keep going, but when it’s really becoming an issue—it hurts, or it’s an excessive amount of, then the straightforward fix that is on the market for some people is, you only intend the energy to maneuver down. As you get good with working in energy, you may intend it, and it’ll just move. It follows intention. In order that’s why, for instance, in the event you’re doing a primary jhana, you may move the piti around. It can just move wherever your thought goes, since the energy follows the thought. So, you only do the identical thing with the energy in your brow—just bring it down into the dantian, and you then’re golden. If none of that’s working, and also you’re getting a headache, and it’s terrible, I’d just say just stop doing that meditation. But, if you would like to inspect the thing, and mainly just see its
emptiness somewhat than reifying it, but see its openness, its movement quality, its spaciousness, try this.
Questioner 2: Thanks, I’ll experiment more.
Michael: Yeah, excellent. It’s really essential generally, after we’re doing the energy stuff, regardless that it’s like, here’s this center, and we’re meditating on it, and also you’re doing a sound there, and all that. Attempt to not reify any of it. Let it just be a weird dream you’re having. It’s not like there’s an actual center there—you’re treating it as almost like a dream or something.
Questioner 3: Hey, I even have an issue about coming from a background of vipassana practice.
Michael: What sort of vipassana practice?
Questioner 3: Began with guided meditations, eyes closed, taking note of the breath, then every time you see something come up,
Michael: Any particular retreats or anything like that?
Questioner 3: Yeah, Spirit Rock.
Michael: Okay, got it.
Questioner 3: Yeah, is it clever to choose a route and go along with it? Obviously, it’s all resulting in the identical place, but by way of a every day practice, is it clever to choose, okay I’m gonna do that style or I’m gonna do that style, and try this every single day?
Michael: Assuming that you just’ve tried out the menu of styles, so that you sort of know what’s on the market and what you want, yes. And, it’s not all going to the identical place. Different schools have different ideas about where this goes, and the ideas about where it goes matter. We were just talking about this before class, you discover what you’re searching for. Should you don’t think there’s something beyond that, you don’t look beyond that, and so forth. So, understanding where different schools think you’re going is significant.
Questioner 3: Okay, thanks.
Michael: I remember, in the event you take a look at the book from about 1985 or something, it’s mainly written by Ken Wilbur, but Dan Brown is in there a bit, and Dan did a extremely interesting thing. He studied in the unique text the Visuddhimagga, so all of the vipassana stuff, after which the unique text of Patanjali Yoga Sutras, in order that form of meditation. Then—I forget which Mahamudra text, but he studied it in Tibetan, and his conclusion, which I feel is interesting and supportable, was sort of the alternative of The Perennial Philosophy idea. Actually, each of those three totally different traditions were sort of boiling right down to the identical sequence of meditations, but they were ending up in totally different places, because they were aiming for various things, so as a substitute of all paths lead to at least one goal, it was like, all of the paths are equivalent, and the goals are different. So, you can take that or leave it, however it’s what you’re getting yourself into.
Questioner 3: So, by way of finding a practice to follow, what would you recommend? Like just practicing and seeing what works? Or, like, by way of looking towards the top goal, and seeing is that this something that resonates?
Michael: That’s a much bigger query. Again, try the various practices, to see where the cylinders are firing. You possibly can really feel it. Different people have different places of resonance with different practices. But in addition, learn enough concerning the tradition to grasp what they are saying the top goal is, after which—and that is vitally essential. That is just my very own experience: take a look at what the individuals who try this practice are like. Not only certainly one of them, but a bunch of them, because that’s what you’ll find yourself like. [Laughter]
Other stuff coming up for people on the market in meditation land?
Questioner 1: So, the second approach, which you said that you just would take a look at the entire thing and realize the emptiness of it, which is harder, but easier. Would you agree that there’s no formula to that? It just either happens or doesn’t, miraculously?
Michael: I wouldn’t say it like that. I’d just say, as I discussed, it’s your facility with recognizing emptiness. That facility is trained, identical to you may learn to see a signal inside noise, but different people have different abilities there, primary. Then, number two, how much training have you ever had in seeing the signal within the noise. Over time, that gets easier and easier and easier, the popularity gets clearer and more obvious, clearer and more obvious. So it’s not only a random factor, it’s a trainable thing of recognition.
Questioner 1: Okay.
Questioner 4: Yeah, hello. I even have an issue about desire. From awake awareness, there’s sort of an interesting thing around joy, this language of effulgence from awake awareness, you already know, where you’ve got Shakti because the expression of the enjoyment of the goddess, and emptiness. You possibly can feel that radiant like a mountain product of diamond. Well, you didn’t say a mountain product of like steel or stone, it’s shining vibrant, intense, radiant diamond. I’m sort of interested in the emergence of upper order non-emotions. We’ve talked concerning the desire of the Goddess, Shakti. Are you able to talk concerning the manifestation of desire from the view—like wants and desires?
Michael: It’s an interesting thing. If we’re working within the tantric mode or the Vajrayanic mode, desire shouldn’t be something to do away with, but neither is it something to get all stuck in. Reasonably, notice that even, as I kept saying, the stillness and the activity are never separate. The activity comes from the stillness. The stillness is contained by the activity. In one other way, they they need one another, and so we will get on this transcendent mode of considering that, oh, there’s just this type of perfect stillness that desires nothing, and that’s the very best thing, but that’s not it, because the right stillness actually is pregnant with all the pieces. All that—all the pieces, busts out of there, due to desire, yeah, however it’s not egoic desire, it’s the will of the void. I don’t know easy methods to put it. It’s different, it’s very easy to combine up, and it’s very easy to assume that my little worldly desires really are the will of goddess, or something, which is basically something to look out for. But, it’s not like there’s just this flat land of desirelessness. This all is here due to desire.
Questioner 4: Okay, yeah, thanks.
Questioner 5: I conceptually liked the instruction that was like, whenever you’re visualizing the energy form of at your center, not to visualise, or not even to visualise it, but not to visualise it from the place that we have now our perception of consciousness, which is form of like in our head, which is an imagination. And so, I appreciated that, but I felt really stuck when that instruction was given. I discovered it very difficult to separate from that imagined location. So, I used to be wondering in the event you had any advice around getting closer to that, or easy methods to break that down a bit.
Michael: Are you able to notice that the sense that your consciousness is positioned in your head is an imagination? Are you able to notice that straight away? Is that available?
Questioner 5: I feel so.
Michael: So long as you’re clear that it’s imaginary, you then don’t must let go of it, or do away with it. It’s just an image in your head. Now, come into the sensation, and you may be with it. So don’t attempt to fight that, but in the event you can’t notice that it’s imaginary, then the work is to maintain working with mental images until you realize the subtle ones really matter. The really wispy subtle mental images which can be so unconscious we have now a tough time noticing them at first, change into conscious enough that you just realize—oh, after I close my eyes, and I imagine there’s a room there, that’s imaginary. I mean, I’m not saying there’s not a room, but there’s an image in your head. Same thing with the concept that consciousness is positioned in my head. That’s a mental image, and so in the event you can, you may have to work on with the ability to notice that, so that you never really must separate them, since it’s not real. But, distinguishing, which is possibly what you meant by separating, yes. After which, you only feel your belly, and let go of the sort of mental image that there’s a highlight of consciousness in your head that’s beaming down on some chakra in your belly. Noticing that it’s all just in the best way, all of that’s just extra brain energy wasted. So, we let go of all that and are available into the belly. Might take some time to learn to do it, however it’s not learning to do something recent, it’s just distinguishing.
Questioner 5: Okay. Thanks.
Michael: Okay, thanks on your questions everybody, and for meditating with me, and we’ll see you next week.
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