And just wait, wait a minute more. If you have questions, you can either put them in the chat, or you can raise your hand. We'll get working on that. And hopefully, people have copies of the book. I felt like it was a little chaotic trying to do the screen sharing and then the posting and so if we have some art, I will just hold it up and you'll be able to see it as best you can see it in the there says Laurie has the book there we go. Okay. And I don't know if I mentioned we're going to a seventh printing, which is very, very exciting. So the other thing I wanted to mention was I've been invited to teach at a Montessori school to do a reading at a Montessori school. Nan is going to be a way during that time, in, in Michigan in the wilds of Michigan, so
I'll be harvest bathing,
you will be forced breathing in the upper, is it the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, way,
way up there
somewhere way up.
And so, so I've been asked to do the reading for parents and with their three four and five year olds. And I mentioned that last time about the questions and answers so when we had the questions and answers we had the. So somebody asked is, working with, with kids, and they had the good suggestion of three minutes for a three year old and four minutes for a four year old five minutes for a five year old. My, my friends who run the Montessori School had an addendum to that, and they said, for the three year olds, they can, they can pay attention for three breaths, if you count with them, or count for them. And obviously the four year olds even more and five year olds and so on. So, he said it's the engagement. What they're, they're the reason that they're doing this, it's actually part of a grant from Canadian government of British Columbia and government to try to promote reading, promote connections with parents and kids, especially the amount of screen time like we're doing now that has been happening during this pandemic. There's also a large indigenous population in British Columbia. So, what we're what I'm going to talk about is these stories, which, you know, we wrote new stories in this book but they were inspired by stories that are 100 years old and still fresh and still inspire people and even now 100 years later, Winnie the Pooh is the most beloved character in children's literature. So the in traditional cultures, storytelling, was the way that generations passed wisdom from one to another. And the way that that people gathered together. So the parents reading these stories with their kids can deepen that relationship and bring in the notion of oral history and traditions and storytelling and in the indigenous populations. All of the animals had personalities, just like the Winnie the Pooh book where the animals. And we did poems and, and that's another reason they wanted this to be me to do this reading because the poems are. If we think about it, what did we grow up with nursery rhymes, they rhymed. And the word rhyme, and the word rhythm, are very much connected so there's a musical quality and a flow to the energy that and all of these things, we somehow in our aimless wandering of writing stories and material have been able to include that in these in the connection to nature, which we're going to talk about in the reading today life lessons, sharing the values with these stories, bridging the gap in the generations, and the parents were asking for help, bridging the gap in spiritual education, isn't that interesting. They're asking the teachers for the Values Ethics mores, the kindful kindness and respect. We got a great review from the, the teacher of mindfulness at Google. and he signs his, his things in kind fullness. So I always, I always remembered that and enjoyed it. So they'll be able to talk with them before bedtime bond with them, read that with them and ask them questions about you know what did you think of poo and this that the other and as we talked about the three year olds, you're going to go on their stream of consciousness and it's just lovely to hear it, so. So that's what, that's what's being inspired by this, and, and Nancy is going to up into the wilds of Michigan. We got this, this interesting Facebook post, a request. I don't know if it was, I think it was yeah it was Facebook, or request from a Unitarian minister in Central Michigan, asking if he could read chapter eight, as his sermon. And we're going to be reading chapter eight today so I just thought you'd enjoy that. Shall we begin.
Yeah, one quick second Joe is your microphone on the desk. How's that, is that better. Yeah, a little bit closer and also sometimes like that paper or something is hitting it. Yes, that was me moving the papers of my neck, I wanted to tell people apology. It's all clear now. Thank you. Andy's our tech specialist. That's right. He's already a Roman is that very well. Yes. What, no yeah I got it. Okay.
Are we ready.
I think so.
Okay. Chapter Seven, explore your senses. If we can relax into our sense perceptions, not trying to get out, not trying to get our experiences to come out a particular way, it is possible to have a glimpse of things as they truly are. This connects us to a deeper understanding of the beauty and magic in the natural world.
Now it was time for ru to go home. So Pooh hugged his little friend, and watched as Ruth skipped off, singing and laughing as he went. Who meandered along again letting his senses open up to everything in the 100 Acre Wood. It made him feel very peaceful and calm. He decided to let his senses guide his choices of where to go next. Whatever he noticed that tickled him in a pleasing way not like a poke in the tummy. He explored more deeply. He saw a bright blue and yellow butterfly flutter by, so he followed it along the path, when it suddenly flew off in a different direction, he found himself among a stand of towering trees. The branches bent this way and that is if they change their mind every so often as they grew. The leaves hanging down were like lots of little paws or claws reaching out toward him, the different kinds of bark on the tree trunks beckoned him to touch them. Who rubbed his paw against one. It felt craggy and scratchy. This reminded him of the time he had to scratch an itch on his back, that he couldn't quite reach, he'd looked around for something to rub up against, and found a tree with particularly rough bark.
Ah, Oh,
poo had side in relief. Just then, an acorn dropped in hit him on the head. It woke him from his daydream, he realized he had gotten lost in his thoughts and hadn't been seeing or hearing or smelling so clearly, but he didn't feel bad about it. He just made a point of recognizing that he had drifted into the past, and came back to his aimless wandering in the here and now.
I do better when I turn my thinking brain off so I can turn my just noticing on
soon who came upon a buzzing beehive, he mused on how lovely it would be to fill his tummy. He had heard a little rumble. His mind jumped to the future, thinking, with the bees be
upset. All I have to do is touch the hive, to find out, except I wouldn't be so kind to them. But how else can I get some honey.
The buzz, buzz, buzz of the bees brought poo back to the here and now. He decided to just listen to the sound, and watch them fly in circles around the hive, being open to what might appear, he noticed to his delight, a tiny crack at the bottom of the hive, oozing little drops of lovely golden honey. Cupping his paws underneath, who patiently collected the honey. He sniffed the sweet smell as he brought his paws to his lips, slowly and attentively poo savored one delicious bit at a time. He licked his sticky paws until they weren't. And all the honey was in his coming. Who was especially pleased that he could enjoy the honey, without struggling so hard to get it. He thought of a special version of his caring kindness poem for the occasion.
Today I will be the best friend I can be, to everyone I see, including the beads. Isn't it funny that I could get honey with nothing in mind, but just being kind.
By not disturbing the bees or breaking open the hive. He fulfilled his purpose of being kind, and somehow that made this honey case even sweeter. So that was chapter seven. And I, I did we, Nancy and I did copy a little of a Milan's using the, the way he placed the words. And so there's where it says oozing little drops of lovely golden honey. Oh and the bees are buzzing around the poem. There we go, that's, that's my wife Megan's touch.
This is from Shambala, the Sacred Path of the warrior like Chung yum Trungpa, you can experience a vast realm of perceptions unfolding, so many perceptions that they are beyond imagination. There are sounds that you have never heard there are sights and colors that you have never seen, there are feelings that you have never experienced before. There are endless fields of perception.
Guided by sense perceptions. Another approach to aimless wandering, is to let your senses guide you let yourself become immersed in your perceptions of nature. Go deeper by exploring each sense, in turn, noticing a patch of color. You take a closer look. Hearing the sound of a stream or a particularly captivating bird call. You turn or move closer to listen. You touch sticks and stones. Moss and dirt bark and leaves, you start to smell an aromatic tree or fragrant flower. Whether going along aimlessly, or following your senses, or even while on your way somewhere, let yourself experience the magic of the present moment, appreciating perceptions, and then letting go as you move on. So we do this as a practice when we do our meditation sessions of environmental mindfulness or open awareness, we go through the sense perceptions of what we can experience seeing colors, shapes shades of light and dark hearing various sounds, feeling what we're feeling with our body, smelling whatever smells there are tasting what we taste. And then, in the, in the actual sitting meditation practice, you let your mind wander aimlessly among the sense perceptions. So, if you said you feel something you go to that and explore that for a few moments, or for however long your mind rests there. Then, something that you see something that you hear, And you can go through that way. And what this does the purpose of this is to go ahead and use the tendency of the mind to wander because our mind does tend to wander. We use that tendency of the mind to wander, but we we guide it and let it wander. Not so much guided but given the particular area to wander in that is always in the present moment and that's through the sense perceptions. Feeling stand, sit or lie in your garden in a forest in the park or at the beach, you may want to bring a thin blanket or yoga mat with you if the ground is too damp or cold, bring your awareness to the parts of your body that are in contact with the ground. Can you feel the earth supporting you. Can you relax and let yourself sink in and be part of it. Feel the air on the skin of your face and hands. Feel your body moving as your breath flows in and out. Can you feel your heart beating in your chest or your pulse in your fingertips, wrists, or neck. So this is looking deeper into that one sense perception of feeling. And Andrew has been teaching this particular meditation where you're lying down, and working with meditation while you're lying down. We introduced this in the book as outside and part of nature, but you can do the same thing inside as well as really working with what you're feeling and how your body is moving and, and you move your awareness from experiences of things touching you from outside, feeling the ground under you feeling the air on the skin of your hands and face the cloth on your shirt, your shoulders, your legs, even the club, if you're, if you're lying there and your hands are on in your lap. Even the cloth under, you know, under your hands. Then you turn inward and start to feel your inner sensations. Feel the breath coming in your nostrils cool and dry going out warm and moist, even feel the subtlety of your pulse tasting. You might not want to try to get honey from a beehive as poo did, so bring some food with you to practice tasting. Also it's a good idea to have nourishment if you're on a long walk. You can carry a trail mix that includes raisins, nuts, or granola if you're allergic and chocolate chips. Can you taste the saltiness of the nuts. Notice how the sweetness of the chocolate appears more vividly when it melts and how the raisins released their flavor only when you bite into them.
Important note, if you're an experienced hiker, you may be tempted to taste leaves like mint or fruit like raspberries. Please be careful to only taste what you're sure you know, there is going to look delicious but be quite poisonous, especially smooth, bright red ones leaves from the Oleander Bush are poisonous to please don't try mushrooms, even if you think you know them. In the same way, please be careful to identify and avoid touching plants like poison ivy, oak, or sumac.
So we wanted to make sure that we put that in there. So somebody, you know, we hear, I try, I got your book and I tried feeling and tasting and I got covered in poison ivy and got sick from you. No, no we didn't want any of that so there those are our disclaimers.
And it's far as bathing not far as foraging.
Yes, that's right, exactly. So, now, I think that you'll find this interesting. And that is how our sense perceptions relate with one another. And I've talked about this before in other classes, but our sense perceptions. True, over 2000 years of meditation meditators have discovered that the sense perceptions are like a rabbit. I'm sorry a monkey in a room with six windows, and the monkey jumps from one window to the next, but it can only look at one window at a time. So whatever sense perception is in the foreground, all the others go to the background. It seems like we can go pretty fast between two of them but not much more than that. For example, if you're looking at me in your device and listening to my voice, you're going from listening to looking listening to look and you think you're doing both at the same time, you're just going back and forth very very fast. Now, the cool thing about this with regard to tasting is, it's important not to be doing anything else, because if you're doing something else, it, your senses, go back and forth and you're not really really tasting. Nancy and I worked on a diet book. And one of the things that we discovered that's really important to enjoy your food the most is after each bite to set your utensils down. If you're still holding them, you're kind of doing something in the feeling and action mode, comes into your mind and the taste goes to the background. It's the it's for the same reason that people when they're tasting a fine wine or that they close their eyes so that they're not looking at something while they're tasting you can just focus their sense perceptions. So, so, explore that and notice and see, it's another reason why not to talk on a cell phone while you're driving because your attention is going back and forth from listening to thinking to seeing and that's why you missed your exit last time,
chapter eight, you have everything you need. One of the primary principles of the mindfulness tradition is that the true nature of human beings is basic goodness, the simple appreciation of being alive. It is a perspective of richness and wholeness that nothing in our fundamental being is flawed, or missing mindfulness helps us recognize Basic Goodness has our own nature, and develop unconditional confidence.
Thinking about being kind, brought piglet to Buddha's mind. And since he had promised to visit him around mid morning off he went toward piglets house. Although he was now going somewhere in particular, he could still practice just noticing on the way, he heard a cheap cheap sound on one side of the path there in a nest of leaves and twigs, a mother bluebird fed three hungry babies, Who turned when he heard the scratch scratching sound. The two squirrels playing a spirited game of Chase scurrying, up, down and all around. A tall oak tree on he went, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the wood piglet was waiting outside his pool arrived. Whenever the two met, they like to play the welcome game of here and now. So, Pu as piglet.
What time is it,
it's now
my favorite time.
And where are we,
we're here.
My favorite place.
What are you doing today,
it's more like what I'm not doing.
Oh I see. Although he didn't really, then, then what are you not doing today.
I'm aimless wandering, just noticing what's here and now, as I go on the way to nowhere in particular. Care to join me
here. You know how hard it is for me to try new things. I'm certain I wouldn't get it right. I better let you do the aimless wandering for both of us, it wouldn't be too much trouble.
You'll feel like it's hard to try, but it isn't so hard to not try. And that's what just noticing is, and you're certain that you won't do it the right way. But there is no getting aimless wandering wrong since there isn't any right or wrong way to go.
What if I can't just notice.
No need to worry. You have eyes and ears and nose and such, and that's all you need to just notice if you get a bit muddled in thoughts, seeing, hearing, smelling or feeling will wake you up.
What if I forget to be here and now,
no need to fret. It happens to everyone. Once in a while your thoughts may carry you away to there and then where to where and when. But your heart is always here and now. So Piglet, you have everything already inside you. All that you need to just notice to be here and now, as we wander aimlessly alone.
And who made up a little encouraging poem on the spot.
Oh, Piglet, you can do it. There's really nothing to it. You have everything you need. I'm quite certain you'll succeed.
Well, if you believe in me, then maybe I can to just then piglet stood a little straighter and held his head a little higher. I feel more confident already thanks poo. You are a very good best friend indeed.
This is from Shambala the Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chuck young Trungpa confidence is an attitude that makes the seemingly unworkable workable. This doesn't mean that all of a sudden everything is going to go our way, but it does mean that we believe we have the resources to live in the challenge that is the expression of courage.
Building your practice. How can a mouse eat an elephant. One bite at a time. So start small, but do start practice one minute of mindfulness for one day, then two minutes for two days, three minutes for three days and so on. Once you've done 10 minute sessions for 10 days at a second session later in the day. Build your second session one minute at a time as you did the first until you were doing both sessions for 10 minutes each day, you can extend your sessions further if you'd like. It's good to break up longer sessions with a few minutes of walking mindfulness between every 20 minutes of sitting. So this is something that Andrew and I've talked about a lot before in our tradition. It said, it's best to practice, many short periods rather than try to just get it out for one long one. And so this is a way for people to build up their practice, and, and the, the benefit of it also is you, you don't just go further because it feels good, you actually stop when you've set the time to stop. This is more important than you think. The reason is, if you stop when you set the time to stop. You go, oh, man, I was just getting into it. I can't wait till we till I, it's time to do it again. But if you go longer you go. When will this end. Oh, I'm glad that's done, I don't know if I want to do that again. See, so the other thing is, if you're doing it based on how good it feels. That's really not the idea of the practice. So you say well you know I'm kind of into it, I'm feeling good. I think I'll practice longer today. Mal, you know, really busy mind lots of thoughts, I think I stopped early today. That's a slippery slope. You don't want to go down that because, excuse me, the idea is, if you are able to, you're able to say, you know, Good and bad are included. It's part of the practice so working with a busy mind is something that you train yourself in and work with that and you say okay you know what, that's part of the practice. If it doesn't seem like it's going that well don't get depressed. If it's going great, don't get too excited. Reason is everything changes, continuing your practice mindfulness practice shouldn't be thought of as something you do on an as needed basis. Like taking an aspirin if you get a headache. It's better to regard it more like brushing your teeth, something you do regularly, a couple of times a day. So it's important to establish an intention to be as steady as you can about practicing. Please be kind to yourself, not negatively judgmental. If you need to change your practice time or even miss a day. Think of it as trying to be consistent, without being rigid. It's helpful to set yourself up in a place that's relatively quiet, where you won't be disturbed for the length of your session, choosing a particular time of day to practice is also helpful. First thing in the morning is a good time to schedule a session. Sitting yourself down before doing anything else is much easier, especially for beginners, than stopping your activities mid day. It also sets a good tone of mindfulness for the day, encouraging you to be as fully present as you can during your various daily activities. So, this is something that we've talked about, of, of making it regular, but not rigid, and that's, that's very helpful. I remember, with one of my teachers Trungpa Rinpoche Shea. I was there sitting there and one of his students came in and said, You know I'm really having difficulty with my practice, I just can't seem to make any progress and, and I keep missing days and missing days and missing, you know, and I find other things to do, it's like it. I need something to get me more consistent and trunk room shape, Tibetan teacher said, you need Rutan
and the students said you Oh, yeah. What I, where do I get some. I'll take the region, if you can get some for me, you know, where do I get it. And he said, No, no Rutan, like, first you do this, then you do that, then you do this, and the guy said, routine. Got it, okay. He was hoping there was a magic substance called Rutan that would suddenly make his life disciplined. No, he needed to get some routine routine. All right, supporting your practice, inspiring images are traditionally used as supports for practice. It might be a statue of a meditator, a flower arrangement or picture of a peaceful nature scene or landscape, such as the one you've chosen for your aimless wandering practice, you can select a meaningful quote or short poem like one of pues to print on a card and keep near you while you practice or on your desk at work as a mindfulness reminder during the day. Some people include a background of soft consuming sounds when they practice ocean waves, a babbling brook, gentle rain peaceful for sounds or wind chimes, create an atmosphere of serenity. By the way, in the background. I'm playing on my TV, a YouTube of the sing Tibetan singing bowls, a six hour YouTube of singing bowls. It's so soothing. Certain scents can be calming, like those are fragrant flowers, essential oils or mild incense. Now, the thing with incense, you have to be a little bit careful. I did the three year retreat, a different sequence than Andrew did. But we, we lived in very small rooms, each of us had a small room, like an eight by 10 room. And I found a way to entertain myself by getting different kinds of incense I was going to try Oh this one smells like this and that one smells like that. And I was burning incense and burning incense as well as a certain point ago. Am I get at the end of the day, am I getting a cold. Oh no. And I'd go to bed and wake up the next morning I was fine. By the end of the day and I was all stuffed up. I had made myself allergic to incense. I love the smell of incense so don't overdo it with the essential oils or the fragrances or with the incense just as a personal note of warning. Many people find it supportive to practice with others, look for opportunities to join an open sessions of group mindfulness practice. You can also also gather your family for mindfulness practice and kindness practice perhaps on a weekly basis. And we have the Monday night sessions that we've been doing and I also have a mindfulness session every two weeks at noon on Wednesdays. You get let me know if you're, you're welcome. If you're interested in joining that as well.
Many. Before you begin a practice session, it can be helpful to read or listen to a passage from an inspirational book like this, or, or a teaching, and is a teaching I want to mention when we get to one of the questions. After your practice writing down insights about your thoughts and feelings supports your awareness throughout the day, reviewing your notes each evening as part of your daily reflection guides you in setting your intentions for the next day. Now, this is an interesting question that has come up, people say, I knew somebody who kept a pad with him, pad and pen right next to him when he meditated, so that if he thought of got a bright idea and thought of something, instead of going, Oh, I don't want to forget that and keep running it through his mind, he would write it down. Well, I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, yes, you've got it out of your mind, you've written it down and I have a pad by my bed, besides writing down my dreams, which I do occasionally, not as regularly as Andrew does But occasionally, I, I also if I think of something like in the really early morning. I don't want to be tossing around my around and worried that I'm gonna forget it so I'll write it down. The problem with doing that in meditation is it actually invites more thoughts. And then you get into a cycle where you're thinking and writing and thinking and writing. Now, what you can do what you can do is do a period of tranquility meditation, a basic mindfulness of the breath, essentially, a non thinking so much, and who has is not thinking log that he goes and sits on he's not thinking spot. So you do that, but you have the intention that you're going to use that as a basis, because there's something that you want to think through, and you say, and then at the end of my session after 15 minutes. I'm going to take five minutes and just be open to thinking, and say, okay, and I have my pad and my pen, then and say okay. Anything interesting that comes up, you're invited. And it's a kind of contemplative practice that you can do of inviting insight, because you've done tranquility, you know, it's like a lake that when it's, when the wind stirs it. The whitecaps mean you can't see through to the bottom. And the mind is the same thing when it's stirred by emotions and a lot of discursive thinking, ie insights don't appear, but when the mind is quieted. There's an opportunity for, oh, things come up, they bubble up, and you go oh, that's pretty good. You can write it down, and you can you can choose a particular topic to pay attention to. But it's really important to separate those out and not say well I'm going to write down my thoughts during the mindfulness practice. Better to wait and you know what, tell yourself, if it's really important, it will come back. Perhaps the most important support for your practice is maintaining a positive attitude. Some days it will be easier to be mindful in meditation, and in action. Other times it will feel like your mind is completely overrun by thoughts. Remember that the ups and downs will come and go. When your practice or any other aspects of life are difficult. A positive attitude and broader perspective will prevent you from getting discouraged, and inspire you to keep going forward. And definitely that applies to your meditation practice as well as your everyday life. I think we'll do one more chapter and then we'll do our questions and answers okay.
Chapter nine forest bathing immersing yourself in the serene atmosphere of a nature walk can be an enlightening experience deeply settling in your body, and breathing allows busy thoughts to subside. Once a tune to your senses, you have access to a clearer, more direct quality of perception.
So this title forest bathing, is what the inspiration that we had that an editor at Disney had to invite us to write the book. She had, we talked about this in the first. I think at the beginning that she'd seen an article on NPR and knew that Nancy had worked a lot on poo and also had a brother who taught mindfulness. So maybe she was sitting and just contemplating and the idea clicked.
Piglet proudly announced. I'm ready now poor to do some aimless wandering. And just noticing how do we start,
we start at the beginning, which is where we are. Sometimes we think about the past and the future, but the earth is always here and now. So we need to get grounded in our bodies by feeling the earth under us
really beyond people's front door, who noticed a patch of moss.
Let's fly down and do some grounding practice.
And here we have them lying down and doing the grounding practice.
Just let yourself sink in. Let yourself be as heavy as you can be feel like you're part of the earth and the earth is part of you, then you're not very little piglet on great big earth you piglet are as big as the world.
Then, who sat up and said,
Now, let's count each breath in and out one in and out to for a few minutes to help us be better at paying attention and noticing when we're not,
let's do that together, along with Pooh and Piglet. Let's take a pause right here
was seven that's his highest who can count. Soon who wanted to try something else.
Now, close your eyes really tight and put your hands over your ears will each count to three, then we'll open our eyes and uncover our ears and pretend that we've never seen or heard anything before.
Alright, let's, let's all do that. Okay.
Wow. Wow, that was fun. The two friends counted down together
3321 No. Now,
when they look, and listen. The colors were brighter, and the sounds were more vivid. How amazing. When they stood up to start aimless wandering piglet ask which way shall we go
in, aimless wandering, we go nowhere in particular. So there isn't a way we should go. But since there are two of us, and we'd rather not wander too far apart. Let's let our census guide us.
Should I follow you.
Let's take turns, and when one of us notices something we can point it out to the other
as they started walking, who said, look, look. Piglet said, listen, listen, and they were dancing back and forth as the word revealed its natural magic. When they came to a stream, who started to slush alongside piglet followed the cool mud squishing under his feet. What fun.
Indeed,
they follow the stream as its gentle current flowed over, under and around rocks of different shapes and sizes. A bright yellow leaf tossed and turned as it floated along flipping over and back again. Sometimes the water swirled in little Eddie's, other times it ran straight ahead. At one point the stream took a bit of a rest and flow gently into a deep pool, giving passers by a chance to visit when it wasn't in such a hurry. Who and Piglet sat down on the bank and dangled their feet in the clear cool water does not feel good after a while they stood up, shook the water off their feet and started walking again. Piglet noticed a patch of flowers, bushy purple lavender wild red roses and springy yellow camooweal He was captivated captivated by the brilliant colors and walked among them who followed, and they both leaned close to the smell the blooms, the perfumes were intoxicating piglet closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. These flowers are making me feel the teensiest bit sleepy.
Lavender wild roses and Kameel I believe it could be their soothing quality that's making us feel calm and relaxed, and perhaps just a little lazy. Indeed,
to compose a relaxation poem.
When we're grounded and at ease, we can wander where we please with our senses as our guide, we can let our thoughts subside. And then wile away the hours by the stream, among the flowers.
And so Poon piglet feeling grounded and aware, practice just noticing as they let their senses lead them through the work, immersed in sights, sounds, sensations and smells and experiencing them all zipped for the first time, they felt renewed. So that was fun. That was fun. I like doing that 123 And then opening our eyes and everything's new. And, and I realized when I, when I showed you that picture of the Pooh and Piglet, lying on the moss. When we were doing the last chapter, the chapter eight with the walking, you know, you have everything you need. I was getting a little teared up. You know when, when, who was saying piglet you already have everything inside you. I was getting, you know, getting a little move, and I forgot to show you the picture of when, when piglet was feeling a little more confident. So cute. So cute. So that was them doing their forest bathing.
This is from the book, the sky and earth touched me by Joseph Cornell forest bathing or Shinrin Yoku is the Japanese practice of going to the forest to receive mental and physical healing, when we walk through a forest. Nature's benevolence flows into us as sunshine flows into trees. Beneath soaring pines and giant spreading oaks thoughts naturally become expansive and harmonious. As you breathe in and out, be aware of how interconnected you are with the forest, and of the reciprocal relationship, all beings have with one another.
In the mindfulness tradition. Oh, I forgot that I wrote this, it was something I explained earlier in the mindfulness tradition the perceiving mind is likened to a monkey in a room with six windows. That's my impatient, sorry, the monkey can only look at one window at a time. In the same way when a given sense perception is in the foreground of your consciousness. it becomes your main experience. All the other senses, go to the background. We're familiar with the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. So what is the sixth window. It is the perception of our own thoughts. When thinking is in the foreground, all the other senses, go to the background. When thinking subsides, the other senses emerge more vividly smelling like Pooh and Piglet. After doing some grounding practice to settle your mind, Explore your sense of smell. Notice familiar and new fragrances. Do you recognize any herbs. What qualities do you smell fresh or musty flowery or accurate minty sweet pungent, earthy resinous. Take a leaf or small piece of tree bark and crush it between your fingers. It may smell stronger is the smell and different in any other way.
Important note when walking in the forest, know the plants of your region so you can avoid ones like poison ivy, oak or sumac. If in doubt, don't touch.
Oh, one of my favorites going for a walk is Rosemary, you know, you see it, and you could even put your nose right next to the planet, there's a little bit of smell but you crush a little than your fingers. Whoo. It really, it rocks you. What smells do you find pleasing neutral or unpleasant. How do sense affect you. There's a field called aroma therapy that talks about the positive effects of aromas from plant essences on our nervous system, emotions and overall health, deep in the forest, surrounded by trees you can almost smell the oxygen they emit in exchange for the carbon dioxide they absorb soaking in the healing atmosphere of the forest bathing in a swirl of sense perceptions, you'll feel you'll likely feel a profound peacefulness, a deep appreciation, and a natural gratitude for the beauty of nature. So this is something that that's actually been promoted as part of forest breathing, That it's a combination of mindfulness and aroma therapy. So that's, that's really what they're trying to do in Japan in work in working with this as a healing, healing thing, so that that business about thinking being the sixth window we do we perceive our thoughts. And, and that's really a thing when we are caught up in thought. And one of my teachers said, you know the instruction for meditation and everything you do in your life, is don't let your mind, take the shape of your thoughts. The idea is that you have thoughts, but you are not your thoughts. Mostly we identify with them. We have the thought we go well if I'm thinking it must be true. And if I'm thinking I should do something I should do it. But, we can have some space we can take you know like looking at a painting you step back to get a good look at it. The painting exists but it exists in a bigger space. Well the thoughts are the same. They exist but they exist in a bigger space, the space of your mind. So you can choose, rather than react if you, if your mind takes the shape as a thought you have no choice but to react. But if your mind is bigger and you recognize the thought as something as an appearance arising in your mind, then you have a choice of how you respond to that appearance. Just because you think it does not make it so. Well good. So those are our chapters and. Let's do the questions. The first there's one that came in earlier. And I just got to, I just got to bring it up here. There it is. Okay, this is from Eris. Hello, Joseph and Nancy parent Hello. I really enjoy your book with all the adventures of Winnie and mindfulness, I keep hearing when he saying, I am kind to myself first. He is gentle and soft himself when he makes a mistake and nice to himself to eat honey. You've talked about loving kindness is there also a self compassion meditation, which I can do. Yes there is. And I've asked Andy, he's posting it right now. No. In our earlier class on the chapter let's see it's chapter four kind hearted and caring. On page, 24 in the book should be around 24 The first practice is this one the caring kindness practice for yourself. So that's the, that's the first practice and that matches what we were just talking about the that you start with yourself. And it includes saying my nature is goodness, I deserve peace and happiness. One of the challenges is, we don't necessarily believe that. So it helps to say it, and to do the practice that absorbs any negativity into a sense of light in your heart center that instantly transforms it into the opposite. So if you're feeling
guilt. Then you breathe that in, and it transforms and you radiate out to yourself. A feeling of forgiveness. If you feel frustrated. Breathe out yourself a feeling of acceptance or patience. All of those things are ways that you can change and I. So in addition to that practice where you actually exchange the negativity in yourself. For positivity. It is based on a belief that your nature is wakefulness and, and what we call in the Shambala tradition of basic, basic goodness. So that, that is always your nature and everything else is the overlay. Too often we have things backwards. And we really think that confusion, and negativity is our nature. We haven't even gotten to the EA or chapter yet, but confusion, and negativity is our nature, and that we have to bring in, we have to we have to get some goodness, like getting some Rutan, you know, we have to get some goodness in Put, put it in us. But, you know, that, that is really, it had its things backwards in fact, we talk about the, the way we appear to ourselves as a costume. I think I talked about I might have talked about it last time that scene in the movie cocoon when they peel back their, their appearance as human beings and they're aliens made of light. And we're more like that. This basic light and wakefulness. I use this teaching in the Buddhist tradition of this goodness not being recognized. One of the metaphors is a gold statue covered with clay, and I tell the story of a young person who thinks they have a clay statue, and they spend all their extra time earning money to have a gold plated so it'll look nicer, and their grandparents come back and say oh you're not ready to do that, look, you gently just had to remove the clay and reveal the solid gold statue you possessed all along. So, If we understand that we're, what we experience of negativity is just clay on top of the gold. It's our nature, there's so many metaphors like that, like a crystal ball covered and such that the suit can never stain the crystal, it doesn't get inside it. As soon as it's cleaned off. Boom Crystal is there, the sun in the clouds, the Sun of goodness and wakefulness and kindness is always shining from our hearts. Now, we can make it a pretty cloudy day. But and think that there's no sun there, but it is it's always there. You don't have to create a new sun in front of the clouds. It's a, it's a matter of gently parting the clouds. That's what you need to do. Now, this teaching from tick not Han is an is another practice that you can do. And it's a contemplative practice you actually say things like, I deserve, kindness, others deserve kindness, and what he talks about in this article is saying that for yourself. And then, and then once you've done enough of that for yourself. I forgive myself. I am basically good, I forgive myself for my mistakes. I deserve, honey. I deserve that and poo, especially deserved, when he didn't try to get it by cracking open the hive, but just decided that it would be wrong to harm the bees, he would just wait and watch. And it appeared. So, you do that first. And what comes naturally and what tick not Han teaches after that is, then you find somebody that it's easy to want to extend that love and kindness to somebody that you love that you want to have kindness, then as you get better at that you include people that you feel okay about. And then people that you don't have any particular feeling about, and eventually, people that bug you.
And then you work with that, and extend that kindness, and as soon as you encounter somebody that bugs you, you have to start again with yourself and forgive yourself for being bugged. And then forgive them, for whatever they're doing that bugs you, and so it's a very much given take on that one. So I think you'll find that interesting to read that article, it's actually contains a lot of interesting things about how we experience the sequence of things we experience of the sense of self and other than whether we like something, or don't like it, then more detailed qualities of it until we develop a whole storyline about why this person is so good and that person is not so good. It reminds me of a time when I was in retreat. And there was a. Did I tell the story last time. I'm getting classes confused might have told it in the meditation class, there was a there was a guy who recently passed away I just saw a notice about that but it made me reminded me of that. We had periods where we did group practice. And in group practice, sometimes we would do a recitation or we would count breaths or something, and we would have a, what's called a mala. Hang on a second.
It's a rosary essentially a string of beads like that can see the beads there, and you count them like that by moving them through on your thumb, boom, boom, boom, there it is. Like that. Well, this, this guy in the practice, he had won twice this big same number of beads, twice as big, huge wouldn't beat, And each time he would go go click, click, click, click, was driving me nuts. It was driving me crazy. And I was going, Ah, when is he gonna stop. Oh please. Well, you know, we're in those retreats because we're Buddhists not Buddha's, which means that we're aspiring to be more wakeful, and there was a guy in there who was kind of a jerk, and he passed me a nasty note about something I did, and it was very upsetting. So this guy who clicks the beat, who does be, he was, he came over and he saw I was upset and he comforted me. And he said don't worry about that guy's just a jerk, you know, forget it, don't take a person, and he really made me feel better. And the next time we had group practice, I heard, click, click, click, but now it was, Oh, that's my friend. I'm so glad he's there. And suddenly, that wasn't so irritating. So it's interesting how appearances change based on our attitude toward them so I wanted to I wanted to share that story with you. So, so you can work with those practices, it's a, it's a beautiful little article. And I love tick not Hans teachings, so it's a contemplative compassion, self compassion practice. Let's go on. Nan Have you done any of that, that practice you do, you've read a lot of Pamela's books right now. Have you found that helpful.
Oh yeah, I love her. I love what she has to say. And then, and also, I think a nice way to think about it too is to be or to be your, your own best friend and think about how your friend would talk to you, and you talk to yourself in the same way, because a friend would not be verbally beating you up and telling you you're horrible and shaming you and all of that but would be saying Being kind to you, and that the voice that you want to play and say to yourself.
That's great. Yeah, That, that, that reminds me of the in my golf book. I have a chapter called Fire your evil caddy, and people just, they say not nice things to themselves on the golf course. They hit a bad shot they go oh you jerk. What an idiot and I said, How long would you keep a Caddy around how or a friend or somebody you play golf with if they said that to you after every bad shot. You're a jerk you want to quit, you know, this is really stupid. You're really dumb. You wouldn't hang out with that person for very long. So, man that's a great point. That's great. Listen to how you talk to yourself and talk to yourself, you know, just say, Oh well, let's do it as an exercise, okay you can all do this with. We don't have to unmute but you can, you can do it as an exercise. Okay, so I want you to picture. What are your friends who feels badly that they did something wrong, and you want to comfort them. Okay. So I want you to put their name in it. That's okay, Bob. Everybody makes mistakes. So we're gonna say that sentence put there, put your really visualize your friend's name and put it in the, in the sentence. After that's okay, because we'll all say together. That's okay. Everybody
makes mistakes.
Right. Let's do one more time with some enthusiasm, you're really, as you ever really there with your friend trying to comfort them. Okay, ready. That's okay. Everybody makes mistakes. Good. How did that feel probably feel pretty good that you could be that comforting and generous okay so now we're gonna say the same thing, same sentence. Please put your name in there. After that's okay. All right, here we go. That's okay, Joe.
Everybody makes mistakes.
Now you might have said that was, I'm guessing a little less enthusiasm. A little less enthusiasm. That's harder. It's, you know, we were hard, we give ourselves a hard time, and we don't give ourselves a break. But for somebody else. Oh, let's see, hey, that's okay. Everybody makes mistakes and you feel good and you're enthusiastic, and you go, Oh, that's okay, Joe everybody makes mistakes. Yeah no I don't believe that. I'm not allowed to do that. You see, so it's a really good exercise to see the difference. So thank you man, that's, that's perfect. That's great.
I also had a yoga teacher who did a podcast about this because she said it was almost like it was habit forming the negative talk the negative tape in your head. It was like a habit that you kept playing over and over again.
That is a really interesting point, and, and I want to address that as well. Why do we do that, where does that come from. Okay. Well, it's reinforcing as a habit, because there's something inside that in psychology, they call secondary gain. You feel bad hearing yourself say these things to yourself, but you feel good saying them, because you've done a good job punishing yourself. Now what why would that why would that feel good, okay. When you were really really little and you took your first, and we're just learning how to take your first steps. If you took your first steps. Oh, you got applause. Oh you're so wonderful and you go, you take your, you know, it's almost, if you could bow as a one year old, you know, oh, hey yeah I'm great. Okay. Now, if you fall down, they go, Wow, that's okay, don't worry about it. Now you'll be, you'll be fine. You're okay. And you go brush yourself off and where you go, okay. Now, as you get older and you learn and you know how to walk. You walk into the room. Nothing. You get no applause, Hey, where's, where are my fans. I used to get applause for this. Now you're expected to do it right. Okay, catch, that's very important, you're expected to do it right. And if you fall down, then you get criticized watch what you're doing, watch where you're going, don't be so clumsy. All of those negative things, and you get the message. Well, my parents care about me. And so, they're doing this because I need to be chastised I need to be told something that I'm bad, so that I won't make, and they even tell you. I'm only doing this so you won't make the mistake again. And you get this message okay so I make mistakes I shouldn't be punished, so that I won't do it again. Well, when your parents aren't around. This is called socialization, when your parents aren't around you take on the job. And you say, okay, they're not here, I just made a mistake. Somebody got to punish me. I volunteer. And you take on the job. And then you say, you beat the crap out of yourself, and you feel terrible for doing it, but you also feel good because you did a really good, really good job. So you don't just beat yourself up a little, you just pound it, right, because, so your parents will be really proud of you, at what a good job you did, and punishing yourself so that you won't make that mistake again. The problem is, You got that reward for punishing yourself so you do make the same mistake again and it becomes an addiction, and a self fulfilling prophecy cycle. Oh, yeah. How about that, huh. Okay, um, Kiersten I see you I want to just do this came in early. You've talked before about the way senses cooperate or compete, actually. Can you say a few words about that relating to the activity of playing the piano, which requires a constant translation of signs you see into sound and the sound you hear internally into motion and touch. I, I have to defer to Andrew, who is a trained classical pianist, and I don't know if he is still sitting in on the class, if he's there, I'd love for him to jump in. But I, I, the last time I played piano I think it was when I was 12. And that was a long time ago. So I don't know how that would translate, but I believe, you know, based on what we just talked about on the principle of it.
The mind can move very very fast. So it goes from seeing to the, the, translating the sign, signs, and the signs I think it's interesting I don't know, as a musician, whether you hear the sound based on, I think as a more accomplished musician, you would hear the sound as you read the note in the in the on the sheet music. I remember as an accomplished musician. I could see the note, translate that into the letters, C sharp, B flat, A sharp, D, and the letter would translate into the key that I saw. And then my, my hand would go toward that key. As you can tell it was not that melodic. That's what happens when it's all that that mechanical that is going from one to the other to the other to the other to the other and going like that. I believe that as an accomplished musician, you would hear the note that you saw on the sheet music. If you can play by play if you're good enough to play. As you read, that's what that's what I would think. But in any case, we know for sure that it is the sense perception of primary one, plus background once they don't all go away. There's a primary one, and then background ones, and they go back and forth. So, right now, I'm going, I'm thinking about what I'm gonna say I'm saying it. Every now and again I hear the gongs for in the from the sound in the other room. And it just, my mind goes there and comes back in 1/60 of a second, that's, that's fear, that's a, it's that's a metaphor, but that's what they said they're 60 impressions per second. So that's pretty fast. And I think that, again, that's a metaphor, there's probably at least that many. So I would ask Andrew next chance you get on that one, that'd be good. Tim says, I like to be here now theme. Can you say a few more words about that. The, just a couple and then we're going to take, Kristin. I'm a Kiersten sorry not Kristin Kiersten the Be Here Now as soon whenever I see it, especially in quotes. I think of ROM Das, and that was his book, and one of the first spiritual books I read 1969 I'm guessing maybe 70 Something like that. So, yes, about 50 years ago. And basically it was not doing things the way conventional society does them in which we're always ahead of ourselves, what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next. You can barely, you, you know, they even do it when you're watching television, they scroll along the bottom. Coming up next, and then you go. Geez, could you just let me watch this without making me think about what's next. But that's what we do. And we are, we're kind of hardwired to anticipate and think about what's next. So there's a lot of momentum there from prehistoric times we, you know, if you didn't anticipate the trouble. If you anticipated the trouble and your friend didn't you got away, and he didn't. And he's at a gene pool. So, you know, they say you don't have to outrun the bear you just have to run your buddy. So, so you. So we are bred in that way to anticipate pretty land to anticipate danger. Now,
the idea of be here now. This again goes with what the default mode is, if you, unless you have a time machine in your backyard, the location of your body in space is always here, the location of your body in time is always now, but your mind is a time machine. It goes to the past in the future and it goes elsewhere in the present. So, be here now seem simply means that your body and mind are synchronized in the present moment, but you're always there. As soon as you come back from a daydream, you're already but you don't have to say come back to the present, you're already present, you woke up in the same way in the morning when you wake up from a dream. You're awake. Now if you wake up in the dream, that's a whole nother thing so that metaphor doesn't hold, but when you wake up in the morning from sleep. You're awake. You don't have to think I should wake myself up You woke up. Same thing, you are already here now. Now, at that moment in our mindfulness practice, it's what we come back to is what we had chosen to pay attention to. Do you remember what you were doing. Simple as that. So,
next time I'll tell the story about someplace else. So Kiersten. I gotta make a note of that. Okay, Kiersten. Can you. Yeah. Am
I muted.
Yeah, hear you.
Um, ah, you're comments about the our, our chastising ourselves reminded me of a course that I took that was presented by an improv actor. And, of course, in improv, you have to be really in the moment so that you respond to what's really going on. And one of the exercises which I took me a while to get used to and it's very much in keeping with what we're talking about is there, there was one exercise where we had to pass a ball around. And you know say something about yourself and then about the other person and you had to respond and right whatever the rules were they were simple, but they required instant attention. And then, it was impossible to not mess up mean every few people, somebody screwed up. And part of the instruction was that we had to throw our hands up and say, Hooray mistake. So instead of being, you know, angry with yourself or frustrated with yourself, you're sort of like,
Oh yeah,
I'm done. Now I can move back and it, It was such an awakening to me in terms of just letting go of, of, oh, I made a mistake, I didn't do it right. So, just a thought. I thought that was
so fun. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. I think that that's, that's great you know it's kind of like the practice of going against the grain, which is very much part of the tradition of contemplative practice of exchanging self for others, that when, when you're in a situation, the habitual reaction is to blame someone else. And so we, we go against the grain and say, Okay, I'm gonna take the blame. Even if I don't think it's my fault. I'm gonna take the blame. and I was just reading this lovely piece. It's a question and answer section from a talk given by the budget region. On, on the Shambala teachings of basic goodness. And it was about relationships, and, and they, he said. One, they said, Can you give me some advice and he said well, you know, I didn't read this in a book. But I think he said I learned it from my wife. But, but he said, what I find is really helpful. Yield if you're right. If you think you're right, yield in the in the argument. And he said, and you know, if you're certain that you're right, it should be easier to yield and do it gracefully. Because you're not taking it personally. But you can you can yield you can give the territory away. You can say, well, you know, you could be right. One of, one of the things you know two people remember things differently, always. And we usually go to, no that's not what you said. Yes it is. I remember distinctly saying it. Well I remember distinctly you not saying that you said something else. But what have you said, Okay, you said that, I said something else. What have you said, Okay, I don't remember you saying that, see that's there, it certainly comes, you you take responsibility. I don't remember you saying that, then, then you give space for the other person to be gracious to, they say, well maybe I didn't, maybe I'm remembering it wrong to. Ah, now you get along. As opposed to, I'm right. I'm right. I'm right. I'm right. I'm right. So if you think you're right. Yield now. Thank you all so much. That was, that was a lot I hope that was fun, and I love doing this with my sister and with all of you. It's really it's a great joy. What we do want to do as part of our practice is to share this, have the intention that we're not just doing this for ourselves. So, I like to recite something at the end of any practice or study session. And you can repeat after me if you'd like, whatever words you want. And it's in three parts. May the practice and study we have just done be of benefit to others, as well as ourselves. And you can do that after every practice and, and if you feel like you feel particularly generous or what you want to cultivate generosity, you can say May the practice I've just done be of even more benefit to others, than to myself. So thank you Andrew. We did have a question about piano that you can see in the chat. That would be wonderful if you would address next time. It's about the how the senses work together. Can you see it in there,
looking for
beer get here get roasted.
Oh okay, yeah, Andy if you can set, if you can say, maybe copy save that for me.
No, do read it started next class was do it, I think, lovely. Can we do the, we have a new thing now where we unmute everyone so everyone could say, just ask everyone to unmute and say goodbye.