[174] Exploring the Formless Through the Body - with Rebeca Castella

5:31PM Sep 23, 2024

Speakers:

Keywords:

practice

meditation

walking meditation

breath

feel

grounded

share

aspiration

space

philip

walk

formless

breathing

somatic

feet

tim

lying

belly

words

notice

Good evening or a good day. Everyone looking at you, we have Rob Phillip Francois, Mayra Buenas tardes. Tim, hi. Tim, thumbs up. Wonderful. You. So good to see you just that I can see on the screen. Maybe I know, Philip, you have been here a few times, even though you can barely hear me, I actually can you hear me today. Is this sound good? Oops, one second, one second, that's not Good. There's some music starting one second, you

okay, I think we're good. Did you guys hear the music that started to play? No, it was only me. Okay. I was all of a sudden starting to hear one of my favorite songs, which is called Fiesta by a Colombian band called Bombay stereo. That was weird. I thought all of you were part of it was my computer. Okay, yeah, yeah, time to dance. Anyway, okay, well, I was saying I know Philip has been here before. I'm just checking, Rob, is this your first time here with me today? Yes. Okay, wonderful. Welcome, yeah, Tim, good now. Tim, I'm not sure. Have you been here before? Is this your first time? How about have you been here before? Give me a thumb up. You've been here before. Okay, cool. And maida, is this your first time with me? You've been here before? Okay, in the background without being shown. Okay, good, wonderful. Thank you. So I thought we would jump right into practice today, tomorrow is the full moon. And I don't know if you are a witch like me, you get affected by these sort of things, but I feel a lot of a lot of energy, actually, my days at work, so probably a lot of energy there too. And yeah, I guess any day is a good day for a grounding meditation. But for me personally, Today feels like especially needed day to ground. So, I would like, and I hope it's possible, I don't know, for those of you who are new, Well, Rob, Rob, do you have a Do you have a chance to lie down where you're at? Yeah, beautiful. Okay, great. So we are going to start with a little bit of lying down, of bodywork. In just a few minutes. I'll introduce this a little bit with like I've said before, but I'll just use a minute to introduce it. This is called bodywork, or also somatic meditation, as I have been taught by my main teacher, Reggie Ray, who writes about this kind of meditation in a couple of different books. His first one is called touching enlightenment, finding realization through the body, and his more recent one about the topic and more summarized too, is the awakening the body, somatic meditation for discovering our life, which is this little yellow book that I know some of you have already touched based on so those are the two books that are that explain more or less widely these different somatic meditations that I have been offering monthly for a few months now. And this is the meditations that I personally have used the most and connected with the most and grounded myself with the most and and I usually like to start our sessions with this, so we're probably going to do, I think today, my intention is maybe about 20 minutes lying down. It's not going to be too long. And then we will. Will return to sit up for another 20 minutes, and then for the last 20 minutes, I'll offer a few words of wisdom. Hopefully, we'll see if it's wise or not, you can determine for yourself and and then I'll open up to any questions or any comments or anything that anybody might want to share. Let me see if there's anything else I want to say about this. So actually, as I was reading the title of this book, I'll read it again, I just thought about a couple of things that I'll say before we jump into practice. So the book is called The awakening the body somatic meditation for discovering our deepest life. So for me, I know I've shared this a little bit more in depth with Philip. We've had some some chats, but I'll share it with all of you. For me, these practices, I have done some sitting meditation before coming into these practices, which was very helpful, but not for me, not until I found this lying down somatic meditation, was I able, really to relax my body and my mind to a level I have I had not experienced before, and I didn't know what's possible. And for me, I reflected about this a lot. In today's day and age, I see a lot of people, some very, very close to to me, in my family that I see, they're actually incapable, absolutely incapable, to relax and and I think you know, not only in the beginning of the meditation journey is it really important to learn to relax, but also at the very end of the meditation journey. And as many of you followers and students of Andrew, I'm sure, have heard many, many, many times, to me, it's almost like my daily mantra at this point, if we would summarize, reduce this whole path of both living and dying into what it's all about. Two words, is open and relaxed. Yeah, you've heard this from Andrew, I'm pretty sure. And these practices, to me really, really helped me to, I don't know in which order if it's open and relaxed, or if it's relaxed and open, or, you know, chicken or the egg, but, but yeah, the the word goes, relaxed body, relaxed mind and open body. Open Mind. So through the body, we use the body as a vehicle by a few different techniques, and using our breath in different parts to really start concentrating. And from that concentration, let's say that would be shamatha. There is the second phase of awareness, or Vipassana or opening up. So to me, it's really, really helpful. And once we've done a little bit of this, lying down, part of this, you know, grounding, relaxing, once we sit back up in the meditation posture, the world is different. You know, there's, there's a whole other things, Philip, let's get on it. We're eager. Okay, so, yeah, let's do it and and, you know, if there's for those of you who will do it for the same time, but for the first time, I'd be really, really curious to see, you, know, to hear from you at the end. So if you feel like sharing your experience, that would be wonderful. Okay, so we're going to lie down on our back. Make sure you have something comfortable, like a like a meditation Sabaton, or blanket or yoga mat. I'm

if you have a sabotage like the classical meditation Sabaton, it's you can put your butt on one corner and your head on the other corner, and that usually makes it I'm really intending that you will hear me beautifully today with this. So let's see.

Okay, so we're lying down on our backs and we have our knees up. Show your knees like this, and our feet grounded on the floor. You can use a little bit of a cushion to get your head up a little bit, if that's more comfortable, or you can lay completely flat on the ground up to your neck. So. Feel it out what feels best for you. So we keep our feet grounded and we let our knees fall towards each other, kind of creating a tripod between the feet and the buttocks and the knees. And if you feel like there is some straining and that it's not natural for you. You could use a belt right above your knees or a scarf to tie it so you don't have to push your knees together or have any strain whatsoever that will support you to relax further. And then we place our hands on our lower belly, left, under the right, unless you're left handed. Then you do it the other way. The idea is to have a hand the less agendas closest to the body. And then I'm just going to be quiet for this first minute and let us land in the posture in our bodies, nice and

we can just land and allow ourselves to take a few big deep breaths and just sigh out and like when we would get home after a long day, and we Just sit on the sofa and just sigh out and

All right, so today I'm gonna offer a practice called the three fold breathing And breathe in three different parts of our torso, and we're going to start with our lower belly, the part underneath our hands, under our navel, above our pubic bone, and just starting to notice the breath in the lower belly area, and as we breathe in, we will naturally rise a little bit under the hands, you can just notice. And as we breathe out, it will empty and shrink.

Let's just pay attention to our lower belly as we Breathe in and out naturally for a few breaths and

and as we first connected just with a natural breath and notice the rising and the falling of the Lower Breath of the lower belly, we can now allow a little bit of a bigger breath, a little bit more intentional breath, and breathing in, allowing the lower belly to fill up, and breathing out a little bit more fully, noticing the belly empty out, fall back.

Let's do this a little more fuller breaths for three breaths and.

Notice the texture of our mind. Is it pretty busy, or is it already pretty settled to feel present and grounded.

How does it feel dispersed? When or if? Our mind wonders we bring it back to the object of meditation, which is right now the lower belly and the fuller breaths in the lower belly. So let's do three more of Those, all lower bending breaths and

oh, we've tasted the lower belly breathing settled a little bit. Possibly we're gonna continue with a full cycle of 12 entire breaths in our lower belly. I'm just going to be quiet, and each of us will count our own breaths, and then we just wave down till the end. Until I finish, Let's Begin And

one more breath in The lower belly out of the

and now just notice, notice how your body is feeling, notice the quality of your mind and

then, with this, just as it is, we're gonna move our hands up to the sternum, place them right under our breasts, and. Part of our lungs. And feel with the fingers this little middle part here, the triangle between the chest and the lines where the lungs come together the middle of our torso. Now try to bring the breath here, a few breaths, just breathing In and out of that this mid torso region and

now, to the best of our ability, we'll do a full cycle of 12 breaths here in the mid region as well. And

and the last Breath all together and

and then we just relax again. Pay attention to our body, attention to our mind.

Notice the quality of our mind, to feel pretty still to feel silent, still busy

might there be a sense of okayness Things are basically okay? Or is it worried that's notice, no further commentary needed, very simple touch and go and

so now we're going to move our fingers up to the third master area in this practice, which is the collarbones. We're going to place our fingers on our collarbones and try to start breathing all the way up here we're. Bringing in the breath under the collarbones,

trying to leave the lower belly and the mid torso region out of the picture, and just breathing up High here to see if you can do that and

right three more. This is a bit the hardest transition after the other two just put our intention efforts into just breathing very high up, almost at the throat, under the collarbones, and allowing the upper chest to rise as you breathe in, and let it fall back as we breathe out.

First few breaths might be helpful. If you exaggerating a little bit, you can take a little bit deeper breaths just to get the breath going up here under the collarbones and

maybe parting the lips a little bit on the exhale now, in some air to come out through now,

actually try to keep most of the breathing In this area, under the fingers, under the collarbones.

We're going to do also a full cycle here of 12 breaths under the collarbones. Let's Begin And

And the last breath under the collarbones and

really breathe naturally And just notice always Working nice and

okay so? Place our hands back down to our lower body and just again, just notice our body breathing naturally for now and

notice how we feel. There might be a feeling of a bit of more of an expansion or space in our being and

now on this base, very, very slowly, at our own pace, we're going to transition back up to seated posture. And a good way to do that is to roll to one of our sides for two or three breaths, and Then eventually push ourselves up To see The posture you

taking a minute or two to settle back into our seat. Once we find our way back, we can close our eyes again, reconnect and allow a smoother transition.

I just notice our body and our mind as we're Now sitting you

just sitting now with Whatever is, however we notice, whatever we feel, whatever we're observing, allowing It just to be exactly The way it is and

if we can be hang out a bit on The backside of our body, even behind our body, just be there, experience being there and

feeling the sensation almost fall backward and Word and be held by ourselves.

Rest, tension, trust,

without actually physically falling backward to see if our attention beingness. Can, you know, get towards the back, back of our head, back of our back and

Holding our seat lightly, deep, full of rest and.

Noticing if there's any part of our body that we're not allowing to fully relax, see if we can allow you to relax a little bit further. Maybe your lips, part of your lips,

opening our mouth slightly, maybe our ears bring them to travel towards the back and drip down. Our heart open, expansive and relaxed at The same time,

our fingers,

our Neck and

losing the quality of timelessness. Would we sit here for eternity and

here,

first, just a little bit, maybe a foot or two from the bus, keeping up, closed, gaze, closed gaze,

and Just observe as we open our eyes, there's a lot of distractions, such as thoughts coming in, so we can either close our eyes all the way again to just regroup and then start opening again slowly, or just post them a little bit, get closer, and then start raising them as we feel In our center, grounded and

Well before I open up to Any questions or comments or sharings. Just want to say a few words about formlessness.

Ironic to try to say a few words about formless. Formlessness. Formless i

A friend of mine, meditation friend of mine yesterday, a meditation sister said something that really hit home yesterday to me about formlessness. And of course, I can't remember exactly the words that she used and how she said it, but the meaning of it, how it landed with me, felt like something I wanted to share with you today. And we were talking about death, death and dying. So saying, how death is the formless. You know, living its form. It's here. We have a body, we have relatives, we have friends, we have material things, which are all form. We have our thoughts and our solid thinking processes, or what we materialize in the moment of death, all of that goes poof, and all of a sudden, we're in the formless, the unknown, the known versus the Unknown, and choosing how meditation practice really is, in that regard of preparation for death, or the death is, you know, a result of whatever practice we've had meaning when we practice meditation, most of the practices, even The Form practices of the of the Vajrayana, the nun, the deity, practice, have always a formless part of them, and that this formless part is really where we touch in with our nature, their true nature, with the nature of our Mind, which is formless, empty, open and and through developing this habit of touching base with that space, spacious quality, quality of openness, of expansion, okay, ness of allowance, That is how we how we prepare to die, really, because, you know, according to Tibetan Buddhist Buddhism, anyway, when we die, there is this space of Formless space where we let go of Everything, and we have to navigate whatever we encounter without on the forms that we are used to, and that in when we're transitioning in the dying process that we often have one foot still in the world of form and One foot in the formless and that same experience we have in our meditation practice, you know, there's one foot in this form in terms of the relationship to our physical body, our physical pains, our clothes, the heat, the cold, our sinkings and. And maybe there's glimpses, or maybe more than glimpses, of that nature, that space, spacious quality of that openness. I

and and when, when we touch that space in our practice, how nourishing it is and how natural it is, and how simple it is, how no big deal it is. It's just a it's just there. It's just, it's just our being really, it's what, what? What has our back when I was inviting us to lean back a little bit, or, or, you know, experience that feeling of back that was the invitation to Experience the space or the expansiveness or the openness and

I remember this quote by children. I don't remember the exact context, maybe some you know it, but he was asked how you know the path of the Vajrayana? It feels like we're falling, which is a scary feeling. We're falling in space. But the good news is there is no ground.

So that's a little bit just a taste. I felt that feeling of like leaning back a little bit and feeling like a sensation of falling, and sometimes at the same time being held, being held by that space that is also scary, feeling of falling and not Being able to grasp onto form, onto anything material I

Yeah, Tim. Tim says in the chat, our identification with the body so strong, this practice may help to lessen that, somehow, somewhat. What? What do you think? Yes, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you know, ultimately, I think all meditations are exactly aiming at that, you know, dissolving the ego and letting go for attachment to form and, yeah, allowing something else to to be there. Yes, Philip, welcome, unmute yourself and pitch in.

Hello, hello, yeah. First, I want to say that there is a huge difference between my meditation when I was meditating just just on a sitting meditation. I have meditated for 40 years before discovering somatic meditation, and there is a huge, huge difference to sit on my safu after having meditating, lying down and the taste of my true nature, it's so, so tangible. A lot more. Yeah, so thank you. I have, I have a question. I work a lot in nature, and I would like to know if you have experienced some kind of somatic meditation during the work. I tried, I tried to do 510, points practice during walking. So it's a two points practice just to breathe towards the body and to let cause attention in my foot when they touch the ground. I don't know if you have something to. Say about working meditation in a somatic way?

Yeah. I mean, first of all, I don't know. I've never tried to do the the actual practices or protocols, like Reggie calls them like you were saying 10 points, for example, is one of them while I was walking, it never occurred to me. So, you know, maybe you're exploring some new territory, you will, you'll have to tell me, I don't know the couple of things I can I can say that I know, you know, there is, I have heard there's like four ways of meditating, and there's the lying down, the sitting up, the standing and then the walking and and supposedly it is also my experience, but The theory and my own experience both coincide that, let's say, the easiest place to find the relaxation, the deep relaxation, where we can touch our true nature, is lying down for me, and then sitting and then Standing and then walking. Usually, you know, as we, as we erect ourselves to say it in some way. You know, we solidify more and more. You know, the most vulnerable posture where we are, the most raw and open, is lying down, and then as we sit up, we kind of get ourselves together a little bit, and then even more standing than even more walking. You know, we have when we walk, we have to pay attention to not walking to things. And things come our way, and so I would say would be the most difficult place to try to, to be in contact. That doesn't mean that it's not possible. That's why I'm saying. I don't know. I haven't explored enough. You will tell me, I mean, I do feel like, for example, when I when I walk after I have practiced both, maybe like, down and sitting, or maybe just one of them, my walks feel more like an elephant, right? Like, just like, more more more heavy, more grounded, more earthy and and the other thing is, I don't know if you if you've learned, have you gotten instruction on walking meditation? Philip,

not in somatic meditation, but you know, because

you know there's different Buddh traditions have slightly different ways, but many of them integrate walking meditation as a meditation practice on retreat.

I have practice in, yeah, exactly,

exactly, exactly. So, so there's a few different styles. You know, I know kin hin is much more slower and but I think all of them focus on what you're saying on the feet. So for example, when I instruct on walking meditation, I like to say two very simple things, but that our object of meditation are our feet. They are the ones that are in contact with the earth, in connection with the earth, and they are the ones that, if our attention wanders, we bring it back to our feet. And then I like to think very, very simply when I walk, just to keep it almost little bit like a mantra, but very, very simple, heel ball toes, heel ball toes, heel ball toes. Because when we walk, you know, usually first the heel comes into the floor, the earth, and then the ball, and then the toes. So even, you know, depending on how distracted My mind is or how much I feel, I need to keep gathering my thoughts and my mind, if it's dispersed, I keep it really simple, and I come back to that, you know, just to to bring my mind to my feet and and walk that very simple way, but that, that's the only thing I really done. I haven't really applied a full practice. And like you say, I mean, the 10 points practice doesn't really work, right? Because the 10 points when we lie down. The 10 points are in touch with the earth. When we stand up, we only have our feet, so you have to do 2.2 points walking meditation. But yeah, I mean, you know, if you keep exploring that, because you're drawn to that, by all means, and please report back,

yeah, before, because after having practiced 10 points practice and Earth's descent, you know this, grounding in the earth when, when I walk to nature, to the sea, it's so much I feel. A lot of the earth. It's, it's a completely different walk, yeah, I just, I just have to put my attention on the on the earth and the contact of my Yeah, there is something happening, a kind of route, even if I am moving,

yeah, yeah. I mean the other thoughts that come, the other thought that comes to my attention is when you actually do walking meditation in nature, which is absolutely possible, I would say, maybe do it, you know, short times, many times, versus trying to keep that super focus, you know, going for one hour walk and then trying to stay really focused, that might be too much or too exhausting, you know, it's like I'm also relating it to, you know, we have, we have two doggies in our lives, my husband and I, since four months They are now seven and eight months old puppies and and, you know, the way my husband is a good dog trainer, and the way he trains them is like that, short moments many times. But you know, he doesn't try to train them for 3040, 50 minutes at the time, because that's just exhausting for their attention and their concentration. So maybe he tries for like, 234, minutes, and then he lets them run free, and then he trains them again for 234, minutes, and then he lets them be wild. So I think in terms of practicing walking meditation in nature, that would be my intuitive, my intuitive way to do it as well. Okay, thank you. Be too focused for too long. Just, you know, relax and let go and let it all happen however it happens once you're out there. Thanks. How was it for you, Rob, I'm curious if you feel like sharing.

Oh, it was, thank you. It was wonderful, and it went quick. I have done lower belly breathing, but I hadn't done the other two stations. And it's kind of nice when it's new, because it's easy to be pretty one pointed, because I don't have enough pointedness to do that and be distracted, you know. So that's kind of fun. And it was just, it was very interesting. Really felt luminosity in the breathing and, yeah, it's interesting. And then getting back up, I noticed the the, you know, opening, I have an easier time with that than open and, like, open and relax. It's the relaxed part that I find difficult and, you know, and that, leaning back a little, I could feel the vertigo, you know? I mean, that is just psychic vertigo. Whoa, you know, kind of like that. So, you know, yeah, but I'm, I don't know if I have much, it's kind of being a wordless experience. Sort of not really it, but, and I also wonder if you I walk in the tall trees here, and I wonder if your husband would come up and walk me, because it sounds like he knows how to do that.

He actually always says that in terms of, like, you know, we have some friends who have dogs, and that they always ask him to train, to train their dogs. And he always says that actually, the the people you have to train for the dogs to be good dogs, is actually the owners of the dogs, you know, because the important thing is for them to know what needs to be done so that they can, you know, transmit that to their dogs. So maybe he can, he can learn you to walk to.

But thank you very much for this.

Yes, absolutely my pleasure. Okay, Tim, thank you so much. You're welcome, lovely having you here, Happy trails you need to go. Sounds like that. Okay. Oh, wait. Was that?

Anything else,

anything you'd like to share? Tim, you're happy not sharing.

Okay? Okay. Well, I really wanted to share the quote on my window over there, but I actually have to take you all for a little walk. Let me go look at it. I can see it from here. Walk with me in my living room for a sec. So my husband always writes these quotes on the mirror, on the windows, there it is okay. So this one says, There is to be dissolved. There is only the concept of self to be transcended. I've read it one more time. There is no self to be dissolved. There is only the concept of self to be transcended.

So I think just to say one brief commentary on that, you know, the way that's

going to get us out of trouble, so to speak, you know, so to me, these somatic bodywork practices have really helped me. Yeah, just get out of my, my own mind and get out of my, you know, solid entanglements, thoughts, ideas, judgments, and just noticing that there's something there when we, you know, allow all of that to rest. And you know, it's along the line of that we're not going to reach enlightenment. We're not going to achieve enlightenment. You know, there is not something to attain or achieve or arrive to or to become, but it's just, you know, realizing that it's already there. You know, it's there. We just need to keep practicing to touch it more and more until we are it all the time like a Buddha, right? Yeah, okay, well, there's no other words of wisdom or no wisdom. I feel complete. I'll give you another few moments, in case there's anything else or any racing depends. Oh, thanks again. Yeah, thank you, Tim, I realized we actually didn't do the aspiration that I like to do at the beginning, and then I like to do the dedication at the end. So because they're two, both are very short, I would love to do them both now at the very end, if you hang with me. So Alisa, if you can put up the aspiration first and then the dedication will will do them both. I am trying to my computer's frozen, so it might take a second. Okay, no problem. We'll give you. So I'll say a few words about this aspiration and dedication. The so they're written in a very straightforward English language, no Buddhist lingo, and they're written by Reggie Ray, but the first aspiration is inspired of an old text written by Dilgo cancer Rinpoche and and so it's a little bit he rephrased it and reframed it, but the essence is still the same. And it's a very it's an it's a very general aspiration that I think, you know, all practitioners really share, what, what the words of the aspirations say, and then the dedication of merit is, you know, as Andrew always says, if what we're doing here is not of help or abuse to others, it's useless. So the dedication is, merit is our attempt to not keep whatever goodness we've created through our practice for ourselves, but to actually, generously, completely give it up, give it out there, to to you know, may, may our practice benefit others. May we be of benefit to others through our practice. So, yes, Philippe, you raised your hand.

Yes. I wonder if there is also a refuge taking refuge. If there

is a refuge chant, yeah, yeah, definitely, absolutely, would you like me to send you the refuge chant? I

have one. I. Don't know if it is what, if it is this one, I take refuge in this and stomacha and so on,

probably the one from dharmotion, yeah,

I take refuge. Yes.

That's probably it. This

one, yeah. Also one. Also why I have found a

refuge in the I have a few different I have a few different ones. If you want, I can send you what I have and you can see what you connect with. Yeah, I don't want to do the refuge here in this group, but, but yeah, if you're interested in seeing what I have as options, I'm happy to send them to you. Yep, thank you. Yeah. How's your computer doing? Alyssa, any luck? Any unfrozen? No, still frozen. It does not want to cooperate with me. I'm sorry. Okay, not a problem. Do you think maybe I can share it? Actually, if you give me permission, do you need to? Yeah, no, you already have permission. Okay, let me see if I can share. If I can find it easily.

Aspiration, think it's here. Okay, here's my screen. So can you share my screen? Alisa, or do I have to do it?

You'll have to do it. You just go down to the bottom where it says share. Okay, let me see share screen. Yes. Oh, and then, what do I have to do here? That's a lot of options here, Share Desktop. One, let's see, allow some to share your screen.

Joel, is asking for a lot of things here. Let's see. Let's try it again. Share Screen. One participant can share at the time. It should say something like entire screen, all right, I'll try one more time. I'll just say it then you

light says virtual background. I don't know it's asking for a lot of things here. That is not

okay. Plan B, Plan C, so I'm just gonna say it. How about you just listen to it while I'm saying it, and just feel the words in your being and and that will be it. Okay?

May I develop complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions and to all people. May I experience everything nakedly, completely without mental reservations or blockages. May I never withdraw from life or centralize onto myself. May my heart be laid bare and open to the fire of all that is,

whatever goodness my practice has brought, I dedicate to All those who suffer, whatever insight and joy I have found I willingly share with all beings, whatever marriage my practice has generated, may it be multiplied To infinity for the happiness and welfare of all you.

Thank you so much. Rebecca, thank you. Elisa, thank you. Tim, thank you. Rob, thank you Philip, good to have you here. Have a great evening. Hope to see you again. You.