[ 149 ] Developing Mindfulness, Compassion, and Insight – with Joe Parent

1:11AM Feb 27, 2024

Speakers:

joseph

Keywords:

practice

breath

posture

spaciousness

compassion

thoughts

feel

straight

open

beings

space

mixes

happiness

feeling

mind

slightly

float

eyes

experience

caught

And then it condensed it and it's next to nothing. I think this was actually in the movie, Oppenheimer, that the atoms that make up our existence are mostly space. And so take taking that kind of perspective. If we have the space around our thoughts and experiences then we get to respond to them rather than react to them. And it gives us some leverage so first, but But if our minds are just tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, the one of the metaphors is thoughts coming like a waterfall or, or rapids down the stream and you you kind of can't stop. So we do our practice to slow it down a little bit to give some space around it. And that's our mindfulness practice of developing peace of mind. So that it's more like a flowing, slowly flowing river than the rapids. Now, when people first start practicing mindfulness, they sit down, and they go, Oh, my God. It's just up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. It's like thoughts after thought after thought. I'm thinking more than I ever did. This. This isn't so good. And I know a lot of I've run into a lot of people who said, I tried to meditate. I just couldn't do it. It just actually made things worse. Well, we think that we think it does. But actually, we're so much caught up in the parade of thoughts that we don't realize how fast they're coming in coming one after another after another after another. And so when we stop and put ourselves in neutral in this mindfulness practice, they become very, very vivid. Now as we work with our breathing as our anchor, and work with our bodies, aware of the space that we're sitting in, if we make that our reference point, and then the thoughts come up the moment we realize them, it's like a balloon popping, like we're a bubble popping. So we can also think of our thoughts as like bubbles coming up to the surface. I guess I'm in a water mood today, but bubbles coming up. To the surface and popping in and then they took up some space. But then when it pops, It just mixes with space. And so we realize we get a little more experience of them being less solid, less thick, and less able to get their hooks in us.

And it's more challenging with emotional reactions. But if we can drop the storyline and just tune into the body and the emotions of the emotional reaction and feel it we realize that the con the thought may have triggered it. But then any thoughts beyond that are add ons. And so this is the second aspect of mindfulness, seeing the nature of what we're experiencing. So first is calming down enough and stabilizing ourselves enough which is why we put ourselves in a kind of neutral position for meditation to allow things to present themselves and and calm down a little bit and then in that spaciousness, we can see we have insight. So that's the second aspect is insight. And when we see the insubstantiality or ephemeral quality of the thoughts, like wispy clouds floating by

then what arises is a certain feeling of, oh, I don't have to do this. I get a choice. I don't have to be blown here and there. By my thoughts. Like leaves in the wind. I have some grounding to that. And when we feel that we start to see others and how painful it is to not have that leverage and to keep perpetuating the cycle

a mistaken idea of trying to get happiness in ways that actually perpetuate our suffering. So the three elements are this tranquility, insight and then arising out of out of that insight, compassion.

What we want to do is we develop our practice on the cushion or the chair and then our path so that's our ground. And then our path is to apply that in our lives. And remember as much as we can the original translation the original word that we translated as mindfulness. I believe it's Sati in Sanskrit or Pali, the original Indian language and it basically means recollection remembering remembering our intention, remembering what we're doing. And we all have experience of a gap in that when we've gotten we were headed for the kitchen. We got distracted by something then we remember we're headed for the kitchen we get on so we remember that part. We get it we walk into the kitchen, and we go, okay, why was I coming in here? We can't remember what we're doing. That's the distraction part. So we all know what that experience feels like. So mindfulness is basically remembering what you're doing and remembering your intention and coming back to that. So taking our experiences in post meditation in our everyday lives as the path is the practice of recognition. Practice of recognizing up there I go again, without judgment, because just there I go again, rather than there I go again, we're not adding on the What's wrong with me. Is that just takes us to another level. of negative negativity. And then and then we get caught again. So instead, we simply go off. Hmm, there we go. Now where was I? And where I was, was spaciousness and tranquil it that that spaciousness, that's the ground, the insight into what's actually going on. And then the compassion, of understanding the interface interdependence. And that we're all in this together. So that's what came to mind for this session. And now let's do our practice. We're going to do a little grounding and then basic mindfulness practice of with the breath as an anchor, and then opening that up to more of an awareness. Connecting with our sense perceptions, and our sense perceptions then lead us to understanding that all beings share the experience of sense perceptions, the experience of thoughts and emotions, and we can have compassion. We can feel a connection and we can feel empathy and compassion for ourselves and for others, who get caught like we do. Now. Because we're going to do part of the practice with most of the practice with our eyes open. You want to either move your seat or your device or both, so that you're not directly looking into the screen. And take a good posture. And this is where we put ourselves in neutral. So I'll guide you through it a little bit. First, simply feel your sit bones pressing into whatever you're sitting on, and make them balance so that you're not leaning to the left or right. Feel like you're upright but not rigid. And if you let your cervical spine in the back of your neck, extend up or just just gently slightly and feel like there's a straight line from the back of the top of your head down to your tailbone. It's not actually straight, there's curvature, but if it feels straight to you, that's upright. Now we balanced the back being upright with opening up our heart, our chest. We're raising our sternum just a tiny bit up and forward. That our shoulders naturally come back. They're in line with our ears. Our arms hanging straight the upper arms hanging straight down. Lower arms along your thighs with your hands palm down on your thighs. Your feet, either flat on the floor if you're in a chair or if you're on a cushion or your legs are long you can cross your legs in front of you. To your knees are slightly below your hips.

were mainly breathing in and out through our nose. If a little air comes out your mouth it's okay. So your lips can either be very lightly touching or very slightly parted. Your tongue can rest naturally or, or float up and the tip of your tongue rest just behind your front teeth on your upper palate. Your eyes are gently closed right now.

And we have this upright posture with our chest raise slightly. The back of our neck and head straight up so that we're not our chin isn't pushed out forward or tilted up or tilted down. Then the flow of the breath goes in, up into your nostrils up into your nasal passages and straight down into your lungs. It will feel when you take a deep breath like the breath is going all the way down deep into your torso because your diaphragm down in the bottom of your torsos, or lower below your lungs is pulling the breath down as it pushes down and pushing the breath out as it comes up. And it's it's fine to feel like the breath is filling your torso especially because we want to rest our minds deep in our the core of our body so that we're more out of our head more into our body

you can kind of scan if there's any unnecessary tension that you're holding around your eyes, your jaw, neck, shoulders deep belly and pelvic region. Any kind of clenching.

Notice, this is one of the most common on a subtle feeling that you're that you're actually holding your shoulders up but it feels like they're just in neutral. Just let them don't push them down but just let them drop. You may be surprised.

To ninty, the bodily sensation your torso the front and back depth. You're not just a two dimensional being like an image and a mirror

and feeling a deep core of your torso just below the navel. The depth front to back. Is if you're filling as the breath comes in and emptying as it goes out

will use the breath that way as an anchor. Also want to be aware of the space that we're sitting in. So let your eyes open about halfway. Look down onto your eyelids. Whatever direction your eyes are going, soften your gaze so you're not focused on a particular point. But it's as if you're seeing the space that your body is sitting in. Don't intentionally control your breath any particular way. Being an observer of how your body breathes itself.

Just be aware of how your body breeds itself and what that feels like. Deep in the core of your torso.

sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, deeper or shallower doesn't matter. As if you're sitting by a stream watching the water flow by

sometimes that flow something floats by and grabs your attention. Like an A thought may come to mind and rather than just letting it go by some sometimes we catch on to them and follow them all the way downstream, one after another after another and at that point. Simply smile. Say so it's almost like there I go. Again, you can just use the code word wandering or thinking or thought nothing pejorative and simply reconnect with your posture, your breathing and awareness of the space that you're sitting in. We'll do that for a few Minutes.

gonna refresh, refresh. Your posture if you need to.

When you're ready. Resume your posture

straight back, open front open heart. Let your eyes be open naturally.

Once you've taken your posture and your eyes are open naturally, you'll be looking out and in a kind of default or natural direction. Not too far down. Not straight ahead, slightly downward. Soften your gaze so that you open up your peripheral vision so decided top to bottom we're going to be a little more interested in that than we are in this

as the breath goes out, it mixes with the air in the room in the same way as the breath goes out, and it mixes with the air in the room. And dissolves and opens up mixes with the whole space eventually. With each out breath, let your awareness open up more. Out open awareness of the space of the environment that you're in the environment your body is sitting in the environment in which your perceptions are happening. Out open. Just rest in that spaciousness. You can do that going out with a few out press until you get comfortable with that spaciousness. Just go out open and rest in that openness. So it's might float by like little clouds or birds going by. Something may happen in your field division. Sounds come up and disappear. Whatever's going on, just simply be open to your experience and have a thought takes you away. Back to your posture. Do a few more out breaths. Not pushing the breath out just writing it out. Mixing your mind with space on the medium of the breath. We'll do that for a few Minutes.

TO GO Foods again refresh your posture

this time raise your gaze looks straight out maybe even a little bit upward. This is a contemplation practice that we work with for compassion. So at any point if you feel more comfortable you can also close your eyes but to begin with, leave them open. And imagine that your awareness extends out. Breath goes out and it goes beyond the room you're in to the whole area where you're in that you're in the living or that you're experiencing

might few be a few 100 feet or a few 100 yards a few miles imagine you're open to everything going on all around you not whole area

as you breathe out, now expand it out to the horizon in all directions. Everything going on 360 degrees out to the horizon.

know imagine as you breathe out. Your awareness extends even further out to the sky in all directions around you and above you.

Mind as big as the sky

everything on the planet is happening under that same sky

and all the beings share in common we're all all the those that breathe are all breathing the atmosphere of the Earth or walking on the earth

all existing under that sky moments of happiness moments of sadness feeling pleasure and pain, hope and fear

we all have in common

this is the simplest version of this compassion practice

whatever arises in your mind something that you don't like. Imagine that you can gather that in into your heart of compassion that can purify the negativity like an air purifier and wish that all beings who are experiencing that unhappiness, pain or illness, anxiety or fear

that you can take that in from them and purify it and wish even if you don't feel like you can do it just wish that you could and as you breathe out wish that you could send out to yourself into them. Relief peace, calm safety happiness, contentment, any positive emotion positive feeling

you might think of your favorite food I wish that all beings could enjoy food like you enjoy that

if you think of something that upsets you wish that all beings including yourself could be free of being upset and have patience

with that rhythm I wish that you could take away suffering. wish that you could send out happiness we'll do that for a minute. or so.

To conclude a practice

doing this, not just for ourselves but going further with our compassion or connection with others. The practice is more powerful if we're not doing it just for ourselves but doing it for the benefit of others. So that we can generate the feeling after a practice whatever stability I achieved. I wish others could have that stability. Whatever insight I achieved I wish others could have that insight. Whatever feeling of warmth and love and compassion I achieved. I wish all beings could feel that warmth and love and compassion both for their own benefit and for others.

So I'm going to close the session with a the meditation part of the session we'll have some discussion after with a traditional dedication of the benefit or merit that we regenerate from the practice and you can repeat after me or put it in your own words. Whatever feeling you have that expresses that made the practice I have just done be of benefit to others even more so than to myself and thank you for your practice. We have a few minutes if you have any questions about the practice about how to do any of it, or comments about it. Please feel free and Tim feel free to put something in the chat.

I see some very nice chats you're very welcome thank you again I you know we say me i This be of benefit to others even more so than ourselves and no matter how much we want to give it away. It just keeps feeling like we get the benefit of doing the practice. So I feel that way.

My teacher used to talk about broken heartedness and we kind of have that in a negative connotation of you know, he or she broke my heart. But here it's self existing broken heartedness for the world. Now we wish we could like poison like like if, if a loved one was bitten by a poisonous snake, we wouldn't hesitate to Suck out the poison. Even if we were risking ourselves doesn't mean we have to swallow it but sucking out the poison and the whole world so much of the world is it's like everyone's gotten bitten by the poison of these poisonous emotions of fear and hatred and closed mindedness, greed and we just have to establish our intention for all of our practice and everything we do. Wishing that we could remove that poison from so many beings and fill them instead with wisdom and compassion. So let's let's keep that in mind. And thank you all so much

Alisa, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. That's great. So I think I'm not sure who's teaching next week. I'll be back at some point in March, a couple of sessions in March and also again, you're invited to I think March 7, and then I'm doing a Tuesday, and then another Thursday on my own zoom. And you're welcome to please come and join. think it's nine o'clock. In the morning Pacific time. So whatever time that is for you. Thank you, everyone have a wonderful rest of whatever's left. of the day for you. And enjoy

recording stopped by everyone. Bye, everybody. Thank you

everyone. Hi, Jerry. Oh, Jerry. I have a question for you. Do you know why your nose can't be 12 inches long? Got that it would be a thought. There you go. I knew you'd have a good night.