[179] Exploring Cognitive Dissonance and Finding Ease in Meditation - with Mayra Lorenzana – Miles
4:06PM Oct 17, 2024
Speakers:
Myra
Keywords:
meditation practice
cognitive dissonance
visualization techniques
yoga Nidra
breath awareness
golden room
teacher figure
shamatha practice
synchronicity
daily life
imagination tools
open awareness
relaxation techniques
body sensations
meditation journey
Hello, hello,
hi, Brian, I'm sorry we caught you up there a little bit. You were early. It was not intentional.
Thank you. Hello, beautiful.
Well, thank you for joining us. You have me designated hitter. I would try to do okay. How are you any questions? How are you feeling with this days of high anxiety and and stress, there be
clothings,
fires,
elections?
Who is thinking about elections for us to hear? So, how is that?
How are you feeling about that? I'm pretty anxious. No matter what it is, it's just I feel like you can cut through the thickness of the tension. So I think this is a wonderful opportunity that we have here to come together. As I knew that I was coming here. I was thinking about the great opportunities that we have with this platform,
and how diverse and beautiful are the
options that we get. Because I think that the the options that we have, and the amount of information that is available in this site, the years of experience, the different backgrounds and how we come together. It is, it's really a blessing. I think that's what that I would call it in my language, is a blessing that we have this opportunity. So I was really
struck by two
things I have read recently, one of them that I read really frequently from Robert Thurman, and he reads like this, and you know that I have a visual disability, so I'm sorry say I know this is impossible to realize two opposites. It says I know this is impossible to realize two opposite things at once, which is why nirvana is said to be inconceivable and inexpressible beyond words, it is a sustaining awareness that embraces extreme cognitive dissonance with blissful ease. And I said, Oh, wow. That could be like two weeks of teachings right there. Because I think that in the teachings, especially when I began, really at the beginning, and I was really pumped, like I finally found something that makes so much sense, and the Dalai Lama was involved in all with this a scientist and things to be explained with physics and quantum mechanics and all the science behind it. And then I was listening and listening and listening. And then all the time they told me, No, but karma. Karma is the most difficult thing to understand, and only the Buddhas
know about it. That's it.
What I just want explanation. I
want answers. And I think that the most difficult teaching is knowing coming to peace with that dissonance, that cognitive dissonance, that you come to peace with when we know that maybe there is not a final answer or nowhere that we're going to achieve, or nowhere that we're going to go, or no ending to the expression and the fervecs of life, the way that we're experiencing to today and tomorrow. We have experienced before what can come later. So after many, many, many, many, many, many hours in teaching, some teachings, they tell you, you're already there. Okay, what
feels the same,
but some windows, you are really there. You are already free.
I say, Okay, I'm already free. Let me see if I feel it. I still feel the same, but it's because we're coming from a set point of view that wants an answer and an end, and we're there asking us is to get. Used to their free fall with no bottom. Does that make a little sense? At least you have heard a little bit about it, yes. So can we come to an ease with a free fall? Can we come to an ease with not knowing?
I said, Wow.
And then all the sudden, in a meditation, I remember an experience that I had when I was in 10th grade in this and I remember going out in Puerto Rico. It was two different buildings, and I had to go some steps, stairs, and went to the room, and it was geometry, and the geometry t shirt was in the front, and he had that still the green board with a white chalk. And he drew a line, and he put those little tooth he says, you know, this line has no end and no beginning, and just for a second, I felt like a Oh in and no beginning. And since then, that sensation of that moment has come to me so many times. Because Can you imagine not having a
beginning or an end,
but we cannot see it where we can feel it, and we slow down a little bit. That's what we do with meditation. We slow down a little bit. Then we come to those little tiny windows that that's what maybe other teachers say here. You just learn how to rest. You let it be you let it go. Just relax. Jaws open. You don't have to go
anywhere. And then we but I'm laboring. I'm laboring to go and
to go nowhere. So we is that dissonance between the effort
and the letting go,
and I find through yoga. And what we do in yoga, Nidra, and what we do with this meditations, is that we tune into the body, and we tune into that space where things come in and come out. We feel with suns. We lose ourselves. Once in a while, memories come, planning goes, stress comes in, but at the same time we can just
come back in.
Can you tell that I get excited about that? I've been thinking about the national high. So just remember meditation, there are so many different ways, but there is all composed. Chamata, Vipassana, or Vipassana, if it's in Pali, and then we have the open awareness and the finally resting and non meditation. But all begins with the ability of centering ourselves to find an object that we can stay there. And once we're there in this object, there would be whatever we begin with images or the pebble or the breath, then we begin to see the little sparkles that bubble up. And at first we will go in, and then we come back. And another times, what they are asking us here, different T shirts recently is just to know that you're here. Know the stability of this and noticing the flashes of the effervescent sense of life. And sometimes we do one more thing. We're going to begin with that, and I'm going to invite you in a little bit of a journey with a visualization. What we're going to maybe imagine a cabin, a meditation cabin, and inviting a t shirt, just knowing that if those visuals are not clear for you, don't relax about it and just allow yourself to sense whatever you sense. Because we use metaphors, we use images, and we use the explanation just to just kind of bring us into we have that sensational
and we let go.
Is that enough talking?
Let's do it.
So I know that most of our teachers here say that is sitting that you do it, but just remember that I think you can do this also laying down. You have at the beginning, you may feel too, not sharp enough. But one of the reasons why. We do it also laying down is because that's the way that we most likely will pass on into the Bardos. So if we can keep the clarity, and we practice with the plaque, clarity with the supine position, that is also a way, and the body is a lot more relaxed, and the fact that we're talking just brings your attention back, and that's the only purpose. So interrupting you sometimes when you're in the so if you turn off the camera and you want to go into your recliner, you want to be comfortable, you do that, I will stay sitting here with you.
Let's take an inhale to the nose and let it go to your mouth. And we inhale through the nose, and we let it go through your mouth, and we gather together. Inhale this time, hold to 23456, and your tail to your lips, just like a straw, very softly.
We do two more of those inhale and you hold, relaxing your shoulders, your hands, your face and let it go through your mouth, piercing, very softly, your lips like a straw and
empty, empty, empty. And when you think that you're completely empty, just
empty. A little bit Part One more inhale, and you hold and
and you let it go. And
with the breath, we come in contact with the vital force, the prana. And the prana is just loose, and we begin to feel it a little bit more so, not paying attention to your breath at all, just sensing the body and the parts of the body that make contact with the surface there would be your sit bones, your feet, the clothing on your skin. Maybe you can feel the edges of your clothing, maybe in your ankles or your arms, your neck
shoulders, more or less over the hips,
raising your head almost like you're being pulled From the crown of the head up towards the sky, and the shin comes down and back a tiny bit. The sternum goes up just a tiny bit, allowing the color bones to shine to the sides, placing your hands and your arms in a manner that can stay here, hopefully without much movement. If you're sitting, maybe your hands are on your thighs. Maybe you have a preferred way to do a mudra if you're laying down, maybe your arms are to the sides, palms up.
Notice the muscles of your face.
Your eyes are closed, but not tight. Your tongue may touch the top palette, behind the top teeth. I find myself allowing the tongue to float a lot and
here you are. You.
To take some time to adjust a little bit the body. Maybe the spine can be a little bit more relaxed or straight.
Maybe you're holding your body and your toes are too tight and curling,
noticing your fingers that they are not trying to grab and
we have heard many, many times that just getting the right posture, that by itself, and being a sense and You can find yourself resting in your true nature and
so now that you have heard all those instructions, many of them you have heard many times, is there any adjustment that the body is calling for that will allow You to come to a better sense of ease.
Notice whether the temperature in your body is changing.
Notice whether you have to relax Your jaw a little bit more you
let's just rest here for a couple of minutes before we begin to live our journey and Choose, maybe noticing your breath without making any changes. Maybe it could be around your belly button, maybe your chest, maybe the area between your open lip and your nose, and gently place your attention there, almost if you're touching the bubble with a feather and that gentle.
And Stay and
without the ability to coming back into a point or place become too distracted. We calm apart.
So relaxing your whole body a little bit more, feeling the bones coming down like gravity,
relaxing your shoulders, your arms, allowing the heart to shine, the energy coming down the spine towards the legs, all the way down to the bottom of the feet,
and you're grounded, but light,
relaxed, But awake,
relaxing again the muscles of your face
and coming to the center of the center of the center of your head, to a sense of vastness open, almost like you're looking through the night to the most beautiful starry sky and
then you begin To imagine a beautiful, lush landscape,
so much screen and the skies are so blue that they look like yours.
You see the mountains in the horizon, and you begin to walk on grass. Is like a prairie.
You notice the soft wind, the perfect day, and your heart lights up with a sense of gratefulness,
with a sense of wonder, with A sense of all as all the beauty that always surrounds you. And there in the horizon, there is a little cabin. It's a wood cabin with lots of windows with glass. It's a lot of meditation pot, exactly what you were looking for. It begins to almost glow, and you get close to there, and you open the door, and you get in,
and there was a chair and another chair,
and you look around, and the windows are so
big, and just shining the sun through the room feels golden, there's a golden shine, and your body feels golden and warm. There's a sense of peace, a sense of silence,
and you sit down in one of those chairs to meditate, without too much to think and. Without a big agenda, just look around and see all the windows around you and feel the golden light,
and then you hear the door, and very gently, there comes, comes your T shirt. And your T shirt can be a friend, family member, a historical figure, a T shirts that you've been following now, you can even beg the pier pet
and your T shirt sits in the front of you, and he always also looks golden, and there's no need to talk. He sees their knee to knee, and
and you express your sense of gratitude for his teachings or her teachings, their support, their understanding and standing their presence in your life.
Maybe you tell them about your struggles, the things that you feel like you're not getting, and maybe something that you have just done that you don't feel that good about.
Then you think about one quality that you would like To be, just like patience, flourish, unconditional love, wisdom. You
and if you have a question that you would like to have an answer to just ask you.
Looking eye to eye, imagining the face, the expression and The Love,
all while surrounded by this golden light and
you ask the Teacher to stay with you and to keep teaching you.
And the t shirt just begins to go. Albums look levitate, because often album becomes a little smaller and smaller, and then standing in the crown of your head, looking the same way you do,
coming down, down, down, down, almost like an elevator, all the way sitting in your heart.
And there it it is. You feel the love. Up
to feel the support, you feel the peace,
and then you walk from that golden room, out of that little cabin to the prairie lushness. And you know that you may not see anybody, but you know that you are not alone.
Then you come back to your body and
noticing again, the back of the body, the front of the body,
your arms and your legs. And
then you relax and you let it go. And
we stay quiet For a Few Minutes And
If you feel like you got distracted, you maybe got lost in that ruminating vine. Then that means that you're doing it right, if you notice now, so come back to relax in the body and just be if that is not possible, then select a breath or another kind of focus and just come back to it and
the awareness cause, then noticing and
now let's think about That little exercise, the landscape, the cabin, the t shirt. If you had any of those images, don't you remember them like it was a dream.
And if you could not visualize or have any sense of any of those Don't you remember my Voice on my story like He was a dream. You
and we all share the same experience. I think we're all different, and
and if we were going to counter tell the story, we will make it our own and
and because we send. Through our body, the experiences, the experiences that we have, even if we tell her with a lot of love, you cannot really transmit what you felt you
But at the same time, We can all rejoice and
so relaxing again, the inner and outer corners, corners of your eyes, your forehead lifts up a little bit, just opening the forehead, the jaw, let's go. The shoulders come down, and the energy keeps coming down, through your arms, through your fingers, empty and yourself, the chest, The back the seat, the legs and your home, so
now breaking the attention to the area where you are, maybe the chair, the sofa, the girl, and see If you can see it with your mind's eye,
noticing the colors, the smells, sensing the air, the warmth or the cold and
noticing the area around your body, your skin, your bones, Your organs, and it's almost like you're coming together. And
coming to the area of your heart. Take an inhale to your nose and let it go through your mouth
and slowly opening your eyes,
maybe bringing some movement to your head, to Your hands, noticing that we move a lot slower.
We'll take your time and
we open our eyes and
so you like the golden rule, was it difficult to
kind of relate to a T shirt that way? I
uh, like I said, we use that kind of imagery, and just know that I do not have any that is not something I learned in a public forum, and I recently heard it in YouTube in a different version. So it's very similar to some other practices that we have. May have heard that they're secret, but this doesn't have anything secret, and that is a visualization you can more related to some. Of shamanic journey instead of something another thing, but I think the visualization would help us is to see how we can come together to a sense of reality. And sometimes we need the concepts and we need the images to be able to relay, because that free fall is so abstract that we learn through that kind of relationship. But that T shirt, after all, is is this right here? Is in our hearts, and we see it in a different way. We project it in a different way. But that's a way just to create a story like an artist, and to allow our imagination to help us in the path and relate to
so any any comments
when we so? I was reading again this which is interesting. Sometimes we get to the higher meditations and we forget the shamatha and the calm abiding, however, in natural liberation, padmasa bhava says, to see this come from that first step, those sense of premonition, or that sense of knowing what, what's going to happen, or well, that which is just signs and Know the goal, it comes from the ability to stay, to stay in your place, because otherwise we just get lost. I had a good synchronicity, and I invite you to, can I tell that story? But I was taking one of
Andrew's last
demela retreat that he did, but it was not I was taking it from home, so I knew that he was coming at nine, so I'll go to the grocery store. So he was talking the blinding lights in the Bardo that they blind you so much that you don't see you don't go through when you go for the softer lights. And I always said this blinding lights. I'm trying to figure out why this light. So I'm at the back of the grocery store. It's about seven in the morning. I'm at the back of the store. There's a hole through the doors, and it's a big, big store, like a Costco, like a bit door. All the sudden this white lights come right through that hall. And I said,
Oh, and he blinded everything that I could not really see when I just blinded absolutely everything. There was no way, because it was just the right moment. I said, Now I had a little window of the synchronicity. Of course, one minute after that, if I would have told anybody around there, it would have just, just take me to the psyche. It's like hospital somewhere, but
it was like you are asking the question you are at the grocery store choosing cans, and all the sudden, what are the bright lights and the sun decided that was going to come directly towards you and blind you.
So, um, watch for those. We all have those. And I think that is my goal in my couple last
decades of life, is just knowing how the magic of life comes in, all the colors, in in the day to day life for us that are householders and cannot go to a cave and just for 20 years that people bring me food or something
so we can get it, it's good to see you. John,
how are you? It's good to see all of you.
So any questions, I think I do not know who we have next week, I
think is Rebecca.
There's lots of things happening in nightclub. I hope that you all register for me. And tomorrow begins those six weeks
that's going to be blast
the book, the reading of the book is still going on the Saturdays. I share the dream Sangha, because I am very busy on Saturdays, and I teach in a studio,
and I went last time, it was fabulous. I'm sorry that I cannot do the lucidity group, but just participate. This is a wonderful group.
So if I don't hear anything from you, don't Where's Alisa? Lisa, do I have anything?
Oh, no, no questions in the chat.
Okay. Well, tell me about that golden
room. I'm I was kind of a little nervous about the golden room. Oh, here's a heart. That's good. Have you guys done meditations, other meditations where you have visualizations like that? No, because we mostly do here open awareness or a little bit of shamatha and a lot of tongue line, which we're going to do a little tumbling now to end. But I think. There's everybody's hand,
yeah. Let me get rather muted, yeah. It's hard. Can you hear me? Yes? Oh, I just thank you very much. And the I, when you said golden room, it just lit up. It was amazing. You just said those words and it lit up. It was wonderful. That whole thing was just wonderful.
Just remember, those are tools. So those are tools in our basket. And the problem is, when we reify those things, because they are, like Andrew says, they're as real as we are, and we are also the expression of the moment, we just don't say. We just do not have the ability yet to see us
as a body of light completely. But we we practice. We practice, practice. Barry.
Thank you. Barry has it right hand? Hi, with my hands?
Oh, I thought that you had a raised hand there, but maybe it's not. Okay. Good. Well, yeah, so I invite you to use those imaginations,
and the imagination like that sometimes when,
if I'm in court and things are going really bad, or I'm just, I just, I'm so mad, and I don't want to get mad, then I use that kind of technique, and I come to my breath, and I said, you know, you are my my big obstacle today. You are my lesson. You I bless them, and I put them in white light or blue lights or golden light. So I much.
I use that a lot when I remember, because sometimes I lose it without remembering, but I forgive myself after that.
Okay.
Thank you so much. Blessings to you. Let's finish the same way. There we always begin, and just before we raise our hands, let's just think
and imagine all sentient beings in whatever way you can, and just realize how fortunate we are of this precious opportunity.
We're very fortunate, and somehow, from all places and all corners, we
share
a few seats of merit that allow us to be here today and
as we raise our hands, the hands come together and towards the heart, both these fish and mine, just giving away whatever benefit you derive from this meditation today and give it away. Sweet dreams tonight, may you awaken hearts grow and flourish ever more and more. Namaste. Thank you. Thank you.