[187] Letting It Be: A Meditation on Presence and Acceptance with Mayra Lorenzana – Miles
6:16PM Dec 20, 2024
Speakers:
Joe Parent
Keywords:
Alyssa's departure
holiday break
mental transition
meditation class
awareness lessons
humility lesson
letting it be
creative energy
grounding technique
body sensations
listening meditation
breath awareness
compassion practice
holiday pressures
mindful presence
Hello, everybody. Everybody can hear me. Hi, Jerry, Barry, Karen, those are the names that I
so. Here we are again, December 16. Can you believe it? I do not know where this year went, but it was fast, lots of changes, isn't it. And I think this is the last class of the before the hiatus that the platform is taking, and the holiday break here and when we come back, there will be a few changes.
One of the changes is our Alyssa is going to dedicate her life to her family a little bit more relaxed. So isn't that she the sweetest. So we, I want to thank her. I just get attached with this little postage thing. So and I said, she looks so pretty today. She's going to holiday Christmas party with her husband. So I'm, I'm glad that I noticed.
So why is your hair so shiny? So
let's hope for her to have a very good time tonight, and her children to continue growing and flourishing the way that she describes and and I know that I speak for all of you. Our heart is with her, and whatever she's going to be doing now, and she's going to do really well, because she's just one of those very special humans to me. So thank you, Alyssa, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So how are we doing? How do we feel today?
We're good.
So I travel tomorrow morning to Puerto Rico. I do not know how many of these things I have done, like I traveled the next day, but I'm in that excitement, and I was experiencing that energy of transitioning when you get into going from one place to the other. And our T shirt remind us also Ed Bardo, and it's, it's the transition begins long before you get into the plane or you get into the train or whatever you do, because there is a mental transition in the process. And the same is with many things in the in our lives, when we find somebody or lose somebody when we begin a job or a creative project, and when we finish that project or that creative process. So there is that moment of transition that if we pay attention, it has a sense of vibration and a sense that we feel in our bodies. But before I get into the more of the theme the other day, so I was in my meditation class that I've been teaching for many, many years in the morning with a group of friends that it has become a very close nucleus. So I'm talking about awareness and clarity and silence and to stop and all that. And then one of them brings me a present, and I opened the present, and there was she had made some vanilla that she's been cultivating that for, like, one year before, and it's beautiful in May. And I was so thankful, and I will thank you. Thank you, thank you. And then I also saw a frame. Oh, I wanted that. I was looking for another frame for my family picture and say, Thank you so much. Thank you. And then she just goes around and said, but did you read what the frame says? I have it here for me. I don't know if you can read it, so the frame says heavily meditated instead of medicators. So I said, Oh, I'm so sorry. Her name is Diane. I'm so sorry. I was talking about awareness and paid attention. I hear this press and I'm so grateful I did not even take the whole thing out to read what is sad. And I said to myself, isn't that a lesson of humility? So we go downstairs, we're upstairs, and she said, Well, do you see the envelope? So there was also an envelope with a note in some other things there that I again, did not pay attention. I was already moving to my next thing during the day, and I said, Wow, that's a humble moment. I wanted to be in my knees to know thank you to that lesson that came so fast, even when you talk about the. Is every day when you have it in mind, when you dedicate it in the morning, when you spend one hour talking about awareness and slowing out. As soon as I finished that session, I was going so fast that I was being careless. I think that I what I did was to laugh, and we hug and laugh a lot, I said, you know, that's the best way to learn. It's not so much with what is said, but it's when those things happen and you have that pause when you feel like so obvious. Those are the moments where we have to care. Those are the moments when we have to stop. It could be very good in a session right now we can have very powerful meditation for the next 45 minutes, but when we stand up from there, we do not see a note, or we do not pay attention to something given to us. We're still going too fast. So that's the story that I I wanted to share today, is how obvious like you can be in a meditation class, and as soon as the meditation class finishes, there are two people
talking about somebody.
And I think that the call that I like to make, because it's like an undoing of habits and patterns. So I'm into Techn Hunt has a quote that I use for that workshop, and he says, of course, there is dozens of meditation techniques, but it all comes down to this. Just let it all be. And is that going back to that part, that contrast, that dissonance of we need to know, the techniques, the instructions are very important the position in the body, because there are some channels and and centers of energy that align in a certain way and help for the pose. But at the end, we learn all this to let it be, to try to rest, to try to allow that creative, allow that energy, allow that space to come up and it come up when it comes up, when We quiet down. Send that Andrew says very frequently that the language of God is silence. So that's where we are going to be going now. So I invite you before anything else, before we get into the pose, before we go any further if you have any comments of what you have to do, but this practice despise despite all the instructions is for us to make it ours. The techniques are important because there was a lot of wise people that came before us, and they went to trouble to figure out the instruction, but we make it ours. And I think many people that are in this group, one of the things that we enjoy from Andrew and the other teachers is the process of translation, translating the teachings into our daily lives. So today, as we approach more of the hectic times of the holidays for many of us, as there is more pressures from the outside, as there is the transition and changes that we're going through in this country, as there is information and disinformation, as we're trying to see who is saying what, as we're going to the own transitions
of our lives.
What about can we really let it be? Can we find that space again, that space that is at the end of the breath, at the the space in between, the space that we that is so fast that we feel and have cleanses once in a while, and that's the only way that we can be. That's the only way that we can let it be. That's what we aspire a little bit when we go into that
awareness meditation.
But I invite you tonight to find it in all the moments, maybe in the morning drinking your tea or. Or coffee, maybe when you hear the voice of a loved one, maybe when you have an inspiration though you have one of those aha moments. What other moments in your life make you feel complete. And when we feel complete, we don't even notice. It's just space. I like that example, and you have heard me before, of a good hug when you see somebody and you give that hug that there is that heart to head, that for a split second you don't know that there's two. There's only one. There's that space. And just before we continue, they said that the
smallest sutra is, ah,
are we hurt in other places? What do you feel when you are tired you what? What do you do when you feel like you need another breath because you're you just start so tense.
Ah. What
do we say here or here, or sometimes here and now, if you want to close your eyes and we begin to imagine that, ah, here now, by that ah goes like the roll the way to the race. It's like rays following up to the sky. And
just we're going to, ah,
and stay there, because that also is letting it be.
So when you are
there is no beginning, there's no end. You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to be anything. You just
and we do that. Say, Yes, let's do it. Let's come to a pose
so we there in a seat. Here we if you can come a little bit further from your the back of your chair. And you know that many people fall asleep, but if your body needs to just lay back, you can do it too. I would try to talking off so you don't fall asleep.
So find the ground.
And today, let's begin with the spine. Imagine like the spine goes down and it's grounded through the Earth, almost like you can go all the way up to the center of the center of the center of the Earth,
grounding yourself,
and we, when we ground ourselves, we are not only sitting there is the knowledge that we're sitting.
Sometimes when you feel that ground that you can feel even vibrations on your feet.
So the feet are more or less under your knees,
like a little straight.
Sometimes they the knees are a little higher. You may have to come to a position where the knees are a little bit lower than you receive in order for your back to be more relaxed, and it's important for the tilt of the hips so the spine can rest,
but straight.
The spine feels strong, but not stiff. Shoulders more or less over your hips and they they are not because your body just does not like it like that. That's okay. Just try to find a position of dignity, dignified that you feel like you can shine your shoulders come a little bit towards the back. Collar bones expand, exposing the heart a little bit. It is a little bit of a lift. Hands are placed on your thighs, if you prefer a mudra that is your practice, like the universe, your fingers. You can do that, but try to find a place where you. You are at ease with your hands. Your fingers are not trying to grasp.
I like the sensation of something pulling me from the crown of the head up, and in that way, my chin goes down and back a tiny bit, imagining that the back of your head towards the neck just expands to the sides.
Your eyes for now may be closed, but not tight. The lips have a little bit of
an opening. You can allow your tongue to float or relax. Some people like to traditional instruction, top palette, behind the top teeth. But if you do that, make sure that it's gentle.
Is not a must.
We're not going to be here that long. You
check around to see how you feel,
noticing the solidity of the floor or the seat and the softness of the edges of your clothing,
places where your body may feel tight or itchy, and every time you find one of those sensations in the body,
just be just lucky. And
right now, maybe your breath began to slow down a little bit and
well, maybe you just notice it more.
But notice smells.
Maybe there are smells from the kitchen or coffee or tea.
Just notice, smells
and if you do not find any smells that caught your attention,
just notice the space when you're trying to find it, and then you don't what happens you
What about taste? What tastes in your mouth?
Does bringing your attention to taste makes a difference in the sensations in your mouth.
Maybe you feel the wetness, sweet or sour and
and now this just listen.
Maybe they are the noises of your body,
the sound of my voice.
Maybe these appliances around your room and
maybe it's music or traffic or birds or an animal,
and let's spend here a little bit longer, just come from the closest to your body and just keep going out and little bit On the radio. How far Can you hear sound you
and if you Get distracted,
try to come just to sound and
any paying attention to sound is making your Little tighten areas of your body just Notice that you
if you're still listening, then maybe the radios of your attention has gone
really far,
or you get a little bit lost and distracted, just come back in and
we're going to take a little break before we go again. You can open your eyes,
take a deep breath
and let it go to your mouth.
So that's a very, very base,
not basic, because there's no such a thing as a basic meditation instruction.
But um,
it's a good technique to remember, because sometimes we get a little bit lost in the more sophisticated or um meditations, where um. So we come in contact with bigger emotions in the body, or sensations that, however, it is the basic attention, in this case, with that, with the auditory that that we center, we get the gather, the energies, we get the tools that we need to take the other steps. And in fact, is within later developing of that shamatha, that that calm abiding of one object, that we develop, those skills that bring those intuition and the intuition and those signs of other things that they can be distractions for their cold cities where we develop skills that get us a little bit of more sense that is not within the obvious things that that we see. So I think sometimes we go ahead and we forget some of the fundamentals and listening, and that meditation of listening your hearing can be so refined, even for some of us that are losing if you're hearing gets really, really, really better. Right now I was listening to traffic that was about a mile from where I am. So any comments about that? No, actually, that was the first meditation that I learned when I was 15. I would wake up at three o'clock in the morning to listen. And it's amazing. It's really amazing. So did that calm you down, or did that make you feel a little bit tense?
Calm down?
No, no. Calm down. You feel the stress? Yes. Okay, so that's very good. Actually, that's very good because that's it. That silence makes you sometimes we say, oh, what? I don't hear anything. Oh, I'm not I cannot stay there. I cannot get tight. So we get over, over tight, and that's when we relax a little bit. So that, by itself, is a great, a great thing that you notice. And sometimes that doesn't work for us, and that's the learning process too. So if it doesn't work, doesn't work. But the concentration sometimes, if we get too tight with the concentration, we get like a chest pain. So listen for those signs on the body. That's why I asked the questions, because I can sometimes people feel like they have so much pressure in their chest. So that's a moment to just take a breath, do something else. Just allow the energy to run through. Sometimes we carry it and sometimes we can't. So so let's go. Let's go with a little bit more. So letter B. So this time we're going to, I'm going to do three big, long ahs, and if you hear it, and if you want to do it on your own, if you want to feel like you allow the ah to go towards the space to A point of no end and no beginning, no left and no right.
So notice your body again.
Feel your feet go a little quicker to roll the instructions that we got before. Guys, you can wiggle or go left or right or up and down to feel the spine and come up and
maybe setting an intention for the for the rest of This practice.
And maybe the question is, How can I let it be, accepting what is
and at the same time knowing
that our our actions,
the way that we react
that forges what we will see in our lives and all those lives and.
So no final answer, just a lot of awareness,
taking a breath
and exhaling
any breath
and let it go.
One more. Ah,
Ah,
sounds, sensations, thoughts may come expectations as to the Next instruction, and you're just going to let It Be And
So without moving, what was The last thought before I began to talk again, I
did you know where it came from? Was that a thought that was brought but another thought on a story? Was it something isolated? I
What about now?
Were you In anticipation?
Were you very relaxed? I
do you feel like the thoughts had A location? Where did they come from? I
Are you having a conversation? I
Coming back to the body, relaxing the body a little bit more, grounding the body again, grounding your feet,
noticing your spine, maybe relaxing the bed, noticing the heart area and
relaxing the muscles of your face, your forehead, the inner and outer corners of your eyes, the back of the eyes, the back of your nose, The back of your tongue, and it's all good and
your body is relaxed, is soft. The Energy keeps coming down towards your seat area and
your thighs, your knees, Your feet and
the next few minutes, whatever is the predominant, predominant sensation of your breath or your body, or you just want to notice your thoughts.
Just try to find a focus where you can place your attention Gentle, gentle Attention,
releasing our worries, nowhere to go, Nowhere To be.
Maybe when we let it Be we're not separate
anymore. I
maybe when we let it be, we can find silence. I
and in silence is the possibility of all creation.
Is this spaciousness where everything may be possible and
we're silent and everything is possible. We're present and outweigh and
we were present and aware,
there will be compassion, the true compassion and
because the true illusion, The true ignorance, is to think that we're separate. I
So for now, today,
by my it may suggest maybe if we let it Be, we're fully present. Our hearts are fully open and
we're going to take A soft inhale to four inhale,
and we hold and we let it go to our nose.
Do the two or three more of those on your own and
and then we. Going to do one together. And when we exhale this time, we can do it through our mouth. And maybe, if you like, we can imagine that you can share that space, that silence, that part, that compassion, with everybody, every sentient being, everywhere.
So let's take an inhale.
Hold and hold the intention of sharing the merits of this practice. Just imagine with your exhale, just goes out, out, out as far as you Can imagine bathing, giving love,
where we senti I mean,
as we begin to settle them, maybe bringing the attention to the room
where you are.
Maybe to the area about six feet around you,
two feet from your body. And your skin, your bones, your organs, now ending up towards the heart area you
and slowly you open your eyes,
I like to just move my neck sometimes and
any questions, any comments. I'd like to end with that sensation, because, believe it or not, your energy was
that far. He was really
far. We become really boundless, in a way,
when focusing my attention in the clear light of our words. Do we have
any I'm sorry if you can read that question completely. I didn't see it completely. Let me see I
contact with death.
Hi, Patrick, you know what? I am having a little bit of difficulty reading the whole message, but I think that it's such a good question. If you can, somebody can read it. For me, that would be great.
Question is, when focusing the attention on the clear light of awareness, do you have any suggestions on how not to get distracted by the breath or by the heartbeat? What are your favorite Buddhist books?
Oh,
goodness. Right now. Right now into an client claim she has a wonderful course on such and longchepa in a wisdom publication that that that is actually a good question, because that's why I began the way that I began it, because I think that a concentration in awareness can be.
How can I say it can
be? It is so simple that I think it's complicated, because I think that we are looking for that awareness, of awareness. Just think about the ah, think about that one sutra. Think about the possibilities of that one rest. But we want more. We We feel it and we reach out, because it cannot be that clear, because it cannot be that simple, because it has to be more complicated, because people go into caves for 12 years in complete solitary, how can I get awareness of awareness? You know, it's just like, How can I do it? But what I invite is to own the fact that we with the tools that we have, we find it so when we get distracted, as soon as you get distracted, like Dr Perry, I think. Is here. He says, you're already in you're already there, already because that you're present. You were distracted now you're present. And we don't give ourselves credit to that moment of awakening. So that is the lucid moment. That's an awake moment. And as soon as you notice there's nowhere to go. You're right there. You're really free. And that is why I try to come to you with examples of my day to day life, with my friends, with my hugs, with with my grandchild, because that's the magic of life. That's what makes our life so fulfilling. That's why we are embodying this body. And one friend was telling me the other, Oh, the other day, many years ago. So put my right. Cannot do it because I just I, he said, you see this? This is this is human. These are bones. I'm not completely spirit. So through this is my vehicle, and this is the way. So it's not true. I don't get distracted. I get distracted. I sometimes it's the smell, sometimes it's the stomach making noises, but you keep coming back and you are not aiming out. Because you are aiming out, you are not present anymore. So that's the dissonance that is so hard to figure out. You just have to sit but we when we are sitting, and as soon as we're told to sit, we're waiting for the next instruction, and we forgot to be present already. But if you stay there, it is there already.
It is there already. That's the
and he's right here. I remember one day that somebody was telling Dr parent regarding the the way that they felt, but as soon as they felt they were moving from one side of their body to the other, they felt relaxed, and they were ready in their head, and they missed the spot of that space in between. So I'm, I'm in work in progress. I I'm, I haven't figured out, but I do get distracted. And they get distracted, it's only practice and practice. So those little moments become bigger moments, but own it, because we got it.
We got it. Do you have anything to say, Joe,
I I was curious. I couldn't understand the author and the book that you said,
Oh, and
claim, how do you see? How do you spell and
A, N, N, E, Clain, k, l, e, i n, she's been around for a long time, and she's and she's a very good translator, and wisdom publication has a wonderful one of those things that they do with her. And I don't know, I just maybe just, it's like the slipper, you know, that just fits her foot the right way. And, and that was for me. But, um, in I am interested in all those T shirt like Andrew do, like you do, that just brings it now, how, how can you own it, that you can be her book? Oh, I have it around here. Um, you're human. And Buddha, too.
Let's see. I think, I think Patrick founded on the Yeah, being human
and a Buddha too.
That's a Patrick put another one on the junction book.
Yeah.
Thank you. That's good.
That is, admit, to make it real. You
said it just the way. We've we've talked about it that, you know, some people say, when you're distracted, come back to the present, but you're already back. As soon as you realize you're distracted, you woke up. It's like waking up from a non lucid dream. You wake up, you don't you woke up. You don't have to say, I should wake up. You already,
certainly, but we miss it. That's our point, that we just we think that is going to be something more extraordinary. Did I give you guys that the example already of I tell about the Dharma when it's the right one, maybe for women, I feel like this the old pair of jeans, they're still very good, and every time that you wear those pants or whatever piece of clothing, you feel really good, but they're old. You may remember this and that, but this sensation that you have now is of pure comfort. There's no other big thing, and they're not new. There's another right? But when you do it, you belong. You just there's other things in life that we do like that. It could be a sweater, it could be a blanket. It could be when you come from the most beautiful vacation and you. Get in your shower. They could have been whatever jacuzzi, but you get into your place, and you sit down, and just for a second, we have the contact with the ultimate but we forget. We keep forgetting. So Patrick, I enjoyed your question, but that's the way that I'm seeing it. And just remember what I'm doing here is sharing my practice and any mistakes are all mine and my interpretation in the way that I digest what I'm teaching, and I'm sharing with you more than than just sharing so anybody tense of what the holiday is coming and everything that is coming?
No, see, that helps.
I'm already eating more than I should,
which also turns the body and puts it upside down. Yeah. So
I guess shopping's done. So, so I'm done shopping. I'm done ready for Christmas. Until then, I'm not.
I had to mail a lot of present this year, so today, when I put all the packages in the mail, I almost felt like I just that same sensation, is okay. I'm done. I'm really done. But I enjoy your faces, I enjoy your wisdom. I just want you to remember that this is not coming from here there, this we are just sharing. We're just being and we I feel like I get more from you guys than what I can offer you. So this is a wonderful community. They are trying to make some changes to the platform and things that we're going to do, but there's also a lot of good ideas coming. I say it again to see if he bites, but I'm trying to teach something with Dr parent,
so maybe come for the next year,
any comments or questions, suggestions for what we said. Tim, I always enjoy to see your name there, too.
You know, Patrick, where do
you love that I thank you.
Tim, Myra, when you said, I finished all my shopping, I'm going to I sit back and relax. I was just reading a text from dujang Rinpoche, one of the great Dzogchen teachers, and he said, the natural state of mind feels like that. It feels like you just put everything down, and you sat back and you went, and then whatever bubbles up out of that is like the waves bubbling up from the ocean. So when you can practice that way, and this and Patrick, I'm not saying this lightly. When you can practice that way, you can just get glimpses of that when the the things reverse themselves, you think this pop up is my mind, and every now and again, I get these gaps where I'm actually there and the reverse is, that's my mind, that base of relaxation, and then sometimes it gets interrupted with these bump up, up, but it's flipping the Script, and you're and what you identify with.
Yeah. So, and that is why we it's funny that we have to read so much and practice so much to get to that to that point. But I think what I invite us to is to recognize how many times we come in contact with our ultimate during the day.
So
it's just imagine every time that you're contracting or you're getting tense, or you are reading the news, or you have to go to the doctor, or you're put on put on hold for a long time, imagine what it could be. So just, just a, b, just practice that little mantra for a few days to see let it be. That doesn't mean that we're not called to action. That's a different thing, but it's just to find that that space, and we're very lucky with this platform and the amount
of resources that we have. So
thank you so very much that next time I see you all is next year 2025 big changes. It's when I'm going to the tropics for three weeks
to see my dad.
And my grandson is going to see great grandpa for the first time. So I'm looking forward for him to see in the ocean. And seeing great grandpa. Um, that's my but I would have you. I just want you to know that you are really all in my hearts, and I look so much forward to see your faces. And it's my wish for for this season and for the next year, that all your wishes would be fulfilled, but in but more important than that, that you always will know that you are loved, that you are seeing, that you are cared for, and that we just
have to just
and feel it okay. So I hope I can see you very, very, very soon, I will keep you in my thoughts and in my meditations. But let's begin again. So raise your arms, if you like, with me, and then coming down
both these fish and mine.
So it's three points, if you want to find three little start, and just notice that what I always say is, may your awakened hearts grow and flourish ever more
and more.
And that is really the heart of Bucha
and and that's what
I wish for all of you, and that's what I wish for for everybody that we come in contact with that awakening that is already there. Thank you so much. We'll see you soon.
Bye, bye, bye,
happy holidays.
Happy holidays. To you all. Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Thank you so much
and safe travels. Oh, thank you everybody. Bye, bye, beautiful,