Read this article from tricycle that I wanted to share in. It was dated, if you can see it, spring of 2020 he has a couple of principles regarding this view of karma that I was very, very interested and it's mostly from the public perspective. I'm sorry, do you hear? Do you say something? Oh, okay, yes, um, if you if you want to speak up, please do. But if not, if we can mute it, because some of the microphones, I think, are still open. But anyway, again, if you have never been in this class, this is the meditation class every Monday. Today was Jeffrey's day, but he is in retreat. And Joe parent it would be going in retreat too, so I would be covering some of their classes. And this article from the spring of 220 is called the karma of now. And we began to talk a little bit in the last class that I I was with you. And there's a couple of things here that I wanted to before I close this and we go into how we connect a little bit of meditation with this view of what karma is. And I think it's for me, it has a lot of me to think and maybe meditate, but it says that the teachings of karma were so central to the teachings of the Shakyamuni Buddha that they used to call or label him the car, the car the karma Badin, because he was teaching action. And we usually hear of karma as maybe some simplified way of cause and effect, but is the action of now what we're thinking about here. So he changed a little bit of the way that it was perceived. There were different movements at that time. There was the austerity. And then he came
to
emphasize how the issue of karma shapes the present moment, and how, whether it's physical, mental, the one that has the most importance in in some of the classes that we have taken with Andrew is, as we discussed with him, is found that the mental part is first and then, regarding these actions, it is the way that we perceive the moment and what we can do in the moment that we are always talking about. So going a little bit more in the article that you can see is pointing to the fact that it depressant is not solid. The present is fluid, and we never know what the present moment really is going to be. There is not like a direct connection, a direct relationship with what the present moment is going to be and the past actions may have some role in shaping the present experience of pleasure and pain, but they do not determine it. There's other factors that are always included. And in fact, our present actions can make the whole difference on whether the past but action leads to a lot of suffering, or right now, or why it can maybe have changed. So it means that the present moment doesn't arrive, ready, built. And that's what I wanted to get to. The present moment doesn't arrive, ready, built. We constantly constructed in happening on, whether with greater or less skill, out of the raw materials provided by past karma. So in the past actions or whatever happened, we get a little bit of the materials that how we react to the present moment, but that doesn't mean that it's built and it's solid and there will be no change. And then why meditation is important? Why do we observe the movements of the mind? How do we observe how concepts are made. How do we in meditation look at our emotions or the pictures in our mind? Because we, in a way, are learning how to pause in that for that shaping that comes later. So this article. Has a lot more of what we're talking about, but the the solidity of who we are as a body, or the solidity of how we perceive the present moment, especially sometimes we see the present moment with so much fatal kind of tragedy. Point of view, we forget how empowered we are because of impermanence and how everything began, begins with the observing
of the mind.
And those two features of the Buddha's teachings of action, the role of the present action in shaping the present, in addition to the future and the central importance of mental actions, explain why Buddhist meditation focuses on observing and understanding The mind in there, in here and now.
So
observing the here and now is what we're doing with meditation. So I just sometimes for this article, you needed to purchase the article. Tomorrow, we're going to talk in yoga nidra a little bit how also the slogans, what we're doing is shaping the present moment, because it's the way that we're reacting. So there are tools of shaping the present moment, but I wanted to lead you with those two things.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to close there so you don't have to see that anymore. Any comments? Did I go too far with that?
Somehow, especially right now, like I should have began with my update, we're back home. Brian is doing really well, so we're back from Chicago. We got here Tuesday night and Wednesday. Wednesday, I was diagnosed with COVID, so I'm stuck at now at home with COVID, still testing positive, although my symptoms are very little, and I thought I was doing okay, but you hear me coughing, so this morning, when I read that again, okay, he said, Myra, here you're in bed. You're shaping the present moment. So what are my choices? Here? Do I think, Oh, my goodness, I'm going to be coughing through or do I see all these beautiful faces and get the energy to shape and share with you? So that was my second option. So I guess in our meditation today, we're spending a lot more time or quiet time. And I would pretend that's the way, but it's that probably I would be running out of breath. Um, but what do you think about that? Isn't that empowering? Isn't that like the good news that even when things seem to just be so fatal in a way that we see it, somehow, what we're shaping is the reaction, and eventually, tomorrow, we're going to talk about the slogan. But the ultimate goal, like when the site, is to notice that so at the moment of death,
we can make the choice,
and then we begin just observing the breath, noticing the body, noticing the construct contractions, noticing when we get upset, noticing when we like something and not like something, because that is the way that we get to to know our mind, and that's making the mind serviceable is the only we hope that we have
in this path to
have that peace that we're looking for, which is always within us So to uncover that so comments,
I thought that was
so if you got five tricycle and you want to read a little bit more and bring tomorrow some ideas, just giving them as food for thought. That is a view I had to drive with my son today for a little bit, and he's listening to a book
that is called
the case for God by Karen amsra, fascinating a former nun with the history from Christianity from the. Greeks and the Romans, and it touches in other religions in this search to define, to find, to conceptualize, to find proof about God, and he's almost a little bit about what they're trying to do now with consciousness, but from a religious perspective. But I was completely taken aback as to the way that history reads, the way that we see what we're doing right now, how we think sometimes that things are in a linear perspective, and that these teachers have figured all out, and these are the definitions, and these are the people with power. But it's a lot more complicated than that, and the same way is with the actions and the karma. So you know the wheel of dependent origination, with the 12 links and being the grasping and the ignorance being the first one, what Andrew calls the grandmother, the blind grandmother. And we think that it's just like this, but I think we talk a little bit, it's almost like the clock. We take this action being blinded by ignorance, but that action may touch so many all. So there has a wheel here, and that wheel has another wheel and another wheel and another wheel and another wheel and another wheel. So that's why it's so complicated. It's not one path that we can say because I took money from somebody, then I would be poor tomorrow. That could be true. It could be that immediate, but it's a lot more complicated than that, but we don't have to worry about that so much, because I heard also that you just look at your present
life
and you kind of know what happened before. So the power is that we choose now in the way that we react to the present moment with the tools that we have, and that's why we keep educating ourselves. That's where we have this group of support. That's we keep reading and taking courses. That's we meditate and we search for things because we're trying to just feel our tubes of consciousness and habits and new habits in order to have the tools that we need. So when the next present moment appears,
we react in a way that is a lot more positive, hopefully For the benefit of all sentient beings one point so
and we're always lost
and feel lonely
when we think it's only about ourselves, and it takes us a while to to get there, but our hearts are bigger our intentions. So in meditation, we find a pose through the body,
we develop an intention to see what the headlines are guiding. We place our attention with our intention. There be an object, a form, a thought,
a process,
or in some meditations, like what we call up your awareness, where we allow any thoughts, any any part of our mental processes and our senses to come in without engaging them or creating a story and but we are also guiding the attention in that moment, because we're not getting distracted. So intention, attention brings awareness. Awareness brings the space where we have this liberty and the only free will that we have actually comes in that moment, in the way that we react
to the present moment, and that is where the article began.
So if you had any other comments were beginning to just even when you're listening to me, and even if your eyes are. Open, and you have not taken your position, knowing that from the beginning, when you decided to be here, you really are entering
this process.
The energy begins long before
you turn on the computer,
there is a stream of choices that you have made to give you this moment
so noticing the body, and allowing the body to kind of get
kind of comfy,
and exposing your heart a little bit.
I'm the only one that says this, but in my meditations, but remember that you can lay down, I will keep you awake, and if you fall asleep, maybe you were too tired, and that's why you need it. So finding your seat and maybe becoming a little more remote from the back
of the seat, you up and feeling the weight of your body, I usually notice whether
there is a foot that has a little bit more firmness into the ground than the other, or maybe my sit bones, I'm right Now sitting more to the right than to the left.
So that's why you sometimes you know that people kind of sway a little bit just finding their center.
Just notice that when we use imagery and when I say relax, actually, you cannot make yourself relax, but the word relax has a weight on you. Already has a meaning, so you don't have to do anything else.
Just allow the Word to come into your mind. String
we're going to play a little bit after we sit here with awareness, because sometimes we think that we cannot visualize very well. But let's see if that is true.
The hands, palms down, they have them a little bit
higher than the knee area, towards the thighs, middle thighs, the shoulders, kind of more or less over the hips.
I'd like to feel like I have roots into the ground, almost like I'm supported by the Earth, grounded, almost going down, down to the earth. But at the same time, my body doesn't feel heavy when I do if I feel supported
with light,
the crown of the head grows up like you're being full. And when that happens, my chin comes down and back a little bit, relaxing the muscles of your face. I'm going to leave my little eyes open for a little bit, but you may want to close them, but not tight,
placing the tongue the top palette, if you like, I like it mine to float many times, especially in this shorter meditations.
And Dr Perin has this wonderful
technique that Linda mentioned before about raising that little quarter of an inch of your sternum
up and back a little bit exposing the heart.
I also heard and used many times that I feel like my collar bones expand to the sides, almost like a smiling exposing the heart.
But those are just guidance. See
what you have to do to feel your body right now at ease and
noticing that tactile sensations of your body,
cold solidity tightness, itch,
notice the anticipation for the next instruction and.
So right now, without moving or doing anything else, imagine the door closer to you in your back.
When you go there to that door in the back, what
goes there? Is it your mind? Who stays here?
Do you just imagine?
Does it matter? Do
do you see a door?
Do you see the space in your mind? Side? I
if you go to your refrigerator right now, what is your favorite food? Right there you
did you make your bed this morning?
Do you see your bed made this morning? I
so when we go there and you see your bed this morning, were you thinking about the door?
Then we go from door to kitchen to bedroom, one little bit at a time.
And why does it matter?
Because we all do have that creative power.
The only difference was that we had the instruction and the intention. We placed the attention in the instruction, and then we became aware. And
and in that moment of awareness, when we place the attention,
is when we have The ability to act differently, forming the present moment and
so if your eyes are open, you can close them. I will keep them open a little bit. These are just thoughts, comments from the reading. These this is your practice, and now for the rest of the practice, we're going to go to some instructions and see how the same principles may apply in different ways we're
so let's do some breathing, and this way we're going to breathe, we have done this sometimes, first from the bottom of the feet to the crown of the head. We're going to go three times in different areas. Of the body to the crown of the head. I will direct the first one, and then you do the other two, just knowing that in that way, we're just working with what we call the winds in the body, the energy of the body. So we feel first we exhale completely,
and we inhale and
we exhale,
and we inhale
and we exhale completely, and when you think you have nothing else to exhale, just exhale a little bit more,
a little bit more, a little bit more.
And this time, we inhale from the bottom of the feet all the way up your legs, your sacrum, your spine, your heart, your throat all the way to the crown of the head, and then we exhale down to the bottom of the feet. And you do two more times from the bottom of the feet to the crown of the head. And
and now we're going to go from the sacrum to the crown of the head and from the crown to the sacrum
two more times,
from the area behind your belly button, about four finger width, back and In front of the spine, three times, inhale up, exhale to the area
two more times.
And then we find the heart area, from the heart area to the crown, from the crown to the heart two more times and
from the throat to the crown, from the crown to the throat
two more times and
from the third eye to the crown,
from The crown to the Third Eye
two more times and
and now from the outside to every pores of your body towards the heart. Take a big inhale coming all the light coming towards the heart, inhale, exhale, out to every pores of the body, cleansing, cleaning everything that doesn't feel right, energizing the body, just releasing. And do this two more times you
and just notice.
And notice that even the instructions were a little bit different, like shortcuts, just doesn't matter is the intention, placing the attention and
now one more time just
sensing the body and.
Maybe you can get to feel the edges of your clothing,
maybe tightness between your toes.
Maybe you see images swirling around,
and it's all good you and
Now for the next few minutes, we're just going to you are going to choose one image, one part of the body, of the breath, maybe you have visualization or a mantra that you've been reciting. And we are doing all this together. We're supporting each other, but each one of us is practicing what is being called by our hearts right now. So if you have a mantra, just repeat it to you slowly. If you want to place your attention on the breath, there be the nose, the chest or to tell me, just do that. If you have an image that you want to visualize, please do so. But let's just hold each other in This space right now
and be Silent. You.
There is nowhere to go,
nowhere to be,
no Inside, no outside,
no left, no Right, no awkward, No, done. You.
So by now they mind us. What they mind us?
Maybe it's a little tense, maybe it's a little distracted, maybe you have perfect concentration
or how aware you were? You? What was what's going on? I
would you feel the emotions or see the images or noticing the same way from what we did, the door behind you and the door fade away with the image of the kitchen,
and the Image faded away with the image of your bed and and see how the image came in. You can hold it only for so long, and if this was that way,
and what what's left and.
We're going to go a little bit to a version of a little fraction of a tongue line, and we're going to breathe it together.
If this makes you a little nervous and you feel a little confused by the instruction, do not do it and just stay in your meditation quietly. Would you just thinking about this group right here, right now, and how we're supporting each other, how we're creating this beautiful energy, and how grateful we are for this platform and the opportunity you lest, without any shame or embarrassment, just be a blessing, intentionally be a blessing for each other
or health or knowledge to dissipate out to have faith all the blessings.
So when we inhale, we're going to take from each other also things that are weighing in us and make us tired or worry, and when we exhale, we're just going to feel the space and fill each other with just peace and pure light, the light of wisdom, of abundance, of peace, of clarity, knowing that we are so much bigger than this body, so we're going to do simultaneous stone land for each other. So we inhale and
we exhale. The light, notice the vibration, feel the blessing, feel the lightness, notice the magic. Inhale, we're holding each other. We're not alone, and we exhale. You
and when we inhale, we lighten the burden of everybody in this group. When we exhale, we just share our light with each other. You can do this two or three more times, and it feels right. You
and now let's expand the circle of friends, and I leave it up to you.
Now let's expand for those people that we don't know much about, They're kind of indifferent to us and
and now expand that circle of light and sharing the blessings to those that we really do not agree with, and maybe if you have it within you, and if it's possible to even those that We really have some certain animosity, or they have prospered. They also want to be happy. You
just relax,
coming through your body again and
noticing the sensations in your body, relaxing your shoulders, inner and outer corners of your eyes,
your forehead,
your arms, your hands,
allowing the energy to settle slowly in that area below your belly button, quiet and serene,
noticing your feet and your legs and
bringing the attention to the area around your body, maybe about four feet from your body,
two feet from your body,
your skin,
your muscles, Your bones,
your organs, the weight of your body and
we're going to take three soft breath to a count of four to six. Inhale four, exhale, very softly to six.
Inhale to four
and exhale to six.
One more inhale and let it all go. And
bringing movement to your fingers and your toes
do the areas around your body and
and for people that sometimes think I don't feel anything, I don't feel any different, six feet from my body, two feet from my body or my bones, it's like week when we tell ourselves that we cannot visualize what we can see the door behind us. It's just very subtle. We just. Give ourselves a little bit of credit sometimes, but I like to bring the energy of the body, because, if not, we become a little spacey sometimes after meditation, or we like to move too fast. Well, welcome back. If you are still around and awake, any comments See,
thank you before to react. That's scary. Happy everybody. Thank you. Jerry, good you.
A little more relaxed.
So one last image
before we maybe you can come up. That was the rehab center where my husband was a 19th floor looking towards the Navy Pier in, like Michigan, a lot of the high rise buildings, and there was this beautiful building, and it's an image of a meditation that I had done. It sometimes like a shamanic journey. So imagine one of those high rises with all these people, all the sudden, the front of all the building is gone, and you can see into all those little apartments and condos. So there you will find people fighting, feeding their children, making love, worrying about how to pay their bills. Are they late for work? Do they have a night shift? Do they have a morning shift? Are they alone? Are they crying? Are they laughing? Are they on the phone?
But you know, how many lives if you peel all of us like it's almost like seeing the screen, we peel all of us.
And I said, oh my goodness, we're all the same. Each one of us is living a different show. We're reacting in a different way to the present, through whatever little bubbles we had before that are manifested right now. And we have a choice, but we are all the same, and at the bottom, like the Dalai Lama now says, and they seem so simple, we're always looking for happiness and stop suffering. That doesn't change, and some people do not like it anymore because it seems too simplistic. We want to be talking about all the different things of consciousness and quantum mechanics and the beauty of some literature. And I love that guy, Juna. I like logic. I like the lamb rim, and it's seven of this and five of this, and how many scandals, and how many levels of consciousness? Is it seven plus the eighth consciousness, and we get lost in the dismantling. When we are dismantling is so we can see when the veil comes down, the front comes down, we're all the same.
And when we reach each other like we did now, we take that energy and we give each other love. That's what we're giving each other. We're acknowledging that my love towards you fits you the same, and your love towards me fits you the same, because it's the same thing that comes from the heart and I have not heard it. Let's see if I can find it. And with this, we end. I was giving a big hug to the maintenance person that cleaned our room for so long that I used to call her sunshine, because I said you, every time I see you, I just become happy. So your sunshine. And it's a Bible passage, but I never heard it before, and it's similar to what we've been talking so what comes from the heart? Goes to the heart. So this today came from my heart. I goes to I hope it goes to your heart. That's the intention. That's the intention I have to maybe ignite a little bit there of a
something, a sparkle.
So unless you guys have anything else for me, this COVID girl has to go, just relax. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, back home. Thank you, Karen. You're always Karen has been doing this for a very long time, so when I see her say, oh my goodness, she still listens to me, I don't know what's wrong with her.
Just want to say, Thank. MyRA.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, yes, John, you can't see me. I got my head on and everything. Okay, no,
but thank you. It comes from your heart to my heart, so I hope that you know that it's not coming from me. Remember that you only can see what is in your heart. So don't abandon me. So they don't fire me. No. So in yoga and Israel, tomorrow, we're going to lay down, maybe relax a little more. We're going to continue with the same article on karma, but talk about the 10th slogan of Atisha. You know that I do very little, but we're going to go on about 4045, minutes of passing out. That's what we do in yoga. Nidra, okay. Uh, Andrew is back, although I had to miss last Thursday preparing to die reading book, so I haven't heard him. I don't know if you guys did so I hope he's doing well, but he's going to retreat again to Costa Rica,
so hopefully we see him soon.
Anybody here going to Costa Rica?
So lucky? Yes,
please tell us come and tell us learn something. Okay, okay, thank you so much. Well, Blessings to you all. Thank you for sharing your time with us. Let's finish like always,
nothing gives you more humility than being sick. As we raise our hands and we gathered it together with space between our palms, bodies fish and mine,
