[7] Cultivating Faith and Compassion through Meditation and Teachings - Mayra Lorenzana – Miles

6:31PM Dec 20, 2024

Speakers:

Keywords:

faith and compassion

meditation practice

teacher's slogans

true nature

mind training

yoga nidra

breath awareness

compassion practice

meditation state

mindfulness

open awareness

letting go

body sensations

holiday season

letting be

Hello,

let's see, I see some names that I recognize. Hi. How are you? Thank you for turning on. Hello, yeah. How are you good? So here we are. I cannot believe it's always been almost seven months of doing this. What a blessing. Now

you know what? What a a path

I was reflecting because we we lost someone, one of the person that I used to find here when, when we connected so barrel, which was in our classes, many, many times, from the beginning, she passed. And I would like everybody, if that is within your practice, maybe sending a little prayer, even if you don't remember her face or or her thing she was, she was a spirit that to this, little stamps, screens that are there, her enthusiasm for the Practice, her love for what she was doing, her vitality until the last minute that it was it was contagious, and she was ready, I guess, and she went on, I think it's been two weeks now, maybe almost a month. So I have it in my heart. I've been thinking about her almost every single day, and I think we only talked twice, but her presence was a lot to me. So welcome. I think I know your faces, but if you don't know me, my name is Myra. Myra miles to cut so you don't have to say my Rafael or enzano Miles is easier Myra miles, but I was as I was getting ready for for this today. My middle name is Faith, which is F, E, and it's actually faith. And I think we, all of us that are here, we have some of that to be able to sign it into this year. We have faith in in in Buddhism. Faith has different definitions. But if you years back, I It came to me. For me, faith is the certainty that it is, so it's, it's, but it's not a certainty that you impose with a stamp. It's a peacefulness in your heart and in your body and every cell of your body, that that is the way that you feel, that that's a certainty that you have in your heart, that it doesn't come from the outside, but it's a sense that is actually a sense of openness, because you don't have to achieve, you don't have to study, you don't have to be better. You don't have to do rounds or prayers or malas or whatever it is that you have to do. It just is, and I think also what is is I will our true nature, and we're told by the teachings and by Andrew and by many of the people that are here that our true nature is what is there all the time, and it is just obscure. And I decided, when I began to do this, to work with a teacher's slogans, because in those 59 slogans, what we are doing is training the mind in ways that sometimes we read it really, really fast, like, Yeah, I heard it, yes. Give me more. I heard it. But it's actually the more we think about it, the deeper they get. And not only the deeper they get, the first six slogans that we have talked about already, already have everything within. It begins with the end of the story, and it begins with that sense of an opening of the true nature and what we begin to knock I always get that image. And, you know, I had talked about before, it's like having a rock that is mud that is covering this precious jewel. And each one of these things, what we do is sizzle in a way, to get the precious jewel of where we are, and then in the inside we're it's all open and it's clean. So let's begin with that poem. But that is also coming in, and you have heard it before too. But show silver stain, because I think it's in a in a funny way. You. Can find Dharma anywhere. So here we go, if you're a dreamer, come in, if you're a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer or a magic bin buyer, if you are pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax golden tales to spin, come in, come in, so come in is what we do in the stories that we tell. Come in is what we do in meditation. Come in is what we do when we study. Come in, is what we do when we share. Come in, is what we do when we hug. Come in is what we do when we dance freely and hug intensely, that's what we do, is that when we find the right teacher, when we find the right teaching, what we have is that coming in, that then that, that when there is no difference between who is who or what is what we just come within. And the slogans also help us about that. And I'd like to do it before the yoga nidra, because in yoga nidra, where we go is into that little meditation state, and we hover in those states of consciousness that is between sleep and awake, where the liminal spaces are met, where we let go of defenses. We sometimes even lose the sense of the edges of the body, and we go in and out in this dance that we feel like is is so good, but in that state, also everything is just goes really deeper, and we allow the body to feel more. And in practice, the purpose of practice is to break the this sense of that we are so solid. So that's what we've been doing. It's just to that sense that we are so solid when we get connected therapy, with yoga, with breath, that we're going to do a little bit with movement, with meditation, we are losing the solidity of that sense of ego that we have that attaches, craze pushes away, hates always in ignorance, in ignorance of not being able to come in and to rest there. We can call it mindfulness, open awareness. There's different ways to call that thing that we already have experienced. Many times they tell us, but we do not identify. So when we get pointing instructions, what the t shirt tells us that, like, That's it, don't go further. That's it. They're pointing at that, that, that, that is the space. Stay there. You have to do nothing. You're already free. Is it? What?

Where? Where did it go?

We passed.

We passed because we're always hungry for one more teaching, one more empowerment, one

more

course that I can take. But anyway, I keep taking courses, if you like, wisdom publications. I just finished a course with Anne Kling about launch empass Seven mind training. And it, it just left me. I I go over and over because the depth of her teachings. So if you want to jewel and give yourself a holiday present for you get get her course in wisdom publications. But I also began the course from Calvary Rinpoche, which is a reincarnation of the other color, Rinpoche, that is also a sunshine master, and he's a young guy not born in the 90s. My youngest kid is born in the 90s too. So I don't know why I noticed my prejudice like, oh, maybe he's still too young. I don't know if Wow was I surprised by hearing his wisdom. So I only done two classes, so that's another recommendation that I have for you if you have time. So Colu Rinpoche in wisdom publication, and it brings me back to the slogans, because one of the things of the slogan is that they seem so simple. So this challenge is, is really, it's like I said it to you again, what I love to cook, and it could cook seasons in stages. You don't just cook it and you put it at the last minute. You. And we are seasoning here together, guys, we're marinating in the wisdom that came so much time before us, and we're feeding from each other. Maybe I'm the talking head right now, but we are already feeding from each other because we have shared the seeds that brought this moment together. So in the teachings, the Vatican, in the slogans, and many of these teachings, is a marinating process. That's why you sometimes go back and read something that you read before, or something that you wrote, and you say, Wow, did I really know this? Did I really write this? The level of understanding that we have now has that base, that thing underneath. So we have covered six of the slogans already, which are the, the most basic ones. And first, we're told to the preliminaries are the most important and and that goes to the preciousness of human life, the loss of karma, the uncertainty of death and the way out. And then after we get all dharmas at dreams, wow, that by itself, is like the end of the teachings, because really knowing the illusory nature of life that's like emptiness as this like levels that's just a little bit before you know, pass it going through and cutting through, and then examine the nature of the unborn awareness. So that is the potentiality of everything that is latent. So that self, exponential expression of life, we read it like nothing, but only I wish I can have the glimpse of that spontaneous awareness, the way that life expresses itself, that things seem to be a linear causality, but they are not causality is not lineal. And the way that they explain to me, you have that wheel of life, and you have this actual this thought or something that happened, and this is a movement, but that movement has a movement, and that movement has a movement. It's almost like those wheels on a clock, and that's why it's so complex. And then after they get you very convinced and say, Oh yeah, that's the way that nature is. And then it's okay now that you think that you understand you have to liberate even that. That's the fourth slogan, because if you fix that. You think that the way that things are, let that go, because that can become a shame for you again. And then they tell you, once you let go of that, then you rest, which would be Alaya or rigpa, and that is deeper than that. And then they say, Okay, once you learn to rest, then you take your meditation out of your cushion, into your life. And everything that you do post meditation, you have to carry this wisdom that you have work on it. So those are only the the first six. And I that's what I think that this is like the ultimate bodhicitta, and that's like the higher teachings that I have heard, I don't know, but the way that they do it so simple. We read in like it's not a big deal, but there is, again, just a chiseling away. So today we're in the part seven in stoneland, and we have known tonglen and every t shirt that has after certain time, they try to allow us to open your heart. And in tonguelin, it's a little bit of reverse, because we usually think we're taking everything we good, we're giving away what we don't want. But in tonguelin, it's different. So can you get all subtle and you take the pain from the world and you give your light away? So that is like, okay, many people are afraid of doing that. Can, can I really carry that? Can I really do that? We do we underestimate up the power of one person in the part with that. So

that

is the seventh slogan of is standing and taking should be practiced alternatively, these two should write in the breath

so we breathe into

ourselves the pains and the sorrows and the things that you would like to take you begin with yourself, maybe with the people that you. Love with people that you do not know much anymore, and then from people that's a very high practice, even people that you really do not like. And then you give away from that center and that light that is indestructible, that is full of compassion, that knows the true nature of who you are. That's why it's indestructible. It doesn't end from that light within your heart, then you radiate what they need. May they be enlightened? They they may be free of suffering. May they be also free of the causes of suffering. May they know happenings and the causes of happiness, and that's the other things that we have heard. Does it make sense? Any comments?

So in one way or the other. All the peoples in this that more, more or less sit in this side, say it from our perspective, and I invite you to do it also from your perspective, because that's the beauty, beauty of this mosaic of life. It doesn't fit the same way, and you cannot self impose it on yourself. You just have to continue reading, contemplating, meditating, listening to classes, and then you feel it in your body, is what we're going to be doing now. We need to feel it in your body, and your body will tell you when it feels right and when it doesn't feel right. But sometimes we are just numb to the barriers that we have created in our

lives, ourselves

or condition for things that is not that it is our fault. It's just that the way that things evolve. So what we do now is to begin to continue chiseling away to that light that is always shining. So let's begin with a little bit of movement, and just remember that those winds and those channels that we get into the body, those that is the energy running through the body. So sometimes we think that we are with very hard to visualize, but let's go back imagine they're just go to the front door of your house right now with your apartment,

it doesn't take more. You

immediately were in your front door. Okay, and again, just go to this morning when you woke up. Were you stiff and not wanted to throw out the bed? You immediately are there. Just think what is just right behind you. And the trick is, remember that we need the stability that we get with the meditation. I put all with my hand, because we are right here. And when we're right here, where stat is, keep looking at your hand or whatever in front of you, and then go back to think about the door, front door. So there is a little split of your concentration, your right foot, stay with the front

your right hand.

And just with those little movements, you begin to sense the flow. It's almost, I find it like a jet stream, like your your mind travels. Just practice with that. Just practice. It could be just a breath, and then when you aren't using the breath, you're planning, okay, I think that I did not understand that last thing, and then your mind goes and the trick is, the real success is when you realize that you left

and you come right back,

and that sensation of coming right back, that

is awareness.

We can call it different ways. We can go fancy about it. Use a lot of words about it, but awareness is that sense of you knowing what you're doing at that moment. So right now, we're going to begin with breath. If you don't follow the breath completely, it's fine. And then we're going with your permission. I'm going to recite Omani Padme on today. And the way that we're going to do it is, after a couple of minutes, maybe I'm going to be going a little lower if you want to do it. And then if you're going to lay down, then you begin to lay down with the mantra. So if you want to turn off and get in a place where you can be doing that later, and if you were going to stay seated with me, then just feel the energy just coming down to your seat. So I invite you to do that and carry the mantra with you. I said that we were going to move in, but I don't think we're moving. After all, I just think that we're ready. Let's just from a sitting pose, if you're sitting, just begin to feel just if you want to close your eyes, noticing your seat, and imagine and for like the from the crown of the head down your spine all the way down almost to the center of the center of The Earth, feel it grounded and supported.

So you're sitting

and we're going to come to the breath, exhale First,

take an inhale to the nose. 23456,

and exhale, to your mouth, back,

inhale, exhale, big, inhale, and and exhale big.

Now we're going to inhale on little three breath like little ones like this, hold and exhale completely through your nose. So that let's do that three times. Inhale,

hold, exhale completely to your nose. Inhale three exhale completely.

This time, if you think that you exhale completely, try to exhale a little bit more.

Inhale three, hold and and exhale as slow as you can, as completely as you can, through your nose.

Check in with your intention for this practice and what brings you here?

And I'd like to imagine all the people that make this possible, even the technology, the miracle of being together in this way, the teachers and this platform and the ability of the people that make it possible.

My friend, friends, our family that support us,

their ancestors,

the 1000s of years of teachings and wisdom

and all the people meditating right now and

we are not alone in.

This interplay, interdependence of life

actually makes it all possible.

Thank you for the teachings and the teachers you

connecting to your feet and the bottom of your feet, your spine, from the bottom of the spine to the crown of the head, still noticing that flow from your spine to the center of the Earth, grounding yourself, supporting yourself,

the hands placed in a manner that can stay.

The back is strong, but it's no step. The collar bones expand to the sides exposed in their heart. The eyes right now may be closed, but not tight, relaxing your jaw and you decide on the placement of your tongue,

and it's like we're resting right here.

Notice the sensations in your body and your thoughts, if you have any, and see it coming and going with no worries.

Maybe you begin to notice your heart perpitating.

And it's all good and

if you do not practice the Romani Padme home mantra or it does not have any meaning to you, you can just continue resting on your breath and doing your own prayer or relaxation, you can repeat it verbally or in your mind,

talking About the heart,

our true nature. This is the mantra of compassion.

Oh money. Padme hung o money. Padme hung o money. Padme Hall o money. Padme Hall o money. Padme Hall o money, Padme Hall o money. Padme Hall O money. Home. Oh man home, O money pad my home, O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money Pame home, O money pad my home. O money pad my home. O money pan. Money, pardon me, Hall o money pardon me, Hall o money pardon me, Hall o money pardon me, HO O money, pardon me, HO O money, pardon me, HO O money, PARD, me, HO O money, PARD me, ha, ha o money, pad me, ha, ha o money, Pan me, HO O money, pad me, ha ha o money, pad me, ha ha o money, pad me, ha ha o money, Pan me, HO O money, pad me, home, oh money, find me home. Money, family home, oh money, find me home. Money, find me home. Oh money, find me home. Oh money, find me home. And money, time me homely home. Money, send me home. Oh money, find me home. And Money, family home. Money, family home,

you want to lay down if you're not laying down too soon, you and notice, notice your body,

with your Mind side, just imagining this, edges of your pie and

and we're going to do soft breathing again from The spine up to the crown, and

we'll bring the crown down to the spine For the exhale, inhale up, exhale down, inhale up, exhale down. Sometimes I'd like to feel that this breath is like a mist, like a laser, like you're clearing little tunnels, little tubes of your energy channels,

and that image is the same as you imagined your foot or the door. Just do not focus too much. Just Keep inhaling and exhaling.

Two more and

noticing the back of the head heavy, the muscles of your face, your forehead, the inner and outer corners of your eyes, even the back of Your eyes are relaxed. The back of your nose and let go of your lower jaw, the back of your tongue,

the sides of your tongue and

and this energy base you from the inside, almost like warm honey, covering the inside of your body, relaxing, releasing, cleansing your shoulders, front and back,

going down, shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers, and it's almost like the body empties through your fingers and.

The over chest shoulder blades and

solar plexus, mid back, the Energy keeps coming down, grounding, relaxing, releasing and letting go. Lower stomach and your glutes,

your inner thighs roll towards the outside, releasing your hips and lower Back,

your knees, front and back.

Lower legs, ankles and feet.

Notice your toes relaxing even the space between your toes and

then come into The center of your chest, to your heart area,

and in there, just checking into your intention, declaring an intention for the rest of the practice and

make it something concrete, if I may suggest

and you want. May I understand a certain teaching, may I know what to do regarding a certain issue, may I be of guidance to somebody.

And once you know that, repeat it to yourself three times you

and before we go into a deeper relaxation, just checking around your body what feels right, what doesn't feel right, You're finding any level of comfort if you're not. This is your practice,

trying not to fall asleep, if it's possible, and try to

play with that place in between.

Your body's relaxed, your breath has become a lot quieter.

And then we're going to place the attention intentionally parts of the body to continue into the Nidra, the tip of your right thumb, index Finger, right, middle finger, ring finger, left, little finger the top of your right hand, the palm of your right hand, just relax right wrist and. Lower arm, elbow, upper arm, your right shoulder.

Now noticing the space that your right arm occupies, and relax

the right side of your chest, underneath your arm, the right side of your ribs, your

waist,

the right hip, and notice the area in connection to the right leg, and just let it be heavy and let go

there. Right thigh, knee, lower leg, right ankle, right heel, the top of the foot, the bottom of the foot, right, big toe, second toe, third, fourth, little

relaxing your right lower leg, Your right leg and completely, completely letting go,

maybe noticing the way that the right leg feels compared to the left, with your right arm feels compared to the left the right side of Your body, from your right shoulder to your toes, releasing and letting go.

The left thumb, index finger, middle ring, Bluetooth finger, open, open and relax the palm of the Left hand, the top left wrist, left lower arm, elbow, upper arm, left shoulder, front and back, noticing the space that your left arm occupies in space open let go

underneath The left arm,

the left side of your chest your ribs, your waist,

the left hip and.

Left thigh, knee, lower leg, left ankle, left heel, The top of the left foot, the bottom

left big toe, second, third, fourth, loaded toe and

the lower part of the left leg vibrating

open.

The whole leg from the hip to the toes,

both legs from The hips to the toes, vibrating open and Relax and

your chest area, your heart center, your for Solar Plexus,

your lower stomach,

the area behind your Heart, mid back and your glutes

from your neck down your body's vibrating, releasing bright, bright Light and

your forehead,

your eyes and

your nose, your mouth and

now Imagine this page this body occupies and

vast, own bound and

Now I'm going to give you some images, and just allow whatever comes, maybe the words, maybe the spelling, maybe one letter, maybe an idea, maybe the picture of what a read is, a rainforest,

a desert.

People Dancing.

A funeral and

taking an exam,

doing your favorite hobby and

nine in a supermarket And

sitting down in your favorite place and

reading your Favorite book,

listening to news that You don't like you.

Peace,

breath and rest.

If you had any lasting images or sensations in the body, just release. Let him go and.

Relaxing the back of the body, allowing it to become even heavier and

scan your body for sensations and

we're going to inhale to four and exhale to six or eight. With the exhalation, we become even deeper into the ground. Inhale to 1234, 234, exhale, 54321,

inhale And exhale.

Inhale,

your body's vibrating.

It's pure energy

coming to the center of the center of your heart again, may you like to Imagine a little sparkle diamond like light, spotless, untouched. You.

And that light rise through every porous of the body, even peace and love and light everywhere you

and you checking your intention again

and maybe repeat it to yourself three more times and

now bring the attention To the area of the room where you're at and

you imagine the surroundings with your eyes closed, begin to notice how the body begins to get a little bit more compact.

The Energy subtle body begins to come in, maybe the space about six feet from you are

four feet, two feet to your Skin, noticing the heaviness of your bones and muscles. Your organs, your breath, your heart,

maybe, if you're laying down your roll to your right side for two or three breath, and then we meet In the front and for out the camera again and

We come back to a sitting pose if you're still with me and

so I invite you, if you have, not To remember that Julie leaves has those slogans, and they are free the PDF. Remember that these are mind trainings, meaning that we're trying to make that the mind serviceable, and we do it only with our team, only with the teachings. We also do it with studying, contemplating, meditating, and also coming in contact with the somatic sensations to the body. And we get to those mind trainings where we are clearing is the obstacles, the obstacles that obscure. I feel like sometimes it's like, you know the image of the fog that lifts up slowly when you warms up, so the teachings and the practice so warms us up for the fog to lift up.

So

any comments, any questions, we would meet again, the beginning of 2025 so I sent them. I think I would cover the meditation on December 16, but otherwise yoga nidra would be in January.

I thought something here, but I could not read Alyssa. Do you know same?

Yeah. Somebody said, where do you find these slogans?

Oh yes, Judy leaf, I'm so sorry. I talked to Yeah, Judy leaf, do you? Do you have the the, oh, the link before, if not, I will send that. I can look real quick. I know,

yeah, you're talking about, yeah.

So there a teacher's slogan. A teacher was a 10th century master that traveled to to the oceans to find his Linga, his teacher. And we get the slogans in different versions. These are 59 there are sometimes seven, but they all all work with trying to be aware of the modifications of the mind and the principles of the mind and but her view is very practical, and I love she's one of Trungpa. Trungpa Rinpoche still students, and it seems like this group, we come around him a lot. Um, so Judy leaf. And we are in seven right now. But I also tell before and I want to see I tell you again I do mention them. My intention is like planting a seed. You have to go on your own. I have listened to hours, just for the first one, the way that they talk about it, and all the situations of life, how it presses itself. Thank you, Alyssa, I

see that you put the link,

yes, and it's a PDF that is free in it's just the beginning right now, I think I have about three or four books of my training with the slogans, and it seems like it's more and more. Pema Chodron also likes to do it, and they have some great teachings with us, and I love her teachings too. So I invite you to I'd like to mix both things, because I think that I only think I heard the things that you hear when you are in these stages in between sleep and awake. They penetrate you in ways that you don't even realize later, but they become a little bit more integrated with your psychic

and your knowledge, and it's almost a way to

to learn a little bit more. So who is a person that was not here before? And I apologize for my rudeness. That was, Oh, I see your face. Okay, perfect. I think you know the classes, though, not in my classes, but for Andrew, yes, yes, yes. Well, I invite you to have a very safe and sane holiday season for those who celebrate. I'm teaching something on Saturday in my local studio that is called Letter beat. I. So it's almost like letting those obstacles to one of Andrew's my favorite book of Andrew that he it was his first book. Is pain and suffering, all pain and obstacles. I even forgot what it is, but it's his first book when he begins things and everything that he's done after that is almost like bass into that. So in I learned that the letter B song from The Beatles, when he calls Mary, Mary came to him. Mary was really his mom that came in a dream when he was not doing quite well, and told her to just let a letter B. And I find that sometimes in all these things we we, if we only look at the signs with an open heart, we will see all the messages we don't have to be in from a church, from a great master. It, it comes from everywhere. So in that song. Letter B is my inspiration for this little thing that I'm doing on Saturday. So I invite you all to let it be, to allow the signs in the dreams, in the lines, in the things that we were listening to, and we have to just imagine that is not imagined. It's all part of the path. One of the other things that I learned a long time ago thinking about letter B is that the in the deity practice, when we begin to do that in any group, there is one person that may be the Buddha, may be the person that is really bothering you the most, because he has the biggest lessons for you. So I don't know if it's true, but it feels so good. It takes a lot of my anger a lot, so maybe you are the Buddha teaching me. So in this holiday season, when you get a little bit triggered. Just let it be and think that that may be a emanation of the Buddha teaching you something coming from the inside. For those that believe that, well, thank you so much. We end with something you don't have to do with me, but it's almost like gathering the energy that we got. We inhale the arms up. We gather from the heavens to the heart. Thank you for allowing me to share my practice with you, and may your awakened hearts grow and flourish ever more and more. Namaste. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Carrie, too. Thank you. Larry. Bye, everybody. Happy holidays. May.