2023-01-19-Gil-Challenge Check-In (4 of 5) Entangled or Disantagled

9:07AM Jan 22, 2023

Speakers:

Gil Fronsdal

Keywords:

check

hindrances

entangled

buddha

awakening

factors

generalizations

mind

feel

caught

judgments

unpleasant

checklist

stepping

involved

knotted

relax

mindfulness

mental processes

quality

Oh, hello, everyone. Kinda nice to begin speaking, after having meditated a little bit with you, all of you, thank you. And the topic today is called This Week is called challenge check in. And the suggestion is that, to take the time, maybe time to pause, to take time to have this checklist to go through, to find out how you are what's going on. Not only is it useful to really understand and feel discover how we are. But it's also a reframing. So changing of perspective, from the usual way of checking in with ourselves or knowing ourselves to something that is dharmic, something that the Buddha recommended, it's really productive and useful for becoming disentangled from our life from ourselves. And, and often, oftentimes, it's easy that the common way of being in the world of knowing ourselves is through the filter of our desires or fears or aversions, our confusions, our strains, our resistances. And so we can take the whole package of who we are, and, and subjected to general, generalized opinions generalist idea about you know, about who I am, what's going on. And maybe one of the most general kind of judgment we can have about ourselves. So, we can live under can be a real, real challenge is all the things that goes under the category, I am bad, I am wrong. And not so obvious. But all the ways in which we live under the category. I am, right, I am good, can be also limiting for who we are. And one way it limits us. It keeps us from seeing more deeply what's going on within us underneath those generalizations. And, and to see more directly and deeply. And so the Buddha's check, what I'm calling the Buddha's checklist is a way of dropping below the generalizations below the kind of belief and judgments we have. And this is a phenomenally generous thing to do to ourselves, to free ourselves from the generalizations from the judgments from the ideas we kind of struggled under, where that represents being entangled, that represent being kind of being caught up and excessively concerned about something or. And when we take the time to stop to do this checklist check in, then we were actually stepping out of the strong winds that are pushing us along, we're stepping out of the stepping off the, the, you know, the conveyor belt, sidewalk that's walking along in some building. And we're not being carried along anymore, we're stopping to take a step back and see what's happening here. And in a way that we can't see if we're carried along if we're caught up in what's happening and these generalizations are the feelings we have. And so to check in, you know, how am I on my body? What's happening here? If there's 10 If you're tense, and you didn't know it, maybe it's useful to relax. Check in with a feeling tones. Is this experience really unpleasant? Or is it really pleasant? And if you're caught up in the unpleasant Is that the full story? Is there pleasure here as well? Or is there some shift of orientation? Is the unpleasantness more product of my own mind my mind's reactivity than it is in the activity that I'm in? Checking in with the state of the mind? Is it contracted or is it expensive. And then today, the fourth foundation of the Buddha, is that mental processes in the mind, in some ways are not too different. They're kind of overlapping with the third Foundation. And, and so, the activities, the processes, the operating principles that are driving the mind are supporting the mind. What are they, and so is there. So the Buddha lists gave a list of the five hindrances. And he also gave a list for the seven factors of awakening. And the five hindrances are ways of being there a sticky, entangled, knotted up with experience. And the Buddha uses the word knotted up in terms of how we can get caught up and stuff. And then the seven factors of awakening, how we loosen how we untie how we become clear. The five hindrances are considered things that hinder our ability to see clearly the seven factors of awakening and what supports us to see clearly. So, so certainly, if you know these things, you can kind of check in yourself, what oh, why don't we show these are operating. Someone who does a lot of Vipassana practice should really be kind of second nature to notice, what are the hindrances when they're operating, and also, even dozen subtle ways in which these seven factors of awakening operate for us. But for today, what I would like to say, is, is noticing if how we're involved in anything at all involved in thoughts involved in activities in the world, involved in conversations? Do we feel entangled in it? Do we feel caught in it? And in such a way that there's an ouch? Or do we feel expansive in it, opening it? Are we agitated is the energy kind of activated? And, or, or is the or is the energy though, or the the feeling energy, a feeling of it, a one of being suffused. And this has something to do with a source these seven factors of these fourth foundations, and this was the source from which so much of our behavior arises out of the hindrances are behavior that arises out of a source, which is very limited and very tight and narrow and constricted or entangled, may this what arises out of the seven factors of awakening is also energetic, but it's an energy which is not entangled or agitated or activated, but rather an energy or vitality in the body that feels like it's suffuses us, it spreads more widely, it's and it's the difference between being in a tornado versus being in a really relaxing pool of water. So both of them can be energetic in a way, the these two states, but the quality of the energy, the quality of the activation, or the quality of the how we're engaged, how we are with our experience, how we're attentive, is radically different. So to so what are the mental processes involved? Are they the hindrances? Or are they more than seven factors of awakening? And are they more something that feels unpleasant to be how we're involved? More like, fight or flight, the hindrances could be analyzed from the point of view of fight, flight or freeze. Not completely good, but it's a little bit and and they the seven factors of awakening can be more more like relax, nurture, soothe, you know, approach. So, the opera Reading principles of the mind that are the source from how we see the world how we are in the world. So this change of perspective, this check in that we're doing comes to the point where the check in itself

is contributing to a positive way of being present, a positive kind of more something that leans in the direction of seven factors of awakening. So part of the value of this mindfulness check in is that in and of its, on one hand, we're learning how we are we're learning to see ourselves from a different point of view. And on the other hand, we are bringing into the ecosystem, a healthy way of being present and seeing and checking in, that is not entangled, not caught up. So both of these work together, and both of them are important, changing the perspective of how we see ourselves when we're challenged. According using the perspective of these four different areas of what's happening for us, and bringing, it's kind of like bringing an adult into the room of a lot of teenagers kind of having a fight or something. It's kind of like bringing a wise elder into the, into the mix. Using the check in is bringing into the ecosystem, a new way of being and the whole ecosystem can change by that introduction. Just simply stopping and checking in and maybe going through these for how am I physically? How am I you know, feeling tone, how am I, in my mind state? How am I by the underlying processes of who I'm who I'm involved, how I'm concerned. So for today, I would like to suggest for you is that through the day periodically, be if you like schedules, you can schedule it once an hour, or some way or there do some quality tick quality time, it doesn't have to be long, maybe can be two minutes to stop, maybe even close your eyes, check in with yourself using these four different check ins. But But notice as you do it or when you have done it, if the if the check in itself, the attention that we bring that is looking at ourselves in this way, has that in fact introduced something nice into the system is a check in itself. More like a wise elder has entered the room. And everyone relax and feels. Oh good. There's someone here who is wise someone here who helps me to be present. See what the effect is on you of introducing the mindfulness check in that we're talking about this week. So thank you very much, and I look forward to tomorrow.