SUNDAY 12 SEPTEMBER – FREE WEEKLY GUIDED MEDITATION – WORKING WITH A CHALLENGE OR QUESTION IN OUR LIFE

Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone’s having a lovely weekend. Please let me know if you can hear me okay. Just give me a thumbs up. Good good, thank you. So this morning, the practice I want to share is all about taking a particular problem or a challenge that you might have going on in your life right now, something that’s feeling a bit sticky, a bit complicated, something where there’s no easy solution or easy answer. It’s just something that’s giving you a bit of trouble, some sort of problem or challenge and bringing that into our practice and bringing that into awareness. What we’re looking for, the point of this practise is to bring some clarity, a movement away from the doing mind – this quite overactive mind which is just trying to think its way through everything, just trying to think its way through the problems with more noise – and instead awakening the being mind instead, the creative, the problem-solving mind.

(I see Wendy saying happy birthday. Thank you!)

So the point of this practice is to get in touch with our natural intuition and try and let go a little bit of that doing mind and bring ourselves to the being mind because this more subtle level of mind is where our problem-solving skills and capabilities lie. It’s where our creativity lies, below that turbulence. We have a natural intuition that can help us get some clarity on some of these issues. So we’ll go through a little process, it’s a guided meditation to help us process what is there.

Let’s begin our practice. You may want to be seated for this meditation but you’re welcome to be lying down as well. The main thing is, as always, that you’re going to be comfortable, that your back can be naturally straight and that you can be still for the meditation as well.

(Bell rings)

Just take a moment to find a comfortable posture. Feel free to use whatever supports you need, whether it is a chair, leaning against a wall, cushions, blankets, whatever you need to be really comfortable and still. We begin as always, if you’re familiar with it, by settling body, speech and mind in the natural states. If you are familiar with it, do it in your own time. It’s a process of first of all bringing our awareness into the body, becoming aware of what it is like to have this body, and setting ourselves at ease, relaxing into this posture, letting go of any tension, tightness that we’re holding in the body. We’re just connecting with the breath in the body. You don’t have to look very far to find it. The breath rises up to meet you, moment to moment. With the out-breath we can relax, loosen up, release. Just really noticing this breathing body. Whatever’s been bubbling away from last week, any thoughts about next week, you can let them go for now and just allow yourself to be here with the rhythmic flow of the breathing. While you are noticing the breath from moment to moment, you might want to keep some connection down to the soles of the feet where your body’s in contact with the ground, reminding you that we’re a collaboration with this earth, not separate from, but part of an interconnected network in every moment. To help us stabilise the mind and bring a sense of clarity and focus to the practice, in your own time, count twenty one rounds of respiration, perhaps counting at the very end of every inhalation.

Now I want you to select something that you would like to work with today. Sometimes the mind might want to do that job for you so if you can resist that, resist the mind leaping to the first thing it wants to pick over, staying connected with the body, just sensing in your life whatever issues or situations are activating you, whatever you think needs and wants attention in your life. Just mulling over whatever you think needs and wants attention, something that trips off a kind of painful reactivity can be the place you bring this meditation to today. We sense what naturally comes to consciousness, some difficult situation, a sense of not liking myself, perhaps, where you might feel caught in fear, grief or anger, hurt. Perhaps there’s a question which maybe was a little bit quiet but now starting to bubble up into awareness. Perhaps it would like to be seen and contemplated. When you’re ready, you can make your selection, choose that question or challenge that you want to bring attention to today, whether it’s very clear or maybe it’s a little bit cloudy. Just select one thing that you’re going to sit with today. It is important that you make a choice before we continue with the practice.

The first thing is allowing this question or challenge to sit with you, recognising, ok, this is part of the experience of my life right now, this challenge, dilemma, question, difficult experience, is part of my experience right now. So very honestly, very wholeheartedly, acknowledge the actuality – this is a part of my life. We’re not trying to do anything with it right now, we’re just allowing it to be there, a willingness not to try to get rid of anything, fix anything or change anything, recognising and agreeing to be with it. Then we might notice, where does this situation or challenge fit in the body and mind being. Does it seem to weigh heavy on the heart? Do you feel it in some tightness of the shoulders? Is it in the tension in the forehead, in the gut? Or does it feel more primarily mind-based? Does it feel like a fogginess of mind, a lack of clarity or focus? And wherever you find it and in whatever way you find it, just doing your very best to sit with it and welcome it as it is. See if you can be curious about those sensations. Notice if you want to move away or resist them. That’s natural but see if you can be with them with kindness and curiosity, even just for a moment.

Remember to breathe. If you notice your breathing becoming shorter and sharper, perhaps taking control temporarily, breathing deeply. You might want to use words to help you stay connected to the physical part of your experience, like tight, swirling or hard, whatever feels right for you. In this moment, you’re just listening to your body’s expression. You’re not trying to make anything happen or stop anything from happening. And as we sit with this challenge or question and welcome it as it is, we can acknowledge that some process of transformation is already underway. Without having to go any further, some healing and understanding has begun, as we’ve stopped fighting this situation, stop trying to poke and prod it but sitting with it. Naturally, it might start to look a bit different. We can start to investigate this challenge with open-hearted awareness so being sure to act with kindness towards ourselves, not criticising ourselves for feeling this way or having this challenge. We might begin to investigate it. How you investigate might be different for you. You’re welcome to go down whatever track feels most alive. Some people start right from the start, just trying to get a sense for ‘what am I believing? Am I believing that there’s no way out of this situation? Am I believing that I’m a bad person or not worthy? Am I believing another person doesn’t really care about me? Am I coming to terms with the fact that my life might not work out the way I wanted it to be?’ So taking a moment to just sense what beliefs are here and sensing how that belief lives in the body. Can you acknowledge that belief? Is there a new tightness? Then sensing the worst part of this experience. What is the absolute worst part? What are you really afraid of? Letting that sense of ‘what is the worst part to be felt?’ See the true face, the true root of this experience.

Remember once again to breathe deeply if you notice your breathing changing. Now get a sense for stepping back from the situation, challenge, giving it space, widening out your attention again so you’re not so concentrated but occupying a much larger space, feeling connected to each other in this group, this alternate environment. Then we can contemplate this quote from Viktor Frankl.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms; to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

As we take that step back and try and look at the situation from a more neutral perspective, can we see our situation and all those people involved in a larger context from a more neutral position? Can we see the many conditions and circumstances that have led to this event and see how our limited perspective might not have been entirely true? Can we see how in time things can change in many ways and that even though our situation may seem challenging now, from the vantage point of a month or a year or a decade, these challenges will seem much more manageable? Can we take a moment to see our challenge from the perspective of any other people who are involved?

We can ask ourselves a final question, while not trying to force an answer out but listening to a deeper part of our being, our natural intuition, our creativity, our problem-solving. As I contemplate this challenge, what does it need? What do I need? If you could listen and feel from the most awake part of your own being, what do I need? Is it enough to simply see and recognise the situation from another perspective? Or is there one practical step I can take next in order to move towards a more harmonic state for this question, this challenge. What is my next right step? There’s no right answer here. The right next step could be an external action for an external problem. It could be an internal action such as acceptance, patience, compassion, for an internal problem. It could be both. Asking ourselves what will truly bring me back to harmony to allow me to let go of this particular challenge.

In your own time, when it feels right, coming back to the breathing body, gently letting that practice go, like watching the calming waves wash up on shore. Just watch this rhythmic flow of the breathing for a while in a very calm and soothing way. When you’re ready, you can bring your practice to a close.

(Bell rings)

Depending how that practice was for you, it might be a good step next to go out for a walk, get some fresh air following this session, connect with nature, because we can all have a different experience with this practise but essentially we’re coming down to a deeper level of mind and it’s from that perspective that we can sometimes can get clarity. We can get insight on a particular problem, even just attending to it and not trying to do anything with it to begin with, just attending to it, holding space for it, can soften the harsh edges and bring new perspectives to it. Then through that investigation, sometimes with a particular problem, we come to a very natural next step, we come to a very natural understanding. Perhaps we see the situation from somebody else’s perspective and any harsh feelings we were holding are released. Sometimes it isn’t such an easy resolution. Sometimes it needs more time. Sometimes it needs more strength, more compassion, more patience. So whatever the end result of that practice, make sure you do act with kindness, with compassion to yourself. No guilt for feeling any way that you do for having the challenge that you do but accepting that it is a part of my experience right now and I’m working at how I can move, what’s my next step, I’m working at how I can let go, how I can move past this issue.

I don’t really have much else to share this morning. As Wendy and Grace mentioned, it is my birthday and usually on your birthday, as a Buddhist anyway, you tend to reflect on and have appreciation for what you have, what you’ve received from your teachers, where you’ve got to, appreciation for you here as a group, what I get to share every week. I don’t say it but this is the happiest part of my week every week, getting to be with you guys, sharing this, having that connection. Also you tend to reflect on impermanence. You tend to reflect on the preciousness of this human life and making it worthwhile, making it meaningful. So that’s where my head’s at today. So now I open it up for anyone who wants to share.

Transcript by: Laura Maisey