Tara Brach - Morning Meditation Instruction with Question and Response (retreat)(14 min)

Episode Date: January 22, 2016

Morning Meditation Instruction with Question and Response (retreat) (2015-12-29) - "Discover what’s happening here, beyond the veil of thinking.” Tara gives additional instructions and responds to questions after the morning meditation at the 2015 IMCW New Year retreat.

So a few areas of emphasis in terms of the instructions and then we'll open it to questions. And the one is to again say that if you keep at the center this intention to discover what's happening here beyond the veil of thinking, that will really serve you to keep noticing thoughts, they're not the enemy, they're just, if you're inside them you can't see what's happening. You know, it's like being in an airplane and flying into a cloud and thinking the world is the cloud. It's not until we fly through and sense the whole sky that we sense, oh, the clouds here, and it's okay, but there's more.

And a really powerful practice is, as soon as you wake up from thoughts, really just notice the difference between being in the virtual reality and this mystery, this vividness that's right here. Okay? Come back slowly, reawaken your senses. If you establish presence through the senses, then you'll stay longer. One of the first teachings most people get in the realm of meditation is relaxed and alert. And this is really, this is the art really, because we tend when we practice, as I mentioned yesterday, to bring our life habits into the practice. And so, even if we,

instead of being alert, we're drifting in our trance of the future in the past, or instead of being relaxed, we're trying to control ourselves so we don't drift. You see the problem? It's like, okay, I know I'm supposed to be here, so it's tight and controlling, are totally a trance, in which case we might be relaxed, but we're like the cow munching in the field. We're not noticing what's here. So the antidote, so to speak, for alert is that interest.

It says, what is happening right now? What am I aware of? And the antidote for the controlling is, and can I just let be? Over and over again, noticing what's here and allowing it. In the Tibetan tradition, I think, is the cleanest description of awareness itself. as having three qualities. And one is profound openness. Hence, you know, when we're stressed, we narrow our attention.

Openness, and that's like in the instructions, assist whatever way helps you through listening to sound, imagining the sky, to sense this space that includes everything. That's one quality of awareness. There's no boundary. Another quality of awareness is wakefulness. It's a knowing quality.

It's a cognizance. What's happening here? And interest helps to perk that up. So there's the openness and wakefulness. And it's described like a sunlit sky, that it's completely open, and yet it's filled with radiance of knowing. And when both of them are there,

when we're open and there's knowing, as we engage with whatever's going on, there's a natural love, tenderness. that arises. And that's the third quality. Openness, wakefulness, and love. And the three attitudes that Hugh spoke to so beautifully last night each help us reconnect with these basic qualities of awareness. When we're allowing or accepting, we're open.

When we're interested, we become more wakeful. And when we're kind, we reconnect with our intrinsic capacity for loving. So I'd like to invite you as you move through the day to notice the attitude, how you're relating to what's happening. Notice it. And in that noticing there is a little gap and you're no longer inside the attitude identified. There's a capacity to choose to reconnect with these basic qualities of awareness. So I said more than I meant to. Let me open it up to whatever questions you might have. Hi. I'm always in search of an answer and resolution and coming to some kind of just, I think answer is the best way to say it, instead of letting it just kind of be. I'm just trying

to get out of that kind of pattern and that kind of trance that I find myself in. So get yourself out of that trance of describe a little more what happens. I think it's just always searching for resolution and an answer and there to be some kind of finite what is. So I think that that's one of the pervasive conditionings for all of us, that there's a sense of either something's wrong or something's missing. You know what I mean? And that there's some problem we're solving and that we're trying to get to something. and the most powerful thing you can do is kind of what you're already doing is you're really recognizing it to become mindful of it

and then in that mindfulness when you might even name it just what you did searching for resolution you know and it's as if you're putting a picture frame around what's happening okay here's the project going on and then come into your body and discover in a very direct way the experience the sensations and feelings that are underneath that. It may be an uneasiness, a restlessness, a fear, a wanting. But just discover that and breathe with that and be with that and let that be the place you're paying attention to the felt sense that's underneath that searching for resolution.

And in doing that, what happens? And this example is the same as every part of practice in a way, which is that when we become aware of what's going on, in that awareness, there's a kind of opening to inhabit a larger space of presence, and we're no longer the self that's searching for resolution, rather we're that knowing-filled, that kindness that's noticing.

And that shift is the transformation that brings freedom. It's that itself, and it doesn't matter whether you're paying attention to the project of searching for resolution or someone else here paying attention to sleepiness or someone else paying attention to self-judgment. It's in that shift, that noticing and that opening

that actually we are coming home to a larger sense of our being. So let that be your place to pay attention. Does that resonate for you? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, thank you. There's this, when I listen to what you're saying, I guess I come to the question like, can I trust my thoughts?

And I have heard you say at times, you don't trust your thoughts. But at the end of the day, I still have to make a decision. And I think what you're saying is spend as much time on the other side in that larger space because then maybe what you'll decide will be informed from that place and not from that struggle. I'm just, if you have something to react to in this, that would be helpful. But I think I'll just try and stay out of the trying to solve it energy as much as I can in this container. But then there's still a decision.

Yeah, that's the way life is. There is. It doesn't resolve it. There's less suffering, you know, because it's like the restlessness, the unknowing, the anxious that it's imperfect, that tends to have a lot of, you know, persistence. But the more you rest in beingness in that kind of compassionate presence that's aware, the more okay it is that not everything gets resolved and not every decision's perfect and there's messiness and so on, there's still a kind of creativity and a beauty to it all and it's okay.

So one piece that you said is completely right on, which is that the more that you rest in a larger sense of your being, the more that will actually inform intelligently what you do. And the more space it makes for things being how they are in general, it can play out however it plays out and you'll still learn from it, grow from it, and deepen your love for it. And that's the whole idea, is can you more and more know who you are as loving presence and less be identified with the self that has to get it right? Finding the more I do this practice, the more I'm able to really get out of myself, which is great, but it also, I'm paying a lot of attention to all the injustice in the world

and I get angrier and angrier. and the more I do this practice, the more I kind of understand the causes and conditioning that make injustice happen. And so this is like a very difficult paradox for me because I want to bring some compassion. There's part of me that wants to be compassionate, but I have trouble accessing kindness when my anger grows. So there becomes like a wall. So I would love just you to reflect on this. kind of challenging paradox. I don't think there's an answer. I understand this is part of the path, but it's very painful.

Yeah. Let me say it back, make sure I got it, and then I'd really like to invite the others here, because it feels like a really important question, that the more you wake up and the more sensitive you get, the more sensitive to the suffering of the world, and then there's anger, and the anger blocks compassion some, but it's really, really strong. Do you have that right? Yeah. Okay. Again, I say this a lot, that anger, I really respect anger. I respect, every emotion has a reason to be.

Our nervous system's wired for it. So you're having a big, your nervous system's giving you a big, you know, kind of flag saying, hey, there's something in this world that's difficult, that it's part of your nature, your karma, your love to respond to. So to in some way bow to it. Anger serves a purpose to a certain point, and then if we are attending to it in a certain way, it unhitches from the stories of bad others

so that you get to use the energy of it, but not be caught in making another wrong, because that keeps the duality that actually is causing the very thing you're angry at. So how do you unhitch from the thoughts is the challenge is that you notice that, okay, whatever you're angry at, the injustice, the oppression of some people by other people, and it brings up all the anger. So you let yourself feel the anger. Notice if you're making a certain bad other, and then do that U-turn.

And I'm going to mention the U-turn a lot at different times in the future, because I find it so useful. Do the U-turn and go right into the energy of the anger itself, since let it be as much as it is, sense what's under it, which is going to be your fear of more injury to people and your love for people, and open to that. And open and open and open

and open and let that inform your actions. Because as long as your anger is hitched to a story of bad other, then you're still part of the dualistic narrative that causes violence. So do the U-turn. We're good for now.

Thank you for your questions. For more talks and meditations, and to learn about my schedule or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com.