Cultivating Equanimity and the Four Immeasurables

Transcript

so it's not this practice is not about avoiding what's happening or bypassing or or stuffing our feelings no it's about being with ourselves so deeply and learning to be present with everything that's arising so completely that we're able much more skillfully to respond in all the ways that are called for in the opening verses that we do which we'll do in a minute one of the little sections is to invoke the four immeasurables and these are these are called the sort of four abodes or dwelling places where the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dwell and they dwell it said in loving kindness in compassion in sympathetic jewelry and in equanimity or non attachment and these qualities are the qualities that can help us to get from the shore of suffering to the shore of liberation they help us get across the rough waters and in the practice tick Mountain always talks about you know breathing in Icom body and mind breathing out I smile dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment that smile is so important because you know because the work of transformation is not easy and we have to cultivate in ourselves the capacity to hang in there even when it's hard and so by practicing the smile giving ourselves the little hint of joy even if we don't feel it but doing it as a practice it relaxes everything first of all and it allows us to be there that much more present for for the hard things tick non-han talks about the the disease and the illnesses of agitation and anger of sorrow and insecurity of hatred you know anxiety loneliness all of these things are really operating so strongly in ourselves and in the collective right now and so I I it's my hope that this place this practice can be a place where we can cultivate those qualities those immeasurable qualities yeah of loving kindness towards ourselves and others compassion Karuna we've already talked about it in relationship to corona this Karuna virus you know the need for compassion in our world is so great this sympathetic joy not always being tied up in ourselves all the time in our own enjoyment but taking joy in others experiences the little things this is a gift that the buddhas and bodhisattvas teach us an equanimity that sense of balance sometimes refer to as non-attachment but again not not to be understood as that detachment that is disconnected from life we're here is as embodied humans with blood and sweat and all of those emotions the difficult ones and the joyous ones but learning how to have equanimity non reactivity as a gift is a real help on the path to get from that one Shore to the other okay the breath can facilitate all of that to come back to our equanimity to let go to remember the joy with each breath you know the beauty around us to find again our loving-kindness and compassion so last week we talked about practicing meditation with our eyes open and I wanted to just touch on that once again I also said that there are many many kinds of ways of practicing meditation and some of them are eyes open and some of them are eyes closed and some of them are reciting mantras and doing visualizations and some of them are staring at an empty white wall sitting walking so it's important to have a lot of tools to draw from and to to be comfortable in many ways of practicing meditation anytime we get too attached or conditioned by anything and that becomes it and we actually can't do it if it's some other way then we need to maybe take a look at that because life brings us a lot of challenges I said I've said 10 times today and it's it's really helpful to be able to maintain that equanimity maintain that concentration and focus in the face of whatever is arising so we learn to practice in a lot of different ways and depending on circumstances we can have these tools available to us the important thing whether you have your eyes open or closed is to not let the mind wander off in a million directions but to keep coming back to keep coming back with every breath to the present moment not following after all of those thoughts and feelings for the period of the meditation that's not meditation when you go after them and follow some story that's just a story so that's where the discipline comes in okay what we're doing here is we're we're we're learning to concentrate to come back to wake up to be aware to be conscious to be mindful so with eyes open the instructions are just to review in case you want to continue to try to practice this way or if you haven't tried it to choose a spot about the same distance out and up that you are so your gaze is actually down it's your gaze is down your eyes are are gently lowered and you're you find a spot on the floor or on in the space in front of you sometimes people gaze at a candle or a flower but in my own case I just fix my gaze on a spot on the floor and I'm not actually looking at it I'm not grasping at looking I'm just resting my gaze gently on in the space in front my head is upright it's not bent over you want your spine straight all the way up so the breath can move and so that the posture is facilitating this awake capacity that we have and for it for the energies to move freely and to be relaxed in the body so you're not holding tension but so the head is up and with the head up the eyes are just gently cast down okay when you find that spot then you don't continue to look around you just keep your gaze fixed on that one spot unless you feel sleepy in which case you raise your gaze without moving your head up and you look up into the space in front of you at a spot without you know grasping at the spot you just look up and that is a very energizing way to practice when your gaze is is resting down it's very calming when it's raised up it's very energizing okay so that is that the main point here is to keep your focus where it is it's not about looking around it's just about finding a spot and keeping keeping your eyes open there and then noticing what happens in the mind coming and going coming back to the breath over and over again as the anchor for your mind the other thing that's connected to this is on the stillness in the body so when we still the body we find a posture that we can be comfortable in and stay inside of for the period of sitting in this case we're only sitting for about 15 minutes everybody sitting then doing walking meditation about 10 minutes and then coming back for another 15 minutes of silent sitting so the invitation is to find a position that you can be comfortable in without moving for that period of time and the stillness in the body actually facilitates the stillness in mind so the busy mind is taking us on all kinds of journeys 24/7 and when we stop literally stop the body and return to the breath then it allows the mind to rest as well and when we stop and rest in the body in the mind they become one we come into alignment so body breath and my body speech and mind come into oneness and this is a gift that we give ourselves of course if we have to move we do we do that with awareness if we do it with mindfulness so if I you know suddenly my foots asleep or you know I have a cran up or I'm you know something's not working then by all means adjust yourself just do it with awareness mindful awareness with the breath keeping the thread of the breath alive in every activity so the the gaze with the eyes is connected to that you know by just resting the gaze while at the same time being very present and noticing what's happening as it's happening and of course if you're uncomfortable or it you're not ready to practice with your eyes open then please just close them and follow your breath return return return over and over to the present moment and give yourself acknowledgement because it takes courage to show up for a practice any kind of practice of transformation any kind of practice of awakening it takes courage because we know we're gonna face ourselves and the first step as we said at the beginning is to come into calm come into the present moment in a sense of calm abiding if ourselves this little break knowing that out of that as we become more and more stable we can choose to open more and more widely to embrace everything that's arising and see more clearly more and more clearly what is so we'll go into the practice now and we will start as we do with an incense offering gotta that I will do with the altar and then come back and we'll do the opening verses together if you have them can recite them with me and then we'll go into a period of sitting walking and sitting and then we'll dedicate the merit and open the circle for sharing thank you