Presence Awareness VII

Part 1 - The Happening

(Bell...)

Being. Knowing. Sensing. Feeling. Experiencing. Everything is happening, right now. Everything is always, as it were, happening. And experiencing is our relationship to what's happening.

And as we've been exploring, this relationship can be kind of a peculiar thing. There seems to be a knowing which is in here, and a knowing which is out there. And this can seem to as if divide the whole, into a me in here and a world out there.

And something never feels quite right about that, or in harmony with the way things are. In one way or another it will show up to feel not quite in harmony with the way things are.

So, we are advised to have a closer look, or inquire, or contemplate, what is the nature of the way things are. And we find that we are actually a participant, a cocreator even, in and with everything that's arising, everything which is happening.

And the sense that there is an experiencer in the experience as well. A most significant awakening or waking up. What is the significance of the experiencer, both at the heart of, and all pervading every experience?

And we see there is not quite this divide between me in here and the world out there that we may have felt or thought there was. It starts to feel like a whole magical cocreation event or arising, with us in it, and everyone else is in it too.

Sometimes we say 'the magic of the mind', because everything is so alive and animated. Alive with life, in life, as life. In this sentience, in this ocean of consciousness.

Maybe we can't quite pin it down exactly, but it seems to be that the relationship is really the most important thing. And that in some sense has to do with our deeper realization and appreciation of it. That's what is going to have us more in harmony with it.

Not to mention the superpower of cocreation itself, to be manifesting and actualizing, as they say, bringing forth benevolent virtues and benevolent forces of nature into the world.

So all of this is coming to light or revealing itself to us through this deeper knowing and understanding of who and what we are, of who and what the world is, and the significance of the relationship. All our themes of Dharma are about just this.

Our insights, our contemplations, our liberating realizations and awakening, are about knowing the nature of our self, the nature of the world, and the nature of the relationship. May it be so.

(Bell... Sitting...)

Everything is happening. Everything is always happening. But it's a funny thing, if one as it were takes a step out or a step back, just a little bit, into the knowing. It's a funny thing, as if also, nothing is really happening.

But one can't deny that happening is happening. So maybe it's better if we say 'no thing' is really happening. And when it's simply happening that is happening, it feels more like the totality.

As if the knowing and happening are like one thing, are unified, a unification. It's as if the experiencer and it's experiencing are unified in what we might simply call 'happening'.

And just like all the happenings that have come before, and like, where are they now? And like all the happenings which have yet to come, but where are they now? It's as if the happening is simply the actuality of whatever's happening right now.

Which gives this peculiar sense of both, the actuality of what's happening, but it's also as if nothing is really happening. And the two of these are what happening is actually made of.

So we can please pay a little more curious attention to not only what's happening, but to the actuality of happening itself. Seeing the experiencer in its experiencing as the actuality of happening.

Okay we'll meet in 10 minutes over at the yurt for our yoga session. Wishing well and fruitful practice.

(Bell...)

Part 2 - Wakefulness Relaxation

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Wakefulness, we say. Alert, awake, and aware. Or in this flow state of knowing. In the flow state of knowing, or simply in the presence of awareness. Wakefulness, awakefulness, being alert, awake, and aware, naturally. Naturally, in the space of relaxation. These two wings of a bird for meditation, are wakefulness and relaxation.

Relaxation. Relaxation of the body. Seeing that the body feels loose, relaxed, comfortable, free from tensions. Planted firmly on the ground, on the floor, on the cushion, by this wonderful gravity. Grounded, centered, and relaxed, naturally. Naturally, this relaxation of the body.

Relaxation of the breath. The breath, breathing. Breathing in, inhaling, breathing out, exhaling. Ah, like the tides lapping at the shore, lapping in, lapping out, breathing in, breathing out. Since the very beginning, the breath has this wonderful way of breathing itself, like a gift, like a great friend, breathing for us all the time. Breathing in, inhaling, breathing out, exhaling, naturally.

And bringing mindfulness to breathing in, we can see that there's a way of breathing in where we can breath into the belly. We call this belly breathing. And it already requires some good relaxation in the body, and in the sense of breathing itself. To not be forcing the breath, or to not have tightness or tension in the upper chest with the breath. And to really just let the belly, the stomach, relax, and without overly trying to take a deep breath, just seeing that by expanding the belly itself, the lungs will fill up with air. No need to have the breath be long. No need to have the breath be short. Just naturally.

Every now and then, just sort of check in or reset the rhythm. With mindfulness, one can take a deep inhalation and then a deliberately deep exhalation. Like a deliberate sigh. Nature's way of resetting the rhythm of the breath.

We may notice too that by deliberately extending the out breath, we get a natural relaxation response as well. Take an inhalation, and then with the exhalation, extend it a little bit, and it's a natural relaxation, a natural stilling of the mind. And the traditions will use that to synchronize the relaxation of the breath and the relaxation of the mind.

Which brings us to our third relaxation. The body, the breath, and the mind. And relaxing the mind is very similar to relaxing the body, and the breath in certain ways too. Like an inhalation of a breath, just letting your awareness become aware of anything and everything that's arising in sensations. And then with the exhalation, just releasing it all, not focusing on anything in particular, except maybe that sense of spaciousness and release.

See how that's like breathing. Just sweep through your sensations. You can go through the six senses systematically, if you like. What I'm seeing. What I'm hearing, smelling, tasting. What I'm touching. What I might be thinking. Sweep through your sensations, your senses, and your consciousness. And then just exhale and release it all into space. Or as we say, the space of awareness.

And likewise, we can extend that exhalation a little bit too. Not forcefully, but naturally. That sort of exhalation, or release of the mind. And just extend it into a natural relaxation response of awareness mingling with space. Or just the sense of freedom or emptiness. Or spaciousness or openness. Those are all senses of relaxation for the mind.

And any particular thoughts about the past, we can just set those aside for right now, and we'll come back to them if we need to. Any particular thoughts about the future, well we can just set those aside for right now too, and we'll come back to them if we need to. Any thoughts about the present, we can just set those aside as well.

Being with the sense of wakefulness, being with the sense of relaxation. And really feeling very ready to be with any particular object or theme of meditation that we choose.

So this is a par excellance way traditions will become familiar and proficient with beginning their sessions. Establish the sense of wakefulness, establish the sense of relaxation, as needed. Indeed, we'll start to carry that with us, bringing it to the cushion, taking it off the cushion.

Wakefulness, relaxation. These are the two wings of a bird in our meditation. And also the sense of balanced equipoise and receptivity, responsivity, throughout all our activities of the day.

So anytime, anywhere, one can just pause and check in. How's my mindfulness? How's my wakefulness? Alert, awake, and aware. How's my sense of relaxation? Relaxation of body. Relaxation of breath. Relaxation of mind. Just sweep through. Become acquainted, skilled and proficient even, at recognizing some little tightness or tension or thing that's got us hooked or stuck, and just releasing it.

See how that's a skill right there. Learning how to recognize attention and grasping. Learning how to release attention and grasping. This really has very much to do with the whole path and fruit of the Dharma.

Recognizing and releasing naturally. That's right there in wakefulness and relaxation. This sense of equipoise and readiness par excellance to be transforming all our experience into the path and fruit of fruitful Dharma practice.

(Bell...)

Part 3 - Right Here Right Now

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We are going to invite Garf to give the Dharma talk today. (Garf says "Meow") And there it is! Oh, you ask can a dog be enlightened? So this cat definitely does have buddhanature....

As they say, listening. It's a very important part of practice. Learning and being receptive to our experience. But also any Dharma teachings we may be contemplating. And listening or looking to see how they are expressing themselves in our experience, or coming alive in our experience.

So listening or seeing. These are ways of being observant and giving attention to our experience to see if we can recognize what the teachings or the teachers are attempting to illuminate for us. Like, for example, this ever new, ever now, ever fresh, theme of presence awareness.

It's not long ago that we were sitting here together for our first session of meditation yesterday. But there's something about the here, or the being here, that seems to come along with us wherever we go.

As they say, wherever you go, there you are. Or that the sense of here is everywhere. That's a teaching or a pointer that we're getting to help recognize some unique feature of our experience, which is actually a universal feature of all our experience.

Many of the Dharma principles and pointers we're getting are pointing to just that, some universal feature of our experience. ("Meow, meow") And once we begin to recognize them thus, they begin to take on much greater significance.

What is the significance that the sense of here is everywhere, and comes along with us everywhere? What does that tell us? Why would the sense of here follow us everywhere we go?

Maybe there's something about our very being itself, and this very sense of presence itself. Maybe this sense of here itself is being cocreated by this very being itself.

It's a bit similar with the sense of time, isn't it? Or this sense of right now. In this past day and a night, have we paused to check in? What time is it, when is it? If we pause to check, we find that it is now. And this sense of now likewise seems to be with us all the time, whenever we are.

Wherever we go, it is here. Whenever it is, it is now. The here is everywhere, and the now is always.

These are pointers encouraging us to recognize these two amazing and unique features of our being and our knowing, or our presence and awareness.

So this is worthy of contemplation. Just pause to reflect for a moment. Any experience we've ever had, just like, sitting around the fire last night under the stars. Or last week at a festival, or in a dark retreat. And there was this very same unique feature, of any and every experience we're ever having, that there's this sense of here and this sense of now.

Perhaps these two dimensions of manifestation, of experiencing, of existence, are actually being cocreated by our very being and knowing.

So if we're able to begin recognizing this fact of our experience, strange shifts can happen. For example, they have the saying, maybe space and time are in us, rather than we are in space and time? See, there's that figure-ground reversal again, which happens a lot in the Dharma.

And when that sense of now and knowing, and the sense of presence and being, when that really begins to tip the scales, maybe our center of gravity can shift more into being that. And we begin to find or feel that still point, or a real sense of being centered and grounded, amidst the myriad flow of experiences.

So this right here right now is one example of a particular theme of contemplation or inspiration that we might resonate with. And we can be as if holding it more at the forefront of our mindfulness and awareness as a contemplation theme of Dharma.

What are some other themes of insight that we're including in this retreat as part of our meditation and contemplation? Perhaps some of us are already quite familiar with this here and now theme. So it could very well be some other insight theme we're resonating with.

Like as was the hot topic in our lively teatime Dharma chat last night. This love and compassion. What is this element of sentience, and what's in the heart of beings which cares? And some of us were proposing that this is actually the essential thing. This is the real essential thing with the Dharma, with existence, or with liberating and opening this heart.

This love and compassion. This self love and self compassion. Loving and caring and compassion for other beings. That's really the nature of it and what makes it whole, isn't it? It's loving and being loved, that's the full embrace of unconditional love.

So likewise, especially at certain times, innate unconditional love and compassion could feel like the most relevant theme of nature or of Dharma to be holding close and at the forefront of our contemplation.

It is so after all, isn't it? Everything we're doing throughout the day and throughout our lives is because we care. It always feels like a fresh revelation. To glimpse it and to feel it, not just to think it. That's one of those instances where we let the feeling do the teaching, not the thinking.

And the heart opening is definitely very informative about what really matters. We need not wait for our deathbed, or a near death experience to have this kind of revelation of what really matters. But those who do and share their experience with us, often come back to say that it is love that is the most important thing. It is the compassion and caring and nurture of sentient beings and the connections that they share. It's not material possessions at all, is it? It may not even be our status, our reputation, or these other things that can give us a more superficial sense of security or confidence. Those things tend to melt away on the surface very quickly as being not what really matters.

But that's a question or an inquiry we need to ask ourselves, and see for ourselves, what does really matter. Hopefully, if we listen, listen, listen to our heart.... We know that that doesn't sound cliche in these circles. If we listen to our heart, hopefully we will hear what it has to say. And it really does matter, and we can start to prioritize that, right? This is a precious human birth after all.

So those are two examples of themes of meditation and Dharma contemplation that we might be connecting with. Along with our mindfulness and presence awareness throughout the day. Hopefully, as we shared yesterday with our setting intention, and also having this group energy and container, it is helping us to do that.

We're beginning to feel more continuity of our mindfulness, our presence awareness, and other kinds of sensitivities which emerge from it. Being more present and aware to what's happening, to what we're experiencing, to more subtle forms of receptivity and communication. And that's excellent.

Hopefully it's happening like that. And very good if we can be including a particular Dharma reflection or theme of contemplation that we're connecting with as well.

So perhaps on the cushion, as we're sitting, we're just looking to calm the mind. Calming the heartmind with meditation and establishing presence and clarity, perhaps without doing too much contemplation. But if we do some walking meditation, that's an excellent time to do a little contemplation. Whatever Dharma reflection feels relevant to us.

So those are just a few Dharma contemplation themes, and more themes will emerge over the course of the retreat. For now, that's excellent. If we're just aspiring to be more mindful, more present and aware, and have a theme of Dharma we're contemplating, that's very good.

So this is the midmorning practice session from 10 to 12. It's open sitting and walking. Wishing well and fruitful practice.

(Bell…)

Part 4 - Wise Desire

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So this really is an excellent question, if not the question. What do I want? Or, what do I really want? Or what is it that we really want? Why do I want what I want?

Did someone else tell me to want this, so I just want it? Or is it a mass media persuasion by advertising, or social media, or groupthink? Why do I want what I want, and what do I really want?

Or what does it really want? Wouldn't it want something that is satisfying, that is gratifying, that is genuinely fulfilling? In a certain sense, isn't that what every desire wants, its fulfillment? But what actually is it hoping to fulfill? Not just the desire itself, because that's a state of unfulfillment, isn't it?

Wait a minute here. Do I desire something that I already have? Or do I only desire something I think I don't have, but will fulfill me? Have I ever looked into this nature of desire?

Maybe this is the thing that's pushing and pulling me every which way to try to fulfill itself. I like this and I don't like that. I want this and I don't want that. This makes me happy, this makes me sad. What's going on here?

Desire seems to be at the root of all things. So the Buddha said indeed, this desire is at the root of all our suffering. And, this desire is at the source of our awakening. And it's up to us to discern what is that socalled wise desire that actually brings about the genuine fulfillment.

May all beings have happiness and liberation, and the causes of happiness and liberation. May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

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