We live so much of our our lives in our heads. Our chattering minds demand so much attention, and if we have never heard or experienced that we are not our thinking, our noisy minds lead us down a painful path. This week after the usual bit of housekeeping business, we will be considering a preliminary practice that I call Leaning into Yes, which brings our attention away from our chattering minds.
Good evening and welcome to Monday Group Meditation. We will be sitting from 7:30 to 11:00 PM Eastern Time. It is not necessary to sit for the entire extended time, which is set up to make it convenient for people in four North American Time Zones; sit for as long as you like and when it is most convenient for you. Monday Group Meditation is open to everyone, believers and non-believers, who are interested in gathering in silence. If you are new to meditation and would like to try it for yourself, Mindful Nature gave a good description of one way to meditate in an earlier diary, copied and pasted below:
"It is a matter of focusing attention mostly. In many traditions, the idea is to sit and focus on the rising and falling of the breath. Not controlling it, but sitting in a relaxed fashion and merely observing experiences of breathing, sounds, etc. Be aware of your thoughts, but don't engage in them. When your mind wanders (it will, often), then return to focus on breath and repeat."
Sangha Co-hosts for meditation are:
7:30 - 10:00 Ooooh and davehouck
9:30 - 11:00 thanatokephaloides
You are also welcome to join us on Sunday mornings at 10:00AM for the Dkos Sangha Open Threads which are hosted by davehouck.
Leaning into Yes is a practice that builds the foundation for several other practices that really have the potential to help us be happier and more at ease in life. It helps to bring us out of the mind and into our senses which brings us immediately into the current moment, and it helps us to learn to pay attention to what is happening within us, beyond the mind chatter. Finally, it is not a practice for the meditation cushion, it is more a life practice, or a tool we can use to help us live life more effectively.
Simply put, the practice is as you live your life pay attention and look for the yes feeling in your body. That sentence may not make sense to your mind, and that is OK; in fact that little bit of confusion keeps the mind from pushing back at what we are doing, because it can’t fight against what it doesn’t understand. Now if you just sit quietly for a moment, let yourself remember an experience of doing something you love. Can you feel the way that felt in your body? When we are in the process of doing something we love, we experience very pleasant feelings, some might say those feelings are exquisite or even yummy.
So just now as you consider this description can you get a sense of that yummy feeling that accompanies your inner sense of YES? Now, as much as possible, as you go through the coming days, look for that inner sense of yumminess that accompanies your YES, and when you have the choice, always opt to do the thing that brings the sensation of YES, and pay attention to the way you feel as you act on it.
Of course, life being what it is, we all have to do things we don’t want to do. We have to go to work, and we have to take care of any number of unpleasant tasks, and that is OK too. When you don’t have a choice, do the thing you don’t really want to do, and pay attention to how that feels too. If you have any autonomy, or are self directed in any way at work, you can practice leaning to the YES there too, and as much as possible give priority to the YES tasks.
Oddly enough, when I did this I noticed that as I progressed into the practice, even the tasks I did not like to do so much became at least OKs when I realized that I would feel the YES on its accomplishment. So that helped me to enter into those tasks with an open heart as well, and I suffered less as a result.
The first couple days you try this, it might be difficult to remember to bring this practice to your day. While that is the case, it would be good to just take a few “YES” breaks in your day, to simply sit and consider what you will do next, as much as possible leaning into the YES. The idea is to make this practice a part of our lives. If your path or understanding is one in which you feel comfortable asking for some kind of help, then try asking for help learning to let your days flow as much as possible into the YES.
As much as we are able to do this, it has the potential to help us feel lighter and freer. However, as a practice it is only a starter, but it lays a good foundation for paying attention to the messages of our bodies. The ego, which actually came into being to protect us as when we were not getting what we needed as children, is always trying to lead us away from our feelings and the current moment, but our bodies, where we experience our feelings, don’t lie.
So as much as possible over the next couple weeks, practice leaning into the YES. I hope you will want to try it, and I hope you will soon see the benefits of both giving attention to the body and leaning into the YES as much as possible.