Kim Allen: Introduction and Guided Meditation 1: Extending the Mind through the Body

So I thought today we would pick up a particular aspect of mindfulness of the body for our uncontrived half-day this morning, or maybe this afternoon for some of you. So mindfulness of the body is of course a vast area of practice and it includes the breath which is itself a large area of practice. But it also includes, mindfulness of the body also includes many other ways to explore this form, if you will, this form that we've carried since birth. And it's continually changing and unfolding form. And mostly, you know, we think that we know the body because we're so identified with it. We look in the mirror, we recognize ourselves, we walk around with it, we feel it, we feed it, we clean it, all this. But actually we're often so close to the body that we don't really see that clearly. I can say for myself that earlier in my life I was quite athletic when I was young. And I thought that meant that I knew a lot about my body because I could feel it doing all these things. But when I began to practice, I learned that I didn't really have a very clear sense of it. Sometimes athletes are disconnected from their body because they treat it as a machine that they're doing things with. So, you know, be careful what we assume about knowing things about the body. So I thought that we would take up one aspect of body practice today and that is the way that the body is a gateway to a distinct kind of strength, if I can say it that way. So mindfulness of the body as described in Majlunikaya 119, which is the discourse on mindfulness of the body, it includes lots and lots of simileses, but there's a particular set of them that point toward what I'm framing as this kind of inner strength that we carry, this special kind of strength. And I'm using that word, I keep repeating that word because I understand that not everybody is comfortable with the notion of strength because it has other implications or worse yet power, if I had said it that way. And we don't mean the psychic powers like that, but a wise form of spiritual strength. And so maybe one thing that you come away with from our explorations today is your relationship a little bit to this word and to this notion of strength. So to be clear, we do need ease and softening, which is often we're teaching point and in fact that's what we're going to do in the first set is this ease and softening because we need so much to release our habitual tensions that come from the mind, that the mind is imposed on the body or the memories that we carry in the body or often about this kind of tension and practices that imply deep relaxation and letting go are really helpful to help our body and mind to settle. But even during this time of increasing ease, which I think extends for a lot of the path, you know, you could make all practice of just finding ease in the body. But I don't think it's incompatible with this notion of strength because as the body opens and softens, we release or something emerges that is a kind of vibrancy, almost a pulsating energy that can arise in the body that is a subtle sensation and it includes a strength that comes from fullness. The challenge and the tension of the body is that we've cut off different parts of it by grasping here and there, segmenting that off and putting walls there and so forth. And so we have this bound up knotted thing that is not full, it's not whole, it's not complete in certain way. And so we do this initial softening to be our first sit and then we can open. The other side is to open to the wholeness that comes and the fullness that comes from that. So we'll go through this. So one image that we'll get to later, but just so you have a preview, is that of a door that's made entirely of hardwood. And if a light ball of strings thrown at a door like that, it just bounces off. And another image is a jug that's completely filled with water so that it can't take any more water coming into it. There's a fullness to it. And so these are nice images. I like to use the idea in words of going from false strength to true strength. So we start out with some kind of strength, mostly based on armor that I would call false fundamentally. It's based on the grasping of the ego for the most part in our views. And sometimes it's just sometimes even brute physical strength. People go to the gym a lot. Might be building up some armor internally. And so then through spiritual practice, though, we can tap into a truer kind of strength deeper. So it's kind of subtle, I think, to allow strength to emerge through meditation, wholesome. Strength, not at all domineering, not at all ego based. Something that emerges from the wholesome roots out of care, out of wisdom. Okay. So the challenge with this false kind of strength, I'll just say one more thing before we start, is that it's vulnerable actually. And we know that. But this false kind of facade that we put up is prone to being crushed, to being provoked, to being influenced in various ways. And so our first task is to soften away from relying on that kind of walled up armor. It's actually a relief. It's really a relief to start to soften. And one way to do it is to sense its vulnerability. And then there's a natural horizon of care and wisdom, the way we might be rightfully concerned about a child going out on an air and alone. And then there can be this wholeness that emerges when we open to the vulnerability. And there's the response of filling in, of being pulled. And the Buddha likens that to an ocean and the streams that feed into it. So we're going to actually use that idea first, this oceanic idea to help us open more to the wholeness. So let's sit together, writing a posture, writing a poem, that's comfortable enough, maybe taking a long, slow, deep breath. And on the outbreath, settling in a little deeper to the body and its sitting posture, or you may be lying down, that's okay too. Or even standing, some kind of a posture of stillness and bringing the attention in or closing the eyes. That's comfortable. Or just having them downcast, but open. And sensing first the place where you're sitting, the contact actually of your seat against the chair, the cushioning your legs or feet against the floor. Where your weight is resting and soften into that. Let yourself be upheld. The earth supports you. And seeing in particular, if you can release any tension in your low back, right around the sacrum, it might allow your spine to tilt a little bit, pelvis to tilt a little bit, not arching your back, but in that direction, softening. And as that low back softens, is there an uplift release through the spine in a very gentle way? And if not, that's okay. It's an imitation perhaps on the in breath, sensing the straightening of the spine and on the outbreath, sensing a release around that central straightens just in a simple way. Softening the eyes and the eye sockets and the jaw, softening all the little muscles on the scalp, allowing the throat to expand from the inside, releasing the muscles around the collarbone, sensing the shoulder joints and inviting the feeling of space within the shoulders down into the torso, extending the attention through the ribcage, front, back, sides, and sensing into the heart area, whatever you feel there is fine, bringing the attention down the arms all the way to the hands, paying a little attention to the position of the arms so they're not straining the back of the neck, sometimes having them a little pull back a little closer to the body, self-holding. And then releasing the diaphragm down into the belly, letting the belly be round, soft, inviting a deepening of the knees in the lower spine, letting the weight settle further onto where you're sitting, inviting space in the hip joints down through the legs, the thighs, the knees, calves, and Achilles, all the way into the feet, light touch, bringing attention to the body as a whole, softening the awareness out a little more globally, and then tuning the attention so that it is maybe a little bit softer, there needs to be kindness bringing that in. This is the body, this form, this physicality, and we can know it, we can sense the sensations of breathing in particular, coming in, going out, near yet, body sensations are associated with breathing, the touch of the air on the nostrils of the upper lip, passing through the nasal passages, maybe there's coolness, expansion of the lungs, belly, and the change to the out breath, all different set of sensations softening warmth, the breath extends through the whole body, not merely the lungs, there's an energetic layer allowing the sensations of the breath in and out to carry the attention throughout the body to include even other sensations, some of them will be pleasant, some will be unpleasant, maybe your body is sore today or has an illness, so all those sensations can be included in a gentle way, and if there are opportunities to soften, release, tensions that are encounter, the invitation is to do that, gently softening further into this present moment, it's not a project, anything that feels especially solid or tight, it's also fine just to flow the breath around that, the way water in a stream flows around, whatever is in the stream, the near yet sensations in the body are an opportunity to cultivate awareness, curiosity, kindness, tranquility, mimiting the words of the Buddha, just as anyone who has extended their mind over the great ocean has included within it whatever streams there are that flow into the ocean, so too anyone who has developed and cultivated mindfulness of the body has included within themselves whatever wholesome states there are that partake of true knowledge, this is a realm of wisdom and when we find that the mind has become distracted, it's walked away into thought, emotions, stories, which it will, we can sense into its vulnerability, things can enter, it can be provoked, flooded, we feel care about that, wisdom that it is not helpful to be distracted, unfortunately the body sensations are always here, here and now, I'm in touch with body sensations, at least part of the mind is in the present moment, it's a real anchor that helps the mind supports it, sometimes extending the mind through the body can even go beyond the physical shape of the body, feel that the boundaries of it are a bit vague, let's find just to extend the mind to wherever the edge of the sensations are, sometimes extending the mind throughout the body is an inner extension as if we're probing down deeper into a canyon, or a cave, keeping a light touch is helpful, there may be sensations that are compelling, they draw the mind in, that are painful, there's wisdom around being flexible with attention, if the mind is obsessing about an area that's difficult, bringing some breath to it or even turning deliberately to an area with less intensity is okay, and want to find a relationship with the field of the body, the field of body sensations, it is awesome, gentle, cold, and if there's any sense of filling in or filling up as we include body sensations, we can open to that by softening perhaps we have allowed a flowing in that unifies and integrates different parts of the body as if the tensions we had had had been holding off that flow, and now the body opens, softens, fills, just resting with that perhaps what we have is just a sense of vitality in the body, waking up from our deadening tendency to ignore the body or to hold it tight, aliveness, and even if that is not the experience we can invite and aliveness and ease in the mind, sense of care for this being, okay, so we have time now for walking, and the invitation is to stay with the body sensations, should be easier when you're walking to feel the body, all of it will be different, you know, we have a different level of subtlety walking versus being still, but see if you can stay in touch with this sense, any sense of fullness, wholeness, aliveness, see if you're going to keep extending the mind as was invited in the sutra quote, extending the mind over the body, it's a deliberately evocative phrase, I think mindfulness of the body, and of course you can take care of your physical needs and perhaps do some formal walking, and why don't we come back in 33 minutes at 10 minutes before the hour, see you then. 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