Pascal Auclair: These pleasant or unpleasant tints that colour our lived experience 🎨

So it always becomes very, very simple. The invitation to experience the present moment, of what is experienced, to experience it consciously, to be able to say, to satiate to what is happening, to let oneself be experienced, to live with the lucidity of what is happening. And we might not need to say much more. And through silence and exploration, with simply this intention, I think that all the Dharma would have revealed quietly. But still, we suggest, because it can be interesting, and it allows us to put words on things too. For example, this balance between the energizing factors and the calm factor, is something I think that could happen naturally. So just by saying to yourself, I want to be with things as they are, I will try to be with things as they are, I would do my own discoveries around this. And maybe I would have these concepts, maybe not. It's a way to cut the matter, to observe, to conceptualize things. But I think we would make discoveries around this by ourselves, what we already do. But it could be good to hear some instructions here and there, to see what it can mean to me at this moment, in this task, in this pause, in the middle of this meal, in this seat, this balance of calm forces of the mind and the most energizing forces. So we play with it a bit intuitively, through exploration. And I think that the subject I will discuss this morning is a bit the same thing. We would discover this by ourselves on the way. These are natural things. In fact, this is exactly what happened in Buddha. There was no Dharma with all the lists. It was by pretending to be aware that things were clarified for him. Besides, the whole story starts with a bit of a fantasy. How does it start? The story. After having taken advantage of the joys and pleasures of life in mass, we decided to go on a spiritual path by doing very, very austere, extremely demanding, very, very hard practices towards ourselves. And then there was a moment when he remembered himself as a child. He remembered himself as a moment, a spring under a tree, where he was sitting under a tree, and he said, ah, but this moment of presence in nature, there is something just, I think, in it. I was sitting under the tree, there was life in the fields, there was a quality of presence that was quite simple, in fact. There was something in it. And that's the beginning of the voice of the environment. And that's why I say there is something quite childish in it, quite natural, quite simple. And then he started practicing this way with a sweet and calm attention, curious and calm. You see there, curious and calm, energizing and calming the factors. And like that, he started to unfold, deconstruct the human experience, the body that respects, the sensitivity, emotions, the emotions, the thoughts, and then also what he focused on a little, what came out of this generous, generous presence. It's the importance for a human being the experience of pleasure and displeasure. At what point it was worth so late. Several of you know this teaching, this instruction around this aspect of our experience. The idea around this, and it was us to see on the field whether it was on the road or not, is that with each phenomenon, each experience experienced, that is something heard, something seen, something felt in the body, cold, hot, warm, moistened, etc. Whatever is experienced in the psyche, the encounter with a thought, an impression, a humor, with each experience there is a tonality of pleasure and displeasure that will be presented, or of absence of pleasure or displeasure. And our life is made of that. Our day yesterday, our day today has been made of too much of that. I have already visited a few of the events today. It's impossible, I don't think I can do it. So maybe a work, an exploration in two stages. One of just recognizing, we are in it, that's what we were talking about this morning. At that moment it's pleasant. We are in it, yes, I see it. This is unpleasant, this sensation in my body, this state inside me, this thing seen or heard, it's unpleasant to see or hear for me at that moment. So it's already a very different story. Usually I think we see barely, we feel barely, in a certain way, we go straight to the opinion. Maybe, it shouldn't have happened, it's annoying, I want more. We're not late to this delicious experience, or slightly pleasant, or very pleasant, ecstatic or orgasmic. So it's the invitation today to bring this, to delay this, to let it live in consciousness, this fluctuation, to discover for yourself, whether it's at the right time, I wake up this morning, well, we're going to have a good day, let's go. And then we'll see, it's a great start, excellent. I can decide to have only pleasant tonalities. Each time we go down today, we're back there on the fourth day, it's the day of Vedana, mine will be pleasant. And then we'll go see on the terrace, if it's possible, to keep the trick. And then we'll discover that we have very little control, that suddenly something happens, a rock in the Birkenstock, or others, a sensation in the body, a psychic event, it's through the mind, very unpleasant, pleasant, that we're not, that we're not invited, or in a human relationship, often, there's a lot going on in the encounter between humans. Suddenly, the biology says, it's so pleasant, it's so unpleasant, it's so unpleasant, it's so unpleasant. And so this invitation to first recognize, this first, I would suggest, two steps, a first step to recognize, to see if I can, to localize the experience, to recognize that it's happening at this moment. Ah yes, pleasant, unpleasant. And then discover how it's accompanied, how it's met. So the practice of meditation is extremely relational. It's all, turns, I think, not bad around, around the relationship to the object. While the phenomenon is pleasant or unpleasant or neutral, there's a moment when what will interest us, maybe an advantage, which will become central, essential, it will be the relationship. Not so much that it's pleasant or unpleasant, but how it's accompanied, how it's met. Because it can be met with calm, with curiosity. Where can it be met with agrippement, fixation, obsession, aversion. There are several options in the relationship. Compassion. Yes, at this moment, unpleasant, unpleasant for me, unpleasant for us, what's going on, how can we allow this to happen, maybe to become a portal to beautiful qualities, an opportunity to cultivate something beautiful. It's a form of aestheticism, we could talk about an inner form of aestheticism, in contact with the un-wanted. How? Yes, to cultivate the balance, a kind of grace, inner beauty. So there's an instructor who I was lucky enough to practice with a few times, called Dr. Tintin, she's American, how do you say American, no, Birman in French, she's an American Birman, and she's very particular when you go to a retreat with her, because I think she herself, although she has a deep understanding of Dharma, I think she's never sitting in meditation. Her teachers, and maybe her students, in Birmanie, who was a monk, they learned all the practices in action, in everyday life. So her Dharma developed through her profession, through raising children, gardening, cooking, everything we all know, everything that lives, that moves me, that we live in. And that's it, and when you go to practice with her, it's very interesting, because that's it, we're going to sit to eat, but it's really, okay, now we're going to work on the Dharma aspect, for example, I think that, because Vedana, let's prepare a meal, we have five or six, let's prepare the meal, let's notice the game of Vedana, if there's one, or not, and we'll say, okay, very good, so you have to cut the onions, you have to cut it, you cut the onions, no, not the onions, I'm going to cut them, desagreeables, desagreeables, ah, here are already, sometimes even with a table, then we'll write to the musul, we'll return to our, we'll take onions, we'll write to the Vedana, cut them, desagreeables, etc., like that, Sometimes it's supposed to be a step, we'll read the newspaper together, the newspaper, the titles, we'll check, whether it's Vedana or mental building, the perceptions, what we project, what we see, what we imagine, what the suite of the article will be, etc. And that's how we study. Here, in this way, I hope I don't create too many desires, but it's over there that I must be, it's my style of retreat. Finally, I found my line. I guarantee you that Vedana is also sometimes unpleasant over there. So that's it. We can observe, observe. It's limited as language, it's a bit visual, but rather approved. I'll go back to this language, live, in consciousness, the passage of Vedana. When the Buddha speaks, it's very beautiful, among other things, in one of the famous discourses that I was marked by, the Fena Sutta, he says to a person, imagine when it rains, in summer, or autumn, when it rains, when the rain drops on small water flags, it makes tiny bubbles when the taste falls, which immediately breaks. And so if a person approaches this phenomenon, observes it, stays in touch, investigates it, is interested in it, there is a whole series of verbs that he uses. If this person was very interested in this phenomenon, it's sure that he would discover that it's without substance, that it's insubstantial, that it's unfaithful, that it's changing, that it's unstable. It's sure that this person would see for herself the nature of these small bubbles that form on the surface of the water flag, in the same way, a person who meditates, if she approaches very close to Vedas, once again the word in Pali to talk about this aspect of our experience, pleasure, despleasure, neutrality, the absence of pleasure, despleasure, if a person approaches this with interest, observed, inspected, explored, was interested in it, this person is sure that she would discover for herself that it's unfaithful, that it's changing, that it's conditional, that it's uncontrollable, I would say, in my words. And in this way, a person would be free to discover a relationship with Vedas, which is perhaps the release of pleasure, compassion, appreciation, certainly non-agreement. And so this is the invitation for us today, if it presents itself, two little things to say before going to the exploration that could help us. If we can't determine if it's not obvious to us, it's ours. If it's pleasant, we want to know that it is, even slightly pleasant, if it's pleasant, we risk knowing it if we're so interested. If we don't know, we can put it in the category as ours. There's that, and the second thing I want to say, which seems important to me, we'll discover it ourselves, but I'm going to save ourselves for a few hours. The teaching tells us, once again, to verify it on the ground, that Vedana, the tonality of pleasure or despleasure or neutrality, is not within the object, it doesn't go from one to another, and it's often ignorance, confusion of human beings, that we think that this person is unpleasant, that this taste is unpleasant, but in fact it's much more complex than that, much more... you know, there's a whole game of conditions. I'll give you an example. I was going to say, my brother, but I have an example even more recent. When I was a teenager, I shared the room with my brother. So there are four walls in a room. So I had the right to put my posters on two walls, and my brother on the other two walls like that. And I had Culture Club, Boy George, and so on. And my brother was black metal, trash-punk, and we met at Billy Eidol. Billy Eidol went for both of us, the point of meeting for different reasons. And that's it. Vedana is not within the object. The music that was pleasant to me, it wasn't for my brother. And the one that was pleasant to my brother's ears wasn't for me. So we see that it's not exactly within the object. I'll stay with my brother. And so it's interesting to see how it changes with time. For example, the idea of ​​retreat can have been very pleasant at some point. And at another point, the idea of ​​retreat, all of a sudden, it's a very unpleasant idea. It's possible. So we see that it's fluctuating, it's changing according to the state of mind, according to the material, according to the perception of the moment, etc. And so this invitation for us to go see, what is it starting for us in the experience? And that's it. In meditation, we use local products. So we talk exactly about what is there, what is there this morning, what happened this morning, what is happening to us, and what is the body in its form this morning. What is felt in the body, in the morning spirit, it's excellent material. We don't need anything else. There is already a lot of wealth in it, what is happening now. So we play a little bit with that. So in meditation, whether formal or informal, we have nothing to produce. We are not there to produce something. It's rather to discover. Discover what I like about this definition of full consciousness, discover the family, which is a little covered by our lack of attention. So the Vedana is something very, very, very familiar to human beings. If we remove it, we wouldn't recognize the human experience, I think. For example, this very pleasant experience. The passengers, I hope, who were lost in the woods for several days, and we heard this noise, it would probably be pleasant. Contextual, contational. And we go delicately. We can't get there with our big sables. We can't try to adjust everything. We really go humbly. In practice, sometimes we say, we are in the practice, not literally. We are in the process of letting our demands, our expectations, our priorities fall. This fresh look, this candor, visit the body a little bit, if you want, to go see if you can see. Is there a place in the body or is something pleasant? It can be, when I say the body, I think tactile, but also olfactory, also more static. And yes, the view. These are also experiences from the physical material world. For a slight piquot of play, the rest of the hands, or the inspiration, can be, even if it may be, slightly pleasant. A pleasant sound, slightly pleasant. And it may also be possible to approach a little bit, if there is something unpleasant, slightly unpleasant, if there is. Once again, it can be in the body, in the environment, in addition to the order of the inner experience. And can it be simply known, to say almost in a factual way, ah yes, uncomfortable, unpleasant, or slightly unpleasant, in a factual way, but also proximity, maybe intimacy, and in the heart of experience. If it is a sensation, for example, very unpleasant, maybe we can't stay very long in the heart, maybe we can't even approach very closely, but stay on the sides, in periphery. And there may be an art, to balance the tension, to walk the tension. Especially if there is something unpleasant that happens, it can be very, very habitable to approach what is painful in the heart or the body, to grip it without making a fixation, without being in an idea either. And to withdraw, to go towards something rather neutral or pleasant to refresh yourself, refresh your attention, to resource yourself. And precisely, is it possible to go into contact with something that appears to us rather neutral, sometimes the breath is like this, the silence, or a certain sensation along the arms or the thighs? Is it possible to even stay a little, a neutral object, rather neutral, to discover the tonality, then discover if the mind can experience it calmly, opening up, curiosity, compassion, appreciation, very, very simply, without being caught, without abandoning, without making a fixation either. And sometimes it can be helpful to take a mental note as pleasant, pleasant to invite us to approach this experience, to live in consciousness or to be unpleasant, unpleasant, or even to be only unpleasant, only unpleasant, to perhaps remind us that it is not necessary to make a whole story, opinion, mental production, version, etc. It is only unpleasant, because it can be known simply, directly, with the bell, the human sound, pleasant or unpleasant, or the sound, it is clear, the reactivity we have. Suddenly the contraction, suddenly Pascal becomes the enemy, all perceptions change, forgive me, for pedagogical reasons. There is all this richness in it, perhaps today it interests us, perhaps not, perhaps our exploration field is elsewhere, but it is well to name it. Also, if we pay attention, if we say, yes, yes, I know, I have to not be hard of all these thoughts, there is all this richness in it, it is the path, and for the most part of us, it will be long. We will have to go back to the exploration field several times, several times, to refine our understanding, etc. So the standard reaction, often, habitually, when it is pleasant, there is this tendency to hang on, to want more, to want to possess. So we can not see that today. In some cases, no, not at all, there is just the pleasure, it is known, and there is no pleasure. And at that moment, the pleasure, we can make it an experience. I was talking about yesterday, that the pleasure, in itself, is not necessarily a problem, it is the aggravation that causes stress, but it is work to separate one from the other, because often, they are cognizant with the pleasant, the aggravation almost as soon as behind, faster than its shadow. And it is good to see that. An image that is used very, I remember the first time I heard that, I did not like at all, I wanted to, in tears. But the image that was used to talk about it, it was pleasure, the image is quite strong, it is like the layer of honey on a wave of rasoir. So the honey is the pleasure, the rasoir is the aggravation. So after, I thought there is an angle. You should not do it like that, you should do it on the side. But it shows how delicate it is how there is an art, a wisdom to develop in the relationship to what is pleasant, because very quickly, I hope it will continue. And there we no longer have access to this refreshment, this resource, this beauty. All of a sudden we are agitated, we are concerned, we are... And so there is all this art, and we are lucky today to explore that. In the relationship to the unpleasant, the Buddha, the Dhammadina also, at the time of the Buddha, a very wise practitioner that the Buddha respected a lot. I think both of them speak of two tendencies that are activated in front of the unpleasant. So people not very wise, what is that about us? What are we talking about? People not very wise do not know how to be with the unpleasant on one side they close, they break, the version and on the other side they seek pleasure. So they are activated. I hate that! Chocolate! How do I get chocolate? So it's even a slight moment of unpleasantness. Little things happen, slightly unpleasant, fantasy, projects, even horrible scenarios, everything to not be with neutrality. And yes, this is an teaching that seems to say, that's how I understand it, something like when an object is rather neutral, an experience is rather neutral, if there is little consciousness, it will usually become slightly unpleasant. Do you recognize that in your experience? Or if something is rather neutral and there is presence, it will become slightly unpleasant? And for me I am a meditation teacher and as a meditator, I immediately see the the case. I learn to meditate in a course of introduction to meditation and the object of attention is respiration. And for several people, not for all, but for several people it is rather neutral. And so they will get bored. Having not the ability to be in contact, it will become boring, I don't like meditative I don't like meditative it will look like a good idea but it's not very pleasant. The respiration is rather neutral. And a moment when, for us in our development, we have the ability to be in contact with the neutral, if it is respirat