Transcript:
[00:00:00] Oh, did anyone do the little mood thing? How was your mood by the end of that little meditation on universal sufferings?  
[00:00:13] I put it into the head, maybe a knife to the chest.  
[00:00:20] Yeah, so like wherever you found your mood, right, that's your baseline.  
[00:00:25] When you are confronted with some of the basic realities of being a human being, that's how you respond today.  
[00:00:35] Now, if you like that, then keep doing it. If you don't like that, then you might want to think about making friends with some of that.  
[00:00:45] To do that, you actually have to go over and extend your hand and introduce yourself, right, maybe invite the suffering in for tea, as the Zen would say, right, Zen tradition.  
[00:00:56] Maybe you'd sit in the fire, lean into the edge, whatever kind of metaphor you want to use.  
[00:01:02] But you're going to have to be willing to connect to it.  
[00:01:06] And once you do that, it'll be like the guy in the room with the dogs, right.  
[00:01:11] You might find out it's just not as bad as you thought it was.  
[00:01:15] That you were just superimposing all kinds of layers of horror and catastrophe onto all of this, that just make your reactivity just go through the roof.  
[00:01:25] And it didn't really need to be like that.  
[00:01:28] That doesn't mean it was a wonderful experience, right. Losing someone you love isn't a wonderful experience.  
[00:01:33] But there's no need to make it worse than it is, right.  
[00:01:38] There's no need to exaggerate it, right.  
[00:01:41] Nor is there a need to like minimize it and disconnect from it and become empathetic.  
[00:01:46] But this is our basic tendency.  
[00:01:49] And so like to that extent, you know, it might be useful to try and work with it a little bit.  
[00:01:54] Okay, so, maybe we'll do another 15-minute sit.  
[00:02:05] Maybe tomorrow we'll amp it up a little bit to 20 minutes.  
[00:02:09] And I think we'll do settling the body in the first part of settling the speech.  
[00:02:15] Okay, so I'll kind of guide you through tactile sensations in the body as a whole for settling the body in its natural state.  
[00:02:23] And then just the tactile sensations in the abdomen as you breathe.  
[00:02:28] When we upshift to the abdomen, if you find that you can't stay there, okay, that it's too subtle and your mind is too fragmented there,  
[00:02:37] feel free to downshift again back to the body as a whole.  
[00:02:41] If that's not working for you, okay, feel free to downshift again back to the body scan.  
[00:02:46] Okay, then if you feel kind of grounded there for a while, upshift again.  
[00:02:50] And you just kind of play with the methodology like that until you find a comfort zone with it.  
[00:02:58] Until you find a place where you resonate for that session.  
[00:03:03] Okay, and remember when you're doing the abdomen, so you're just bringing your attention, your awareness to the tactile sensations in the abdomen as you breathe,  
[00:03:14] that it's useful to count breath.  
[00:03:17] Alright, so count succinctly, don't make the count more distracting than it needs to be.  
[00:03:23] So don't go like one, like with the whole breath.  
[00:03:27] Do it quick, one, next in breath, two, next in breath, three.  
[00:03:33] See if you can make it to 21.  
[00:03:46] Okay.  
[00:04:16] So let your attention, your awareness rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:04:46] You can feel the air moving across the air on your arms and your face.  
[00:04:54] Feeling the clothes against your skin.  
[00:04:57] Feelings of respiration in your abdomen, your chest, mouth and nose.  
[00:05:06] Mouth and nose.  
[00:05:36] Okay.  
[00:06:06] Okay.  
[00:06:37] If you become distracted with thinking, feeling, having opinions, judgments, listening, recognize that you've become distracted.  
[00:06:56] Return your attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:07:02] Periodically check back in with your body and your mind.  
[00:07:08] Make sure they are balanced, free of tension.  
[00:07:31] Okay.  
[00:10:06] Now if you feel ready, you can upshift to the first stage of settling speech in its  
[00:10:26] natural state.  
[00:10:27] Let your attention and awareness rest on the tactile sensations in your abdomen as you  
[00:10:28] breathe.  
[00:10:29] Remember to breathe naturally as you do when you sleep.  
[00:10:30] And if you choose to count the breath, do so succinctly.