1 Smile and Release

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What is it like to experience the happiness and peace of being in the moment?

Objective: To sit, breathe and enjoy.

How Do We Get There?

•  Thích Nhất Hạnh's Calm-Ease meditation.

• Smile

Sangha Sharing

What joy, insights, wonderment, questions and moments would you like to share?

Dharma Talk

This video walks us through the Calm-Ease meditation.   It's a fabulous introduction to this form of meditation.  

The smile is very important in meditation.  Even if we don't feel like smiling, doing so will begin to relax our facial muscles.  Continuing to smile during your out-breath will become a very comfortable experience.   As your mindfulness practice grows, a smile will spring forth  with your first breath as if it's been waiting to greet you.  To be unexpectedly greeted by your own smile is delightful.  Your natural, relaxed smile will become a part of your practice's foundation.   

Happiness.  This happiness blossoms from contentment.  When you fully seat yourself into the moment, you no longer want, you no longer wish for, you no longer want to become something you're not, you no longer crave, you no longer feel incomplete.  You simply ARE and that is completely satisfying.  You are content.  Contentment is the fertile soil from which your flower of happiness blooms.  The meditation's final bell will ring and you won't want it to end.  That's a good place to be and it doesn't have to end.  

As you peacefully stand up and begin to walk, you will find you still have your breath.  As you walk, listen for your breath, In  -  Out.  This is the meditation's first line.  Your continued meditation can be right there.  In  -  Out.  Let your breath bring your awareness back.  You reach over and grab your keys, In - Out.  You are calm now as you walk to your car.  You can clearly see your day and what's important for you to do.  In - Out.  You start to drive to work, In - Out - smile.  You start to notice more of what is around you.  In - Out.  There's no need to feel the traffic's rush.  You are in the moment and just flow with traffic.   In - Out - smile.  You walk into work, In - Out - smile.  You feel the contentment of the moment.  It's nice to be here.  From this space, you greet a co-worker hello and without effort offer a 'good morning smile'.   You are ready for your day.  You will have conversations and there will be small moments where you can be present for your in-breathe and out-breathe during the conversation.  You will be very preset and aware for the conversation, your breathing and all that is in the moment.  In - Out - Smile.

The mediation never ended.  You may have gone an hour and half focused on your work.  Then you pause and feel tensions in your shoulders.  Gently come back to In - Out and smile that you're taking care of yourself.

During this whole time, you were not sitting on a meditation cushion.  You were not completely still.  You were not silent.  You had moments thinking of work, all the while, your breath was always there for you.  In - Out.  So as you begin to sit for mediation, be comfortable.  Be in a position that you feel supports you.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  It was never perfect during your walk yet the meditation was continuing.  So as you begin to sit, find a comfortable seating or lying position, and with gratitude, smile that you are choosing to take care of you.  

Thay's talk is in the link below.   When it' done, take a moment and reflect.  If you're with others, please share your thoughts, your connections and your curiosities.  

A Thích Nhất Hạnh talk

Smile - Release , 23 mins

Collective observations and reflections

We share and listen.

Let's Joyfully Explore with Curiosity and Wonderment

We will be submersed in a smile and wonder into the happiness and ease that flows from it. 

Calm-Ease *1, Short Audio

Collective observations and reflections

We share and listen.

Exceptions and Deviations  

* None of this section is included in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing nor from Thích Nhất Hạnh's book, Breathe, You are Alive. 

This section is taken directly from Smile-Release, a Thích Nhất Hạnh talk, and its purpose here is to introduce mediation.  

*1 Team, P. V. A. (2022, November 7). Calm and ease: One of the most liked guided meditations on the App. Plum Village Mobile App. https://plumvillage.app/calm-and-ease-one-of-the-most-liked-guided-meditations-on-the-app/