In | Out

A Flowering Meadow - Emptiness | part 2

  𑽇   Transcript    𑽇 

How beautiful is the relationship between my in breathe and out breathe?

Objective: To experience the inter-being of our in and out breath.

Why this is Important

• It is important to know how beautiful we are.

How Do We Get There?

• • Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing

Steps 1 and 2:   In - Out *1

• • Mindfulness, Concentration and Insight*

  • Smiles

  • Emptiness which has the qualities of: Inter-being, Impermanence, No Self and No Birth - No Death

  • Experience the Meadow

  • Conditions

Podcast

Episode 14

Sangha Sharing

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

Dharma Talk

It's easy to think that experiencing Emptiness is beyond reach, I'm not there yet or I have so much more to learn before that happens.  Monks have spent years meditating before they experience Emptiness.  How would I ever get there?   When you have those thoughts and feelings, please, just smile kindly to them.  You only need your one mindful breath and you have that. : )

Let's say we were to climb one of the Appalachian mountains and find ourselves a choice seat to look out over the distance.  We set our mediation cushion down and position ourselves atop the cushion.  To be fully present, we decide to close our eyes and do Thay's Calm - Ease meditation.   The last bell has rung, we're in the moment, a wonderful moment.  : )  It's time to open our eyes and enjoy the view; however, we only open our eyes just enough to see a wee bit of light.  All we see are some large fuzzy, blurry shapes, some greens, darker earth tones and blue.  We feel the soothing breeze and hear the wildlife echoes so softly.  Being in the moment, we breath in those colors and shapes.  Then we exhale a grateful smile.  I am here in the moment and so many conditions and births and deaths have occurred for me to be here, right now, to enjoy these colors and shapes.  Never again will I be able to sit here, like this and experience this moment.  This moment, with this view, is a gift.

Next, we close our eyes because we want to breath and Be with the breeze that is caressing our skin.  

In - Out.

Hello, Breeze.  -  Smiling. That feels so nice. 

Deep  - Slow

The Breeze and my body have shared life before.  -  and now again, we share a moment together.  Smile

Returning to the view, our eyes open to the same wee bit. 

In - Out

Hello, my eyes.  Smiling to them.  -  I share the gentleness of my breath with you.

Deep -  Slow

As the gentleness is shared, our eyes relax and open just a little more.  Those shapes and colors are still there but now they have some definition.  Patches of trees start to become apparent.  Long cast shadows are seen.  Maybe, just maybe that part of the sky has a cloud.  Again, I breath in and out to enjoy this moment.  I am filled with happiness and peace.  Joy is there too.

I repeat this several times.  Enjoying my breathing.  Sharing the gentleness of my breath with my eyes and they slowly and quietly open a little more. Each time, the view grows with more and more clarity.  Each time I sit and breath mindfully, grounding me in the moment and being filled with wonderment of life.  All I can do is smile as I'm beaming with happiness and peace.

Being in Emptiness is just like this.  It's always there just like our first look out over the mountain.  Those shapes and colors were without definition but they were there and our sight experienced them.  They were there the whole time.  So when you're in the moment, Emptiness is right there.  Maybe at this point in your life, your eyes are only open a wee bit.  Yet you still see.  Yet Emptiness is still experienced!  To experience more definition, continue mindfully breathing, continue sharing gentleness, calmness, happiness and peace with those parts of you that are tense.  The loving gentleness you share with those tense parts will relax as the tension transforms into flowers of compassion and your eyes will open a little more.  As they do, you'll recognize those familiar shapes and colors as Emptiness.  

In - Out

Calm - Ease

Smile - Release

This Moment - Wonderful Moment

Emptiness - Is right here.  (Smile and enjoy your field of vision.)

Review

The lab from last time and go over the vocabulary and key points.  

Vocabulary and Key Points

Paradigms: Historical vs Ultimate

The flower had the historical perspective.  I was born, lived and died.  

The meadow had the ultimate perspective.  Life happened.  Life needs death.  Nothing is permanent as life happens.

Key Point: Which perspective is more freeing?

Conditions

Key Point: Conditions are always occurring which results in Impermanence.  When we place our happiness on something that is impermanent, once we 'have' it, impermanence has already change it, taking our happiness with it.  Suffer is here.  If the plant places its happiness in its soon-to-be flower, its happiness will be very short lived.

Conditions allowed the plant to birth, grow and develop and wonderfully bloom.  Then they slowly aged the plant to its death.  Seeing this experience as a beginning, middle and an end is the historical perspective.  There is suffering in this paradigm.

The whole meadow saw conditions cause birth and death.  These transitions were a natural and normal part of life.   It doesn't just see the flower, but all of life moving into and out of the flower.  Then onto other flowers.  Death is the beginning of the birth.  This is the ultimate perspective and suffering passes here. 

Key Point: Conditions affect the historical perspective with impermanence and death.  They don't affect the ultimate perspective.  Because there is No Birth - No Death.  There are only transitions while life continues to flow.

Key Point: Because the flower can be, the dirt can be too.  Because the worm can be, the fruit can be too.  Nothing in the meadow can exist by itself.  Something in the meadow needed something else to die so it could live.  This is the ultimate perspective.

Empty of What?

Emptiness is empty of self and full of everything.

A Thích Nhất Hạnh talk

A Joyful Wave, 1 minute

Nothing dies and simply disappears.  Conditions change and something else is manifested, for the moment. 

Let's Explore.

Meditation is meant to be experienced.  Mindful breathing, concentration and insight are meant to be experienced.  Compassion is to be experienced.  Beauty is meant to be experienced.  Let's experience throughout exploration.

16 minutes with bells at 2 mins Meditation's Audio

Breathe in your body - Smile to your body

I see myself as a flower - I feel fresh  

Flower - Fresh

Because Conditions cause change - I can grow  

Conditions change - Growth can happen

I feel life within me - I am grateful for this moment  

Life within me - Grateful moment

Life is all around me  -  Life is cradling me

Life around me -  Cradles me

I am a flower  -  Within a Beautiful meadow

Life is always here  -  I am always here

I breathe in this moment  - I am home in this moment

Collective observations and reflections

We share and listen.