In | Out

A Flowering Meadow - Emptiness | part 1

Episode 9 invites you to experience the profound interconnectedness of life through the lens of Emptiness, which is beautifully illustrated by a meadow's ecology and food web. The core objective is to move beyond mere intellectual understanding (thinking) to direct experience (meditating) the essential qualities of Emptiness: Inter-being, Impermanence, No Self, and No Birth - No Death. By analyzing how nutrients flow through a food web (e.g., flower to grasshopper to eagle, and back to the flower), the talk reveals that nothing possesses a separate "self" and that life simply changes form rather than truly being born or dying. This understanding is solidified through a hands-on lab using toothpicks to model the meadow's cycle, encouraging you to anchor your insights in a physical experience and discover that your natural state is one of peace, happiness, wonderment, and deep connectedness. 

  𑽇   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's Ecology

  • Conditions

Sangha Sharing

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

Dharma Talk

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. 

Format Change

Today is going to be very different.  We will talk about ecology and food webs then there will be a hand's on lab.  The is another opportunity for us to experience the Buddha's discourse.  Then I'll step away and let you ride without training wheels for insight.  If you have been following along, you are definitely ready for this step if you haven't already started to do it yourself already.  I am excited for you. 

Slideshow

These slides augment the "A Meadow's Food Web" and "Emptiness" paragraphs below.

A Meadow's Food Web

The ecology of a meadow is a fantastic model to illustrate emptiness.  Let's look at a food web and see how the nutrients are passed along in a meadow.

Meadow flower --> Grasshopper --> Frog --> Eagle

Eagle dies --> worms break down the Eagle's body into Nutrients --> Meadow flower 

Emptiness

Emptiness has the follow primarily qualities:

• Interbeing

• Impermanence

• No Self

• No Birth / No Death

Interbeing is demonstrated in the interconnectivity of the web.  Without the grasshopper, the frog could not live, nor the eagle.  All the organisms in the food web are connected.

Impermanence is quite simply, nothing last forever.  In fact, everything is changing all the time.

No Self is demonstrated in each step along the food web.  The grasshopper eats the plant and so, it now has 'flower parts' in it.  So does the Eagle who ate the frog.  Those 'flower parts', i.e. the nutrients, are passed along throughout the web.  

You can see the Grasshopper in the Frog.

You can see the Grasshopper in the Eagle.

You can see the Worm in the meadow flower.

None of the organisms are made entirely of its own parts.  An eagle is not made of just eagle parts.  It takes flower, grasshopper and frog parts to make an eagle.   We see that as the nutrients move up through the food web.  

Self here is defined by the 'parts' something or an organism is made.   For an eagle to be a 'self', it would only be made of eagle parts.  Those eagle parts are only for eagles and are never passed along.  An eagle would be a stand along organism that is not dependent on another organism.

To represent the difference between No Self and Self, we can look at the following two food webs.  

No Self

The food web shows the eagles dependency on 'parts' from other organisms.

Meadow flower --> Grasshopper --> Frog --> Eagle

Self

Here is the eagle's food web if it were a 'self'.

Eagle

As you can see, an eagle would not depend on any other organism to become an eagle.

No Birth / No Death

This is grounded in one's paradigm as we view the meadow.  

If we focus on upon the grasshopper in the meadow, we will see its birth and its death. 

If we focus on the meadow as whole, we see birth and death happening everywhere; however, the meadow continues to have life flow through it the whole time.  Life just changes form.

Thinking Versus Experiencing

When we learn something new or have a new experience it is abstract.  All newness is abstraction.  It is not until we experience it again and again does the abstraction become concrete.  Then our definitions bloom from our understanding of the experience.  

If understanding happens outside of having the experience, sometimes the definitions we held don't match the experience and it can be confusing.  If this happens, this is wonderful.  You are beginning to expand your awareness so your definitions and your experience can merge.

You can rest in the experienced abstraction.  Thay says you are doing it right if you experience peace and happiness.  If you also experience wonderment and gratitude, you are doing it right.  If you experience a deep and freeing connectedness, you are doing it right.  If you are experiencing a freedom because you need nothing more, you are doing it right.  If you experience how the flower is as beautiful as the pebble in the mud, you are doing it right.  Peace and happiness are your grounding touchstones.

To meditate is to experience. 

We know have some definitions for emptiness and its qualities.  We can see the No Birth / No Death as life changes form over time in a meadow.  We can also see how a frog is interdependent on its food web.  

However, HOWEVER, what is it like to experience No Birth / No Death or Interbeing?

How will the experiences match our definitions?  : ) ...this is so exciting.

Hands-on Lab

In this lab, you will model the food web using tooth pics as nutrients.  There is impermanence at play here so you must apply conditions to the nutrients so that life can be expressed in new forms.

Be very aware of your actions as you do this lab and how they relate:

• to the flower and

• to the meadow as a whole.

Let's Begin

Take a moment and imagine you're on a nature hike and you come across what appears to be a beautiful  wildflower meadow.  Now let your mind wonder through the meadow.  Notice everything you see: flowers of all sizes and colors, dirt, bugs, stones, grasses, worms, new plant starts, dying flowers, frogs, dragon flies, etc.  

Think of three of them, any three.  

1.  Use the toothpicks placed on the table to abstractly make a shape that represents one of the three you thought of.

You are pulling from the meadow and applying conditions to create the object.

After 30 seconds,  everyone shares what their shape is.

After sharing, you mindfully apply conditions to the object and return the pieces to the meadow.

2. Again, think of something else from the meadow, select toothpicks and apply conditions to create its shape.

After 30 seconds,  everyone shares what their shape is.

After sharing, you mindfully apply conditions to the object and return the pieces to the meadow.

3. Lastly, think of something else from the meadow, select toothpicks and apply conditions to create its shape.

After 30 seconds, everyone shares what their shape is.

After sharing, you mindfully apply conditions to the object and return the pieces to the meadow.

Reflecting using Mindful Breathing, Concentration to Obtain Insights

Read these questions slowly and let them sink into you.  We want these questions to be in our full awareness.  Keep going back to the physical experience of doing the lab to ground you. After I've read the last question, the mediation will begin.  We begin mindful breathing which naturally brings us into concentration.  At this point, we are ripe for insight.

It'll be a 12 minute mediation with bells at 2 mins.  Meditation's audio.

1. 1. How did we observe impermanence within the flower and the meadow?

   2. Describe for yourself what happened with the flower.

   3. Describe for yourself what happened with the whole meadow.

   4. If you were the flower, how would you see life and death?

   5. If you were the whole meadow, how would you see life and death?

   6. In the fewest words possible, can you describe what was witnessed in the meadow?

Breathing In, I feel my body rise.  -  Breathing Out, I feel my body ease.

I calm my body.  -  I smile gratefully to my body

Calm body  -  Smile gratefully

Kindly focus on something in the meadow - Gently listen and reflect on it's experienced changes

Kindly focus - Gently reflect

Kindly focus on the whole meadow - Gently listen and reflect on its experienced changes

Kindly focus - Gently reflect

Kindly focus on life in the flower - Kindly focus on the life in the meadow

Life in flower - Life in meadow

Be with the Flower in the Meadow - Be with the Meadow in the Flower

Flower in the Meadow - Meadow in the Flower

Collective observations and reflections

We share and listen.

Come back and do the lab and meditation again, please.  : )

Insight is Your Personal Teacher

Insight is amazing!  If you haven't been exploring insight in your meditations, please begin to do so.  

Here is what I enjoy about it:

• It will be presented in a way where you are most open to receiving the insight. 

• It will strike you deeply and has a tendency to be a profound experience, but not always; however, it'll always so good.

• It'll be the single most important suffering to heal and to be transformed for your personal and spiritual growth in this moment. 

• It's a highly customized lesson plan that's perfect for you.   You can't get that anywhere.

• It's always there for you and you will naturally be guided along an enlightened path to discover yourself. 

Go over this sit, the topics, the hands-on experience and listen for you questions and curiosities.  Then hold them in your focus and begin the meditation.  Let those questions ruminate while you mindfully breathe.  Insight has so much to offer you.  It'll be a great ride. : )