WEBVTT
1
00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:07.339
The following reflection is led by Tara Brach. To access
2
00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:10.560
more of my meditations or reflections or to join my
3
00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:33.890
email list, please visit tarabrach.com. Ultimately I have this faith
4
00:00:34.009 --> 00:00:39.850
that anything that happens to us can be part of
5
00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:42.329
what wakes us up. And it doesn't mean we want
6
00:00:42.429 --> 00:00:45.250
things to happen that are painful for ourselves or anybody else,
7
00:00:45.329 --> 00:00:48.390
not at all. It just means that we can have
8
00:00:48.429 --> 00:00:52.369
this trust that if we know how to be in
9
00:00:52.429 --> 00:00:57.119
relationship with our life, suffering can be a darkness of
10
00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:04.200
the womb. And in Buddhism, this is pretty encapsulated in
11
00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:07.450
the prayer of the Bodhisattva, which is an awakening being,
12
00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:12.329
which is, may whatever arises, may this serve the awakening
13
00:01:12.790 --> 00:01:17.189
of heart and awareness. So what I'd like to do
14
00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.700
right now is just give you a chance to explore
15
00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.340
to some place in your life where you'd like to
16
00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:28.379
see whatever's going on be that kind of darkness of
17
00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.280
the womb let it bear fruit in some way so
18
00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:34.120
I invite you to just take a moment to find
19
00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:37.569
a way to sit that's comfortable to come into stillness
20
00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:44.890
and we'll just practice together we've been moving back and
21
00:01:44.950 --> 00:01:51.200
forth between the personal and the societal these are practices
22
00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:55.519
that we need to train in each of us in
23
00:01:55.579 --> 00:01:59.700
our lives to really have it ripple out into our
24
00:01:59.739 --> 00:02:03.760
larger world and they are practices that can be explored
25
00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:08.689
in groups. For now I invite you to take a
26
00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:13.449
scan of your personal life and sense where you feel
27
00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:18.590
like you are caught in some way in aversion, hatred
28
00:02:18.669 --> 00:02:25.770
or conflict, where there is some distance with another person,
29
00:02:27.710 --> 00:02:47.909
something painful going on, some suffering. If you're scanning your
30
00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:51.830
personal life and you're not finding someone you know well,
31
00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:57.319
it can be someone that's in the more societal field,
32
00:02:58.939 --> 00:03:03.330
wherever you feel a sense of conflict, of adversary, of enemy,
33
00:03:05.750 --> 00:03:17.900
then that's the place to attend to. You'll notice that
34
00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:21.699
if you've picked a place of conflict that with that
35
00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:29.110
there's going to be perhaps the emotions of anger or fear, aversiveness.
36
00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:37.569
And the beginning of any of these practices is just
37
00:03:37.590 --> 00:03:42.300
to have the intention that this may be the darkness
38
00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:45.120
of a womb. And you might even try on the
39
00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:50.400
bodhisattva prayer, please, may these circumstances, may these feelings that
40
00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:54.210
I am having, may this experience serve to awaken my heart,
41
00:03:55.090 --> 00:04:12.719
serve to awaken compassion and wisdom. That prayer makes you available.
42
00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:19.379
And you might sense, well, what am I believing? What's
43
00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:24.490
the belief? going on about this other person or myself
44
00:04:24.670 --> 00:04:30.819
or the world that's creating or generating the hatred, the anger.
45
00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:56.379
And just sense how it feels to believe it. It
46
00:04:56.430 --> 00:05:00.269
may be a belief in badness or evil of another,
47
00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:04.529
the wrongness of another. It may be a belief that
48
00:05:04.610 --> 00:05:10.230
you're being rejected, that you're being disrespected, that you're misunderstood.
49
00:05:10.250 --> 00:05:16.879
It doesn't mean there aren't some accurate perceptions that are useful.
50
00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:22.110
It just means that if there's aversiveness that you're creating
51
00:05:22.170 --> 00:05:26.930
the other into an enemy, how does it feel to believe?
52
00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:34.720
Is it possible to sense this as real but not
53
00:05:34.819 --> 00:05:55.379
true and just sense whether it's useful? Check under whatever
54
00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:58.860
you're believing or thinking and sense the real vulnerability or
55
00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:06.740
feelings that are there. Whenever there's conflict or aversion, what
56
00:06:06.819 --> 00:06:11.819
is it under there? What's the unmet need? Is the
57
00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:15.519
unmet need a need for safety or a concern for
58
00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:24.860
others' safety? Is there fear? It's the unmet need, one
59
00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:45.670
of wanting connection and feeling hurt. Breathe with whatever you're feeling,
60
00:06:45.709 --> 00:06:49.949
whatever's under there, whatever the expression in your body is
61
00:06:50.009 --> 00:06:56.000
of aversion or anger or fear, grief, just to breathe
62
00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:00.139
with it. This is the step of feeling feelings, this
63
00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:02.350
kind of willingness. If it helps you to put your
64
00:07:02.389 --> 00:07:05.829
hand on your heart or your cheek to keep company
65
00:07:05.870 --> 00:07:09.750
with what's here, this is the beginning of the next
66
00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:13.529
step of offering care and it can be very, very powerful.
67
00:07:14.389 --> 00:07:16.449
I often put two hands on my heart and just
68
00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:20.399
really feel that The most loving place in me is
69
00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:25.060
holding and bearing witness to the feelings that need attention.
70
00:07:27.910 --> 00:07:33.750
So actively turning towards love, contacting feelings and turning towards love.
71
00:07:35.550 --> 00:07:37.509
And if it's hard to offer yourself love you might
72
00:07:37.569 --> 00:07:42.589
imagine whatever loving beings in your life are helpful to
73
00:07:42.649 --> 00:07:49.610
you and you trust, imagine they're surrounding you, Offering love
74
00:07:49.629 --> 00:07:53.370
and care to the place near it feels most vulnerable.
75
00:07:53.389 --> 00:07:58.100
It might be the love is in the form of
76
00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:05.779
acceptance or forgiveness. I love you just as you are.
77
00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:17.620
Or I sometimes say to myself, it's okay sweetheart. Sense
78
00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:23.740
the larger community of care that you belong to, known
79
00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:29.089
and unknown, that there are hearts throughout this world that
80
00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:36.490
are awakening, that are generous, that are concerned, that love
81
00:08:36.730 --> 00:08:50.029
and forgive and are willing to act. sensing your own
82
00:08:50.090 --> 00:08:55.850
most awake heart, the place in you that is holding
83
00:08:55.929 --> 00:09:01.980
the woundedness or vulnerability, what I sometimes call our future self,
84
00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:07.019
that which you are emerging into, becoming, your wisest self,
85
00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:14.179
so that you can now witness from your wisest, most
86
00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:20.519
loving self the situation that you've brought up. And sense
87
00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:27.720
what the possibilities are for creative action. How might you
88
00:09:27.779 --> 00:09:59.419
respond to this situation and have some new choices? Again,
89
00:09:59.460 --> 00:10:04.470
just come back. back to the starting place of feeling
90
00:10:04.529 --> 00:10:12.509
your sincerity, may this situation, may whatever situations arise, may
91
00:10:12.570 --> 00:10:22.500
they serve the awakening of this heart. And then widening
92
00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.309
your view, sensing this heart space as including our whole world,
93
00:10:28.309 --> 00:10:31.230
So you can sense our country and all countries on
94
00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:35.649
the globe, the earth, our mother in your lap, all beings.
95
00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:42.379
Sense the challenges, the beauty, the mystery and the messiness
96
00:10:42.500 --> 00:10:46.460
and the hurt and the pain, sensing it all in
97
00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:52.470
your heart. And feel your prayer for all beings. May
98
00:10:52.519 --> 00:11:00.639
whatever darkness there is, the regressive tendencies, the mean-spiritedness, the hurt,
99
00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:07.279
the suffering, may it serve awakening. May this be the
100
00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:14.570
darkness of the womb. May there be a rebirthing into
101
00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:25.820
a world that's filled with compassion. We close with a
102
00:11:25.940 --> 00:11:30.110
very simple prayer from Diane Ackerman. It's a school prayer
103
00:11:30.210 --> 00:11:35.450
actually that she wrote. In the name of daybreak and
104
00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:39.809
the eyelids of morning and the wayfaring moon and the
105
00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:44.559
night when it departs, I swear I will not dishonor
106
00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:49.659
my soul with hatred but offer myself humbly as a
107
00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:55.899
guardian of nature, as a healer of misery, as a
108
00:11:55.960 --> 00:12:02.620
messenger of wonder, as an architect of peace. In the
109
00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.379
name of the sun and its mirrors and the day
110
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.659
that embraces it and the uttermost night and the male
111
00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:12.480
and the female and the plants bursting with seed and
112
00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.909
the crowning seasons of the firefly and the apple, I
113
00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:21.250
will honor all life wherever and in whatever form it
114
00:12:21.309 --> 00:12:26.529
may dwell on earth, my home. and in the mansions
115
00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:36.889
of the stars. Namaste and thank you for your attention.
1
00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:07.339
The following reflection is led by Tara Brach. To access
2
00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:10.560
more of my meditations or reflections or to join my
3
00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:33.890
email list, please visit tarabrach.com. Ultimately I have this faith
4
00:00:34.009 --> 00:00:39.850
that anything that happens to us can be part of
5
00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:42.329
what wakes us up. And it doesn't mean we want
6
00:00:42.429 --> 00:00:45.250
things to happen that are painful for ourselves or anybody else,
7
00:00:45.329 --> 00:00:48.390
not at all. It just means that we can have
8
00:00:48.429 --> 00:00:52.369
this trust that if we know how to be in
9
00:00:52.429 --> 00:00:57.119
relationship with our life, suffering can be a darkness of
10
00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:04.200
the womb. And in Buddhism, this is pretty encapsulated in
11
00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:07.450
the prayer of the Bodhisattva, which is an awakening being,
12
00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:12.329
which is, may whatever arises, may this serve the awakening
13
00:01:12.790 --> 00:01:17.189
of heart and awareness. So what I'd like to do
14
00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.700
right now is just give you a chance to explore
15
00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.340
to some place in your life where you'd like to
16
00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:28.379
see whatever's going on be that kind of darkness of
17
00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.280
the womb let it bear fruit in some way so
18
00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:34.120
I invite you to just take a moment to find
19
00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:37.569
a way to sit that's comfortable to come into stillness
20
00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:44.890
and we'll just practice together we've been moving back and
21
00:01:44.950 --> 00:01:51.200
forth between the personal and the societal these are practices
22
00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:55.519
that we need to train in each of us in
23
00:01:55.579 --> 00:01:59.700
our lives to really have it ripple out into our
24
00:01:59.739 --> 00:02:03.760
larger world and they are practices that can be explored
25
00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:08.689
in groups. For now I invite you to take a
26
00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:13.449
scan of your personal life and sense where you feel
27
00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:18.590
like you are caught in some way in aversion, hatred
28
00:02:18.669 --> 00:02:25.770
or conflict, where there is some distance with another person,
29
00:02:27.710 --> 00:02:47.909
something painful going on, some suffering. If you're scanning your
30
00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:51.830
personal life and you're not finding someone you know well,
31
00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:57.319
it can be someone that's in the more societal field,
32
00:02:58.939 --> 00:03:03.330
wherever you feel a sense of conflict, of adversary, of enemy,
33
00:03:05.750 --> 00:03:17.900
then that's the place to attend to. You'll notice that
34
00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:21.699
if you've picked a place of conflict that with that
35
00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:29.110
there's going to be perhaps the emotions of anger or fear, aversiveness.
36
00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:37.569
And the beginning of any of these practices is just
37
00:03:37.590 --> 00:03:42.300
to have the intention that this may be the darkness
38
00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:45.120
of a womb. And you might even try on the
39
00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:50.400
bodhisattva prayer, please, may these circumstances, may these feelings that
40
00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:54.210
I am having, may this experience serve to awaken my heart,
41
00:03:55.090 --> 00:04:12.719
serve to awaken compassion and wisdom. That prayer makes you available.
42
00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:19.379
And you might sense, well, what am I believing? What's
43
00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:24.490
the belief? going on about this other person or myself
44
00:04:24.670 --> 00:04:30.819
or the world that's creating or generating the hatred, the anger.
45
00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:56.379
And just sense how it feels to believe it. It
46
00:04:56.430 --> 00:05:00.269
may be a belief in badness or evil of another,
47
00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:04.529
the wrongness of another. It may be a belief that
48
00:05:04.610 --> 00:05:10.230
you're being rejected, that you're being disrespected, that you're misunderstood.
49
00:05:10.250 --> 00:05:16.879
It doesn't mean there aren't some accurate perceptions that are useful.
50
00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:22.110
It just means that if there's aversiveness that you're creating
51
00:05:22.170 --> 00:05:26.930
the other into an enemy, how does it feel to believe?
52
00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:34.720
Is it possible to sense this as real but not
53
00:05:34.819 --> 00:05:55.379
true and just sense whether it's useful? Check under whatever
54
00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:58.860
you're believing or thinking and sense the real vulnerability or
55
00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:06.740
feelings that are there. Whenever there's conflict or aversion, what
56
00:06:06.819 --> 00:06:11.819
is it under there? What's the unmet need? Is the
57
00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:15.519
unmet need a need for safety or a concern for
58
00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:24.860
others' safety? Is there fear? It's the unmet need, one
59
00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:45.670
of wanting connection and feeling hurt. Breathe with whatever you're feeling,
60
00:06:45.709 --> 00:06:49.949
whatever's under there, whatever the expression in your body is
61
00:06:50.009 --> 00:06:56.000
of aversion or anger or fear, grief, just to breathe
62
00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:00.139
with it. This is the step of feeling feelings, this
63
00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:02.350
kind of willingness. If it helps you to put your
64
00:07:02.389 --> 00:07:05.829
hand on your heart or your cheek to keep company
65
00:07:05.870 --> 00:07:09.750
with what's here, this is the beginning of the next
66
00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:13.529
step of offering care and it can be very, very powerful.
67
00:07:14.389 --> 00:07:16.449
I often put two hands on my heart and just
68
00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:20.399
really feel that The most loving place in me is
69
00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:25.060
holding and bearing witness to the feelings that need attention.
70
00:07:27.910 --> 00:07:33.750
So actively turning towards love, contacting feelings and turning towards love.
71
00:07:35.550 --> 00:07:37.509
And if it's hard to offer yourself love you might
72
00:07:37.569 --> 00:07:42.589
imagine whatever loving beings in your life are helpful to
73
00:07:42.649 --> 00:07:49.610
you and you trust, imagine they're surrounding you, Offering love
74
00:07:49.629 --> 00:07:53.370
and care to the place near it feels most vulnerable.
75
00:07:53.389 --> 00:07:58.100
It might be the love is in the form of
76
00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:05.779
acceptance or forgiveness. I love you just as you are.
77
00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:17.620
Or I sometimes say to myself, it's okay sweetheart. Sense
78
00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:23.740
the larger community of care that you belong to, known
79
00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:29.089
and unknown, that there are hearts throughout this world that
80
00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:36.490
are awakening, that are generous, that are concerned, that love
81
00:08:36.730 --> 00:08:50.029
and forgive and are willing to act. sensing your own
82
00:08:50.090 --> 00:08:55.850
most awake heart, the place in you that is holding
83
00:08:55.929 --> 00:09:01.980
the woundedness or vulnerability, what I sometimes call our future self,
84
00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:07.019
that which you are emerging into, becoming, your wisest self,
85
00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:14.179
so that you can now witness from your wisest, most
86
00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:20.519
loving self the situation that you've brought up. And sense
87
00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:27.720
what the possibilities are for creative action. How might you
88
00:09:27.779 --> 00:09:59.419
respond to this situation and have some new choices? Again,
89
00:09:59.460 --> 00:10:04.470
just come back. back to the starting place of feeling
90
00:10:04.529 --> 00:10:12.509
your sincerity, may this situation, may whatever situations arise, may
91
00:10:12.570 --> 00:10:22.500
they serve the awakening of this heart. And then widening
92
00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.309
your view, sensing this heart space as including our whole world,
93
00:10:28.309 --> 00:10:31.230
So you can sense our country and all countries on
94
00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:35.649
the globe, the earth, our mother in your lap, all beings.
95
00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:42.379
Sense the challenges, the beauty, the mystery and the messiness
96
00:10:42.500 --> 00:10:46.460
and the hurt and the pain, sensing it all in
97
00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:52.470
your heart. And feel your prayer for all beings. May
98
00:10:52.519 --> 00:11:00.639
whatever darkness there is, the regressive tendencies, the mean-spiritedness, the hurt,
99
00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:07.279
the suffering, may it serve awakening. May this be the
100
00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:14.570
darkness of the womb. May there be a rebirthing into
101
00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:25.820
a world that's filled with compassion. We close with a
102
00:11:25.940 --> 00:11:30.110
very simple prayer from Diane Ackerman. It's a school prayer
103
00:11:30.210 --> 00:11:35.450
actually that she wrote. In the name of daybreak and
104
00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:39.809
the eyelids of morning and the wayfaring moon and the
105
00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:44.559
night when it departs, I swear I will not dishonor
106
00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:49.659
my soul with hatred but offer myself humbly as a
107
00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:55.899
guardian of nature, as a healer of misery, as a
108
00:11:55.960 --> 00:12:02.620
messenger of wonder, as an architect of peace. In the
109
00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.379
name of the sun and its mirrors and the day
110
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.659
that embraces it and the uttermost night and the male
111
00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:12.480
and the female and the plants bursting with seed and
112
00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.909
the crowning seasons of the firefly and the apple, I
113
00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:21.250
will honor all life wherever and in whatever form it
114
00:12:21.309 --> 00:12:26.529
may dwell on earth, my home. and in the mansions
115
00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:36.889
of the stars. Namaste and thank you for your attention.
