This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Living Kindness with Kevin Griffin (1 of 6) Introduction & Guided Meditation. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Living Kindness: Buddhist Teachings for a Troubled World - Introduction & Guided Meditation (1 of 6) - Kevin Griffin

The following talk was given by Kevin Griffin at The Sati Center in Redwood City, CA on October 08, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Living Kindness: Buddhist Teachings for a Troubled World - Introduction & Guided Meditation (1 of 6)

Introduction

I want to start by sitting, because that's really the foundation of what we're going to do and what we always do here. Well, I guess I'm not going to begin by sitting, because I want to talk a little bit about the concept of living kindness, and that will frame our sit. I'll probably talk more about this as the day goes on. The idea behind this teaching started from my own experience and the sense that the practice of loving-kindness and the Brahma-viharas¹—which include loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—was sometimes taught, or at least received, in a narrow way that I didn't think captured the breadth of what the Buddha was saying. I'm trying to open up and broaden our understanding of that.

As it relates to this first sit, I'm not going to guide you in what you would call a traditional loving-kindness practice. Rather, I ask you, in the practice of mindfulness, to observe your inner dialogue and inner states—whether you call them emotional or mental states—and to bring awareness to any inner conflict. That's just the initial prompt for you. Let's start sitting, and I'll say more as we sit.

Guided Meditation

The starting point is establishing an erect and stable posture. You can close your eyes or just lower your gaze if you're more comfortable having your eyes open. Then, just sense the body, feeling how you're holding your posture. In this spirit of inquiry, notice what your relationship to your experience of your body is. Do you sense it as pleasant, unpleasant, or neither—more neutral?

We're beginning with the felt experience of the body, the sensations of the body. But we can also see that there's an underlying relationship each of us has with our bodies: of liking, disliking, or neither. No real attitude, a neutral attitude.

If I may say so, many people seem to have an uncomfortable relationship with their bodies. Young people striving for ideals. Older people struggling with physical pain or limitations. Aging. People resisting the signs and experiences of age. This very vehicle through which we live our lives doesn't feel like our friend; it feels like something we have to fix.

What would it be like to bring kindness to your body? To realize that your body has done so much for you and allowed you to be here right now. It has carried you through your life. To bring compassion to your body. We think of the ways we've made demands, pushed ourselves, and pushed our bodies. Perhaps not feeding it well, resting it well, or exercising it well. Ignoring its needs or complaints. Or simply bringing compassion to the fact that your body can't help but suffer. Aging, sickness, injuries—these are things your body must experience. Do we take a negative attitude towards that, one of frustration or even resentment? Can we be kind and compassionate to this body?

These are the first two of the four Brahma-viharas: kindness and compassion. The third, muditā², or sympathetic joy, is one where we take joy in success, in the pleasant. We appreciate the goodness of our bodies, any degree of health, and the capacities it gives us. Gratitude for all the energy and effort that is expended through our body. Do appreciate that.

The fourth Brahma-vihara is equanimity. An acceptance. A clear seeing. The body is as it is. It comes together when certain factors are present, and falls apart when those factors disappear. A field of energy comes and goes, arises and passes.

Now, letting the attention come to rest with the breath as it moves in the body. Breathing connects the body to the greater world. It draws in oxygen from the atmosphere around us to utilize in our survival. Breathing releases the toxins that the body can't use back into the atmosphere. Breathing in and breathing out with mindfulness and kindness.

The practice of loving-kindness starts with our relationship to ourselves. So, seeing our relationship to our body, but more importantly, our relationship in the mind. The way we think about ourselves, the thoughts that we follow, the thoughts that we believe. As you work with mindfulness of the breath, feeling your body, begin to notice the nature of the thoughts that arise.

The essence of suffering, of dukkha³, is the wish for things to be different from the way they are. That wish begins with ourselves: wanting ourselves to be different, whether it's our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts, our experience of life, or the conditions of our lives. This conflict with ourselves, with our own lives, stands in the way of loving ourselves, caring for ourselves, and bringing kindness to ourselves. First, we must see these qualities before we can let them go and transform them.

As we approach our own mind and look at our own mind, we need to take great care. Because even as we begin to see the harm that we do to ourselves, we can do more harm by judging ourselves, thinking that our shortcomings deserve punishment. Thus, as the Buddha suggests, shooting a second arrow⁴ into ourselves: the arrow of our own pain, redoubled by the arrow of our judgment.

So we need to take great care in how we approach our own mind, approaching with acceptance. We are not unique or different from anyone else. Human beings think in these ways. We do not deserve special punishment; we deserve compassion, as does anyone who is suffering. Our first task, then, is to shift our perspective. To hold the truth with kindness, with compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance. What happens?

When you notice the mind wandering, see if you can bring an attitude or a thought of kindness to yourself. You might simply say to yourself, "May I be happy?" Or something more neutral, just a thought. Come back to the breath.

[Bell rings]

All right, I don't know how the bell comes across on Zoom. But if you didn't hear it, it rang.