This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Never too Late to Begin Again; Dharmic Reciprocity (3 of 5): Non-Harming. It likely contains inaccuracies.

Guided Meditation: Never Too Late to Begin Again; Dharmette: Dharmic Reciprocity (3 of 5): Non-Harming - Dawn Neal

The following talk was given by Dawn Neal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on October 23, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Never Too Late to Begin Again

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, global YouTube Sangha¹. I’m delighted to be with you. I just want to give a shout-out to many familiar names and friends in the chat. Warm greetings, wherever you are in the world—afternoon, evening, or day. This is also a sound check, so someone let me know if you can hear me and if the sound is all right. Great, thank you.

I’m curious, as we’re warming up here. Those of you who are silent are very welcome to remain silent, and those of you who are chatting, I would love to hear what you noticed about wholeheartedness yesterday—about respect and wholeheartedness, full attention. Of course, you don’t have to report in, but sometimes it’s fun for everyone.

This is the third talk in a series on Dharmic reciprocity²: the gifts we give the Dharma and receive from our practice. We’re at seven o’clock now, so I invite you to finish up your warm greetings when you’re ready and to settle in. Settle into a posture that expresses what is in your heart and mind in terms of caring for yourself in this practice.

Today, start with a couple of deeper, slower breaths. Softening the eyes, softening the tongue, and letting go. Releasing, offering the out-breath, and dedicating yourself to this time. On the in-breath, inviting and receiving awareness.

Allowing the attention to move to internal experience, your sense experience. Noticing sound, temperature, sensation. Any object of attention that you know works for you—any anchor—is welcome. Hearing the field of sensations of the body, the flow of everything. I’ll be offering some brief instructions on breath and internal posture: the way we hold our minds and hearts in relationship to the practice.

Allowing the breathing to be natural and normal. Tuning in with kind regard to the sensations of breathing. Attending to the in-breath with care and complete attention. Resting and releasing on the out-breath. All the way through the out-breath, and resting gently in a little still moment between the out-breath and the in-breath.

Allowing each breath to be just as it is. Noticing the movement of the diaphragm, the chest, or the belly in waves, perhaps, and attuning to all the sensations within each single breath. Receiving, allowing awareness to brighten at the fullest point of the in-breath. Letting go into resting in the out-breath.

[Silence]

From time to time, checking your internal posture: the attitude towards this practice, this moment. Seeing how gracious, allowing, and non-interfering it’s possible to be with this moment. Attending with care.

[Silence]

Each time distraction is noticed, that is a moment of mindful awareness. Appreciate it; include it as part of the practice. It’s never too late to begin again.

[Silence]

In the last few minutes of this meditation, the invitation is to turn your attention towards the quality—the internal posture or stance—of how you are in this moment regarding the meditation. What’s the quality of the awareness? What is the attitude or mood in the heart? Whatever that is, include that too with an attitude of care, respect, and kindness.

Then, considering these moments of meditation through that lens of appreciative care: any moments of peacefulness, calm, a finger-snap of mindfulness, or stretches of unbroken attention. Everything, small or large, drink it in. Soak in the goodness of it.

Then, turning your attention outwards to the others practicing in this moment together, here or at other times. Wishing them well: May they be safe, happy, and healthy. May they be peaceful, at ease, and free. Extending these wishes outwards further towards everyone your life touches, directly and indirectly: May all beings be safe, peaceful, and free.

Thank you for your practice.

Dharmette: Dharmic Reciprocity (3 of 5): Non-Harming

Welcome, welcome, dear Sangha, especially those of you who tiptoed in a few minutes late into our virtual space. Today, I’d like to offer some reflections. It’s the third of a series of five on Dharmic reciprocity: what we offer our practice and our lives, and the resonance of what we receive, which can be direct or indirect.

As I’ve mentioned to many of you who have been here, this teaching is loosely based on a little, obscure sutta³—a discourse on the qualities of integrity in giving. I’ll start by sharing what the Buddha said about this: "A person of integrity gives in such a way as not to harm themselves or others, even slightly." Implicit in the language this is written in, Pali⁴, is a resonance in the term for non-harming of a kind and caring attitude.

In giving of ourselves—our time, material goods—this means self-care is key. The Buddha describes a person of great wisdom as someone who does not wish for affliction, suffering, or harm for themselves, others, or the world. Rather, a person of integrity, a wise person, offers wishes for the benefit of self, others, and both, as well as all concerned. So don't leave yourself out. Don’t leave yourself out!

From a Buddhist perspective, this means practitioners—that’s us—are encouraged to cultivate a baseline approach of non-harming (ahiṃsā⁵) that’s based on care, not just for our common humanity, but our common sentience with all creatures. Each being’s wish, no matter how buried or thwarted, is to live and to not be harmed. This wish weaves through nearly all sentient life, most of the time.

The impulse and commitment to care and non-harming appears over and over again in the Buddha's teaching; often it’s the first step of practice. There’s a phrase that appears frequently: "Setting aside rod and weapon, a practitioner dwells compassionate, with care for the welfare of all living beings." Isn’t that beautiful? That’s often used at the very first step of engaging in serious meditation practice, when a person would go to become a follower of the Buddha.

So it’s not surprising that this emphasis on non-harming ripples through all different dimensions of Buddhist practice. It’s core to the compass of Buddhist ethics: to not kill, not steal, not engage in sexual misconduct, not lie, or intoxicate in ways that lead to heedlessness. Those are the guardrails.

Non-harming can include preventing harm through giving, and this impulse is not limited to humans. I love this anecdote: in a 2017 study, scientists documented and confirmed anecdotal stories that marine biologists had been hearing for years. Ship after ship had noticed "mobbing" behavior in humpback whales. Humpbacks and other whales communicate through clicks and other sounds that transmit through the water. They would hear another whale in distress—or even another mammal in distress—being attacked by killer whales (orcas). They would come, encircle the threatened animal, and protect it from being attacked. They would beat off these orcas with their mighty fins. Scientists even found scarring on these huge fins from protecting the innocent.

This non-harming impulse can also take the form of practical care. I ordained for a time at a monastery in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), and very early on, I was inspired to learn that the teacher there established the first free clinic in the city. It's quite a large city. The monastery donated the land, the material goods, and the medicines; doctors and nurses would come and volunteer their time to the poorest of the poor—people who could not afford any other medical care. That same place donated land to Buddhist nuns running an orphanage. All of this was done quite humbly and without much talk, because it was natural; it was an outgrowth of a deep commitment to care and kindness. The ripple effects through the local area, as you can imagine, were significant, and the people who lived in the monastery were loved and cared for by the community in turn. This is reciprocity.

In our internal practice, non-harming takes the form of an internal attitude: the inner voice of kindness in the mind and heart is a huge gift to yourself and your practice. Again, the means echo the ends. The best we can do is to bring an attitude of gentleness and care when encountering not-so-helpful internal habits. It’s so common in our culture to internalize judgment, blame, and self-criticism. We can notice them while not believing them.

I remember when one of my nieces was quite young. We were at a big holiday gathering, everyone gathered around the table eating, and she told this very unusual story that she completely bought into in the moment—about a cat driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in a convertible. She had all of us riveted because she was so clear about it and so convinced that it happened. But, of course, we didn't believe it. This was confabulation. We can still love the storyteller even when the stories aren't so nice; they are developed through familial and societal conditioning. Noticing and kindly disengaging with a non-harming attitude from any inner harshness or "pushy" approach to mindfulness begins to reconfigure unhelpful mental patterning. Non-harming includes no longer feeding or fueling unhelpful habits; no longer getting behind them.

From a Buddhist perspective, this friendly, positive regard towards inner experience is ideal. It can increase together with wholeheartedness, caring attention, respect, and deep listening to oneself. All of that can transmute into gratitude, joy, and wonder.

Another way of inviting these beautiful qualities—gratitude, joy, wonder, and even concentration—is to reflect on your own past acts of care and kindness, or restraint in not doing harm. This can create such joy and resonance in the practice. And if regrets arrive instead, it’s an invitation to "clean up your act." A commitment to cleaning up one’s own act can actually really help in meditation itself; it’s a helpful act of generosity for your own practice.

The formal practice of Mettā⁶ (loving-kindness) meditation is also really helpful. There are many resources on AudioDharma and here on this YouTube channel for that. Also at sati.org⁷, I have a half-day on it. Kevin Griffin has resources on practicing loving-kindness in difficult times.

Just as non-harming is fundamental to the Buddhist path, this kindness and care toward self and others along the way is also a traditional way to reduce anxiety and fear, and to increase confidence, courage, and concentration. All of this has a reciprocal effect on ourselves and others. In addition to millennia of Buddhist teachings and anecdotal evidence, there are recent decades of scientific literature—randomized controlled trials—about this.

So today, consider the resonance and reciprocity of any bit of non-harming, care, and kindness in your own practice, in your actions, and in your life. Commit to them and enjoy them, and notice the effects on your practice. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it for tomorrow, is to notice these moments in your daily life and in your quiet moments. Reflect on them and see what effect they have for you.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.