This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Releasing Hindrances; Compassion (2 of 5) Seclusion - Kodo Conlin. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Releasing Hindrances; Dharmette: Compassion (2 of 5) Seclusion - Kodo Conlin

The following talk was given by Kodo Conlin at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on November 07, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Releasing Hindrances

Hello. Welcome. As the "good mornings" or the "hellos," the "good days," and "good moments" were coming in the stream, I could almost sense us in a circle. I can imagine such a big group; we would make a big circle. Sometimes at the end of retreats at the Insight Retreat Center, everyone will gather in more of an oval and say we've been practicing together for a week or something in silence, and then there's a moment of appreciation where we scan the room and make eye contact with many of these people for the first time, or the first time in a week. I had a similar feeling of connection and community as we're getting started. Thank you for taking this time for your practice.

The theme of the week is compassion. Compassion in our meditation, compassion in our daily lives, on and off the cushion. Let's start today "on the cushion" and begin with some meditation. We'll do a meditation that I consider one of the ways we take care of the foundation stones of compassion. It's a simple meditation of knowing the quality of the mind, and if there's anything hindering compassion, well-being, and wishing well, we release it. It's that simple: knowing and releasing. So let's find our way into our meditation posture.

Letting our awareness move its center of gravity, as it were, from the eyes or the face back into the whole body.

Letting there be a measure of settledness. Not there and then, but here and now.

Here and now, where the senses live.

Letting the attention gather here and now. The sensations of here. The body, the breathing, the earth.

Settling here with a clear awareness. Here with the breathing.

Sensing, as we settle, you may become aware of some inner companions. Maybe influences in the mind that are drawing you away from here and now, to there and then. Our innocent companions asking for our attention.

Is there a simple way available to recognize and release?

Returning and resting here and now.

And when our inner companions take us by the hand, pull us to there and then, to respond with kindness. A tiny inner smile. And we let go.

Releasing and returning.

Is the body starting to soften? The skin starting to relax in the muscles?

Is the heart moving toward tenderness?

Again and again, returning to here. Releasing there and then, with the groundedness, the fullness, the presence of here and now.

In our last minutes of this sitting, studying here and now. Inclining toward tenderness, peacefulness.

May all beings everywhere come to know that measure of peace that comes from letting go.

Dharmette: Compassion (2 of 5) Seclusion

Welcome again to this second day on the topic of compassion. Yesterday we talked about practicing with this distinction between the contemplation of suffering—dwelling in suffering, taking it on—and the fullness of the practice of compassion. In short, a practice that's both sensitive to suffering and has this wish for others to be free. A sort of practice that entails a vision of a life that's free from suffering, that inspiring potential.

Today, a little shift to a question that comes up a fair amount. Maybe this group doesn't need so much convincing on this question, but it comes up often enough that I'd like to address it. And that is: is meditation, and retreat particularly, permissible? With so much to care for, so much going on, do we even dare? So that's the question I'd like to turn to this morning.

I'd like to open with a story regarding someone I've known who worked with Doctors Without Borders. I was surprised to read that Doctors Without Borders—as the name might suggest, they're a collection of physicians¹ and support staff that give medical care to some 70-plus countries. In 2021, 63,000 people were working on this together to bring medical care to those who need it, often in places where the medical system is not so strong.

The person I spoke with is both a doctor and a Dharma² practitioner—both a physician and a longtime meditator. We could say she was sort of on the front lines with this. She was seeing patients day after day, caring for them day after day. She started to notice that she would finish, go back to her room, and in so many words, she would just break down. She was so upset, and she realized, "I can't go on without rest." The words that I remember her saying were, "I knew it was time to go on retreat." She knew she needed seclusion in order to continue, and needed to rest in order to continue offering care.

This points to one of the essential skills for us when we're practicing compassion, and that is mindful monitoring. How much is too much, and how much is enough? How much can we give wisely? How do we recognize that for ourselves? I believe we all have a sense; often we know when our pushing has gone too far for too long. I think there's really something to be gained in practicing with the sensitivity of recognition.

This friend, this physician, noticed she started to lose the ability to function as well, and so needed seclusion; needed rest. I think for many of us, one of the ways that we recognize we've gone too far is by the upwelling and the prevalence of the hindrances³. These are states of mind that are uncomfortable in themselves, and they're called hindrances, but they're also called obstacles. For the sake of our conversation this week, we can think about how these might be obstacles to our compassion, obstacles to our own well-being, and our ability to care for others.

It may be that when the hindrances are active, we can't see clearly. We can't see as clearly anymore what needs to be done for others, we can't help quite as well, and we can't see quite as clearly what's going on for us or how to help ourselves. This is where seclusion comes in: meditation, retreat, that sort of deep rest that we give ourselves. In a way, it is giving ourselves time for stillness, awareness, and attention to work on us, to work in us.

What we see when we take up the practice of seclusion, meditation, and retreat over time is an unhindered mind, an unclouded mind, or a heart that's free of obstacles. I'll say in a few words that a mind free of hindrances is very closely associated with a concentrated mind, and a concentrated mind is very powerful. One of the influences of meditation, retreat, and deep rest that we know well from even just beginning the practice is that the mind starts to feel at home with itself. It's a state in which we're resourced enough, nourished enough, to be able to see clearly inside and offer ourselves to others. This is one of the functions of retreat.

Such a simple practice, isn't it? Taking time. It's complex to take time, challenging to take time. There are so many needs and responsibilities, but it's worth reflecting on how we can bring this into our lives. Once we have taken the time to meditate, just as we did this morning, it's such a simple practice. Just as we did, settling ourselves here, and then when a hindrance arises, to know it and let it go can be really beneficial. It can help our practice of being here to get familiar with these five hindrances. You may know them well.

One is sense desire, that sort of compulsive desire that has a grip and a lean in it. The second is ill will. If sense desire is a lean in, ill will is that push against. The third is sloth and torpor. There's a great metaphor in the texts for sloth and torpor, and that is like algae has grown over water. You can get this visceral sense of a thick, slimy muckiness of how sloth and torpor can cover over the mind. The fourth is agitation. If sloth is too little energy, agitation might be just a little too much. And then doubt is the fifth. Doubt about how the practice should unfold, what I should be doing in the practice, or doubt that I can do the practice—these are different manifestations of doubt.

These are the big five. They're not the only things that call us out of the "here and now" into the "there and then," but getting to know these five, we get to know a lot of the territory of the mind. And how do we do this with this simple practice? It's remarkable that mindfulness is regarded as a medicine for all five of these qualities and conditions of the mind. Just by feeding mindful attention, we undermine all five of these hindrances.

One of the principles of how the hindrances work is they don't survive without feeding. They don't sustain and grow without feeding. In a way, instead of feeding our compulsive desire, ill will, or doubt, let's say we give our focus to mindfulness, to mindful attention. Just that is enough, and we can come home to ourselves.

You might find some other creative ways to relate to the mind and the hindrances. I think one can be characterized as a sort of self-compassion that knows a hindrance as a hindrance, and then just allows that hindrance to be there. Not getting pushed by the hindrance, not getting pulled by the hindrance, not pushing it away, not pulling, just sharing the space. "Oh, there's a hindrance. There it is. Let's see how long it lasts." Because if it's not being fed, soon enough it won't sustain. Sometimes our creative response to the hindrances might be just that, just allowing it to be there.

At other times, a hindrance calls for a response that's more firm, more strong, where we, in a manner of speaking, set a boundary and we say, "No, not now. Now is for here, not for there and then." There's a little more firmness in the way we respond. There may be other creative ways that we do this.

But the point of practicing with the hindrances is to remove those obstacles from clear vision—the vision that knows what we need, the vision that knows how we can best help others. It might be fair to say that the more we become skilled with our own hearts, the more options become available for supporting others.

Then it's quite natural, as the unhindered mind and the concentrated mind settle, that the heart grows tender. The heart becomes open for compassion when it's not being pulled and pushed. So, seclusion. Meditation retreat. Taking time for deep rest. My proposal for the day is, when thinking about compassion, we can give it all of our best effort, and then, as I said yesterday, when it's time to rest, really rest. Really rest. In our practice of mindful awareness, giving deep rest to the body, the heart, the mind. Coming to know the ways that we get clouded over, so that we can best give this heart to the world, and best give this heart to ourselves. May it be that mindfulness supports compassion.

Tomorrow we'll look at what's considered the root of compassion, and we'll turn our attention a bit to mettā⁴, loving-kindness practice. So may you enjoy this day of practice. Please take care.