This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Four Inspirational Blessings (4 of 5): Opening to Peace; Training for Peace. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Opening to Peace; Dharmette: Four Inspirational Blessings (4 of 5) Training for Peace - Kim Allen

The following talk was given by Kim Allen at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on April 11, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Opening to Peace

All right, so let's get started together today. I would like to invite you to start with your eyes open for the meditation and just take a moment to orient to the space that you're in. So you can look around just briefly, but we're not looking at any particular object; it's just feeling the space that you're in and have a sense generally that there is space and then there are some things in it in the room, including you. And just let the mind feel into that space.

And now I'll invite you to close your eyes and begin to find the meditation posture. Maybe there's still a vague sense of the space around you that you're sitting in, but you're also aware now of the inner space and how the body feels from the inside. Sense of whatever posture you're in—perhaps you're sitting up, perhaps you're lying down, perhaps even standing.

So having a general sense of this orientation, you can notice that the space in the mind is somewhat like the space in the room. Tuning in more specifically to your posture, finding a balanced posture. Sometimes I even rock back and forth slightly or forward and back just a little bit to really find that center point that's balanced. And when the body is balanced in an upright posture, it takes really almost no muscular effort to be upright. Or if you're lying down, you can sense into the straightness of the spine. And I know there are variations for different bodies, so we're doing this within what works for our body, but finding balance, ease.

It can help to sense into the places where the body is in contact: the seat against the chair or the cushion or the bench, or the body against the bed. Really being aware of that contact point and softening at that place. Not holding yourself rigidly against it or somehow holding yourself up, but just letting yourself be supported. It can seem detailed to focus in that way, but I've been amazed to find small places in my mind where there was resistance or holding or pushing, just in the physical realm.

Softening the eyes in the eye sockets. Releasing any tension in the jaw, throat. Letting the shoulder blades slide down the back so the shoulders drop, drop without rounding forward. Softening down through the belly area, a place where we tend to hold tension. And then tuning into the arms and legs and letting them be easeful, balanced.

For today we'll be inviting an opening to many different aspects of experience. So opening the mind to the sound, sound in the room, sound of my voice, just the world of sound. Including that the outside sounds are coming in from that space that you oriented to first, space in the room. And each thing that we include is something that just we allow to come into the foreground and everything else to be more in the background. So it's not that we're adding on more and more and more and you have to pay attention to so many different things; just let each thing come forward and have its moment. So we're with the sounds generally.

Now opening to the sensations of the breath, letting those come into the foreground. We're not eliminating sound but it just fades a bit so that we can sense the sensations of the breath. The breath is a series of simple sensations of touch, of heat and coolness. There are internal sensations as the lungs fill and empty, and then also sensations on the surface, usually the clothing shifting against the skin. There can be an energetic sense throughout the body. So opening to the kaleidoscope of sensations that is the breath.

And it can be quite natural to just open to all body sensations. The breath is some of the body sensations; there may be others. So we less focus on the breath itself and more on the totality of body sensations wherever they are. Some are pleasant, some are unpleasant. We're just noticing how it is to be in our body at this moment.

The awareness to include also the emotions, feelings present. We let the body be more in the background, but many emotions have a bodily component but also a mental one. So we open: what is there? Is there some feeling of joy, or sadness, grief, ease, appreciation, impatience? We just open gently to that realm.

As the mind gets broader we can begin to imagine it like a giant canvas or sky, and these things that we're adding in are just more things that are included in that space of mind. So including now the realm of thoughts. Not thinking the thoughts and falling into them, but noticing them as movements in the mind. So the mind is getting very large and broad. It includes the sounds, the breath, body, emotions, various thoughts coming and going. It helps very much to relax in order to allow so much into awareness.

I'm including even the more subtle movements of mind like intentions, background attitudes. And let all these things come to you; you don't need to go chasing them all down. And opening our heart to all of this, all of the realm of human experience. Providing the possibility of being with whatever arises and letting whatever wants to pass away, pass away.

I'm seeing if there's a possibility of finding a form of peace that is possible in this broad room, the way the sky is at peace no matter what weather is passing through. And sometimes there isn't much weather; it's all just quite calm. At any time if it feels right you can focus in on something that the mind wants to gather around, as long as there's still awareness there. We don't force the mind to be in a particular way; the intention is to try experiencing this skylike mind that can hold anything with peace.

And now gently bringing the body a little bit more fully into the foreground. Connecting or reconnecting with the sense of physical presence, the posture that the body is in, the breath coming in, going out. Sense of contact or pressure where you're sitting or lying down. The awareness of the body as an aspect of mind; we are embodied. That's what allows the hearing of sound, opening to sounds around you as well as my voice. Considering the unification of mind and body in this moment.

Would it be possible to walk through the world in this way? Being open to any experience coming in, grounded in a physical presence, aware of emotions and thoughts as such, able to engage with them when needed but not entangled. It's a peaceful way of being, having this broad kind of mind that's also flexible, able to turn toward anything in the foreground or relax back, like being the sky. And this is a way of being that can emerge through meditation and it's a great gift to the world.

Sometimes the Buddha was called the peaceful Sage. That's also sometimes applied to a person very deep on the path. The sage at peace may not be something that we literally embody very often, but when we touch into it, and even in a small way through meditation, we get a sense of the possibility that we carry as humans. Everyone dies. And that we can foster that through our practice and it will be helpful in our relationships, in our job, in our family, and in our understanding and way of being in the world. The great blessing of peace.

Dharmette: Four Inspirational Blessings (4 of 5) Training for Peace

So this week we are considering four foundations on which our practice can be based that are both simple and deep. Things that we can do right away from any stage of the path and that will carry us far on the path if we let them keep unfolding and blossoming. And today we are on the fourth of these, which is to train for peace. And the word for peace here is Santi¹ (or Shanti in Sanskrit). Some of you may have heard that word. And this is the kind of peace that is associated with letting go and with liberation. So there's a lot of levels of that, of course.

And for today let's not take this one incrementally at the beginning. Let's start right off with the kind of deep peace that can even surprise us, that really opens us, which can occur at times at any point along the path. So we might call it "utter peace." Does this resonate in any way for you? It could happen in meditation, can also happen in physical or mental exertion, can happen through a poem, a painting, a piece of music, a walk in nature. There's suddenly a clear feeling of peace inside and outside, and the sense of self drops away and one experiences no separation from the world and all of its wonder and strangeness. And there may even be a sense of awe or reverence that such a peace could be possible for humans. And it gives us a new reference point in our practice of remembering wisdom, of opening to truth and learning to let go—the other three things that we've talked about this week.

A friend of mine who practices in the Tibetan tradition was drawn to go visit the Quan Yin² statue at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. It's an amazing piece; I've only seen pictures of it, but it's strikingly beautiful and apparently quite large. Quan Yin is the Bodhisattva³ of compassion in the Mahayana tradition. And this friend of mine actually went and stood before this amazing sculpture and he said his mind was just stopped by its evocative power. And in fact, he was moved to tears in that moment. But surrounding all of that emotional response was a deep sense of utter peace. So if you've experienced something like this, it's a landmark for you. It doesn't mean that you're awakened necessarily, and certainly not that you're special compared to other people, but it's worth letting such an experience kind of seep into your heart and work in your heart over the years. So I wanted to point to that right away so that we have a context. Sometimes these things can happen to us but with no context we can't integrate them.

So now let's dial back to the more ordinary experiences of peace that we tend to have. We could have even every day. So every time we let go of greed or aversion or delusion⁴, there's an opening to some kind of peace in the wake of letting go. And this release we can learn to recognize that that release itself is what includes the peace. So as an example, Gil tells a story of realizing that he was getting kind of agitated around getting his kids off to school in the morning. That was his task for a while in the household. And you know, there was always kind of a rush; he couldn't get them to get their jackets and shoes on and get to the car without getting distracted along the way. And he realized that, you know, his children weren't responsible for that; he was the one feeling agitated. And he thought, "What is going on that I keep getting agitated doing this?" And eventually he realized that what he was doing in the mornings was lingering over the paper. He wanted to read the paper; he got interested in it and he wanted to read it more fully than there was really time for in the task of dealing with the kids also. So once he saw that what was really underpinning his agitation was wanting to be with the paper at that moment, he decided consciously to let go of that. "You know, I'll read that later." And with that, he felt more at ease. And it was the wanting that was the issue; it wasn't that the kids weren't doing it right or something.

So often it's like this. We can identify somewhere underneath our agitation: what is it that I'm wanting and holding on to? Or not wanting and pushing away? Or what is it that I'm not seeing clearly? And the release of that will suddenly make the situation much easier. I sometimes use the phrase: "If I'm struggling, what would I have to let go of at this moment to be more easeful? What would I have to let go of to make this easier?" And often it's something simple, something that I hadn't seen. Or sometimes it takes longer to unfold what's really going on there, but it's a nice practice question.

So we can ask then, you know, how do we get there with this instruction to train for peace, the fourth of the foundations? To train for peace. What is that training? So largely the training is to use the qualities of the goal as the path. That is kind of a skillful imitation, if you will. Essentially it says: if you want peace, be peaceful. Similarly, more specific things: if you want to be a more generous person, then start being generous. So, "What would I have to let go of to make this easier?" How can I bring peace to this very moment?

So for the specifics, we can look to one of the suttas⁵. Somebody once asked the Buddha about what a peaceful person is like, and it's worth hearing his response. It's kind of long, but I hope you'll allow me to read the whole thing, or at least most of it; I slightly excerpted. So the person's question is: "How does one see, how does one behave, the one who is said to be peaceful?" They ask the Buddha. That's a nice question. So the Buddha says:

Devoid of craving before death, not dependent on the past, not to be reckoned by the middle. For him there are no preferences. She is without anger, unafraid, not boastful, not regretful, speaking with reflection, not restless. One is truly a contemplative. Controlled in speech. One is without attachment to the future. One does not sorrow over the past. One sees seclusion in the midst of sense contacts and is not led astray among views. Withdrawn, not scheming, without longing, not miserly, courteous, not morally repulsive, not intent on slander, not swept up by enjoyment and not swollen with arrogance. Gentle, gifted with ingenuity, not credulous, not growing dispassionate. He does not train from a desire for gain nor is he irritated over a lack of gain. Not hostile because of craving, does not hanker after tasty food. Equanimous, ever mindful in the world. She does not conceive herself to be equal, superior, or inferior. For her there are no swellings; they have no dependencies. Having known the Dhamma they are independent. No craving is found in them for existence or non-existence. I call them peaceful. Who is indifferent to sense pleasures; in them no knots are found. They have crossed over attachment. In her there is nothing to be found as either taken up or rejected. One who takes nothing in the world as one's own and who does not sorrow over what is absent and is uninvolved in doctrines—that one is truly said to be peaceful.

So just let those words settle in your mind. It's too many to remember them all, so see what is still echoing for you. Maybe just one word or phrase felt it meaningful. One overall comment is that many of the items named are things that the peaceful person is not, right? There was a lot of "not" in there. Not this, not that. Mostly we are becoming free of various things.

The sutta where the Buddha names the four foundations that we've been talking about this week, he says that the supreme peace is the pacification of greed, hatred, and delusion. We are pacifying the forces in our mind and heart that contribute to suffering. That's what peace is. This path is the ultimate peace movement: pacifying greed, hatred, and delusion. Despite all these words, there isn't actually much to say about peace. As noted, it's mostly an absence. It's always important to notice absences, notice the releases, notice the endings, notice the letting go that we talked about yesterday. Do we notice that often we rush on to the next thing that's present? The next thing that's arising, the next thing on our to-do list? That's just habitual. So linger with the letting go. Linger with the space that's there when something ends. Linger with the feeling of release, which is the peace.

So peace is available now in some measure, in some way. And notice that and make it your training to encourage peace wherever it appears. This is how we train for peace. So the growth of peace in one's life, I would say, depends on valuing it. On really wanting to protect it, wanting to preserve it, wanting to feel into it. That's a kind of wanting that's skillful. So it's interesting to check in our mind, you know, what are the forces that don't value peace? And why am I investing in those? Mostly out of habit. And is there a part that really does value peace and is willing to enact that and embody that? And that's the training; that's how we train for peace. We become peaceful by being peaceful whenever we can.

So not neglecting wisdom, preserving truth, cultivating relinquishment, and training for peace: the four foundations that we can start right now at any level. And if we keep unfolding them, they will go very far, maybe all the way to liberation. Tomorrow we'll step back and look at the bigger picture around these, and I'll tell you the story that goes in the sutta with these also. So have a peaceful day. Take care.