- Reclaim Your Peace and Self-Worth: Basic Goodness Training Part 1
- Our Basic Goodness
Now practice it directly. Sit with your thoughts until they stop defining you, and the doorway opens to your own basic goodness — the daisy-ness of you.
- Reclaim Your Freedom and Trust: Basic Goodness Training Part 2
If you've glimpsed your own basic goodness, even a little, you've laid the foundation for something bigger. Let's widen the circle to everyone — the driver who just cut you off included.
- Metta for This Human Body
Take 'just like me' into the heart. Begin with the human body we all share, and open outward — toward others, including the ones you find difficult.
- Reclaim Your Trust in Humanity: Basic Goodness Training Part 3
Now go bigger still: society is basically good. Feel what comes up when you hear that — resistance included. We're not training to bring the fight to the other side; we're training to go beyond war.
- For the Benefit of All Beings
Every time two people meet, society is created — so what you produce inside matters. Practice with whatever comes up, aggression and rumination included, held in the aspiration that it benefits all beings.
- Stepping into Clarity by Taking the Path of Fearlessness: Basic Goodness Training Part 4
Open the heart this wide and you may feel something else — a deep, genuine sadness at what our confusion has cost. Don't turn away from it. It's a clarion call to keep training, to move through the fear toward a world worth training for.
- Basic Confidence
Go outside if you can, and take your seat in the world. Move from dissolving the self, to basic goodness, to basic confidence — beyond fear, into the senses, into the joy in every blade of grass.
Play Meditation
For the Benefit of All Beings
Whatever comes up – aggression, unfriendliness, ruminating, body pain, strong emotions – if we practice with this, we can hold the aspiration and develop the knowledge and faith that this is of benefit to all beings. The less aggression we produce, the less that other humans and animals will feel.
Transcript
[0:01] Good morning. Whatever time of day it is for you. Let's practice.
[0:38] Taking our seat. Coming to our cushion, our chair, the ground. With this open, genuine heart. Heart. Of humility. And fearlessness. Being willing to practice with whatever arises. Checking in with our body. Just bringing some awareness to whatever is there. It could be heaviness. It could be lightness. It could be pain. It could be joy. Ease. Tightness. And still allowing what is to be. Welcoming. Friendly. Companionship. Intimacy.
[3:30] And two, we can check in with mind, with the texture. Are we dull, slow, gloopy, or sharp and bright, or spacious, or ruminating in loops? Letting it be. Being with this friendly attitude.
[4:41] Like we wouldn't bring some aggressive attitude to a friend, telling them they need to be something else. Allowing and welcoming ourselves to be ourselves.
[5:26] Then bringing our awareness, our mindfulness to our breath. The body, this body, breathing out. Being with this breathing being. Allowing our mind to rest, to come into harmony with our breath.
[6:44] Slowing to this natural rhythm. The pace of the breath. So that we can be entirely with experience.
[7:27] With nothing else to do. All there is, is this one particular breath.
[9:05] Perhaps noticing, as we do, what tightness there may be. And just bringing this mindfulness to the whole experience. When we slow down enough, we can start to notice what's there.
[10:08] And what comes up in the body? We really start paying attention. What comes up in the mind? We may see patterns of busyness or avoidance. Impatience. Self-doubt. Self-hatred. Many forms of aggression. Some subtle, some not so subtle. And just slowing enough to notice.
[12:22] And with whatever comes up, we could hold the aspiration, that our practice can be of benefit to other beings. That particular pattern that arises for us in our body, our mind. Let us feel that and work with it so that others don't have to.
[13:29] As we work with our aggression that arises, there will be less aggression that other beings. We'll feel. Other humans, animals will feel less aggression as we work with ours.
[14:25] The busyness of our mind. And the urge to distract. Let working with that be of benefit to other beings.
[15:13] Sitting, staying with each breath.
[15:39] Nothing else to do. Just be with one breath.
[16:03] Perhaps feeling a love and joy. Underpinning this space and rest.
[16:42] The joy that arises with some effort. Some discipline. Some practice. This willingness to stay.
Stepping into Clarity by Taking the Path of Fearlessness: Basic Goodness Training Part 4Open the heart this wide and you may feel something else — a deep, genuine sadness at what our confusion has cost. Don't turn away from it. It's a clarion call to keep training, to move through the fear toward a world worth training for.