00:00 Guided Meditation
00:00 Dharmette
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So Okay Hello everyone And I'm happy to be able to share this Week on right effort I think it's a really an essential area Of practice And easy to overlook either easy to Think of effort as being somehow Effortful in a stressful way But there's also effortless effort Effort And uh So for uh today for the meditation I would like to Um Emphasize Um That when we're going to do something Encounter something engage in something Make some effort perhaps to do something Important If it's important enough we prepare Ourselves for the event And um Someone who is Playing a sport might Warm up first and prepare themselves for It a musician might do the same thing Prepare themselves for performance Someone might going to give an important Speech they might breathe deeply or calm Or be quiet for themselves for a while To gather themselves together to prepare
Themselves for what they're going to do So this idea that we prepare ourselves Is a common part of human life And maybe in part a big part of Meditation Is uh especially when we start But is preparing ourselves so that we Are available For what Available for life The alternative to being available is to Go ahead log into our desires our Wanting trying to make something happen Trying to assert ourselves And but to be available is a little bit To get out of Our Own Way little it make Room beyond our Opinions or ideas what should be how Things are supposed to happen To be available it's a very different Stance or a way than to assert ourselves And one of the things we can become Available for Is Um We can become available to Um What wants to emerge What is arising here And in particular Be attuned to what feels healthy what Feels good what feels wholesome What feels beneficial What is it that arises
If what Verizon are available are Difficult things difficult emotions That might need to arise There can sometimes be a sense of Goodness or rightness in allowing them Space And that availability the wholesomeness Is the receptivity The Compassion the Care in which we open to receive what's Difficult Within But also what can arise is something Really good And maybe the goodness the rightness of Just being available is so wonderful the Energy of availability So this being available Is the theme of The Meditation today So assuming a upright meditation posture And gently closing your eyes And to prepare yourself For this meditation Or to prepare yourself for an encounter A meeting With a phenomenally important person And that person is yourself But to prepare yourself as if you're an Important and valuable and someone that You care for and love How would you make yourself available To sit and be present with this Important person So maybe you would take a posture That's not collapse not receding too Much
But really showing that you're here and Present That your posture of being available And with the eyes closed To take some long slow deep breaths And as you exhale See if you can let go of other thoughts And concerns That might get in the way of Being available For what's here Letting your breathing return to normal Taking a few breaths to continue The preparations By relaxing your body The more the body is at ease The the more we have to be available With Greater sensitivity attentiveness More space to feel The fullness of our life And then rather than focusing on Breathing How would it be different If you your awareness was available To the experience of breathing To be available And when the mind wanders off in thought In that wandering off We're no longer available for our Immediate experience Of breathing a body of Here and Now When you notice you're wondered off in Thought
Re-establish A sense of being available With your awareness with attention Not to assert yourself or require Something to happen But to see what emerges what wants to Come what's here Allow things that are good to come into Full awareness But don't get lost by them don't get Caught by them So that the sense of availability to What's next Is eclipsed Keep staying open available With awareness available Might there be some feeling of Wholesomeness goodness pleasure In the sense of availability itself Available Attention which is available For the present moment A sense of awareness available to Experience Can be supported by imagining there's Lots of space Here in awareness For things to arise Where the difficult things Are easier with all the space around Them And the beneficial things Have space to grow Allow the wholesome to spread out
Wide and fully And then as we come to the end of the Sitting Take some gentle deeper breaths Is a way of Expanding or returning To a sense of being available To our present moment experience Whatever it might be In the availability sense of Availability that does take some kind of Effort But maybe it's closer to an effortless Effort That an effort effortful one And then to Bring this meditation to an end If you're Care and connection to others Arose out of the sense of availability Where there's no resistance or no Assertion No obligation no Protection Just available For oneself and for others What would that nature of your kindness Your care Your Love be In such a circumstance And perhaps with that as a reference Point To give some thoughts Think about it in your own way Of good will
Wishing for others Who do you have good will and well Wishing for How do you want your Good Will and well Wishing To go out into the world May all beings be happy May all beings Be safe May all beings Be peaceful May all beings be free And may my good will Be available for all beings Thank you Up So for this last talk on right effort I would like to emphasize how incredibly Important this topic is for anyone doing Buddhist practice All the Buddhist practice could be Summarized As the practice of discovering what Right effort is And and Kind of refining and maybe purifying Effort so the effort is completely Wholesome And has no attachments no Pressure no resistance in it there's a Freedom there's a ease there's a Peacefulness in the efforts we make And finding that Uh you know the right effort the right
Way is in some ways a constant Adjustment that we're making finding our Way And over time it becomes second nature Just like riding a bicycle after a while Becomes second nature even though you Have to swerve around this way in that Way and make different kinds of effort Depending on the grade you're driving on Or driving on a freeway in a car Um we might you know kind of Conventionally say we're going straight Down a lane but there's ever so small Little movements left and right to the Car that we're constantly making uh Adjustments for but doing it almost an Automatic So it's so it's second nature so the Same way with the effort But as we understand the difference Between a wholesome effort and Unwholesome effort wholesome mental States and unwholesome mental States Uh to really be able to see those and See them for what they are that the Unwholesome drain us the unwholesome Diminish us or stress us or are painful And the wholesome ones do the opposite That's a powerful Insight powerful Really to see that And then to have confidence and this is An important thing real confidence That it's not worthwhile To engage in things which are
Unwholesome To engage in unwholesome ways If we want to live our lives don't make The effort that's unwholesome that's Debilitating that's stressful To have confidence in the wholesome And it's hard to find that confidence in This kind of funny way many of us have Confidence in the unwholesome like That's how we'll be saved That's How We'll take care of ourselves that's how We fulfill our responsibilities But in fact it does the opposite And to as practice develops we have more Confidence in the wholesome or to say it May be more more kind of to the heart of It and the confidence and the Unwholesome withers away And so we're not prioritizing it anymore And we're left more with the wholesome But also we can prioritize it as we Value the wholesome That we make space for we allow for it We Not willing to sacrifice it We don't give it up for the unwholesome For the stressful Uh so this idea that it's important to Stay close to what's wholesome and Beneficial Uh is part of with this Buddhist Practice And what are some of these wholesome States that we stay close to some of it
Is just being mindful staying present Some of it is as simple as Being Mindful and Discerning and really Connected to have wisdom operate Some of it is to be non-reactive To have a certain degree of calm to be Kind To have compassion Some of it might be to have a sense of Uh pleasure or Delight or joy In all the different 32 Flavors of joy That can happen in practice that we Begin making room more available for This kind of sense of well-being that Can begin to be here and as we feel the Well-being That's a reference point a support to Highlight when we lose it because of the Unwholesome It's kind of a gives us the early Warning sign oh oh I'm going to lose This don't hold on to the wholesome Then we're doing something unwholesome The holding on So we're always looking always kind of You know the Wholesome Way of Investigating Is this very simple thing what's is it Wholesome is it unwholesome is it Stressful or is it uh unstressful is it Beneficial is it useful And any effort at all including the Effort to investigate that The effort to be mindful the effort to
Let go the effort to stay with the Wholesome Effort has to be under the lens the Frame of reference of this right effort It's a powerful protection for us that The very way in which we practice Buddhism is not going to be stressful For us That's not going to be detrimental to us It's also a powerful way of of Discovering what freedom is Because in the end to be able to live The right effort With ease and choice and really stay Close to that place where the effort Itself is almost effortless so easy or It doesn't carry the weight in this the Stress of conceit and self That is a kind of Freedom that we have So the in the Eightfold Path Right effort is the sixth Vector the Seventh is mindfulness And the the how they're related is very Important here in the in the list That uh once we understand right effort Then the mindfulness we develop and gets To get stronger Um then can gives us more information in Order to practice right effort So the heightened awareness of attention That we develop we're more attentive to The subtleties in which right to effort A wrong effort to operate within us Also but mindfulness itself then is
Protected by right effort if we're Usually we teach people mindfulness Without teaching them right effort first And then for some people and then the First long period of time in mind doing Practice is discovering how to be Mindful in a useful way in a healthier Way in a Wholesome Way But if we remember if we taught right Effort first and we really know what That is then when we start doing Mindfulness practice we're looking at The mindfulness Efforts Through the lens of right effort is how I'm practicing mindfulness right effort Am I practicing with greed or with Aversion my straining am I pushing am I Being assertive in a way that's not Wholesome Or am I engaged in a nice way With the way that brings ease and peace And dedication Do what I'm doing So in the background of all this is Um That's a part and parcel of what the Buddha talked about when he talked about Each of the four steps four kinds of Right effort He talked about the generating desire And um and here he's talking about Wholesome desire And as we go through and learn about
This right effort This is one of the gifts the treasures Is to learn how desires can be wholesome It can be beneficial no stress involved Whatsoever in having a desire no Compulsion That the desires themselves are Beneficial for us Human beings Constantly have desires some of them are Really unconscious and we don't really See we have the desire we don't call it Desire You know so You know I'm lifting up my arm to be a Little bit more emphatic as I speak There's a kind of desire to be emphatic To make a stronger point to desire to Move my arm That kind of is almost second nature so I could do it without thinking about it And even without it consciously Intending it But there's a desire there's desires all The time human beings are kind of a Stream of desires if you look at it As we become aware of these desires Aware that the choices we make Letting those desires flow out of The wholesome place We're cultivating the wholesome we're Becoming the wholesome where Transforming ourselves into being Available to be filled with goodness
Filled with the wholesome the beneficial And then this miracle happens that the Desires we have Come out of that wholesome place And the desires no longer seem Necessarily that their my desires even Because the identification the Attribution of self to it gets in the Way But at the same time we're tracking the Desires to really know that they're Wholesome that they're beneficial And we're tracking a little bit the Impact they have in the world around us So that it's beneficial for them as Other people as well So um To generate desire To Prevent the arising of unwholesome To care for ourselves enough to live a Careful life To not carelessly live a life that the Unwholesome begins to take over To live a life that when the unwholesome We recognize the unwholesomes in US We have a careful loving way that we try To put it down or abandon it or at least Not believe in it and go along with it That we value the wholesome The Helpful The Beneficial and we make Space for available for it to recognize It and support it And we rise to generate the desire to
Maintain it to stay close to it Do not lose it easily And once it's there All of this generating desire done with Ease with non-attachment Non-clinging non-resistance The desires that way the effort is that Way And this is a good treasure to find our Way to this way So I hope that this has given you Something to look at and consider and Practice with And Um and for this weekend You might want to see maybe prepare for Next Monday when Uh in the next series is Um I know this maybe someone's teaching I'm Saying might be difficult and Challenging and you have questions about It or it just seems too much or Something But instead of dwelling on that See if for you can kind of frame it and Understand this that it's inspiring for You That it helps you feel more prepared for Practice more ready and receptive More confident Uh more inspired yes This is a key this is important this is Valuable
And that would be your homework for the Next uh today in the next couple of days Is uh to really reconsider consider this Topic of right effort To the point where you can have discover Some degree of confidence and Inspiration and and Gives you the Readiness and being Prepared for For something And maybe you have a chance to talk to Friends about this right effort thing And Journal about it listen to these talks Again read about it whatever whatever it Does for you So thank you very much I appreciate it Very much and To be with you at this turning of the Year and we'll be together a few more Days before the end For those of you going on vacation and For others Um I wanted to tell you for a while now There's uh you know we end in November IMC sent out a end of the year Fundraising letter And some of you might not have received It there's a link to it on the YouTube Page for this for today just underneath The photograph the underneath the video And also on the what's new page for IMC There's a fundraising letter I wrote And um if some of you are interested in
Supporting IMC That would be very wonderful and uh So thank you all and look forward to our Next time
