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So hello everyone and welcome back Continuing this theme on the Insight Pentad theme of the week And um And one of the Powers of insight Is to see things in a new way And I'd like to suggest a new way As we start the this meditation We'd often start with relaxation And that's still I think a very good Thing to do and that kind of goes along With the Buddha's teachings too to relax The body relax the mind It's kind of his beginning instructions For meditation And but Another Similar movement the beginning and Throughout meditation That's also very powerful Is rather than relaxing Uh Directly is to Um Stop resisting Stop resisting Whatever it is you're bracing yourself Against or holding yourself against or Protecting yourself against In the context of meditation So um To take a part of the significance of Taking a
Careful posture up upright Dignified posture Or other postures but the idea says Really take a posture that works well For you And then to hold it Stay in it don't don't collapse don't Give into the Emotions the feelings the beliefs The desires Uh to do something else And um with your body So it's quite significant to feel all The movements in the body to move to To shift to collapse to pull back But more subtly there is All kinds of ways in which the tension We hold in our body it can be a Resistance resistance from feeling fully Resistance from Resistance uh holding ourselves against Having to feel what's really happening Sometimes it's uh what motivates us with Our desires might not might not be the Desires themselves But the discomfort that can come with Strong desire and we're trying to resist That discomfort by by maybe acting out Or doing something Or pulling back a lot of the resistance Is a kind of attention But uh relaxing the body is different Than releasing the resistance Um and because even things which are
Maybe things you're protecting Yourselves in the moment the feelings The sensations the beliefs to release Them to free them while we're sitting Still and upright so we're not giving Expression to them we're not acting on Them speaking them But we are not holding them in check And we're allowing some kind of full Relaxation of the body that comes from Releasing all the resistance we have So if this is relevant for you or Understandable for you and how you are Maybe at this meditation we can begin or Focus on releasing Resistance And this is one of the characteristics Of Freedom that The Liberation that Buddhism is looking for Is Liberation from all tension Including that of resistance And then how to live wisely without this Embodied physical emotional mental Resistance that Lives in US That is the great art So assuming a upright Dignified posture Or the alternative for you And Gently closing your eyes And Feeling into your body Feeling the tensions the Holdings in
Your body And see if any of it might qualify as Resistance Pulling back from life Protecting ourselves from something And as you exhale Release resistance Release the way that we're physically Bracing ourselves or Holding ourselves pulled back Fending off For avoiding Any resistance release it and let what's Behind the resistance Have breathing room have space just to Be In the Simplicity of Sitting upright And might there be any resistance to be Found in your breathing Is in any part of the inhale maybe the Second half Do you feel anything holding the Breathing back And if so If it's easy enough let go of that Holding back Let go of resistance And if it's not easy to let go of Content yourself with feeling The inhale Stretching against that resistance And he resistance in the exhale Hey holding back maybe at the end of the
Exhale Not allowing it to release fully Foreign Foreign If you sit quietly and still But let go of resistance In the body the heart the mind What releases What becomes larger or more evident Make room for it breathe with it Let It Be Free While you're free from Acting on it Thank you Foreign Thank you Foreign Foreign And as we come to the end of the sitting Out of next three exhales Let go release Give up resistance to what's here for You Make room for everything And then imagine that the room of Awareness expands outward Out into the world Nothing's required of you But you're able to include people In your awareness Remember people Those you know and don't know those you Will encounter and Work and communities and stores
And to let go of any resistance To being present Taking people in taking them into Account And caring for them May we carry with us to stay Enough Free time in our minds Where our mind isn't not so preoccupied That we don't have time to Register or take in the presence of Other people And may we gaze upon them with Appreciation and respect With love Care May we imagine them happy Safe and peaceful and free And maybe this be our wish That they have a wonderful life Happy and safe May all beings have the Good Fortune To experience Great happiness May all beings Had the Good Fortune of being saved May all beings Have all the benefits that come with Peace May all beings be free of affliction Tensions attachments Suffering And may our freedom our lack of Resistance
Be the source Of our care for the world Okay So my friends we come to the fourth talk On the insight pentad And uh It's the The five Kind of uh Movements Evolution's growth in the Practice that flow from having insight And the word flow suggests that it's not Something we do or construct or make Happen but something that as we see Clearly more we see clearly what we're Doing what's happening in our minds our Beliefs our our attachments our desires Our aversions our resistance As we see it more clearly really clearly And we see deeply into its nature its Impermanent changing constructed nature That we begin to let go We begin to be disinterested or we start Changing our relationship to it where We're not so wedded to it or invested in It and there's a disinvestment process That goes on And a fading away of the desires the Attachments that keep us caught that Keep us from being free And the consequence of this is greater And greater calmness peacefulness ease And so the reward is that there is a Reward it isn't just simply uh being
Left Somehow In some undesirable state of Destitution Um as as this fading away of attachment Fading away of clinging happens It leaves us Freer and Freer And uh and the freedom The Liberation That comes Is uh why it's significant why it's part Of this Evolution this growth this flow Is it's not something we do it's not a Letting go it's not something we find The key that we turn it releases Something the lock and we the Combination and we finally free Um but rather it's a the uh the result Of this fading away calming relaxing not Resisting not asserting not uh tense Wanting a real radical trust to really Just be here fully fully fully Present in a calm relaxed way Allowing things to fade away And that at some point something inside Of us releases It's uh there's a something that we're Not doing uh let's go stops ceases And um sometimes it can be a moment Shift to like a like a quantum Flip in the mind where something in the Mind just stops And uh and now it's just everything is So clear and open and free It could be in the heart finally settles
In his openness at home in itself and The Heart finally has lots of breathing Room And the heart just feels like it can Sing and it's so free and so light and So easy But the operating thing here is not Something we do and we can't exactly Take responsibility for it in terms of Making it happen we take responsibility For setting up the conditions for that Freedom And a huge part of this Dharma practice Is creating the right conditions for Allowing something the Dharma to move Through US allowing release opening Development to move through us And um and that begins right at the Beginning of the gladness pentad that What precedes the insight pentaton that We have it begins with enough trust and Inspiration to start being present for Our experience in a non-reactive way And finding that this presence it feels Good there's joy and happiness that Comes calmness that comes Until we see more clearly And we can start kind of get common Enough still enough to see deep enough And then this process is fading away Process That a lot of the we look sometimes We're looking for I used to look for Um seated meditation kind of like a like
A cat that a mouse door waiting to see If I can see the Letting Go happen the Releasing happening finding out where The magic was the magic point was where I could finally kind of penetrate Something and everything would let go And I found out over and over again that There was this process of fading away And ceasing and things disappearing But I didn't always see when that moment Happened And if sometimes the meditation practice Set the conditions for it to happen and Then after meditation is when the Releasing happened and I didn't see it Happen but at some point I recognized oh It's gone The resistance the desires the clinging The conceit the things I was caught up With wow they're gone isn't that that's Phenomenal And um and so this uh setting up the Conditions For the fading away for the calming down For the centering for the settling Not for its own sake but so that that Which is uh The the suffering inside of us that Comes from that comes from some tight Clinging or holding or resisting Has a chance to melt away to thaw And to this process of fading away that I talked about yesterday Sometimes I think of it like thawing or
Being really cold and just kind of Slowly warming up melting Dissolving it's a process of slow change That we allow for and so if we're in Meditation we have to sit in meditation Long enough Still enough regularly enough That we allow for this deeper process to Happen It's a meditative process Where some deeper deeper kind of fading Settling releasing can happen for most People much better in Daily than in Daily life and any other kind of Circumstance Um And it grows the more we sit the more we Meditate and just learn to sit still Letting go of resistance letting go of Clinging letting go of tension And trusting how things are fading away Fading away settling quieting quieting Letting go of our thoughts coming back Letting go of our thoughts coming back Letting go of our thoughts coming back In a gentle quieting way setting up the Conditions that allow something to feel At ease to feel peaceful to feel Comfortable And um and so it becomes uh invaluable To learn to have a mindfulness awareness That's non-reactive an awareness which Is not for or against anything That's not despairing or upset or
Resisting anything That's not critical of when the mind Wanders off And keep going back to this Non-resistance awareness That is kind of gives their space For things to release to settle to calm To open And at some point You'll uh recognize That What Encumbered you with the inner movements Of tightness and fear and resistance and Holding on and expecting wanting Projecting that you do you'll find wow It's not there And that is the kind of liberation You know in the teachings of the Buddha He describes a whole list of the I think It's just 17 18 things that he lists a Number of times things a very particular Things that people discovered now it's Gone wow And uh it's in certain things like greed And hatred but Envy avariciousness Um conceit Um Disrespect Disrespecting people Um because oh and all these different Things but what I'm emphasizing here is He's very he names particular mental States
That fall away that stop So it's not a generalized kind of like Some general vague idea of what Liberation is he specifies different States of Mind different emotions and Things so it's very particular Psychologically particular oh look at That my Envy is gone Look at that my resentment is gone Look at that my remorse my desires my Greed my lust my Um My self-criticism is gone so it's these Particular psychological states that he Says oh liberated liberated liberated And then that Liberation can grow Into more and more and more complete And to be but to recognize it ah look There it's gone And I was struck when I learned about This part of the Buddhist teachings many Names particular psychological States That um That was kind of eye-opening for me Because I I kind of had just I realized Only then that I had some vague idea That there was some great experience of Enlightenment out there that I didn't Know what it was but it certainly must Be good and certainly desirable and Certainly going to free me from all my Suffering And um and I don't even then when I Spread there's like 17 different mental
States psychological states that the Buddha Each one talked about seeing how it's Gone I said oh let's appreciate the Specificity of what is what Liberation I Have What are the things that I and let's not Be held kind of captivated with the idea Of some Grand Big Bang Theory of Enlightenment that Somehow is vague what actually happens There Uh begin appreciating the liberations of Particular things that have bothered us Memories Stories We Hold On To Relationships we hold on to And to see oh thou am free of that I'm Free of that And so this process of fading away and Then discovering oh it's not there Anymore Wow Uh appreciate the not theirness Of suffering of painful psychological States that were there But when they're you're free of them That is a nourishing that's very Important to see ah now it's gone So Having insights seeing clearly enough To start Becoming disenchanted To then have the fading away of the
Psychological drives that Kept us Enchanted And then having that fade away enough That we feel free of it It's a wonderful thing And that this is a natural process to do This It's not something we have to make Happen it's kind of like natural means It's kind of built into who we are it's Almost a consequence of uh ending doing The unnatural things And what I mean by the unnatural things The things that are the artifices of our Own mind that we create that make and And construct And the interstates that are not the Artifices like that Freedom So thank you and one more day on this Insight pentad And um So you might go through the day today With some homework and that is to notice The times through the day Notice the absence Of difficult psychological States Suffering clingings desires resistance That you have had at some point in the Past earlier in the day yesterday last Week But notice the absence of them And take in how good that is That something was difficult before is
Not here now You might have other difficulties now But appreciate the ones that are no Longer here And see what happens to you when you Kind of feel that absence So Thank you very much
