Void Dakini

We've clipped six guided meditations from the Five Elements | Five Dakinis retreat podcasts. The fifth is the void dakini meditation:

Void Dakini Meditation (from FEFD06: Five Elements | Five Dakinis (retreat) 00:49:22.63 - 00:58:40.00)

(download into iTunes)

Void is about space, the sky, the still point of the turning world, the space which allows things to move, take form, come into being. Too strong and it's the end of the world, earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanoes and hurricanes, one on top of the other. Too weak and it's like death, the dissolution of any form of being, dull, blank, nothing. In reaction, it manifests as confusion and bewilderment. In response, it is presence, the indescribable experience of things just being what they are.

Access the other dakini meditations: Earth | Water | Fire | Air | Void | Final

Air Dakini

We've clipped six guided meditations from the Five Elements | Five Dakinis retreat podcasts. The  fourth is the air dakini meditation:

Air Dakini Meditation (from FEFD05: Five Elements | Five Dakinis (retreat) 00:30:02.20 - 00:41:50.00)

(download into iTunes)

Air is about activity, movement, ideas, and strategies. Too strong and it becomes movement for movement's sake, tearing things apart in a whirlwind. Too weak, and it becomes lack of movement, disconnection, loss of identity, loss of meaning. In reaction, it's all over the place, movement without connection. In response, it is effective action, just what is needed.

Access the other dakini meditations: Earth | Water | Fire | Air | Void | Final

Fire Dakini

Photo by Clemens Lee

We've clipped six guided meditations from the Five Elements | Five Dakinis retreat podcasts. The third is the fire dakini meditation:

Fire Dakini Meditation (from FEFD04: Five Elements | Five Dakinis (retreat) 00:27:55.00 - 00:43:00.00)

(download into iTunes)

Fire is about heat, warmth, light, passion, and knowing. Too strong and it burns, consuming everything it touches. Too weak, and nothing happens, and all is desolate. In reaction, it turns everything to ash. In response, it warms, motivates, provides the energy for things to happen.

Access the other dakini meditations: Earth | Water | Fire | Air | Void | Final

Water Dakini

We've clipped six guided meditations from the Five Elements | Five Dakinis retreat podcasts. The second is the water dakini meditation:

Water Dakini Meditation (from FEFD03: Five Elements | Five Dakinis (retreat) 00:13:50.00 - 00:27:52.00)

(download into iTunes)

Water is about flow, fluidity, emotions, adapting. Too strong and it feels like a threat, a wave or current that will carry you away. Too weak, and there is no sense of connection or flow: things are frozen. In reaction, water is evasive, wishy-washy, difficult to pin down. In response, water is clear and transparent.

Access the other dakini meditations: Earth | Water | Fire | Air | Void | Final

Earth Dakini

Photo by Carolyn Bremer

We've clipped six guided meditations from the Five Elements | Five Dakinis retreat podcasts. The first is the earth dakini meditation:

Earth Dakini Meditation (from FEFD02: Five Elements / Five Dakinis (retreat) 00:47:00.00 - 01:00:10.00)

(download into iTunes)

Earth is shape, form, substance, support, and structure. Too strong and it leads to rigidity, which imprisons. Too weak and it leads to instability or lack of substance, and things never take shape. In reaction, rigidity is often a cover for uncertainty. In response, earth is nurturing, supportive, and free from judgement.

Access the other dakini meditations: Earth | Water | Fire | Air | Void | Final

Mind like the sky

The final part of a three-part guided meditation: Body like a mountain, breath like the sea, mind like the sky...

Mind like the sky (from MSS: Mountain, Sea, Sky 0:56:58.40 - 1:10:10.60)

(download into iTunes)

[Bell 4x]

[Silence]

Body like a mountain, breath like the sea, mind (or heart) like the sky. Let the experience of each arise, and rest in the experience. We aren't moving from one to another, but resting in all of them together. Body like a mountain.

Breath like the sea.

Mind like the sky.

[Silence]

Don't be concerned with thoughts, memories, stories. Rest in the expanse of the sky itself, letting whatever comes take care of itself. You are not even observing it, you just rest in the expanse of the sky itself. And the clouds, and the planes and the birds, they do their thing. You are the sky.

Body like a mountain. You are the mountain.

Breath like the sea. You are the sea.

Mind like the sky. You are the sky.

And just rest there.

[Silence]

When you fall into sleepiness, or distraction and you recognize it, just relax and start again. Don't try to hold onto anything. Just let everything go, and start again. Body like a mountain. No effort. Breath like the sea. Infinitely deep motion, that just goes on and on. And mind like the sky. You can experience everything. Because you are the sky.

[Silence]

Sometimes your attention will go to the body, when it does, and you notice it, first expand so that it's your whole body, and then include the breath, and then include the mind, which is like the sky. Sometimes your attention will go to the breath. When it does, and you recognize it, include the sensations of the body. Body like a mountain, and mind like the sky. Sometimes your attention will go to the sky, and when it does and you recognize it, then include the body. Like a mountain, and the breath, like the sea. And then rest.

[Silence]

Now there are lots of parts of us that are not used to relating to the world, to life this way. They have a few things to say about it. You can let them talk, and their movement in the sky, they are ripples on the wave. They are trees and bushes on the mountain. They're there, but you don't actually have to do anything about them. You can continue to be the mountain, the sea and the sky.

At first we can only do this for very short periods, and that's fine. Something pulls us away, and so we come back, that's why we call it practice. It's not failure, we're learning. Body like a mountain, breath like the sea, mind like the sky.

[Silence]

[Bell 3x]

Note: Thanks to Tracy Ormond for the transcribing.

Breath like the sea

This is the second part of a three-part guided meditation: Body like a mountain, breath like the sea, mind like the sky.

Breath like the sea (from MSS: Mountain, Sea, Sky 0:28:10.10 - 0:38:04.40)

(download into iTunes)

[Bell 3x]

[Silence]

So as you sit, just let your body breathe, let the motion of the body, breathing, be like the waves in the sea. They come and go, on their own, no control on your part, and if anything, it’s just like you're riding the wave. While your body sits, making no effort at all, like a mountain.

[Silence]

Body like a mountain, breath like the sea.

[Silence]

Feel the waves, rising and falling, on their own.

[Silence]

You may, sometimes feel like you are the wave, rising and falling. You may also feel, sometimes you are the mountain.

[Silence]

If you lose track of the breath, this is practice, that’s fine. There comes that moment of recognition, and then you just come back to: body like a mountain, and the wave of your breath.

[Silence]

The breath comes and goes. Let the breath be like the sea, infinitely deep, and this regular pattern of waves, rising and falling.

[Silence]

As you rest this way, you may notice tensions in your body. Don’t try to relax them. Keep attention on the whole of your body, and include the sensation of tension, in your awareness. You may find that something changes, perhaps not right away. One place that many of us hold tension is in the jaw. So what’s happening in your jaw right now. Another place of course is the shoulders. Have you ever seen a mountain hunch its shoulders?

[Silence]

Let yourself rest in the rising and falling of the waves of your breath.

[Silence]

Body like a mountain, breath like the sea.

[Silence]

Body like a mountain, breath like the sea.

Again, if you fall asleep, or you are distracted, you always come back to yourself, that’s the way we are. As soon as you do, don’t bother beating yourself up, this is just practice, and come back to: body like a mountain, breath like the sea.

[Silence]

[Bell 2x]

Note: Thanks to Tracy Ormond for the transcribing.

Body like a mountain

This is the first part of a three-part guided meditation: Body like a mountain, breath like the sea, mind like the sky.

Body like a mountain (from MSS: Mountain, Sea, Sky 0:13:08.00 - 0:19:30.00)

(download into iTunes)

Body like a mountain. Feel your body, there maybe all kinds of sensations in your body. Maybe some pains, maybe some tensions, maybe feelings of warmth and relaxation. Whatever you experience, be aware of your whole body, and include whatever sensations, comfortable, or uncomfortable, in that awareness of the whole body. So your body just sits, perfectly at ease, like a mountain.

[Silence]

Your body naturally moves with the breath, so don’t try to hold the body still. Let the body move with the breath, however it wants, and you may find, that it becomes still on its own.

I also talked about depth in the body. So feel your body as deeply as you can.

[Silence]

You opening to your body, and your body opening to you.

[Silence]

And if you get distracted, involved in a bunch of thoughts, remember, this is practice. When you become aware of that, relax, and just come back to the sensation of your body, and rest there. So rather than trying to hold yourself still, just return, and be still. You may only be still for a few moments, and that’s fine. This is practice. And whenever you recognize, that you become agitated or distracted, relax, and return.

[Silence]

Don’t try to make things one way or another. A mountain doesn’t care whether the sky is cloudy or clear, whether there’s wind or not. Just whatever is there, experience it. It’s a different way of experiencing life. Not wanting it to be this way or that. Just experiencing it, however it is.

[Silence]

Body like a mountain.

[Silence]

[Bell]


Note: Thanks to Tracy Ormond for the transcribing.

Prone to a little anxiety?

Here's the opening few minutes of a talk in which Ken McLeod shared his favourite meditation practice, a variation on the "back door instructions," Body like a mountain, Breath like the Wind, Mind like the sky.

Bothered by thoughts (from MSS: Mountain, Sea, Sky 00:00:00.00 - 0:04:58.20)

(download into iTunes)

The first thing I want to say about meditation is that, there are many different kinds. And I am going to talk this evening, and lead you through a process in the approach to meditation practice, that I personally have found most fruitful. So this is a very prejudiced talk right from the beginning. And I have been exposed to a lot of different meditation practices, in my training, I have probably received training in about 150 to 200, somewhere around there. I have never counted. And one of the things that screwed me up for a very, very long time was the idea of trying to get somewhere. How many of you practice with the idea of trying to get somewhere?

Well there's two or three honest people in the room. We all do, we all come with that. And what I have found, is what we are doing in meditation, is practicing, and I really want to emphasize that word: is practicing a different way of experiencing life. Let me say that again. We're practicing a different way of experiencing life. Now, the reason I want to emphasize the word practice, is because when we are practicing something, we're allowed to fail. We don’t have to do it perfectly, because we are practicing.

How many of you play a musical instrument? Okay, how many of you have practiced scales? Okay. And when you are practicing scales, how upset do you get when you make a mistake. Anybody? It’s not the end of the world, is it? Because you are practicing. You make a mistake, you do it again, and you learn by it. And this is what we're doing in meditation. It isn’t about being perfect, at all. It’s about practicing.

Now, the second piece I want to focus on is a different way of experiencing life. Now: how many of you, when you practice meditation, are bothered by thoughts? Ah, a lot more honest people in the room now, I like that. Okay. There is an eleventh-century teacher in Tibet, who is very famous. His name is Gampopa. And he once said, “I have this student who meditates in the mountains. And he keeps practicing trying to have no thoughts. If he’s stopped trying to get rid of thoughts, he would have been enlightened years ago. But he keeps trying to get rid of all the thoughts.”

And another teacher, this is a contemporary teacher, a person on the East Coast, Gunaratana. He says, “Thoughts are to the mind, what sweat is to the body!” We have thoughts. Thoughts are not the problem. That’s one of the things I want to get across to you. What the problem is, is thinking. Thoughts are like leaves in the wind. Thinking is like chasing the leaves. So there’s a difference. There’s no problem about leaves in the wind. It doesn’t interfere with you walking at all. But if you chase them, then you have a big problem. Because the are going all over the place and you get very confused and disorientated. Which is exactly what happens when we fall into thinking when we meditate. So, thoughts are not the problem, thinking, may be.

So, how do we step out? And that’s the first difference in this different way of relating to the world, different way of experiencing the world. How many of you spend a good bit of your time, thinking? How many of you are prone to a little anxiety? Okay, you spend all your time thinking! Because that’s what anxiety is. It’s thinking about this and thinking about that. So, is there a way of experiencing the world, without thinking? Not getting rid of thoughts necessarily, but just without thinking. That’s what I want to explore with you this evening.

(Thanks to Tracy Ormond for the transcribing)

Dying Practice

Below is the third from a series of practices on death and impermanence in the Death: Friend or Foe retreat. The preceding practices used the following two mantras (pith instructions):

1. Everything changes, nothing stays the same.

2. I am going to die, and I don't know when.

The following third practice is a guided meditation on the dying process:

Dying Practice (from DFF05: Death: Friend or Foe (retreat) 00:06:26.00 - 00:20:53.00)

(download into iTunes)

Here is the commentary for this practice:

Dying Practice Comment (from DFF05: Death: Friend or Foe (retreat) 00:20:40.00 - 00:41:19.00)

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