https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=jKhT_wwJuU0
Welcome to Meditating with John Vervecki. We live stream every weekday morning at 930 a.m. Eastern Time with Mondays alternating between a lesson day, a new lesson, Dharma Day, and a review of the whole ecology practices in Paya Day. For previous lessons and sits, see the description in this video. I suggest doing the first lesson right away, then start joining us every day and do a new lesson every Saturday or Sunday. That way you’ll integrate and catch up with us while being able to participate almost immediately in the Sangha. I would request that you please like this stream to increase its visibility on YouTube, the YouTube search algorithm, so that it can reach as many people as possible. I’m trying to help as many people as possible right now. As I mentioned, there are Q&As at the end of every session, but those Q&As, please limit them to the ecology of practice, the course that we’re all on together. The questions have been truly wonderful and I appreciate them deeply. For more general encompassing questions, please join me today at 3 p.m. live streamed on YouTube for my general Q&A, and we do one of those every third Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. So I think that’s everything we need in order to get started. And so please get your basic posture going, set your phones on do not disturb, and we will begin when I say begin. Begin. Slowly come out of your practice, trying as best you can to integrate what you cultivated in your practice with your everyday consciousness, cognition, character, and community. Perhaps by reciting the five promises tips. Okay. Okay. Okay. We have time for a couple questions. This is from Kelly Myers. Hello again, Kelly. Coming from a practice of body scanning, I’m not familiar with it, but I understand body scanning. I feel myself slipping into the same pitfalls I encountered in that practice when finding my route. Can you distinguish these two techniques for me? So there’s a sense in which the routing is a body scanning, but one of the things that the routing, and this comes out in the term routing, emphasizes is it’s not just a scanning process or a sensitization process. It is also a deep stabilization process. And this is why the downward movement and the releasing and draining, and then the deep sense of connectedness and routing into the earth, is an essential component. One of the pitfalls I see, maybe this is one of the pitfalls, you weren’t specific what the pitfalls were, but one of the pitfalls that people often get into with the body scan is they get the sensitization, but they also get energized and things start racing because the sense of groundedness and stability, they become very sort of ethereal. And so it’s very important to not just have the alertness of the warrior, but also to have the deep stillness of the mountain. And that’s why the process culminates in the sinking into the earth, the sensing, the grounding, the sense of how this supports and nourishes us, a reminding again, the Buddha touching the earth when he’s achieving enlightenment, that we are deeply embodied and embedded. So perhaps that’s a particular pitfall you were mentioning. Another pitfall people often get with the body scan is they are oriented to sort of picking up on sensations of relaxation, they focus on those and then that can lead to a deep kind of relaxation that is generally conducive to that sort of warm fuzziness that is often mistaken for the penetrating presence of mindfulness. That’s why in the routing exercise I taught you, it was emphasized that you’re trying to let that area come to expression with whatever sensations are wanting, are imminent and want to become more explicit and articulated in your awareness. And so that also shifts the orientation off people who are sort of enjoying their bodies in body scan, where in the routing you’re actually putting your awareness in service of the body, allowing it to more dialogically connect and express and inform and potentially transform you. So those are three differences in how it helps to address three kind of pitfalls I’ve encountered. Trying to pay attention to getting lost and then doubting if I can move on to the next step of really also getting lost in thought and losing my place in the process. Yes, so very much that’s the first pitfall that I talked about. So doing it in the sequence and that this is very much a draining, right, kind of a process of getting lost in thought and losing your place in the process. So doing it in the sequence and that this is very much a draining, right, and that you’re not trying to get it into some state of completeness, that this area is completely relaxed, completely released, that’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to get into right relationship, not perfection. And those are not the same thing. And then again, the emphasis on that this whole process is moving towards a culmination in groundedness, connectedness, service to the body, letting it speak. So try and see if that is a helpful orientation for you, Kelly. Luke asks, I’ve been repeating day eight for six days as I’m still taking maybe eight to ten minutes to center root and flow. Am I being overly perfectionist or should I stay with this part until it feels right? I would say it probably is right enough or good enough. Don’t worry about how long it takes. If it takes you about eight to ten minutes for a while, do that. I strongly recommend you move on now. You move on because as you move on and you start learning the practices that build on that, those will become more properly and appropriately like backgrounded but integrated with the new practices and they’ll be less sort of focal and you’ll be less tempted towards a possible perfectionism. So I think you’re doing it good enough. And move on. I strongly recommend moving on now. Kira Kroger. Hi, Kira. It’s good to see you again. Your question yesterday was much appreciated. Today while doing META when I got to someone I’m in conflict with, what came up was an image of the devil, a monster to be afraid of. And I realized I see in almost everyone I interact with. Am I crazy? No, you’re not crazy at all. Is it okay to do META towards that image? Is it normal to start to have a lot of religious imagery come up? If you had a religious background, religious imagery coming up is very normal. You’re not mad or anything like that. Part of what is being, and sometimes when stuff first comes up, it almost always comes up symbolically in an imaginal fashion. But we even have this language. We tend to demonize other people when we’re in conflict with them. And so what is being shown to you in a very helpful manner is actually that, that there’s a demonic projection going on there and that what you have to do is do META towards them until you recognize, realize their humanity, which is not the same thing as thinking that they’re wonderful or beautiful. But this is what I’m talking about. The goal of META is ultimately reciprocal opening to make, we take this as if it is the easiest thing in the world. But, right, and oh, genuinely recognize the beauty of the world. And so that’s what I’m talking about. So, it’s not perfect. It’s not morally wonderful. But it is important. And we have to be in the right relationship to it. So, very much religious imagery will come up if you had a religious upbringing. I speak from experience. And so, I think that’s the goal of META. And so, I think that’s the goal of META. And so, I think that’s the goal of META. And so, I think that’s the goal of META. And so, very much religious imagery will come up if you had a religious upbringing. I speak from experience. And pay attention to this mythopoetic way of speaking, sorry, this mythopoetic way, this imaginal way of, is often a way in which things that are normally held in unconsciously or that we’re not seeing that are biasing our attention first come into our more conscious awareness. So, take this as a gift. And hopefully, if you relate to it appropriately, that will help you to become more explicitly aware of the way in which there is projection going on towards that person. Dean Rubel, share an experience. Thank you, Dean. Yesterday, I connected the movement form, or is it movement from self-will to God’s will to above all else, to the being mode and the meditative experience. Excellent. That’s fantastic. So, what Dean just shared with us, and thank you for doing that, that’s what I mean. When that happens and you can tell that your life is becoming more coherent, deep, and opening, when you get that kind of connection to the being mode, that’s the way in which the movement is becoming more coherent, deep, and opening, when you get that kind of transformative insight, that’s an existential insight, connecting the movement from self-will to God’s will, from the 12 steps. Here’s one practice that he’s engaged in, and then here’s another one, the having being, the movement from the having to being mode. And they resonate with each other. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s the way to see if you’re making progress on the path. Thank you, Dean, for sharing that. That was wonderful. Karima, hi, Karima. Instead of using the train, I look at the sky, cloudy, and notice patches of blue expanding, and that’s where I focus. The clouds are all of my thoughts. The blue is clarity and peace. Is this okay? I think I’m only getting part of your question. So you mean like instead of the train of thought, you look at the sky? That’s fine. The sky and the clouds is also a traditional metaphor used. I use the train because it connects with the metaphor of the train of thought, and it tends to have a little bit more of that sense of power and an overwhelming speed that our thoughts have. But if the clouds and the sky work for you, that’s also a traditional image. So as long as you want getting really heavy and just sort of, whoo, right? So as long as what you said is the case, that you’re getting a lot of clarity and that you’ve got it. The thing about the sky is make sure you have a sense that there is a lot that is still undisclosed. Ultimately, what you’re getting into is an inexhaustible field that affords a continual movement of inquiring mindfulness. So excellent questions again today, and I hope my answers were helpful and will afford you some understanding and encouragement. Thank you very much for joining. As I said, these questions and the sharing, thanks especially to Dean, are really, really beneficial for all of us, including myself. I want to thank my dear friend and Technomajor Mar. He was working miracles this morning before we even got set up. He just did another thing to improve the signal strength and the reliability. He’s always there like a haste, forging things in a way that will be marvelous. And of course, I want to thank my son Jason, who is always here coping with unexpected, contingent things in the environment and making things happen. My beloved son, his work is always appreciated. Please subscribe to this channel to be notified of the next video. You will also find links to the lecture series, Awakening from the Meeting Crisis, and to the DLogo series, Voices with Verbeke, where these issues are explored in more depth, more overarching integration, and set into a more encompassing framework that is trying to address both perennial problems and our particular historical situations. Invite others who might benefit from this series. As I said, I’m not driving anything from this. I am trying my very best to help as many people as I possibly can right now. Brett is here, pleasure of doubt. Please join the Discord server to chat with others. The link is in the description. It’s my understanding that some people are meeting before we meet in the sit and doing the movement practice together. That’s great. The more this thing takes on a life of its own, the better. And I know that you also meet after the sitting and sometimes do lexio divina, sometimes get into dialogue, and then there’s just a more encompassing community there. It’s my understanding that I think Jordan Hall, my good friend Jordan Hall, was there doing Q&A last night. This is all amazing. It’s vital and vibrant, and please go there. Reminder, we do this every weekday morning, so there’ll be no session tomorrow or Sunday. We do it every weekday morning at 930 Eastern Time. Final reminder, today, 3 p.m., live stream, we’ll have the more general Q&A. Please remember that continuity of practice is more important than quantity of practice. There is no enemy worse than your own mind and body, no friend, no ally, no true companion on the pathway as great as your own mind and body. Be lamps unto yourself and to each other. Take good care. I’ll see you all on Monday or perhaps this afternoon at 3 p.m. Goodbye. .