https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=HGsdtJeBaZo
Welcome to Meditating with John Verbeke. We do this every weekday morning at 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time. With Mondays alternating between a Dharma Day in which I teach a new lesson, a new Paya Day, it’s spelled U-P-A-Y-A, in which I review the entire ecology of practices. If you’re joining us for the first time, you’re most welcome. What I recommend you do is go to the links in the description, the notes for this video, and you will find links to previous lessons and previous sits. Do lesson one right away, and then keep joining with us. And then every, perhaps Saturday or Sunday or whichever day is most free for you, do another lesson and so forth. And that way you’ll eventually catch up and be integrated with the rest of us. At the end of every sit, there is a Q&A. Please limit your questions to this ecology of practice. This course, we’re all on together. For more encompassing questions, you can come to the general Q&A. We have every third Friday of the month at 3 p.m. Eastern Time, and that will be July 17th will be the next one. It’s on YouTube, streamed live on YouTube. Please like the stream to increase the visibility in the YouTube algorithm, and that will help me to help as many people as possible. So Monday was a Dharma day. We reviewed it on Wednesday. I’m going to review it again. So let’s review the overall idea. But the framing of this is I’m giving you all constellation of practices. And it’s not that you’re going to master them all. It’s you’re going to, from them, you’re going to curate and collate and cultivate an ecology of practices. And that’s what’s going to keep happening for you. And so let’s remember some of the design features, just like we have complementarity between meditation and contemplation, and complementarity between a seated practice and moving practices. So one principle, a design principle, is complementarity. You also, we layer practices on top of each other, the way, you know, prajna is layering of meta and vipassana together. We also have practices that link other practices together, like the seated chi kong practices integrate between the moving chi kong practices and the seated meditative practices, or mindfulness practices, I should say. So those are the principles to keep thinking about and keep trying to, and I’m trying to exemplify them. And then what we learned this past Dharma day was a particular linking practice, which is seated chi kong. And so I’m going to take you through this again, I’ll describe it again. And then what we’ll do is we, after I describe it again, we’ll set our phones, get in the posture, we’ll set the time for 15 minutes in total. I’ll go through the external one, and then we’ll go into sonnet mode. You can do the internal one, movement of mind, and then go into whichever seated practice you wish. So let’s say you’ve done some of the moving, some of the standing, the jan-jan, some of the moving, each one, you’re doing the chi kong practices. And then we sit, and what we do is we’re going to, and this again, notice how this is also layering on the ah, ah breathing, the moving chi kong. What we’re going to do is we’re going to inhale and do lift, look up, and pantomime ah, as you say ah while breathing in. And then as you exhale, the ah, you come into prayer position. And then as you inhale, you’re pressing in with your hands and moving towards the very center of your mind. You exhale, you relax your hands out, and you inhale, and you exhale. And then the last time, when you come to here, you exhale, your hands go to here, and you inhale four times. And you’re going to hold your breath for a count of four. And what you’re doing is your hands, you’re trying to get like what you get in prajna. Your hands are conveying the outward moving like you get in meta, but your mind is also, because you’ve just done this, you’re also moving towards the center. You’re trying to get that simultaneous spherical movement of mind. Count of four, and then as you exhale, we bring our hands here, we feel the heat, four inhales. Rotate one way on the vertical, rotate the other, and with every, right? So, and then you exhale, and then four inhales here, so the heart, all right, solar plexus, sorry, heart, dantian, and then the pubic area, okay? And when you’re doing the pubic area, right, you tighten the sphincter muscle, put your tongue here, okay? So, one more time. And here, heart, okay? And then solar plexus, sorry, I don’t know why I wanted to exclude that, that’s a mistake on my part. Then the dantian, and then the base, and then rotate it. I can’t demonstrate the next one to you. Done this, the final one, you drop the drain, everything drains. You bring your mind here, there’s, in all directions, inhale, exhale, collapse, round, deep. So this is sort of deep growth, deep grounding, and then drop, in the space between the breaths, inhale, exhale, drop, inhale, exhale, drop, inhale, exhale, drop, inhale, exhale, drop, so forth, all the way through. So forth, all the way through. Okay, I hope that was a helpful review. So let’s get into position. Let’s set your timers, and we’re gonna set ours. Please put your phones on do not disturb. And I believe we’re ready. I think there’s everything we’re gonna do. So we’ll begin when I say begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Begin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 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 communities. Perhaps by reciting the five promises to yourself. Okay. Okay. As I mentioned yesterday, we were able to do more questions because we have a hard out for today because Amar needs to get going. Today, unfortunately, we won’t be able to get to any questions. This doesn’t usually happen, but we will make up for that on Monday. We’ll answer some questions. I hope that the review has been helpful for everyone. On Monday, we will do the whole sequence of the ecology practices as I’ve taught you thus far. I want to thank you all for joining. I want to thank my dear friend and techno-mage Amar and my beloved son Jason, who’s here always helping to set things up and deal coping with unexpected contingencies. Please subscribe to the channel to be notified of the next video. You’ll find links to the lecture series, Awakening from the Meaning Curses and the Dialogues series, Voices with Raveki. Explore these themes in depth and situate them within a more encompassing framework. Please invite others who might benefit by sharing this series. Please consider joining. Brett is here, pleasure of doubt. The Discord server, you’ll find people who are in this sit. We’re doing the moving practices before, Alexio, Demina. Larger discussions around Voices with Raveki, Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, guests from Voices with Raveki on their Q&A. I’m on there bi-weekly on Q&A. Please go to the Discord server to meet a community that I think will enrich your practices and help you cultivate a wiser way of life. Mind that we’re doing this every weekday morning at 930 Eastern Time. Please remember that continuity of practice is more important than sheer quantity of practice. There’s no enemy worse than your own minded body. But there’s no friend, no ally, no true companion on the path better than your own minded body. Be lamps unto yourselves and to each other. Take care, everyone, and I’ll see you on Monday. Thank you.