https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=9iptXZW3JD8
Welcome to Meditating with John Verbeke. We live stream this every weekday morning at 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time. If you’re joining us for the first time, welcome. You can just continue with us. But I recommend you see the description for this video. You’ll find links there to previous sits and lessons. We should immediately do lesson number one. And then every, you know, maybe once or twice a week, do another lesson. Keep meeting with us and then you’ll be very quickly integrated into the course and into this hangout. At the end of every lesson, we have a set. And sorry, at the end of every set, not at the end of every lesson, at the end of every set, we have a Q&A. And if you’re going to ask questions, remember that there’s a couple of things here. Please limit the questions to anything from the entire course. But please also be willing to share observations or comments. This is helping everybody. And so if we can expand the Q&A to regularly and reliably include observations and comments that will help everyone in the sign up, that’s much appreciated. Please like this stream to increase its visibility on the YouTube algorithm. If you have more general questions, every third Friday of the month at 3 p.m. Eastern time, we’ll get live stream on YouTube, a general Q&A. And we just did one last Friday. It was excellent. Many people from the sign up were there and from elsewhere. So that’s also something I encourage you to participate in, especially if you have more encompassing questions. OK, so we’re in this unusual format today. Usually it’s closer in and we’re zoomed in. I’m sitting on a mat and a pillow. But today we are again, we are again doing the walking meditation. So let’s begin again. So I’m standing side on and I’m going to turn my right foot. So again, here’s my line perpendicular to 90 and turn my right foot 45 degrees and I step and I keep the distance between my heels this way. I’m keeping it hip width and I’m stepping as far as I could without having to lean or without lifting my back heel to my right heel back there without lifting that off the floor. Keeping a bend in both of my knees. And I’m getting about 70 percent of my weight onto my front leg and 30 percent onto the back. So and then as I step, I exhale. I inhale and come back. My foot comes up and I turn 45 degrees for my hips. OK, so inhale and then I’m going to as I exhale, I’m going to push my weight this way and I’m going to align my knee. So it’s over the center of my foot, but not past my toes. I exhale. Inhale. OK. And I bring and I’m going to turn my hips. Although I’m going to turn my hips from here, 45 to the right, and by turning my head, it brings my right leg up. So I’m turning 45 degrees to the left. My mistake, I apologize. And I turn 45 degrees to my left and that is bringing my hips 45 degrees and that is bringing up my right heel. Again, keeping this hip distance. Again, same length as my previous step. And then I exhale. I’m going to straighten my hips the whole time. It takes me to move forward, keeping the bend in this leg and a bend in this leg. OK, so let’s do those two things together. In the sequence. So we begin 45 foot. I inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Now I go back. Inhale. And I turn this foot out of the 45 degrees. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. OK, let’s do that again and then we’ll review the turning. So I think I’m just maybe a little bit more over. Yeah. So what if I agree to inhale? Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, turning my hips. You see my hips? Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. OK, so one more time. You just watching my hips now. See what they’re doing. They’ve turned here and then they turn even more. I think it’s actually, yeah. So here and then even more. A little bit past 45 degrees, in fact, as you’re bringing the back foot up. Remember, see how my foot is landing? So when my foot lands, heel to toe as my weight comes forward. So for example, if it’s here, heel to toe. OK, so now we’re going to talk about how we turn. So as you can see, I’m just going to go back. I’m going to go back and I’m going to go forward. I’m going to go forward. I’m going to go forward. I’m going to go forward. I’m going to go forward. So now we’re going to talk about how we turn. So first of all, I’ll show you straight on how we turn. So I just want to keep on my mark. Sorry, I have to keep checking. Make sure you’re not losing my feet. So I want to end with this foot forward, my right foot. And then I pull this back and I pivot. And see how my weight is all back? I’ll also do this side on. My weight comes back. I pivot, but I don’t put that foot down. It’s not actually touching the floor yet. And then I pivot even more as I shift my weight from my left to my right. And then I bring this foot up and over and I go forward. What does that look like side on? Now, I showed you one way last time, and I said only do it with one foot. I’m showing you both ways now. If this foot is forward, my left foot is forward. I come back and I pivot and then up and over. OK? So let’s just do the turning. Here, here, here, and back. Pivot here. Back. Pivot here. Back. Pivot. Stop. OK, now let’s put the walking and the turnings together. So exhale. This way, I’m going to turn this way because I’m running out of space. So back. Pivot. Up and over. Again. I’m going to pivot this way because I’m running out of space. So always inhale, right? As you’re drawing in, always exhale as you be expressing force going forward. So here I’m inhale. Although I’m bringing this leg up because no weight’s going forward, I’m actually drawing everything into my right hip. So that’s why I’m inhaling. And then exhaling. You put force into that. OK, so I’m going to turn this way. OK, so that’s the foot movement. That’s the breathing. What are you doing with your mind? Well, you are trying to make the sensations in your dantian, right? So as if you were doing Vipassana, you’re here, you’re following your breath because the movements are tying to your breath. And you’re also, right? I’m also aware I’m meditating on, you already know how to do this, but I’m not only meditating on my breath here, I’m meditating on the centeredness and rootedness. I’m really making that focal in my walking meditation so that while I’m moving, I’m trying to keep that sense of being centered and rooted. So I’m focusing, obviously, on the walking itself. I’m focusing on my breath because the breath is tying with the steps. And my meditative focus is also on my center and around my root. Now, that’s a lot more than normal. I get that, and that’s the point. But those four will be very soon very integrated together because when you’re moving in this fashion, right? When you’re moving in this fashion, being centered and rooted is natural to it. And so you’re feeling the center and the root, that contact all the way down, the centeredness, and then you’re breathing. And I’m feeling the center and the root throughout, and I’m following my breath because the breath is timed with the movement. Okay, everyone, I will review all of this again tomorrow. I’ll review all of this again tomorrow. Okay, I’m just gonna go off camera for a sec and get my mat and my meditation pillow. You can get comfortable, get seated. All right, so everyone, let’s get in your posture. Set your phones on do not disturb. We will begin with a short chant, and then we will go into the silent sitting, and then we’ll have time probably for a question or two. We will begin when I say begin. Begin. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Begin your silent sit. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Slowly begin to 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. Om. Om. Om. Okay, so let’s have time for this one or two questions or comments. We have one from Human wannabe, interesting name there. I’m following the rooting process that you prescribed, but when I do it alone, it takes 25 to 30 minutes. Is there anything that I could do to shorten it? Yes, there’s a shorter version of the rooting process that you might wanna try to do, which is begin with your attention awareness here above your head. As you inhale, expand your awareness as you would in meta. As you exhale, contract it as you would in Vipassana. And then in the space before you take your in-breath, drop your attention to the center of your skull. In-breath, out-breath, in-breath, out-breath, center of my throat, center of my chest, solar plexus, dantien, contact point, and then opening and melting and draining three feet into the earth. Try that, leave your breathing normal, don’t force it, don’t hyperventilate. Try that as a rooting process that I think you’ll find helpful for speeding things up a bit. I still think that the three lines of looking at each other and trying to do it in a way that you can do it of looking, loosening, loosening for listening, letting it flow and letting it go are optimal. But in order to open up more space for you, I’m assuming that what you mean is that’s too much time. And so in order to open up space so that more of your practice is for other things, you can try that faster rooting process. It’s part of the Siddha Chikung. I recommend then trying maybe one time a week to do the longer three-line version of the rooting process. Kira Kroger has an observation she wants to share. That’s great, thank you, Kira. I’m starting to hear members of the Sangha who share their wisdom on the Discord as part of my inner sage, yes. And it deeply warms my heart and helps me to feel a deep sense of connection. Thank you for sharing that. That will happen more and more generally. That the Sangha and your inner sage, and I suppose your teacher, is that who I am? They will all merge symbolically and that will actually improve the functionality and the sense of presence of your inner sage. So that’s fantastic. Thank you for sharing that, Kira. And that is something that generally happens to everybody as they are cultivating the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. I want to thank you all for joining. I want to thank my dear friend and Thich Nga Me Jammar, my beloved son Jason, who is behind the scenes making things work. Please subscribe to this channel to be notified of the next video. There you will find links to a lecture series, Awakening from the Meaning Criticists, and the Diologo series, Voices with Revaki, where many of these themes and related themes are discussed in depth and set into a more encompassing framework. Invite others, please, who might benefit from sharing this series. I believe Brett is here. Mark is also here. It’s very important to try and spend some time on the Discord server. There are people there who join us for this practice. They’re also doing their own sit, I believe, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. There’s all kinds of vibrant discussion groups. Many of the people from Voices with Revaki come on there for Q&A. I do bi-weekly general Q&A. So as much as possible, I believe the Sangha actually home, sorry, the Sangha was actually home yesterday on the Discord server. So it’s good for these two communities to increase their mutually enriching conversation and communion. So a reminder, we’re doing this every weekday morning at 930 Eastern time. Remember that continuity of practice is more important than sheer quantity of practice. There is no enemy worse than your own minded body. No friend, no ally, no true companion on the path better than your minded body. And that really sings for me when I’m doing the walking meditation. No true companion on the path better than your own minded body. Be a lamp unto yourselves and to each other. Hope to see you all tomorrow. Take good care, everyone. Thank you.