This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Steadiness; Supporting Samadhi (4 of 5): Appreciation. It likely contains inaccuracies.
The following talk was given by Liz Powell at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.
Welcome, welcome back to our week of finding the supports that enable us to cultivate samadhi1. We’ve been taking just a little more time for meditation in these mornings and more time in silence. The opportunity has also been to practice stronger mindfulness throughout the day and to investigate, to discover what things enhance and what things detract from a feeling of being settled in the practice, an ability to come to some state of collectedness.
We’re allowing for not having to know—not having to know when we’ll experience anything particular in practice, including samadhi, and not having to push ourselves in that direction. What we’re doing is very simply and very steadily coming back again and again. This week, we’ve been focusing on the breathing, being very attuned, being present with the inhalation and the exhalation, and using counting of the breath in the background or in the periphery of awareness to support keeping the mind steady, keeping the mind present, or bringing the mind back to presence.
The other day I read this brief excerpt from the Samadhi Sutta that I’ll read again here: “Wise and mindful, you should develop immeasurable concentration.” That is, concentration based on immeasurable goodwill, compassion, appreciation, or equanimity. So these four qualities, these Brahma-viharas2, support the heart and mind coming to a place that is steady, settled, and in coming to stillness and in cultivating samadhi.
The sutta goes on to say that as a result of samadhi based on these forms of wholehearted goodwill, “When wise and mindful, one has developed immeasurable concentration, five realizations arise right within oneself.” It goes on to list these five realizations, and this morning I’d just like to highlight the first of them as inspiration, an interesting look at what may arise as we cultivate samadhi, as we do this practice of following the breath and of perhaps counting in the background.
Here’s the first realization: “The realization arises right within oneself that this concentration is blissful in the present and will result in bliss in the future.” That’s interesting. First of all, it’s a realization, so it’s something that will come with the practice; we don’t need to try to make it happen. In fact, if we try to make bliss happen, that’s pretty much a guarantee that it won’t. That kind of striving or pushing is counterintuitive. But think about what the word “bliss” connotes for you or what it brings up. For me, it really feels like a kind of a steady, glowing form of happiness or a warmth. It’s not a roller coaster ride of excitement; it’s really quiet and steady.
So as we meditate, we can be available to notice any kind of steady happiness, any kind of warmth that arises with the practice. And we can certainly appreciate the steadiness of coming back to this again and again. I mean, it’s wonderful that I’ve seen many of the same names all week long and seen the same people in the afternoon sitting. There’s a steadiness of coming back to this again and again. And sometimes we can see, as Gil was calling it, “sweetness,” as this kind of bliss or kind of steady warmth of happiness arises.
If that’s not what’s happening, there can be some leap of faith or trust or confidence that practice has worked so far in the ways it has worked for you, and that what we cultivate ultimately will grow. So this cultivation of samadhi will take us in the right direction. It’s going to take us towards freedom from dissatisfaction, stress, and suffering. We don’t have to be so worried about what’s already arisen or that we need something to arise. The idea, perhaps, is to enjoy or relax into what’s already here and the way that it serves liberation.
It’s important not to fall into treating this practice as a grim kind of obligation or to get so hardened around it that we’re pushing, pushing, pushing. Instead, just relax. See what kind of qualities are there. See when difficulty is there; don’t shy away from it. Meet it and appreciate that it’s the mind showing us something that’s important to be healed, to be seen.
So simply noticing with kindness and appreciation whatever is here, and perhaps noticing a bit more today about what might develop in the way of steadiness as we do the practice, or as the practice does us.
Settling into meditation in the ways that you know bring you some relaxation, some ease, understanding, softening around things that are present and are going to remain in this moment.
Bringing whatever appreciation is here for getting to do this practice in this beautiful sangha of support around the world, of being able to come back again and again and grow. Appreciating whatever peace or calm is already here, even that the body is relatively still. Encouraging the mind and heart to come to stillness.
And perhaps radiating or quietly whispering in the mind appreciation for yourself, for this practice, for all around you, including this sangha. May our hearts and minds and bodies be well as we cultivate these practices. May we enjoy the freedom from harm that’s happening just in these moments of sitting together. May we be peaceful. May we be free of suffering and appreciate the extent to which some freedom is already here.
Gradually coming into the breathing, to presence with the breathing as it arises from the quiet, present as it courses through the body, and as it leaves the body, following the entire out-breath. Appreciating the steadiness, the reliability. Breathing in and breathing out.
If it’s helpful to further steady the mind by counting breaths or half breaths, one to ten, one to one, whatever method works for you, in the peripheral, using the counting in the background to support present awareness in the foreground.
As steadiness develops, noticing any peace that’s here, appreciating any quiet level of happiness. Even just the thought of appreciating the steadiness of following the breathing, allowing it to steadily nourish you.
In the last few minutes of the sitting, perhaps noticing the steadiness—steadiness of the practice, steadiness of the breathing—with some appreciation. Perhaps appreciating any pleasantness that came with the calm and radiating that appreciation to those around us. The steadiness of the presence of others in our lives and how our well-being is so intimately interlinked. May we all be well.
Our safety, our inner and outer freedom from harm, is interlinked. May we all be free from harm. Appreciating the ways others look out for our safety as we look out for theirs. Appreciating the way we create peace for one another. Appreciating the way we can be more and more free of suffering, and radiate the wish to all beings around us: may we all be free of suffering. May we care for one another to that end.
We can offer ourselves a lot of ease and steady, calm happiness in allowing ourselves these periods of time to be untroubled, to let the mind and heart rest as we turn our attention towards this collected place of steadiness and actually turn aside from agitation, busyness, struggle—consciously turning aside to come to steadiness in this practice.
There’s such benefit, too, in allowing ourselves to hang out with and appreciate any pleasant feeling, any feeling of happiness. It nurtures and reinforces our ability to come to samadhi, to enjoy the freedom from distraction. This learning that we can step aside from what is unhelpful, unwholesome, unsettling—that’s very powerful. Actually leaning into or learning that we can turn towards what’s actually helpful, what’s pleasant, what’s steadying, and what brings samadhi is a superpower.
If you ever watched yourself as you took up a new sport or skill, perhaps you noticed that tension didn’t help. If you learned to swim and you found that you were fighting or tense, you’d learn that you were more likely to thrash or sink. Or if you took up skiing and the first time you fell, you struggled mightily to get up. Any number of skills, if we are fighting or tense when we begin, we quickly learn that when we’re able to relax, it’s so much easier.
If you think of a hen sitting on her eggs, she doesn’t sit there and urge the eggs to hurry up and hatch. She doesn’t fight with the process. She doesn’t peck at the eggs. She just shows up day after day, hour after hour, and nurtures the eggs with her body warmth. We’re nurturing this practice and the steadiness of it in a similar way. So we’ll find that the practice will grow as we’re able to take pleasure in it, as we’re able to find something about it that we appreciate, even if it’s just a thought at first.
Today, as we practice again, there’s this opportunity to strengthen mindfulness in daily life. Perhaps one way today is to notice sources of steadiness in you and in your life, maybe from others. Noticing with appreciation friends, partners, colleagues who steadily show up, who are there no matter how things are going—very steady.
And noticing what’s challenging, what leads to a lack of settledness, what leads to upheaval, is equally useful. The things that show up that are tough are pointers; they are little Buddhas showing us the way that we need to heal, that we need to encounter ways we’ve conditioned unhappiness.
There’s also the invitation to come back for a few minutes at a time throughout the day to any sense of stillness, come back to the breathing, and to join the afternoon 20-minute sitting I’m offering on Zoom if you’d like. If you look at the IMC calendar and click on it, you’ll find the Zoom link and the password.
But most of all, enjoying today’s practice, enjoying the mindfulness that shows up at points throughout the day, enjoying any increased sense of calm or settledness that you’re taking into this day from this practice. Thank you so much for your practice together.
May all beings be free of suffering.
Samadhi: A Pali word for a state of meditative concentration or absorption, where the mind becomes still and unified. ↩
Brahma-viharas: The four “divine abodes” or “sublime states” in Buddhism: loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), appreciative or sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha). ↩