Practicing Acceptance - Guided meditation

0:00Hi everyone, Alan here. I thought it'd start with a few thoughts today that I shared with my meditation group last week. I want to talk a little bit more about meditation. So one way of thinking about the purpose of meditation, if there even is one, is that it's an encounter with ourselves just as we are. So you sit and in sitting, you perceive yourself now, right now, just as you actually are. And we're not machines or saints. We have bodies that feel pleasure, that hurt, that grow tired.

1:05We have minds that anticipate joy, that cling to pain and anger. These are like inescapable aspects of our existence. There can't be set aside in or out of meditation. One of these strengths of yoga tantra is that it explicitly accommodates these multitudes that we contain. We are complex and multifaceted beings, and when we sit in meditation, we accept this. So what does this mean in practice? Some days you might find that you sit in total anger for ten minutes, or you might find

2:08your mind constantly returning to something you fear, something you're looking forward to, some pain in your body, and so on. These experiences don't mean that your meditation is bad, there is no bad meditation. In yoga, sitting angrily is no different to sitting peacefully, which I appreciate sounds strange. What makes it meditation is that when angry, we simply notice and accept that this is our current state of mind. Notice and accept. We're not embracing, not indulging anger, or whatever else it might be, but we're not

3:10pushing it away either. We just hold an attitude of, this is how things are, full acceptance. With that in mind, let's sit for today. We're going to practice meditation, so make any final adjustments now to your sitting position, making sure you're sitting relatively tall and alert in your seat, if that is comfortable for you. Close your eyes here. Become aware of the body, of your body.

4:13Truly notice it. Awareness of defeat, the lower legs, the upper legs, awareness of the hips, the abdomen and lower back, awareness in the chest and upper back, the hands, arms, shoulders, awareness of the neck, throat, face.

5:16Accepting your body, accepting the body as it is. Awareness of the breath, not changing how you breathe, just noticing. The flow of the inhalation, the flow of the exhalation, observing, noticing, accepting. Becoming aware of the mind, aware of any thoughts you're having, aware of the emotions

6:33you're feeling, observing, accepting them for how they are. We're a witness to all these things, observe, just observe, the flow of the body, of the breath, of the mind. Be aware as we sit. Be aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having,

7:55aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having,

9:07aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having,

10:20aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having,

11:28aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having,

12:28aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, aware of the emotions you're having, and opening your eyes when you're ready. Our practice is complete. Thank you very much for listening, Om Shanti.