A more subtle Truth...

I know what it's like to be a human because I also am one like you.       

Every day is unique and represents unique opportunities, confluences of Events, circumstances which guide our behavior and our abilities to pursue...           

Knowing this, one can easily come to the conclusion we need to be flexible and understanding of our own limitations and strengths and work on improving both.      

Effort is the harbinger of growth, practice is what helps bring about "enough" consistency to foster our awareness Improvement is occurring.         

No where does it say it's easy or trite, it is as important as one's next breath        

what you do or don't do today,        

is reflected in one's tomorrow.

perseverance is a virtue as much as patience, kindness, and understanding are        

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Good morning. Nice to be here. A little later than usual today because I had an early doctor's appointment. I'm back. What a tumultuous day already in the world. I did a little bit of looking on the internet and things are up, things are down, things are all around. It's amazing. We're here. And we're aware of our need to be proactive in our ways. Finding a comfortable posture, undisturbed. Beginning and ending moments one at a time. Flowing. Allowing a group of moments to become a minute. And making our way. Being here now. Beginning to remember that we are bundles of miracles. That we have a great deal to be humbled before because of the immensity of not only our own being but of everything upon this world and that surrounds this world, our universe. And of course, where would we be if we weren't thankful for having an opportunity to participate? The drama of life, the play of life. How many scenes are set in each day? 86,400. Because as each moment changes, the universe is changing. It's like a kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope is the entirety of being. And as it moves, so does each part. Everything is in a relationship with everything else, from the smallest to the largest. Remembering one's breath. Where does the breath begin? But more or less outside of ourselves. If there was nothing to breathe, we wouldn't breathe. So it begins in the atmosphere. And where was this atmosphere a month ago? This very air we're breathing right now, that's close by today, in these moments. And looking inside of our breathing techniques, looking at the parts of it. Some people call it three, some people call it four. I call it four parts. Because I want to accentuate each aspect of it from one's inhale to this initial pause, and from one's exhale to the second pause. This is four parts. One, two, three, four. But call it what you will. And to be understanding and cognizant of this is important. It helps ease and guide our way. If one is more flexible and adaptable, then they can bend with the wind or the tide or the ebb and the flow of everything, of anything, to be adaptable, to have a capacity of listening, of reserving one's declarations or opinions until an amount of information has been garnered, one begins to feel it is appropriate to decide on things. And this can be just in a moment, or two moments, or three moments, or four. It doesn't need to be hours, it can be moments because sometimes decisions need to be made in moments, like when one is driving a car or one is having a conversation. Being here now in these very moments, present with ourselves, comfortably postured, undisturbed, to be hoped for, to be anticipated, to be aware of one's physiology is a means of utilizing one's own being as a tool to focus more intently on relaxing, on feeling calm, a sense of peace. Being aware, as we've just mentioned, of our breathing is a good thing to do to follow one's own breathing technique and to make an inquiry and effort into slowing it down. Can I slow my breath down? Can I lengthen and deepen it? You can. Please do. Allowing oneself to have a peaceful glow about oneself, this rising of one's awareness, of one's receptivity to what's going on, what's occurring in one's site, in one's surroundings. Please, doing this now. Being aware also of the warmth that's emanating and being processed through one's body, as one's torso is energized through one's own activity of breathing and one's heart's circulatory function, squeezing the blood through our vascular system, and last but not least, our diaphragm helping our lungs, and if we've just eaten, then the contractions and the ebb and the flow of digestion in our stomachs and intestines, all contributing potentially to the warmth, to the heat. It's hot. It's a hundred degrees, more or less. Being aware of this emanation of thermal energy, being aware that this emanation is just one type of energy from one particular place. This is originating in our torso. But what about in our head? What about in our minds, in our brains, as these words funnel in through one's ears, past one's eardrums into the inner ear, into the auditory nerve, making its way neuron by neuron into one's cerebrums, left or right, stereophonic or mono. Which do you choose, which is available for oneself to have? If you stick a finger in one of your ears, then it's mono. If you are lucky and have two ears that are functioning well, and you're attentive, then you have stereo. It is the same thing with eyesight. You open both eyes and you have good vision, you see one image, but there are two images. Close one eye and then the other and see what you see. With practice, one can separate one's vision and go back and forth playfully, an exercise in one's mental focus, one's mental activities, one's correlation, of working with one's eyes or one's ears, being aware of the energy that we're not even speaking about. All the things that we speak about as being sensory perceptions. What is a level of awareness? Are we sleepy? Are we wide awake? Are we hypersensitive? Are we a little dull? Everyone is oscillating in between these different levels of attention. Continually we rise, we subside, we begin, we end. It is the nature of all energies in all of creation. And here we are. What about one's pulse? Do you have the propensity to feel your pulse without needing to utilize your wrist as a point, your radial artery under your thumb at your wrist crease? Can you just sit or stand or lay down and feel the pulse of your heart squeezing? Do you feel it now? Don't take any of these things for granted. These are levels of sensitivity. For some, it is not so easy. When I began, I couldn't feel anything. I really just couldn't feel anything. Or in a sense, it's not that I couldn't feel it, I just didn't have the sensitivity or receptivity to be aware of it. Because for sure it was going on. All the while I was looking, I wasn't looking in the right places. And this is what's true of everything. This is why practice, by definition, is so important. It gives us the opportunity to practice, to become, to create habits, to build, to experiment, to be curious about, to find a sense of joy in our success, a reason to smile, feeling one's pulse as best as one can. If you inquire deeper within the context of one's pulse, you will find that your whole body is undulating. As the pressure in one's vascular system is in waves, yes, because your heart's not continually squeezing, it squeezes and then it relaxes. So you initiate a pulse. And then a moment later you initiate another pulse. And then another moment later you initiate another pulse. So your pulses are coming in a frequency, in an undulation, in a dance. You might call it the dance of life. So you can even feel this difference. Fun, interesting, amazing, a sense of reverence. If you like a sense of awe, this is what we can also begin to think of as the miracle of creation, of life. We are bundles of miracles, and this is the truth. If you go further underneath your functioning physiology, underneath your skin and the warmth that is emanating through, down and beneath your pulse, and make an effort to identify what else might be going on inside, then one comes to an even more subtle truth. We are vibrating with life. We are quivering. We are shimmering with life's energy. As the air that we breathe is distributed through our lungs, and as the oxygen is pulled out, and the carbon dioxide in our bloodstream is filtered out and expelled in our next exhale, our vascular system is spreading this newly received oxygen throughout our bodies, feeding it, feeding the cells. Quite a few, trillions of cells. Thirty-seven trillion cells, an adult. So science says these cells in their own way are vibrating, alive. And you and I have this opportunity to feel this undulation, pulse, thermal energy, and shimmering majesty of one's own being alive. It is a miracle. Rejoice, for one is aware. Being humbled before all of these things is an important virtue to acquire and understand and to become one with, to be humble before the immensity of creation is a characteristic one wants to attain. And being thankful, another just as important characteristic or quality to become, to attain. Thinking about these things. Please ponder your own being, and in the context of oneself in a world filled with seven billion others, just very much similar to oneself. Being here now, aware, humbled, and appreciative.