Video summary
Bu hafta sunulan topluluk farkındalığı pratiği, katılımcıların sandalyede, koltukta veya yere yatmış olmalarına bakılmaksızın bedenlerinin oturduğu yerden ayak uçlarına kadar yerleşik ve topraklanmış bir hisle başlamaktadır. Bu fiziksel istikrarın yanı sıra, omurgadan başın tepesine doğru yükselen ve çevreye açılan hafiflik ve genişlik hissi de aynı anda deneyimlenerek zihnin hem yerçekimine bağlı kalması hem de ruhsal açıdan özgürleşmesi sağlanır. Bu iki temel duygu—yerleşiklik ve açıklık—içinde tutularak nefes akışı farkına varılır; derin bir içe nefes alma, tepedeki kısa bir duraksama, dışa nefes verme ve alttaki diğer bir duraksama ile oluşan dört aşamalı döngüye odaklanarak zihin tamamen şu anki anda sabitlenir.
Pratik boyunca çevredeki sesler, düşünceler veya vücutta hissedilen gerilimler ortadan kalkması beklenmez; bunun yerine bu unsurlar farkındalığın dış kenarına itilir ve dikkat sadece nefese verilir. Bu bilinçli seçim, zihnin sürekli düşünme döngüsünden veya çevrenin gürültüsünden uzaklaşmak için bir kontrol mekanizması değil, niyetli bir odaklanma çabasıdır. Böylece dikkat lazer ışını gibi nefese yoğunlaştırıldığında, yüzten omuzlara, kalp merkezinden uyluklara ve bacaklardan ayaklara kadar yayılan fiziksel gerilimlerin serbest kalmasına izin verilir. Bu süreç, sinir sisteminin gevşemesini sağlayarak kaslar, kemikler ve bağların rahatlamasına olanak tanır ve böylece kendine karşı şefkatli bir yaklaşım geliştirilir.
Bu nefes pratiği aracılığıyla kazanılan istikrar hissi ve nefesle gelen genişlik duygusu, bireylerin birbirlerine ve kendilerine karşı daha nazik olabilecekleri bir alan yaratmasına olanak tanır. Tüm önemli olaylar şu an farkındalığın hemen dışında gerçekleşmeye devam ederken, nefesin yavaşlaması ve buna odaklanma sayesinde bedende huzur ve rahatlık hissi oluşur; bu durum bazen mümkün olmayabilir ancak pratik başarısız sayılmaz, sadece nefese geri dönerek bu farkındalık alanına yeniden yerleşmek yeterlidir. Tüm varlıkların bu şu anki bilinçli nefes alma kapasitesine sahip olduğu gerçeği, bizi birbirimizle bağlayan bir köprü oluşturur ve bu derin huzur içindeyken dünyada nasıl hareket edileceğine dair en yüksek bilgelik doğar.
Read the full video transcript
So, thanks for joining us for community
mindfulness this week. And we'll start
out our uh short practice about 15
minutes or so with uh awareness of the
posture
and a feeling of being settled in your
seat. You may be on a chair or a sofa or
may even be lying down. Some people like
to practice mindfulness lying down or
leaning back up against a sofa. So
there's a sense of being settled in some
part of your body um through the seat
and down through the legs and the feet
to the floor.
And that's a a groundedness, a
steadiness sort of feeling. And then
there's also a sense of liftedness
through the spine up through the crown
of the head and into the air above us
and around us. And that's an openness, a
lightness, a spaciousness kind of
feeling. And we can hold both of those.
The fact that we feel grounded and
seated and also open and spacious.
And holding those two qualities,
we begin to be aware of the breath.
A deep inhale
and exhale.
And as soon as you become aware of the
breath,
maybe it starts to just slow down just a
little bit.
And you may be aware that at the top of
the breath, there's a little pause
before you cascade down into the exhale.
And at the bottom of the exhale, there's
a little pause before you start climbing
up the inhale again.
So there are actually four
demarcations to the breath.
The inhale, pause at the top, the
exhale, and the pause at the bottom.
And paying attention to this detail
gives you
a pause overall.
So nothing else that's happening around
you
is the center of your attention right
now. It's just the inhale,
the pause at the top, exhale, the pause
at the bottom.
And it doesn't mean that everything
that's happening around us goes away or
ceases in any way. It's all still there.
But we're just paying attention to the
breath.
Just like I often say that a lot of
thinking thinking thinking doesn't have
to go away but we just choose what to
put our attention to. We can set aside
uh thinking thinking thinking or we can
set aside what's happening around us and
choose to focus on one particular thing.
And right now it's the breath.
Inhale.
Pause.
Exhale.
And the pause.
And if you do go into noticing
everything that's happening around you,
maybe sounds of traffic or sounds of
your household
or sounds of thoughts in your mind
or feelings in the body,
that's okay. We don't need to make those
go away. Just like everything around us
keeps happening while we practice
mindfulness.
But we just allow ourselves to focus on
the breath
and set aside all the other
happenings.
Not time trying to control
or
make anything go away.
Just
bringing the laser beam of our awareness
to the breath.
And you may find that as you're aware of
the breath, there starts to be a little
relaxation in the body.
Tension may release
from the face and the shoulders,
the heart center,
the hips.
down the legs to the feet
and out the arms to the hands.
This is a way that we can be kind, be
nice to ourselves
is to give ourselves these moments of
concentration
or actually
putting forth an effort
to focus on something specific.
But that effort
allows the nervous system to relax,
which allows the physical body, the
muscles and the bones and the ligaments
and even the nerve sheets relax
in the body.
And the more we are kind to ourselves in
this way, giving ourselves
both the spaciousness
that we felt in our spine, the
spaciousness, openness of the breath.
Especially as you inhale, pause the top
big opening
and then a sense of groundedness or
stability
at the bottom of the breath.
says quietness.
So as we practice
this kind of pause in our thinking
thinking thinking or in our paying
attention to everything that's happening
around us,
we develop the skill
to come into a place
where we're more apt to be nice, be
kind.
We have a sense of stability
which we all need.
We have a sense of openness and
possibility
which we all need
and we have the breath.
So just
being with those qualities
allows us to come into a space
where it's easier to be nice.
Everything that's so important important
important is
h it's right at the outside edge of
awareness right now.
And there's sort of a calm relaxation in
the body,
a gentle rhythm to the breath,
and possibly if it's available to you,
a slowing down of the thinking,
thinking, thinking, or at least it's at
the outside edge of awareness.
It can be bubbling beneath the surface.
Maybe it's really loud today and that's
okay.
You can still gently return to the
breath.
It's from this space of awareness and
presentness
that our highest wisdom arises
and how to act
in the world and with people and with
ourselves.
So if it's available to you, just enjoy
this space where the breath, the focus
on the breath
allows everything that's happening
around us to be set to the outside edge
of awareness doesn't go away.
Still there, but it's just not what
we're focusing on.
And there's a sense
that slowing down of the breath and the
focus on the breath
relaxes the nervous system
and allows a feeling of comfort
and relaxation in the body.
And that may not be available to you
tonight. And that's fine.
All you need do is return to the breath
and be held
within the awareness of the breath.
Knowing that this space, this place of
awareness
of present moment and breathing is
available to all beings.
Will this capacity
somehow connect us all one to another?
Inhale, pause at the top.
Exhale, pause at the bottom.
And in doing this focus on the breath,
you're actually
also practicing here in because any
thought that comes into your mind,
you're obviously going to hear it and
just set it aside.
I'm practicing all the awareness.
any physical sensation
that happens, just let it be
and set it aside.
Anything you hear, household,
traffic, wind in the trees,
allow it to be
and let it go to the outside edge of
awareness.
Very good.
Just a few more
full breaths that we pay attention to.
And then I'll count backward from five.
When I get to one, we can open our eyes
and finish the practice.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two
and one.