Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 9)

0:00 Well, not so. Any questions, particularly about the practice, points of clarification or insights, anything coming up? Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:10 Is it all clear? Yes, please. Report an error in the passage at 0:10 Highlight the passage at 0:10

0:22 Go ahead and cough. If people are disturbed, that's their problem. Yeah, by all means. Sure, but whatever it is, if you need to cough, cough. We have traffic noise here. We can't get the cars to stop. And if you need to cough, cough. Bless you, my child. Report an error in the passage at 0:22 Highlight the passage at 0:22

0:41 Yes, please. Practice. Report an error in the passage at 0:41 Highlight the passage at 0:41

1:01 I was just clarifying, maybe that was a bit obfuscating, and that's not a method. It was simply pointing out something that does happen, but without our voluntarily trying to make it happen. And that is in the supine positions taken care of, because your body should be totally relaxed, and so you should find it quite easy for the belly to expand when you're breathing in, especially if you're lying on your back. Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:22 If you're sitting upright, then as long as you don't tense the muscles, so just sitting like this, so you don't want to be uptight, but you're also not slack. Then if the belly is soft and you breathe just a shallow breath, you'll find this is what happens. So nothing happening here, very little happening here. Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

1:44 The movement is all done in the belly because I'm keeping it soft. It's just in the course of time, sometimes just a deeper breath will come in, bound to happen. And if it's somewhat deeper, then you'll find that the belly expands and then you'll feel it right here in the diaphragm. You'll feel the belly expands first and then the diaphragm expands. Report an error in the passage at 1:44 Highlight the passage at 1:44

2:03 You're not trying to make it happen, that's just what does happen. And then once in a while you just might have a big breath come in. You're not trying to pull it in, it's just like Report an error in the passage at 2:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03

2:14 that. And then you feel it first in the belly, then the diaphragm, and then you feel the chest expand, and then it flows all out. So it's not a three-point, it's not trying to do anything, but what I was getting at is that the posture, when the posture is correct, it lends itself to that type of expansion, first the belly. Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

2:34 So they say like filling a pot with water, it fills from the bottom up. And of course it's not air, but the sensations of the breath, which is all about prāṇa, that you feel around here and then here. But sometimes as you go deeper into the practice, the breathing over time is just bound to become more and more shallow. Report an error in the passage at 2:34 Highlight the passage at 2:34

2:51 Because your body just doesn't need much oxygen. When you're sitting there, the mind is very calm, burning off very few calories. In which case you just might find just a very subtle rise and fall here, with almost nothing happening above. But one doesn't want to be sitting like this, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:51 Highlight the passage at 2:51

3:08 Tummy in. Any women ever hear about that? Tummy in. Tummy in. Terrible advice. Terrible advice. Is that clear? Yes, please. Report an error in the passage at 3:08 Highlight the passage at 3:08

3:27 Sure. There's no such term in Buddhism, which is kind of interesting. But there is a term, Yudha-Japo or Manasikara in Sanskrit, and it's simply a mental engagement. It's a very primitive level. That is, Buddhist phenomenology is quite sophisticated here in terms of... of the ways we engage, mentally engage with objects. So there's contact, just raw, bare contact. There's feeling connotation, that is a feeling of whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, a mode of apprehending the object. Report an error in the passage at 3:27 Highlight the passage at 3:27

3:58 There's mental engagement, that's probably the closest translation, that would correspond most closely to this modern term, bare attention. And it is simply a being present with. The term was coined by a very good German scholar by the name of Jnana Ponekatera. And he was living in Sri Lanka, lived a rather long life, but a very good scholar. Report an error in the passage at 3:58 Highlight the passage at 3:58

4:22 He wrote a wonderful book called The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. And I think it was in that book, or maybe it was a preceding smaller publication, in the context of the four applications of mindfulness, which he called the four foundations of mindfulness, he introduced the term bear attention. It's very useful. Report an error in the passage at 4:22 Highlight the passage at 4:22

4:38 He did not equate it with mindfulness. He's much too good a scholar for that. But he pointed out that as we are closely applying mindfulness to the body, the first-person experience, the loka of the body, the lived body, right? As we're applying it to that, we're observing feelings arising, pleasure, pain, indifference arising in the body, pleasure, pain, indifference arising in the mind, and then turning to the mind itself and observing thoughts, memories, desires, and a wider way of mental phenomena arising. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

5:06 And then this more panoramic vision of the close application of mindfulness to phenomena. He said when we engage in this very sophisticated endeavor to understand the nature of the body, the mind, the environment, the relationship among these, he said that a crucial facet of this overall training is when we first encounter an object. Report an error in the passage at 5:06 Highlight the passage at 5:06

5:29 It can be a human being, an animal, a plant, a mineral, anything. But let our first encounter, that is... Try to sustain that a bit. That first encounter where we're just kind of drinking it in. That as I'm attending to you, I can start elaborating by your accent. I imagine you're Australian. And then if there are different accents from a different part of Australia, maybe I could place you there. And then I could wonder if the person sitting next to you is your husband. Report an error in the passage at 5:29 Highlight the passage at 5:29

5:54 And so I can elaborate, elaborate. And I like your hairdo. I don't like, you know, all the kind of stuff that I can elaborate on. He said, okay, but suspend that. All the associations, the labels, the constructs, all of that. Suspend it for a little bit and drink it in. What is simply being presented to your senses? Report an error in the passage at 5:54 Highlight the passage at 5:54

6:13 In the seen, there is just the seen, in the heard, just the heard and so forth. So it's simple. Now, is it bare in the sense of being absolutely non-conceptual? No, it's not. And the Buddhists didn't think so either. And modern psychology would totally corroborate this. I've spoken with some very, very fine cognitive psychologists. Report an error in the passage at 6:13 Highlight the passage at 6:13

6:31 And I think a very common view in current cognitive psychology is that all of our experiences of the world, of our minds, bodies and so forth, they're all saturated, saturated by our conceptual constructs. We just perceive things through the grid of language and concepts. And there's a lot of truth to that. And so when speaking of bare attention, we're not suggesting, at least intelligent, well-informed Buddhist teachers, Are not suggesting this is absolutely non-conceptual, that we're just getting naked, unmediated reality, and it's bare naked, stripped of all conceptualization. Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

7:07 That's not something we can voluntarily do, because precognitively, precognitively, concepts are already slipping in. But then there are concepts and there are concepts. There are very elaborate, coarse, junky concepts, rumination and so forth, on a very coarse level. And so the bare attention is simply the ideal there is as much as you can, sustained, suspend, hold off on all the conceptual elaborations and simply try to be present with whatever is arising from moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 7:07 Highlight the passage at 7:07

7:41 It's very useful. Now, when the same monk, Jnana Pondekatera, outstanding scholar, experienced meditator, he was the teacher, by the way, anybody who knows the American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi. He's one of our best translators. He's really outstanding. The Nyanaponakatera was his teacher in Sri Lanka. And so Bhikkhu Bodhi told me, we've corresponded, Bhikkhu Bodhi told me that when Nyanaponakatera saw what was happening, that a term that he'd coined, bear attention, was now being used as something equivalent to mindfulness, and that was being equated with Vipassanā altogether. Report an error in the passage at 7:41 Highlight the passage at 7:41

8:15 He basically slapped his forehead and said, Oh my God, what have I done? How can they dumb it down this much? That's not what I meant at all. But rather simply sustain that epoche, as they say in phenomenology, that simply being present with or that witnessing, that witnessing mode. And then upon that, it's kind of in science, it's like getting some clean data. Some nice clean data. This is not an artifact of your instrument. Report an error in the passage at 8:15 Highlight the passage at 8:15

8:38 This is a good scientific talk. And that is you're making a measurement. You want to make sure that your data are actually data you're getting from the object you're trying to measure and not artifacts created by... You know, just internally generated by your system. Because that's junk, it's noise. You want to sift that out. So it's really like trying to get clean data, clear data coming from the object. Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

8:59 And then, as you're taking this in, you're really kind of engaging with that. Okay, now bring in your powers of discernment. You may pose questions. As the Buddha said, and we'll get to this, I'll give you a sneak preview. He said, as one attends, for example, to the body, one attends to the body and... Report an error in the passage at 8:59 Highlight the passage at 8:59

9:17 Carefully examining and considering, contemplating factors of origination. So how is it the sensations of the body, the experiences of the body, what are the factors, how is it that they emerge into our experience? Independence upon what causes and conditions. What are the factors of emergence? And then they're present. Once they're present, are they stable? Are they in flux? Changing or unchanging? Report an error in the passage at 9:17 Highlight the passage at 9:17

9:39 Pose question. What are the factors of disillusion? How do these sensations, the experiences of the body, how do they fade away? How does that occur? He says, as one attends to the body, attend to the body internally. And that is, attend, contemplate, carefully examine your own body internally from a first-person perspective. Report an error in the passage at 9:39 Highlight the passage at 9:39

9:57 But then you turn your attention outwards and you observe the body externally. And how the great commentators explain this is that you attend to another person's body, facial expressions, body language, behavior, appearance, attending closely to another person's body as a body. And then he says, with really quite a stroke of brilliance, now attend to the body internally and externally. And that's not just addition, because we've already done internally, we've already done externally, so now what do we need the third one for? Report an error in the passage at 9:57 Highlight the passage at 9:57

10:28 But we see, as I'm speaking, as I turn my eyes to you right now, this is bound to influence in subtle ways your own behavior. That is, you know I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you. Or if we engage in conversation, I ask you something and then you respond. Or I have some physical mannerism. And that influences your behavior. So now we're seeing a system, a system of two people in conversation or a group in conversation or in dialogue. Report an error in the passage at 10:28 Highlight the passage at 10:28

10:52 And we're seeing, aha, I'm influencing and I'm being influenced by facial expression and so forth, kind of questions being posed. So now you're looking at a whole system of bodies, bodies of sentient beings in interaction with each other. So we see that this becomes much richer than simply bear attention. But bear attention is a really good place to start. Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:13 And for the exceptionally gifted, it may be sufficient, as in the case of Bahiya. But those are extremely rare individuals. And so I think one's kind of depriving people of the richness of Satipaṭṭhāna or Buddhist Vipassanā. If you keep them at that rudimentary level, and if they're not Bahiya, the chances of achieving Nirvāṇa just by practicing a whole lot of bear attention is extremely remote. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:34 So why not share some of the wealth, the richness, the diversity, the texture and depth of Vipassanā as it fully kind of comes into full flower. It starts with bear attention, but it doesn't end there. Report an error in the passage at 11:34 Highlight the passage at 11:34

11:48 You're welcome. Anything else coming up? Yes, please. Well, Report an error in the passage at 11:48 Highlight the passage at 11:48

12:25 it's easy to say, now just breathe effortlessly, relax totally and let the breathing flow of its own accord. Those words are very easy to say, right? But we do have this deeply ingrained habit, and that is I mentioned before, if we're attending closely to something and we have the ability to influence it in a way that we prefer, then we do it. Report an error in the passage at 12:25 Highlight the passage at 12:25

12:04 in particular, the instruction that you get to focus Report an error in the passage at 12:04 Highlight the passage at 12:04

· · · silence, 1 minute

12:44 And we don't even think about it. We do it. We're kind of control freaks to some extent. And that's for all kinds of things. And here's a bodily process. It kind of stands in a class by itself. That when we're not attending to it, not controlling it in any way, it does just fine. But if I say, please hold your breath for 15 seconds, you have no problem doing that at all. Or please exhale and keep your breath out for 10 seconds. No sweat. Breathe quickly. Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

13:13 Breathe slowly. Breathe deeply. Breathe shallowly. Boy, you hop, hop. You say jump and your breath says how far. So to a certain extent, we can really control it a lot. And so there we are. We're observing something that can flow and does a very good job of it without any intervention. And yet we can really take over or we can certainly modify and prefer. Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:35 Oh, I think even subliminally, I think the breath should be rhythmic. Oh good, it's becoming rhythmic now. It can be that simple. Report an error in the passage at 13:35 Highlight the passage at 13:35

13:44 I'm nothing even remotely like a biologist, a medical doctor, nothing of the sort, so no claims in that regard. My intuition tells me, which means it could be flat out wrong, my intuition tells me that the kind of respiration that occurs while we're in deep dreamless sleep, I expect, is the most restful, rejuvenating, revitalizing that we experience in a 24-hour period. Report an error in the passage at 13:44 Highlight the passage at 13:44

14:08 Because we all know what it's like to... We just hit the pillow and just be flat out so dead tired that we're asleep really quickly. And then we go so deep asleep, we don't know how long we've been asleep. And we wake up and lo and behold something wonderful has happened. We feel refreshed. How did that happen? Because we know perfectly, well we all know this, but it's good to highlight it. That if you're dead tired, you lie down in bed, but something really traumatic has happened that day. Report an error in the passage at 14:08 Highlight the passage at 14:08

14:35 You're exhausted emotionally, physically, but something really traumatic has happened. And your mind is ruminating, emotions are coming up, emotion, emotion, emotion, and you're lying there doing nothing, physically burning up hardly any calories at all, that is with everything below the neck. And then seven hours later, it's time to go to work. You feel like death warmed over. And yet your body was doing virtually the same thing as if you were deep asleep. Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

14:59 So, what's up with that? Well, there has to be a very complex answer. But I do believe that the breathing is definitely implicated. And the type of breathing that occurs when we're totally out of the way, no emotions arising, no thoughts, no control, no ego, none of the above, hopes or fears, none of the above. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:19 The mind in deep sleep, your mind, has dissolved into this subtle continuum of mental consciousness. You don't need to die or achieve shamatha for that to happen. It happens every time we fall deep asleep. It's called the dissolution of the coarse mind into the substrate consciousness. And so at the very least, it's very restful. Report an error in the passage at 15:19 Highlight the passage at 15:19

15:37 But then we see how fresh, lively, full of energy the body is just a matter of hours later. So I think that's a big hint. I think there's probably some truth to what I'm saying. And I'm sure there are other factors also of why sleep is good for us. It's still a mystery though. Scientists, I keep on reading, they don't really understand why it's so good for us. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

15:56 They don't really understand why dreaming happens. I mean, there's a lot of speculation and so forth. And it's good. I mean, informed speculation. But there's the point. So, to get back to the waking state. Insofar as we can not emulate, because that implies mimicking, trying to make it happen like that. It's not that at all. But insofar as we can allow the breath, like letting a dog off a leash. Report an error in the passage at 15:56 Highlight the passage at 15:56

16:19 That means we just gave up control. You're out in a public park and it's, you know, one of those places, find to let your dog loose. Well, you know, you have no control then. When the dog finds a squirrel, then bye-bye dog, you know, you can't control it. But that's what we're doing with the breath, just letting it off the leash. Report an error in the passage at 16:19 Highlight the passage at 16:19

16:36 And then really permitting it to be shallow, deep, irregular or regular, pausing after the out-breath or not, pausing a bit after in-breath or not. Report an error in the passage at 16:36 Highlight the passage at 16:36

16:49 It really is an issue of trust. That if you really let loose, relinquish all control, number one, you won't suffocate. Nobody, while in good health, breathes out and is so relaxed, they asphyxiate them. Well, what happened? And if you try it, You say, I've had enough of life, I'm going to kill myself. Report an error in the passage at 16:49 Highlight the passage at 16:49

17:14 I dare you. It's not going to work out. That breath is going to come in. You can like it or lump it, but you're not going to kill yourself that way. You have to be cleverer than that, because that breath is going to come in one way or another. It's going to plunge in. And so, the out-breath is key here, because the whole issue is release of control, right? Well, that's not so easy to do when the breath is flowing in, because we have a kind of sense we have to tug it, pull it in a bit. Report an error in the passage at 17:14 Highlight the passage at 17:14

17:38 I want to live. I am, I will become, I will become. The breathing out, even dead people can breathe out. If you fill your lungs and then, you know, you're dead, you can still breathe out. Your dead body will breathe out. Dead body won't breathe in, but that's one thing you can do even after you're dead, you can still breathe out. And so it's obviously a time to relax, to let go. Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

18:01 And so really take that ride, okay, now I'm going to really let it all hang out, all flow out. And that just total surrender. I give an analogy. Maybe it's really overkill, but I give an analogy. Imagine you and I are really, really good friends. We've known each other for decades. And Lynn? Kim. Kim, thank you. And I say, Kim, I'm in a financial crisis right now. I need pretty much all the money you've got in your bank. And I can give it back to tomorrow. I guarantee. Report an error in the passage at 18:01 Highlight the passage at 18:01

18:27 You know me. But I will give it back. Every cent of it I give back tomorrow. But even your pocket change, I really need the money right now. You know? And imagine, I mean, she just knows me, like a brother, a kin, a husband, whatever, but you know, you just know me and you know I'm absolutely trustworthy. And you say, if you need it, I don't need my money for the next 24 hours, sure, you're going to give it back, I know that. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:47 So yeah, sure, have it. Have a nice day, good, I'm happy I can help. And then the next day I give it all back. But if you have that total trust, this is obviously being a thought experiment, if you have that total trust, you just do it fearlessly. Okay, I just gave away my money, but I give it to this person, not anybody, this person. Report an error in the passage at 18:47 Highlight the passage at 18:47

19:05 Which means I know I'm going to get it back. Right when he said. And so it's that kind of trust. But you're not trusting another person. It's giving all your breath away. All the way to pocket change. But it's without expelling. So I'll do a cartoon of it. I can exaggerate it a bit. But here I'll do it. I'm speaking. Report an error in the passage at 19:05 Highlight the passage at 19:05

19:22 Now watch about this. Report an error in the passage at 19:22 Highlight the passage at 19:22

· · · silence, 1 minute

19:55 And there was no anxiety there. I gave it all away, but now it's going to give it back. And it was just releasing. At no point was I kind of pushing it out. And this wasn't the optimal posture either. I wanted to be really sitting up straight or else supine because there was a little bit of cramping there. Not cramping, but a little bit of concave. But it's that just total release, but fearlessly. Report an error in the passage at 19:55 Highlight the passage at 19:55

20:15 So you know if you breathe out totally, you're vulnerable. If somebody, once you've done that, plunges your head underwater, you're in bad shape. Hold your breath. You can do that for two minutes or so, maybe longer. But with the out-breath and you're plunged underwater, oh, now you're really imperiled, right? So when the breath is totally gone, we are... Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:33 On thin ice. But if you're healthy, you're in normal altitude and all of that, you're in peril, but you're not. Because there's no danger here. And so it's that sense of total abandon, total surrender, total release. And then I emphasize the end of the out-breath because it's very easy to talk through it. Report an error in the passage at 20:33 Highlight the passage at 20:33

20:51 That you'd be caught up in rumination. And then on autopilot, the mind's going to click in and yank it right back in again, the breath back in again. So you'd like to kind of savor the motion. Some people call it the sweet spot. And that is you breathe out. And maybe there's a pause. Be Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:12 quiet. And Report an error in the passage at 21:12 Highlight the passage at 21:12

21:16 then the breath just flows back in. And it's given but not taken. That it just flows in but you don't have to take it. It's like you're having your palm out. And then you place something in my palm. I don't need to take it. You just gave it to me. And I have to just accept it. And so the breath flows in like that. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:33 But it flows in like that only if we're quiet enough to receive it without taking it. If we're caught up in rumination we'll probably take it. And so... That's why it's a key. I didn't really teach it as a relaxation technique as much as really learning how to relinquish all control. And the easiest access to that is with the out-breath. Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

21:54 And the way to really take that to the culmination is the very end of the out-breath. So that you've given it all away and then be patient and fearless. And if there's a pause, let there be a pause. If it flows in immediately, let it flow in immediately. But whatever it is, it's okay. It really is okay. Report an error in the passage at 21:54 Highlight the passage at 21:54

22:11 And you can really let it be. And this is where, when we totally, mindfully, but totally relinquish all control over the breath, that this really, the real healing capacity takes over. I'll give one more analogy. A woman considerably older than you, older than I am right now, but I was several years back, quite a few years back, I was in a six-month retreat. And then as an elderly woman, I think she was about 70 at the time, maybe late 60s. Report an error in the passage at 22:11 Highlight the passage at 22:11

22:37 And so she let me a little cottage. She had a main cabin out in the desert and a little cottage. And she let me stay there. And she's very, very kind. And what I offered in return, she asked me, would you teach me meditation? So I was in very strict retreat, but I would break my meditation to teach her. Very happy to do so. And she was living alone. She had no children, no relatives, very little social life. Report an error in the passage at 22:37 Highlight the passage at 22:37

22:57 Happy, content, living out in a beautiful place, financially secure, independent. But she had very, very few demands on her time. Report an error in the passage at 22:57 Highlight the passage at 22:57

23:05 And she would meet on a regular basis with a few other kind of elderly ladies. And what she told me was when they'd get together for every fortnight or whatever, they'd be sitting over their tea and cookies and so forth, and they would just commonly talk about their physical complaints. You know, oh, my asthma, oh, yeah, my rheumatism, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, my, you know. And they'd be part of their chit-chat, oh, yeah, yeah, my body, all our bodies are falling apart, you know. Report an error in the passage at 23:05 Highlight the passage at 23:05

23:29 And so she would participate. She had her own complaints, most people do. And then I was teaching her mindfulness of breathing, with a big emphasis on supine position. She had not been a lifelong meditator, starting rather late. But she was serious. So I was meditating 9 or 10 hours a day. She was putting in 4 or 5 hours a day. She had not much else to do. She wanted to do this, doing it mostly in the supine position. And I was there for 6 months. Report an error in the passage at 23:29 Highlight the passage at 23:29

23:53 And at the end of the 6 months, she was frisky. I don't know any word for it. She said, you know... Many of these aches and pains and stiffness and stuff, it's gone. But what's really weird when I was just lying there, sometimes she said, and I say this, it's quite common, she's overall in good health, but just a body is kind of semi-worn out. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:16 She said, sometimes I'd be lying there, just doing the mindfulness of breathing, and my body would be racked with pain. Racked with pain, really intense. And she's lying there. She hadn't done any strenuous yoga or anything. So this pertains to the question about yoga. And then it would pass on through. And then the pain would be gone. And then some other weird stuff with kind of somatic sensations would arise. And it would pass on through. Report an error in the passage at 24:16 Highlight the passage at 24:16

24:39 And then something else. And then surges of energy. And surge of energy coming up. So one thing after another. But as the months flowed by, she just felt lighter, more buoyant. The body of those chronic aches and pains mostly dissipated. She still met with her old friends, but she found kind of embarrassingly that she didn't have anything to say. You know, okay, what's your turn? Report an error in the passage at 24:39 Highlight the passage at 24:39

24:59 What's your... I'm feeling pretty good. So if that were an exception, then why bother? But it's really quite common. And so what's happening here, again, I don't want to overemphasize it, I don't want to exaggerate it. It's not a panacea, it doesn't cure all ills. But those ills, those discomforts in the body that are clearly related to the nervous system or in terms of first-person physiology, to the prāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 24:59 Highlight the passage at 24:59

25:28 There are many, many illnesses. That are related to prāṇa. All stress related illnesses are related to prāṇa. Stress is dysfunctional prāṇa. This is healing from that level. And it manifests in buoyancy, pliancy and so forth. And the body is just feeling better. And it shifted her psyche as well. She was just much lighter. She was a nice person, balanced, she was healthy. But I just saw this kind of light, when I say girlish, I mean she had this very youthful kind of buoyant quality psychologically as well. Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

25:59 So it's very nice to see. So those are the benefits of learning how to really trust the body, let it breathe, and learning how. It's really a learnable skill and immensely worth learning, and it takes time. Some people learn it quickly, other people slowly, but either way, there it is, it's worth doing. Report an error in the passage at 25:59 Highlight the passage at 25:59

26:22 And so technique is helpful, and that's why that out-breath business. And then you get into it, and then you start tasting it. This is what it's like to simply witness the respiration rather than having my talons in it and trying to modify here and there. So good. Report an error in the passage at 26:22 Highlight the passage at 26:22

26:39 So let's maintain a flow of at least peripheral awareness of the breath, enjoy the beauty of the environment, and I'll see you at 7 o 'clock. And we'll have no more Dharma talk. We'll have probably two sessions, more time for discussion, at least until 9 o 'clock or shorter if we run out of questions and answers. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

26:54 See you very soon. Report an error in the passage at 26:54 Highlight the passage at 26:54