Guided Meditation with Jack Kornfield

Okay.

Hello, everyone.

Hello.

And welcome to another session with Be well Together. It's really, really amazing that in and amongst everything that's going on that's so harried, so crazy that you are here prioritizing your own well being. So good for you. If nothing else happened today, you made it here and that is a good testimony to you. I am thrilled today because we have a back by popular demand person with us. We have Jack Kornfield. Let me just quickly introduce you to Jack. He has trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, of India and Burma. He's been teaching meditation since 1974 and he helped introduce Buddhist mindfulness practices like just all over the western culture. He's authored more than a dozen books selling more than a million copies, and he is the founder of the renowned Spirit Rock Meditation Center. So, Jack, I just can't thank you enough for joining us. It's always such a pleasure to get to listen to you and learn from you. And I will turn the floor over to you.

Thank you, Jody, and hello to everybody who's watching or listening. A lot of deep affection for you and for the many friends at Salesforce, starting with Mark, who's at the top in some ways as a community. So I think the first thing is to start with a very brief grounding practice and then I'll talk for a bit and lead us into a different meditation that I did last time. And Jodi, I don't know, but are these recorded? So if someone wants to go back to previous meditations, can they bring those up?

Absolutely, yes. We have a whole landing page with all of our be well speakers, and so anybody can pull them up on demand whenever they want.

Okay, Beautiful. So because these times are so difficult, uncertain, and because in them we carry not only our own personal feelings of worry or anxiety or concern or all kinds of other things that get touched within us, but we also are connected with one another. And so we're healed of concern in. In these times, with so much. So much change happening and in many cases already significant kinds of loss, loss of being able to see people worry for our aging parents and so forth, one of the things that's helpful regularly is just very simple grounding. So if you would let your eyes close gently, feel your feet flat on the floor, feel your buttocks on the chair or the cushion and how gravity holds you to the earth, that there's a very deep connection to the earth from which your body has come. And take two or three deep breaths to release any obvious tension that you can. Now, as you sit, let yourself remember one of the most magnificent, strong, wonderful trees you've ever seen in your life. Maybe it's been a redwood or an oak or a giant eucalyptus or some other tree that has a beautiful trunk of centuries and spreading branches and roots deep into the earth. And for this practice, imagine that you're there next to the tree, under this tree, practicing together. And just as the tree is breathing, breathing in carbon dioxide in its leaves and breathing out oxygen, and you breathe with the tree together, you breathe in the oxygen from the tree and feed it back carbon dioxide, so you're nourished by this great tree. And now feel or sense or imagine that you have roots that go down through your feet and your body deep into the earth, like the tree itself. Let the tree show you, teach you how you can be deeply grounded, feel, sense. Imagine your energy body going all the way deep into the earth. And as you do, allow the stillness and steadiness of the tree to become part of your own body. Rooted, strong, earthy. And for years, winds will come, there will be storms and rainbows, and there will be birds that fly through the tree. There will be snowfall and hail, and the bee is flexible and can move those as you are. But underneath it all, you can be rooted and steady in the present moment, just where you are. This tree rests in the reality of the present, the place of steadiness, of timelessness, of strength. And feel this within your whole being, that you too have steadiness, roots, Strength. Let the well being fill your body. It.

That was so touching. I thought of this tree that I hadn't thought of in decades. There was a tree at the top of my street that was this giant evergreen, and it was so big that there were branches for all of the kids in the neighborhood. And we all had our special branch that we would hang out in. And it was so nice to think of that in terms of the weathering, the storms, and wondering how that tree is doing, and just so many fond memories. It's really touching.

Lovely. So this becomes your ally. As the shamans in every indigenous cultures know that we need to connect ourselves with nature, the nature around us, even in this way. You may not be able to go out to the mountains at this point, but you carry the mountains in your heart and the trees in your heart, and they know you when you remember them. So that's beautiful. Jodi, let me talk a little bit more and then guide you into a different meditation practice. Above all, in this time, we need to stay connected and There's a kind of great irony that the separation that's happened physically for all of us has been dissolved in this mystery. And it is a mystery uncertainty, because the veils of separation, the ways that we have believed ourselves to be independent, are dissolving all around the world. And we feel ourselves in this web of community and life, the reality of our interconnection. And now in this seeming isolation, we actually are learning how much we need one another, new ways to connect in time and in heart and in mind. So above all, stay connected, intend and care in this mystery. Now, in these meditations and in your inner reflection, you are doing something that they say in Zen described. They say you sweep the garden, and it doesn't matter how big the garden is, that is, you quiet the mind and tend the heart and find your steadiness and inner courage and compassion or well being. And then from this place of steadiness and stillness, this place of compassion and care, then you get up and you sweep the garden of the world, which is the dishes that you wash and the members of your family, if you're living with others, the community around you, and of course, virtually all of your colleagues and companions, loved ones and more. And each of us has gifts to give, no matter where we are. It can be the gift of a virtual smile. It can be a song sometimes singing from the balconies. But we have to remember that we are planting seeds of love even as we go through this very difficult time. And we as humans have lived through in generations and millennia past, huge cycles of floods and earthquakes, tsunamis and epidemics. And they're not the end of the story. After the storm clouds weep to their end, something new is born. And it always is. And in this case, 99 or more percent of us will still be here. Many, many, most of us. And so what seeds do we plant now? How do we weather this? We don't do it alone. But you can feel in yourself the connection, the deep rooted connection with your ancestors and the survival of humanity that is in your DNA and in yourselves. You want to also remember to look for beauty amidst the difficulty, to see if there are plum blossoms visible outside your window, to listen to a special piece of music as those have been going around where the whole orchestra is each playing in their living room and joining one another, to remember the beauty and know that your heart is part of the heart of the mother of the world that carries the whole world with a certain measure of cosmic pain that we each are given to carry and a measure of extraordinary Beauty and that your heart is big enough to hold it all. And in holding it all, to offer blessings. Because the suffering is not the end of the story. Love is. Love is in the end what matters more than anything. And so it's time to be the medicine. It's time to be the uplifting music, if you can offer it. It's time to be the poet. It's time to be a lamp in the darkness, to burst out in love to others, to be a carrier of hope. And even if it's to mourn someone we've lost, to do so with a song to engage your heart. So now let your eyes close gently and we'll do a practice of loving kindness, the practice of metta and loving kindness for ourselves. And then extending it out to others until the whole world. And as you sit quietly, feeling your roots into the earth again, take a deep breath or two to center. And then feel yourself seated here, this precious your own body and mind. If you were to fall off the. Barreling the corner, you would instinctively jump back to protect your body and to protect your life, just as you would protect a child who was in danger. Feel the impulse of care, love from which this is born. And begin to with very softly, in your own heart and mind, the phrases of loving kindness. May I be safe and protected. May I be well. May I be tender with all the difficulties. May I be loving strong. And with each of these invitations of phrases, and you can change them in your own way as they speak from your heart, invite these qualities to be awakened in you. They may be a little at a time, they may even bring up other opposite feelings. And those two get held in loving kindness. May I be safe and protected. May I be well. May I be tender with the difficulties. May I be loving and strong. And know that as you grow in this connection to the deep well of loving kindness that is part of who you are, you can extend this and it will resonate with those around you. So now think of someone you love a lot, where it's easy, an easy caring relationship, where there's a natural love. As you picture them, remember them, envision them, open your heart and extend the same loving wishes and the whole field of energy of loving kindness. May you too be safe and protected and surround them with your love or with a golden light, or with whatever music or energy you feel will protect them and hold them. May you be well, May you be tender with difficulties. May you be loved. And. Now let the circle hard open further people in them as a circle around loved ones. Friends. And there you are in the center, rooted like the great tree, extending your loving kindness instead as you feel and envision them. May you all be safe and protected. Surround them with your love and blessings. May you all be well. May you all be tender with difficulties, And may all of you dear ones be loving and strong. Now let your heart open further to the human beings around this world who are just like you, with a circle of loved ones and friends, some of whom are concerned about their aging parents or how they will care for their children if they get sick, or how they'll survive. Some of them are concerned for their neighbors. All of them woven together in this great human family. You are part of them and they are part of you. And let yourself, with your eyes closed, lift your hands and extend them a little ways apart from your body, as if you could hold hands with the circle of all the humans on this earth, a hand on each side in this vast circle around the globe, all of us together, parents and children, young and old, near and far. May you all be safe and protected, And may you all stay well. May you be tender with difficulties, And may you be loving and strong. And finally return your attention back to this one seated here in the center of the circle and let yourself be filled with the well being and care, the ocean of love that has been passed on from generation to generation in the caring for children, in the planting of crops, in the feeding of one another, in the building of extraordinary things. And this is within you. You get to contribute your love and your gifts apart and action and feel the intention within your heart. What is the best intention? You have to live within this time. And whatever that intention may be carried on the streams and the winds of love. Sa. So this is another practice that can serve you that you can do in small bits during the day, or in the morning or the evening, just to remember the strength and capacity of heart you have to hold yourself and all around you with loving kindness. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jody.

Thank you so much. That was really wonderful and gave me a lot to think about.