Can you hear me?

All right, so hopefully we can get this right.

As I mentioned last night, the first, I don't know, five or six something days will
be quite dense with teachings, and then it should get a little more sparse.

So again, it's quite a lot to get through.

Fortunately, there's only Jhanna retreat people on tea wash-up tonight, so if we go

a little into the tea time, it shouldn't really affect anything, because those tea
wash-uppers will go as a team to do that, right?

But let's see how we do.

It shouldn't be that long.

Okay, I want to start with a guided meditation in a minute, and then talk some
after that.

Again, as I mentioned last night, it doesn't really matter how you get to Newton-
Abbott, and you can go in what look like completely opposite directions, and you
still get to Newton-Abbott.

And actually, they take roughly the same time, or whatever.

So, at some point, yesterday we offered this counting that most of you will have
been unfamiliar.

I think tomorrow or the next day we'll offer techniques which are much more
familiar, involving concentrating, focusing on the sensations that go with the
breath at certain points in the body.

The classical ones are upper lip or nose, or in the abdomen.

So, we'll also offer that in this kind of buffet or smorgasbord, whatever, of what
might work for you.

And there might be other practices.

There are certainly, possibly other practices that we're not even mentioning that
are viable, that may work really well.

Yeah, definitely.

We'll offer a few.

So, we will get to, if you don't like this business about whole body awareness and
energy body, don't worry.

We will get to a much narrower focus as an alternative, not as a better or worse,

as a perfectly equal viable term.

We'll get to that another time.

But today, I do want to go a little bit more into what I call the energy body, or
working with the whole body breath.

So, really today, this energy body is a big subject and it's actually quite hard to
sum it up in a sort of pithy sentence.

It's a concept that grows, that's elastic, that has all kinds of avenues to it.

But what I want to talk about today a little bit is energy body for samadhi, okay?

For those purposes.

And I'm just going to say a little bit.

I'm not going to do a whole exhaustive thing.

So, two terms to get a little bit used to.

One is whole body.

Okay.

When I say whole body on this retreat, what I mean, and I'm not going to say it
every time.

So, every time you hear whole body from now on, what it means is your felt sense in
the moment of this whole space. actually a little bit bigger than your physical
body. whole space, that's what the whole body means, and the felt sense.

So, when I say attention to your whole body, awareness for whole body, that's what
I mean.

Okay?

A bit bigger, a bit larger than your physical body, but I'm really talking about
the felt sense of that whole space.

Okay?

So, that's whole body is shorthand for that.

If I mean something else, I'll try and say, no, but I really mean your toes or
whatever it is.

Okay.

That's one vocabulary term.

Another is just energy body.

What does this mean?

Some of you are very familiar with this.

Some a lot less.

Again, it's hard to pinpoint what it actually is meant by that.

But if we just start very simply, it's the vibration, the feeling, the texture, or
the energy of this, of that space.

That's really what we're talking about when we say it, just as an introductory
idea.
So texture, vibration, feeling, energy is slightly different than what we're used
to because I can feel the sensations of my backside pressing on the chair.

Or if I stub my toe, I feel those sensations.

Okay?

There are slightly different kinds of sensations.

So we're actually talking about something that's a little bit more subtle.

I remember being taught this by a monk when I was living in the States, and then
going on a Mahasi retreat, and having an interview with the teacher there, and
explaining to him how I was working with the breath with this whole body.

And of course, very into mindfulness of body and the Mahasi tradition and all that.

And he sort of said, "Well, what are you actually paying attention to?"

So even for a long-term meditator, it was a bit of a baffling concept.

Certainly in our wider culture, it's like, "What do you mean when you say
vibration, texture, feeling, energy?"

So it's like, "I'm trained with the kind of quality or poise of attention that
reveals that kind of realm or strata of experience."

It's just not in our culture.

And I mean, it's getting in the meditation culture.

But the story says about that teacher, it wasn't around.

It's a little bit more now.

So texture, feeling, vibration, energy, as opposed to sensation of contact or that

kind of thing.

But even this, these are vague terms.

And it's sort of more pointing in a certain direction in which hopefully your
experience will begin to open up and you start to get more familiar and confident
with all that.

The second aspect that I would like to pinpoint about when we say energy body, the
sense of the body, now especially as we're talking about energy body for Samadhi,
the sense of the body is integrated.

So this area, this space, feels like one whole as opposed to my feet are kind of
over there and my head is up here and it's all made of bits.

As we move, certainly as we move towards Samadhi, it gets more and more integrated.

It really feels like one body area, one realm or one texture of experience.

So we could define an energy body like that.

Or let's be a little bit more helpful, I think, and just say that's the direction.
It's going towards this sense of an integrated space, an integrated experience,
body area.

Does that make sense?

Yes?

Secondly, for integration and related is homogeneity.

What is the Swedish for homogeneity?

like milk homogenized yeah, good okay, finish great okay okay, good so what's
homogenous then?

not only is the experience homogenous or tending more and more towards homogeneity
but the awareness too is homogenous meaning it's not I have less and less of a
feeling of my awareness being up here kind of peering down at my body experience
down there somewhere it's more like the awareness inhabits equally homogeneously
the whole space and even a little bit bigger so the whole thing is integrated and
homogenized and we could make that a definition of energy body awareness but let's
just make it this is the direction yeah so this is what we're kind of working
towards after a while that just becomes the norm it just immediately is integrated
and homogenized but like so many things in samadhi we kind of ease it that's what
we're working towards okay let me say something else before we do our meditation
I've noticed and it may be true for other people apart from me so again we're
talking about energy body with respect to samadhi now samadhi is a cultivation it
has a direction it has a goal that we're interested in it has we're wanting to
develop something we're not just we can relate to the energy body just how does it
feel what's happening there oh that's interesting can I accept that can I open to
it etc that's fine that's one way of relating to energy body but with the whole
samadhi practice we're actually interested can I coax this space this experience
this energy body can I coax it into something nice can I encourage that there's a
directionality and a desire there so with respect to the energy body with respect
to samadhi it may be in terms of how coaxable it is what actually is possible to
open up it's actually much more sensitive in this context to something like
temperature of your physical body so wrap in blankets or it's a cold day so wearing
a sweater etc I've noticed that if I'm just I dress like I would be comfortable in
the house or wherever I am or put a blanket on if I'm kind of like it's a little
cool I put a shawl on or whatever I don't feel too warm I feel fine I feel
comfortable when I come to the samadhi practice if I take that shawl off a lot more
opens up now it's not like I take it off and then I'm you know shivering and my
teeth are chattering it's just it's the kind of difference that usually I wouldn't
even think about I wouldn't need to make if it's a hot day let's say it's really
hot and I'm sitting in a t-shirt and it's uncomfortably hot this doesn't happen so
it's something weirdly to do with the shawl or the sweater or whatever so I may be
the only human being that that that is the case for but I would encourage you again
to experiment not you know careful of that inertia you might have the opposite you
might find that actually no I need to be a little warmer so what's the criteria
it's not am I comfortable how do I like it I don't like cold it's not I don't have
anything apart from skin and bones for a start and my ancestry is North African so
I don't like cold but it's not about that it's about we're always interested what
helps the energy body experience it's this ongoing experiment what helps what helps
check know yourself you understand so you have to be willing to experiment with
something like this so I'm just throwing that out as a little thing okay let's do a
guided meditation to start and then I'll talk later no this is good yeah okay so
it's worth taking taking those few extra moments to really find that posture again
don't be lazy about this are you are you sitting are you doing just how you usually
do without paying much attention to it or are you taking the trouble to really find
what it feels a certain way when the posture reflects that kind of ideal balance
between uprightness alertness on the one hand and openness softness receptivity on
the other hand it actually feels a certain way you need to get get that get it in
the groove then actually you'll feel that affect your mind so it's worth taking the
trouble even if you've been meditating for 30 years it's worth just finding that
and again starting by feeling the posture feeling that balance balance of qualities
that are beautiful dignity nobility that are expressed by that balance between
those complementary faculties of the citta or qualities of the citta there's
actually a poise an uprightness a firmness in the balance it feels balanced and it
affects the citta feel the openness feel the receptivity the softness in the body
can you make it a little bit more open a little bit more soft right now what would
you change can you feel the uprightness the resolution the alertness in the posture
what would you change to make it more right now subtle changes are you willing to
change something in the posture right now feeling the beauty of the posture and
then when you're ready opening up the awareness to embrace to include the whole
body the whole body and what that means again is that whole space a little bit
bigger than your physical body just getting a felt sense of what that whole space
feels like inhabit the whole space bright alive sensitivity permeating pervading
that whole space so you don't have to get rid of any image of your physical form
your hands your legs your toes if that's there but you also don't have to reinforce
it what we're more interested in is the felt sense the texture the vibration of
this space so not a problem if there's an image of the body but you don't have to
reinforce it either eventually that begins to fade how does it feel how does it
feel how does it feel so the awareness will keep shrinking it will shrink a
thousand times and just keep opening it out to just a little bit bigger and then
the physical body space and fill that with alive awareness presence and then
keeping that whole body awareness just noticing noticing the breath as it comes and
goes and noticing how it affects the whole body how it affects the sense the felt
sense of that whole space how it feels in the whole space or makes that whole space
feel of course that changes with the in-breath with the out-breath at different
points so the whole body awareness noticing the effect of the breath effects and
then when you're ready beginning to establish this longest breath this longest
breath so not right now not with a count we'll leave the counting out what's the
longest comfortable breath not a strain but way longer but way longer than you
would usually take slow smooth comfortable you don't need to move you don't need to
move a lot of air relatively speaking it's quite a subtle breath so whole body
space felt sense of that longest breath in and out long slow smooth now can you
notice this whole space the whole body can you feel can you feel the expansion of
that whole space with the in-breath and just what does that feel like it's not just
your rib cage and your lungs the whole body that whole space including where your
feet would be your head places we don't usually think of as breathing actually that
whole space is expanding what does that feel like and with the exhalation there's a
kind of opposite movement what does that feel like so in the whole space attuned
alive filled with awareness the longest breath just how does it feel the expansion
and the contraction with the breath really tuning to that and feeling it Thank you.

Keep with the long breath, the longest breath, even if it feels a little awkward,
you can just gently work to make it comfortable, smooth, slow.

That's the first work.

The second work is the attention collapses countless times, no big deal.

Just open it out again, stretch it, and then the third piece of work, fill that
space with real bright presence.

Fill that expanded space with bright presence.

Tuning to the feeling.

Thank you.

Keep opening the space to the whole body, the attention to the whole space.

Okay.

So keeping this longest breath, keeping this whole body awareness, is it possible
to add an awareness, a sensitivity to notice, can you notice, is it possible, that
with the in-breath, there is also a sense of energization.

And the in-breath naturally, organically energizes the whole space.

And you can feel that, or see if you can feel that.

How does it feel?

Feel it right to the edges of the space, the whole body.

And tune to, even in-breath.

Open to this experience, the sense, the feeling of energization, with the in-
breath.

And with the out-breath, there is something like a feeling of relaxation, of

letting go.

It also has a certain range of feeling of tone.

Can you notice that?

Can you feel that?

Can you open to that and enjoy it?

Energization through the whole space with the in-breath, a kind of relaxation,
easing, letting go with the out-breath.

Qualities of energy that fill the whole space with the in and the out-breath.

So this is what we want to tune to, open to, really feel.

Thank you.

Open.

Open.

Opening the body with the breath.

With the breath energy.

Letting the breath energy open the body.

And the attention, the awareness open to that whole space and how it feels.

Over and over and over.

Right there in the moment, alive, feeling it, opening to it.

Even subtly enjoying it.

Thank you. the longest breath.

How does that feel?

How does it make the whole space feel?

The in and out breath, the longest breath in and out there at the solar plexus, how
does it affect the whole body, the whole space?

Maybe you notice nothing, it's just the same expansion and contraction or
energization, relaxation.

That's great.

If that's what you notice, then tune into that, just as you've been doing.

But people are different, and some people notice as if the breath comes in there,
perhaps, and there are currents that ripple out or emanate out from the solar
plexus with the in-breath, for instance, going down the body and up the body at the
same time.

The wave or the current of energy, the double current, up the body and down the
body from this point of the solar plexus.

So you may notice that.

How does that feel if you do notice it?

No problem if you don't notice something like that.

You might want to try imagining it.

Can you imagine the feeling, a kinesthetic imagination, the breath coming in at the
solar plexus, the breath coming in at the solar plexus, and currents going
simultaneously in opposite directions?

up the body and down the body and down the body.

Just play.

Imagine that. whole body space, longest breath.

How does it feel?

How does it feel?

Thank you.

Letting the breath open the body.

The breath energy, letting it open the body.

Letting the breath open the body.

Thank you. to stay with that point in the solar plexus or just go back generally to
the whole body, it really doesn't matter.
Whatever you feel works for you right now.

But put a question in there as something to experiment with: What length of breath,
what kind of breath, really feels best right now, actually gives you the nicest
feeling in that space, allows the space, the whole body to feel most pleasant and
it might just be comfortable.

So is it keeping this really longest breath?

Is it a very short breath?

Is it somewhere in between?

Is it a kind of very, very subtle breath or a grosser breath?

Smooth or coarse?

What feels best right now?

What way of breathing feels best right now?

You have to experiment.

So not just your default way of breathing, not just let it go, it feels comfortable
because I'm used to it, not just the default, play, play, experiment.

It might be that this longest breath and the way it really opens up the body is
just that's what feels really good right now or even a little bit good.

Or it may be that a much shorter, subtler breath feels somehow perhaps more
soothing or more gentle and that's what feels really good right now or somewhat
good.

Whole body space, feeling how the breath is perceived in the way the body is
moving, how the different kinds of breath make that whole body space feel.

Tuning to that, intimate with that, open to that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. and a willingness to play and experiment a little bit.

It's all very light.

Thank you.

When you're ready, just opening the eyes, coming out of the meditation.
I'm going to keep it going for a while.

Then what we do.

Okay, so let's just briefly recap what we just did.

These are things to play with, things to experiment with if you want.

You may find some or all of them useful at different times you incorporate, or none
of them, whatever.

So the posture.

Even if you've been meditating for 30 years, it's really worth taking the trouble.

After a while, posture matters less for jhana, but at the beginning, it's going to
matter a lot, and this balance thing.

So that's one thing.

I'm not going to repeat what I said about whole body, etc.

Just what we did in the meditation.

Longest breath, in this case, we started.

It doesn't have to be.

The same principles apply.

Three kinds of things to pay attention to.

The expansion and contraction of the whole space.

Not just your ribcage, but the whole space.

And it feels a certain way.

Second thing, the energization and relaxation, again, that you can feel in the
whole space.

Okay?

The third aspect, actually, which we'll pick up again, is the possibility that
within that whole space, you notice certain currents of energy.

Some do, some don't.

And if you find that you just imagine them, and then you can feel them, great.

And it feels good and feels helpful, just go for it.

Imagine them.

So those three things.

Those three things to work with.

And then this piece about what way of breathing feels good right now.
The longest, very short course. smooth, smooth, etc.

So often we just go into a default breath.

And the only reason it feels comfortable is just because we're used to it.

At that moment, it may well not be that helpful in terms of really energizing and
opening and healing and soothing and moving towards samadhi.

So we have to be, again, willing to let go of our inertia. if it's there.

Okay.

I don't know.

I'm not sure of the right name, but I remember taking lots of yoga classes years
ago and stuff like that.

And there's a way that some teachers would encourage us to breathe while we were
doing the postures.

So it goes like that.

Yeah, Ujjaya.

No.

We don't want it.

Why?

Because, great as it might be for all that other stuff, it keeps the breath coarse.

That's why you hear it, because it's coarse.

And again, like I said yesterday, samadhi is more dependent on open-heartedness

than focus.

I said that yesterday, right?

I'm also going to say, samadhi is really about increasing subtlety and refinement
much more than it is about focus.

Or I want to emphasize that, and I'll explain why as we go on.

So if I'm keeping the breath kind of coarse, either just because I'm used to it or
whatever, or because I've, I don't know, it's a sound that I've associated with
sort of breathing or whatever in a certain way, I'm actually just keeping myself,
I'm preventing myself deepening in samadhi, because it can't, the breath needs to
get subtle, the mind needs to get subtle.

The journey of samadhi, the journey into jhanas, is a journey into increasing
refinement and subtlety.

And we could say it's more that than it is into increasing ability to nail your
mind to something and stay there all day, or whatever it is.

Changing the view here for most people, I think very differently about what we're
doing.

And as I emphasize, so with the length of the breath and the kind of the breath,
and we'll get more into this if you're experimenting, what we want is a sensitivity
that permeates the whole space and a responsivity, a responsiveness, and willing to
respond to what feels good, what feels less good.

Sensitivity, responsiveness, and willingness to experiment and play.

So those principles, sensitivity, responsibility, and willingness, right now we're

talking about them in regard to the length of the breath and the kind of the
breath.

As we go on and get more and more and deeper and deeper into the whole, those same
qualities, sensitivity, responsivity, and willingness, start to apply to more and
more aspects of the whole movement of samadhi and the deepening of samadhi.

We become sensitive in relation to this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and
responsive in relation to this, this, this, this, this, this, and willing to
experiment and play.

So right now we're just talking about the term length and kind of breath, but those
principles are absolutely key.

And they're the opposite, again, of what we said of inertia that we talked about
yesterday, right?

Yeah?

So it's a bit like, I mean, with the length of the breath and the kind of breath,
it's a bit like riding a bike with gears. on a bicycle.

You get a sense of what gear is actually helpful.

Now, I could stay in this gear to go up this hill, but there's going to be a lot of
work.

You know, this gear feels better.

Or when I'm going downhill, you know, right?

Or if you've improvised music with someone or improvised dance with someone, it's
got to be exactly what I've just said, sensitive, responsive, and willing to try
stuff and do stuff differently.

If you're improvising a dance together, or you're improvising music together, or

whatever it is, or theater or something, if you're making love, it's got to be
that.

I mean, it cannot be that, but then your experience together is going to be your,
and the breath or your energy is going to be a lot more limited, right?

So these are really key principles.

Opposite of inertia, opposite of whatever is the default.

Okay.

Let me say something.

I'll say it now because I might forget to say it at the end, okay?

But it really should go at the end, but I'll say it now.

In between formal practices, so in between sitting and walking, and when you're
just moving around or whatever, as I said, what we want, last night I said, what we
want is a general kind of whole body awareness, a general sort of aware of this.

Remember what whole body means?

It's how this whole space feels.

If you can get the kind of energy body sense within that, great. but at least to
start, the whole body awareness.

And a general light kind of mindfulness.

This is very relaxed though, okay?

So I said yesterday about not too slow, not too fast, etc.

Just to help.

But what I'm talking about is a kind of awareness.

As I'm moving through the day, as I'm in the lunch queue, as I'm doing my job, as
I'm going forward, there's this whole body awareness, but the whole feel of it is
quite relaxed and open.

So again, sometimes we get used to paying attention in a way that's kind of very,
it's a bit tense, it's a bit heavy.

You can almost feel someone like that when they're in that mode.

It's like, if you can get a sense, it's like the whole, the space feels relaxed.

It's not a heavy, intense attention.

Intense attention has its place, and we'll talk about that, the energization of
attention.

But what I'm really talking about as we move around is a kind of open, easeful
attention, and an open, easeful body, and they go together.

So, it may not sound like a big deal, but if I've got that a little bit wrong,
again, I'm not actually allowing the whole, the dough to rise here.

I'm not allowing the process to cook properly.

So, again, the question, it becomes a question that's as a seed inside.

What helps, right now, in this moment, what helps me kind of to get into that kind
of poise as I'm moving around, as I'm going to the toilet, as I'm whatever I'm
doing, that kind of relationship, that kind of state of energy, body awareness.
like what kind of stance or pressure do I have to have with it?

Do I need to kind of loosen off and relax a little bit?

Or actually, do I need to bring and cohere my attention a bit more?

So, always there's a question, and the question invites us into this playfulness,
responsiveness, sensitivity.

Yeah?

The whole deal.

Yeah?

And in addition to that, as I said last night, just to say it again, we're also, as
we're moving around in between formal, practices, we're cultivating, supporting,
and inclining the citta, the heart and the mind, towards appreciation.

We're taking care of that base, nourishment, in the deep sense, in the soul sense,
well-being, mudita, as we said.

Yeah?

Okay, that was longer than I anticipated, but shall we break that there?

Thanks.

Thank you for listening.

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