The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  Again I feel such gratitude for your presence.  You were so kind as you patiently waited for class to begin.  Your support enabled me to feel vulnerable, imperfect and o.k.  When I got home today I found this advice from writer Jack Kerouac:  “Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now,”  As luck would have it, today’s class was inspired by our vulnerability.  I recently discovered Tara Brach’s new book, Radical Compassion and her beautiful talk:  Loneliness as a Portal to Sacred Presence.  This is part of her Sheltering in Love series which I have found very helpful in my sheltering practice.  I also shared from Krista Tippett’s interview with poet David White:  The Conversational Nature of Reality in which he spoke to our essential vulnerability.

Guided Relaxation

Right now as we step out of the stream of doing – we can offer ourselves loving kindness – a tender caring – a willingness to truly acknowledge our own vulnerability.   Meditation teacher and author Tara Brach calls this:

 “Radical compassion . . .”[It]  means including the vulnerability of this life – all life in our heart.  It means having the courage to love ourselves, each other, and our world.  Radical compassion is rooted in  mindful, embodied presence and it is expressed actively through caring that includes all beings.  

We start where we are.  We start in mindful embodied presence.   We  start by taking some deeply nourishing breaths . . . you can place your hands over your chest and feel the breath filling you . . . taking in  a slow deep breath . . . and then just letting it go again . . . feeling the fullness of breath in the fullness of time . . . Relax and let your arms rest where they arel comfortable . . . Feel your shoulders . . . arms . . . hands . . . Sense the aliveness in these areas . . . Can you be present in a relaxed wakeful way?  

Notice how your shoulders enjoin your upper back . . . Feel your wings at rest . . . not having to carry anything . . . supported by the earth . . . Can you let go a little bit more? Maybe with a sense of tenderness?  

Notice how your shoulder blades meet your ribs . . . Circle your awareness around the ribs to the center of your chest where they meet your breastbone . . . Can you feel how your ribs move with your breath? . . . Notice any tension here . . .Ssee if you can soften these areas by exploring openness . . . .

Presencing with the body . . . bringing a wakeful, open and tender awareness to your feeling being . . . This loving presence is nurturing and healing . . . In the open spaciousness of loving presence we can be with what is true for us . . . 

Poet and writer David Whyte writes about embodiment 

which simply means being here in your body — not anywhere else, just here with life’s fierce need to change you — the fact that the more you’re here and the more you’re alive, the more you realize you’re a mortal human being and that you’ll pass from this place.

He asks 

Will you become a full citizen of vulnerability, loss, and disappearance, which you have no choice about?

Right here, right now we awaken from the trance of our busyness . . . We quiet the inner voice that whispers our familiar stories . . . We see through our illusion of control . . .

What sensations are you aware of in your body?  Are there any strong emotions present?  Do you feel anxious or restless as you try to step out of your mental stories?  Do you feel pulled to resume your activity?  Can you simply stay right here, for just these few moments, and be with whatever is unfolding inside you?  What happens if you intentionally regard your experience with kindness?

David writes that

Vulnerability is not a weakness, a passing indisposition, or something we can arrange to do without, vulnerability is not a choice, vulnerability is the underlying, ever present and abiding undercurrent of our natural state. To run from vulnerability is to run from the essence of our nature, the attempt to be invulnerable is the vain attempt to become something we are not and most especially, to close off our understanding of the grief of others. . . .

The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger and more courageous and more compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance. . . .

In the openness of presencing we can acknowledge our vulnerability . . . recognize our fear . . . our pain . . .  and feel our loss . . . Tara asks us to

. . . imagine mindfulness and compassion as inseparable dimensions of awakening.  . . . awareness as a bird with two wings: When both wings are unfurled in their fullness and beauty, the bird can fly and be free.  

She describes how we can find healing and freedom right where we are in fear, loss, pain and vulnerability.

We can recognize what is going on inside – circling anxious thoughts, the deeper vibrations of sadness, the fiery frustration of anger.   

We can allow what is happening by breathing and letting it be.  . . . not trying to fix or change anything . . . not judging . . . only feeling . . . 

We can investigate by attending to where these feelings of anxiety or sadness surface in our bodies – physical tightness, pulling and pressure around the heart.  Maybe by resting your hands lovingly around this area – truly connecting.  Asking the anxious or the sad part . . . what it is believing . . . Asking that part of ourselves:  “What do you most need right now?” 

We can nurture that tender part by sending a gentle message:  “I care deeply about what you need.”

Our first response to a newborn baby is love.  We were born to love.  We heal ourselves with love.  We heal ourselves with loving presence.  We heal ourselves by feeling what is true.  We heal ourselves by discovering the beliefs that surface as feeling.  We heal ourselves by attending to our deepest needs.  

Jack Kerouac reminds us:

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
Rocks dont see it.
Bless and sit down.
Forgive and forget.
Practice kindness all day to everybody
and you will realize you’re already
in heaven now.
That’s the story.
That’s the message.
Nobody understands it,
nobody listens, they’re
all running around like chickens with heads cut
off. I will try to teach it but it will
be in vain, s’why I’ll
end up in a shack
praying and being
cool and singing
by my woodstove
making pancakes.