What Is Mindfulness Meditation: Beginners Mind(The Sit.Feel.Heal Experience)
In this talk and meditation, taken from Joe’s Thursday night class, “The Santa Cruz Meditation Group” Joe Clements guides participants through a grounding meditation, urging them to embrace discomfort as an integral part of the practice. He shares personal insights on the essence of meditation, emphasizing the simplicity of sitting, feeling, and healing. Joe highlights mindfulness as a practice of being present with experiences as they unfold, rather than creating them. Throughout the discussion, he encourages participants to adopt a beginner's mindset and explore meditation without preconceptions. The talk concludes with Joe inviting questions and reflections, underscoring the transformative potential of mindfulness in navigating life's challenges.
A transcript of this podcast can be found below.
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[00:00:18] Joe Clements: The flow of the group is we'll do a little grounding arriving meditation, and then ask a question that makes you all uncomfortable and you can answer it if you want to, you don't have to.
[00:00:29] Joe Clements: I don't know if it makes you uncomfortable but. Lean into the discomfort is the whole practice. And then I'll get into a topic, a little bit of a topic I'm going to bring in tonight. And then we'll do a longer meditation. Um, usually around seven 30 or so for about 25 minutes and all the meditation is guided.
[00:00:47] Joe Clements: You don't have to go in this bad neighborhood alone. I got you. And then afterwards time for questions, reflections, just sharing your experience, a good time for community and just kind of [00:01:00] normalizing our experience. Yeah. Any questions so far? Good enough. So just do a little arriving just about a minute.
[00:01:10] Joe Clements: I always like to, you know, we come into a meditation group. Okay, we're going to be meditating. Okay, let's go, whatever that means. But we get here and everything from the day from the week from a lifetime is here. And it's like, wait a minute, you know, so you can it. Just feel the feet on the floor, feel the body sitting, you're sitting, you're laying down, that's what it feels like, you don't have to close your eyes, and I even suggest not closing your eyes in the beginning, especially if this is the first time in this room, looking around the room, looking above everybody's heads, you don't have to play look away, if you make eye contact with somebody, you can give a nod or something, that's cool, But just letting your head move around in [00:02:00] this new surrounding does a lot for the nervous system.
[00:02:02] Joe Clements: You know, for me, it's like, okay, all right, look safe behind me. I know where the exits are.
[00:02:13] Joe Clements: And then when you feel that little bit of a settledness, you can close your eyes if you want to, or just rest your eyes somewhere, leave them open. And whether your eyes are open or closed, just checking into this internal landscape that you're arriving into.
[00:02:34] Joe Clements: Feeling the busyness, maybe of the day, the energy of the body could be restless. Maybe the mind is matching this restlessness of the body.
[00:02:54] Joe Clements: That's okay. No part of you is not [00:03:00] welcome here. Thoughts, emotions happen.
[00:03:08] Joe Clements: But then let's check into what else is present right now, shifting your awareness, just the sounds, hearing the different sounds coming to you. Of course, there's preferences, like a sound, you don't like a sound, neutral sound, just sound, in this moment, right now,
[00:03:36] Joe Clements: feel the body being held, this chair, this cushion,
[00:03:46] Joe Clements: right here, in the middle of each moment. This lifelong friend, the breath, here to greet you, here to breathe you. [00:04:00] So just welcome in that in breath, let go of the out breath, feel the body expand and collapse, the belly, the chest. You've arrived. This is what this moment has to offer.
[00:04:30] Joe Clements: You can even check in with this mood, this, these thoughts, these emotions sometimes have this mood. There's like a mood. And in your mind, if you just put a descriptive word, like what is the flavor of your mood right now? What flavor comes to mind?
[00:04:52] Joe Clements: Just the first thing that comes to mind. Could be silly, could make no sense, could make a lot of sense. Doesn't [00:05:00] matter. This is the flavor of the mood.
[00:05:09] Joe Clements: Taking another breath, checking in with the feet, the seat, the sounds. Just gently bringing your awareness back into the room with a stretch, looking around.
[00:05:37] Joe Clements: All right, what does arriving feel like? Anybody notice a shift just from kind of, I always notice a shift in the room. Just the whole fucking room goes, whoa, so nice. What's, what's, what are you coming in with? What's the flavor of your mood right now? Were you able to, what flavor even just [00:06:00] came to your mind?
[00:06:01] Joe Clements: Didn't even have to be the mood. It's a flavor. Indifference. You make a cake out of the indifference. Yeah. Indifference. I like it. Mine's kind of a cotton candy. It's like, I feel kind of fluffy and sweet, but it's that cotton candy that you eat too much and you're going to get sick. It's like, it's too much.
[00:06:26] Joe Clements: And it's like, there's already parts of it that are already kind of like getting the sugars kind of getting sticky. So it's not so fluffy. So it's an interesting feeling I'm feeling right now. What was that? Struggle. Okay. Yep. Say that one more time. In a good way. Struggle in a good way. That was you Jesse.
[00:06:51] Joe Clements: It's hard for me to see a little bit back.
[00:06:58] Joe Clements: Asparagus with [00:07:00] garlic butter. Yummy. I hope everybody ate already because that sounds really yummy.
[00:07:08] Joe Clements: Mint jelly. Yeah. Doesn't need, no meaning. It just came. Totally. They don't even like it. Right. Well, maybe that's the mood, right? Interesting. Okay. Okay. We're vibing a little bit. A little bit of vibing.
[00:07:28] Joe Clements: Yeah. Anybody else?
[00:07:35] Joe Clements: Appreciation. Yeah. Beautiful. Ooh, relaxing butterscotch. Yeah. Okay. I love that. You know, it's just a playful way. And I do this a lot. You see it. It's like a playful way. Like when you, even if it, It wasn't a flavor, whatever it was [00:08:00] just for a moment, you were, we, our mind goes to that thought, right? What, uh, asparagus and garlic tastes like.
[00:08:09] Joe Clements: So it's like, okay, that's it just for a moment. So it takes us out of this, like, Oh, whatever. And this is why I like descriptive words to express my emotions. Just talk about them. Because when I say it in that way, I'm just for a moment, I'm not feeling that, you know what I mean? It, it might be feeling it, but my attention's not on it and what makes us feel these big emotions is our attention is so on it, you know, it's not our fault.
[00:08:41] Joe Clements: We think the attention and we need to figure it out and get rid of it. You notice I go like this a lot, maybe, you know, cause this is where I feel it, feel it, you know. Yeah. So just a playful way.[00:09:00]
[00:09:00] Joe Clements: So I wanted to start the talk tonight with, um, a quote
[00:09:07] Joe Clements: by Mark Twain. Actually, it's interesting. I've lived through some terrible things in my life. He writes some of which actually happened.
[00:09:23] Joe Clements: Anybody relate with that? The proliferation of thoughts.
[00:09:33] Joe Clements: And the Buddha was quoted as saying, your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.
[00:09:45] Joe Clements: So I've been in my practice lately, you know, I teach a lot of groups and I feel like I'm always in it. I'm always into this like self reflecting, but I've gotten off of my formal practice of just sitting and really, [00:10:00] you know, working with the mind and not just proliferating And I've been finding myself really caught up in like some, some old thought pattern, not old thought patterns, but thought patterns that I haven't really experienced in a, in a while.
[00:10:17] Joe Clements: Cause yeah, so it's interesting. So, you know, the practices for me has been getting back to the simplicity of this practice. Meditation and even like coming to what is meditation, you know, and I feel like my whole three words, I can put my practice into three words and kind of break it down. It's a practice of sit, feel, and heal, sit, feel, and heal.
[00:10:51] Joe Clements: The first part is just like, it's, it's not like, okay, you sit in your field and you heal. You learn to sit. And not just [00:11:00] physically sit, but just sit with, be with, be with what is. And that's what meditation is to me, bringing attention, bringing attention to what is now there's all kinds of different forms of meditation now, but I think they're all pointing kind of towards the same place.
[00:11:22] Joe Clements: There's sound bath meditations, beautiful, big old bowls of crystal bowls and stuff, different frequencies. Beautiful. There's chanting meditations, just one focus, point of focus on a word over and over there's deep, different kind of breathing technique techniques. Wim Hof made it big, right? There's Wim Hof.
[00:11:44] Joe Clements: There's all kinds of different kind of breathing kind of stuff, movement meditations,
[00:11:53] Joe Clements: especially like yoga and stuff like, it's like really good stuff.
[00:11:59] Joe Clements: But for [00:12:00] me in mindfulness is a whole different form of meditation. And the difference for me is, is these, these meditations, these other meditations, they're creating an experience. They're creating an experience that is pleasant. It helps the nervous system. It does a lot for the body. And, you know, I think they're great.
[00:12:21] Joe Clements: But the thing that separates mindfulness meditation to me is It's not creating your experience. It's learning to be with experience as it is, you know,
[00:12:38] Joe Clements: and that's difficult because we want to escape. You know, but mindfulness is a very, very self empowering practice and it points us to this true nature that is here waiting for us. We don't need the bells. We don't need all that kind of stuff to be in this world out there. I mean, I [00:13:00] wish I'd be around to carry this thing around and I'm just stressed out and like fucking I need to pick up my kid.
[00:13:04] Joe Clements: I'm standing in fucking some line of my ball and somebody hurry up, you know,
[00:13:13] Joe Clements: I don't know. I could do that.
[00:13:18] Joe Clements: You know, but if I'm standing in a line and I'm late for something, I can, okay. I can feel that energy. I'm like, Oh, I'm stressed out. Okay. There's stress happening. Okay. Worried feet, see sounds, take a breath, looking around, look around, and I can make a decision and I can respond. Will it be okay if I'm a little late?
[00:13:38] Joe Clements: Probably. And then I can even sit there and play with it a little bit and investigate, contemplate where this feeling is coming from. Oh, okay. You know, there was a, there, there is a core wound to everything, you know, and the subtle way, you know, it's, it's [00:14:00] funny. I stress out about being late. I used to way more.
[00:14:03] Joe Clements: And I remember I was always late to school. I was always rushed to school and my mom would be freaking the fuck out, you know, and we were always late to everything. And like our family got teased because we were always late, you know, so there was this imprint in my mind. We can't be late. You know,
[00:14:25] Joe Clements: times a fucking construct anyway. Sorry about the cussing. It's time to construct. It's another talk. It's made up. Anyway, coming back. So this mindfulness practice, it gives us the tools to be with experience as it is. And it's a contemplative practice, contemplating our relationship to what we're experiencing them first thing.
[00:14:53] Joe Clements: And I refer to the Buddhist practice a lot because I feel like it has a really good foundation for this and has [00:15:00] some clear, direct kind of tools, you know, I don't feel like you need to be a Buddhist to do this though. I don't. I heard a really cool term the other day. Um, this person was, this guy in a band is talking about, he was in a Hare Krishna band and he was talking about like being a part of the Krishna culture.
[00:15:23] Joe Clements: And how he just takes bits and pieces. And he goes, you know, I kind of, my dad was, he was talking about his dad. He goes, my dad was like a cafeteria Catholic, you know, just taking what, you know, works for him. I'm like, Oh, I'm kind of a buffet Buddhist. You know, I take different parts that really work and adapt and, you know, but it's not just from the Buddhist practice, the teaching, the philosophy, all kinds of different modalities.
[00:15:55] Joe Clements: I mean, I'll do a sound bath. Hell yeah. I'll do some awkward movement. [00:16:00] I'll do all that kind of stuff. Cause I'm uncomfortable doing it. And if it's uncomfortable, I probably should lean into it, you know, just check it out at least. And then maybe I don't need to do it. Hello friends.
[00:16:17] Joe Clements: Hi Jesse. So we learned to sit with what is sit. So I just say sit because, you know, formal, we sit, we're sitting and laying down, but whether you're sitting, laying down, walking, just knowing that that's what you're doing. It's very simple. Right? But we're so distracted because we get stuck in the feelings.
[00:16:40] Joe Clements: We get stuck in the minutia of experience of I don't like this or I like that. And I want more of that on each end is suffering. The clinging, the craving is suffering, but we get to learn to experience the joy and the happiness when it's here, you know, [00:17:00] and that's, it's, it's important because it's hard if we're not paying attention, the joy and the happiness is really fucking fleeting in the mind.
[00:17:09] Joe Clements: Yeah. But the difficulties they stick, right? So in different practices and different mindfulness meditations, we can actually steer the mind To something positive. Gratitude is great. Go to something that's gratitude. Grateful. You know, you're grateful for it brings you joy and it'll be gone quick because you're like, yeah, but remember we did that.
[00:17:34] Joe Clements: And then something didn't happen. You know, so it's like, you know, it's like, Ooh,
[00:17:42] Joe Clements: so mindfulness meditation. And I think just meditation in general, it's not a goal oriented practice. You know, we're not going anywhere.[00:18:00]
[00:18:00] Joe Clements: We're not looking for that light at the end of the tunnel
[00:18:06] Joe Clements: because there is no tunnel. There's only light and there's only dark. That's it. You know, there can't be, you know, and we all know it. Every philosopher and poet says that they speak to this a lot, that there's no light without the dark. There's not. You know, we need both, we need both. So how do we do this?
[00:18:33] Joe Clements: And how does, what is the mind? How does the mind work? I don't totally know. I have an idea, read some books, but mostly I've had this experience. I can picture it, you know, in our awareness. So mindfulness in its basic, the basics of it is just awareness, present time awareness. So let's think about it.
[00:18:56] Joe Clements: Awareness focus, bringing our focus to something. Yeah. [00:19:00] Yeah. So when we bring our awareness, like let's just say we're bringing our awareness to the feet, it might be doing it right now. We'll go your toes. You bring awareness. The mind kicks in. The mind sends information feeder. Okay. It kind of critiques the feet.
[00:19:14] Joe Clements: Okay. Feeder. All right. I feel the sock. And then the, when the mind does that, it sends information to the brain feeder. Okay. Can relax. But what happens is we come in a lot. So just triggered or just like from a life of stress. Our minds are stuck. They're stuck in the suck of experience. They're stuck.
[00:19:40] Joe Clements: Usually in a thought or an emotion. Yeah. Something that just sucks. So this mind is like on the fritz. So when we're feeling that we're just stuck in this big emotion, we're proliferating in this thought of whatever. My thing is I did something wrong. I need to fix it. I said something wrong. I need to [00:20:00] fix it over and over.
[00:20:02] Joe Clements: How am I going to fix it? I'm going to look bad. And I can feel this. Oh, okay. My focus is the mind is so up here. Okay. What are the feet doing? What is the breath doing? What is real right now? What is happening? And it will shift the mind. The mind will follow. Well, the breath is just coming in, going out.
[00:20:22] Joe Clements: You're okay. The breath is okay. Information. The brain breath is okay. No matter if that thought or feeling is still there, there's something that's shifting the focus. Right. And so the more we do that, that's why I say, look around in the room, look around in the room, listen to the sounds when we do this.
[00:20:42] Joe Clements: Okay. We're checking, we're orienting to our surroundings. We're so like this, you know, so broadens. And tells the brain that is the sense that the functions of like rest and digest that you're okay right now[00:21:00]
[00:21:04] Joe Clements: and making sense. And it's a practice. It's not like it's going to happen right away. Sometimes it does. You might notice that sometimes when we're leading the meditation, I'm just guiding you to your feet, the seat, the sounds of breath over and over. You might get really tired. Not might not realize that you've been hella stressed out and the mind is like, Oh, we don't need to hyper focus on anything right now.
[00:21:29] Joe Clements: So then it kind of shoots all that information to the brain and you're just like, Oh, it's taking advantage. Hell yeah. So listen to that. Listen to that. If the body needs to rest, the mind needs to rest. Allow it. I ain't going to judge you. If you're snoring, I might tap you on the knee. That's okay. But I kind of like snoring.
[00:21:54] Joe Clements: I know people, I do groups and somebody's always snoring. [00:22:00] And then there's giggles. See, there's giggles, right? It's kind of funny. But why is it funny? Someone snoring? It's interesting. Our perspective on things. Contemplate.
[00:22:14] Joe Clements: What are we contemplating? We're contemplating this human experience. This messy, beautiful, perfect, imperfect human experience. Yeah,
[00:22:35] Joe Clements: I truly believe all paths, all these paths are pointing to the same thing. I've been really contemplating this, like all these different paths, spirituality, religions, to me. You know what, I could be wrong. I don't know. I don't have the answers. I just have my experience. You know, and I feel like it's all leading to [00:23:00] this path that is, it's to our hearts to connection to love, you know, don't need to like your experience right now, but you can learn not to hate it.
[00:23:16] Joe Clements: And when we soften, we can learn to meet ourself with compassion, love, kindness.
[00:23:31] Joe Clements: So that's the basics of it. And for me, and I would like to invite us tonight, you know, and I'm kind of going to be contemplating the sit, feel, heal kind of thing, and just offering this in the, in the group, you know, in the next few weeks, we're just going to beginner's mind. Maybe I'm just going to invite you to let go of everything you think meditation is.[00:24:00]
[00:24:01] Joe Clements: Maybe find something new with it tonight, you know, and just bring awareness to what is notice when the mind is getting stuck. Notice when you're in that, that big emotion that's here because there's something that's going to happen or may not happen. I don't know. Keep reminding yourself that right now in this moment, it's not happening.
[00:24:27] Joe Clements: What's happening is the breath is coming in, going out, give yourself a little reprieve. That's the practice. It doesn't mean we don't need to take care of some stuff we do, but maybe we can take care of it with a little bit more agency, the more clarity, you know, or we actually take care of it and we don't just hide from it.
[00:24:49] Joe Clements: You know, we don't have to live in the past. It doesn't need to define our future. Big things happened. [00:25:00] We meet ourself right now. We allow ourself whatever emotions of grieving is coming up. Never allowed to grieve, right? Or never taught. If you're angry, it's okay to be angry. If you're sad, it's okay to be sad.
[00:25:20] Joe Clements: If you're happy, totally. Okay. To be happy, careful not to cling to it though, but lean into the joy, lean into the goodness that arises in your practice. Cause I guarantee you, if you pay attention, there is some goodness that is waiting here for you. Lean into it, rest in it. If you can,
[00:25:41] Joe Clements: any questions before we get into a meditation, and this is the beautiful thing about it. You don't need to believe me. I encourage you not to believe me. Encourage you to find out for yourself. It's a beautiful thing about this practice, you know,[00:26:00]
[00:26:03] Joe Clements: anything good. Oh, thank you. I want to hear one. What's that? Give me, give me a compliment. This is my good friend, Jesse. Okay, cool. Cool. I was a little plexing on it, but thank you, Jesse. I love it. So can I, can I put you on blast a little bit? Okay. Jesse is one really old time friend in the music scene that we play music and we do shows together.
[00:26:28] Joe Clements: And one of what warms my heart the most by doing these groups and offering this stuff is when my worlds collide. Especially the punk and hardcore music scene, because I would keep it, you know, it's like, Oh, I can't be this. I gotta be that. And it's like, no, it's, it's all of whatever this is. And so when there's a few friends that are here that are from that scene, and I'm just like, it, yeah, it really warms my heart.
[00:26:55] Joe Clements: So thank you all for being here. Everybody, but you know, especially that. [00:27:00] So let's take just a moment to stretch. If you need to use a restroom and I'll ring the bell in about a minute. Okay, cool. Get some tea, get some more pillows, get your cozy corner.
[00:27:49] Joe Clements: Yeah. Yeah. [00:28:00] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:11] Joe Clements: Yeah. I'm going to start with a different piece of the story. It's usually a hotel. It's essentially a hotel. Um, and you can write what you want to write. It's basically a hotel that you can work in and you can get a certificate It's just a way to start a professional job. Bye bye. You'll be the same, girl.
[00:28:48] Joe Clements: You know, Lyra literally helped me every morning. I don't trust her [00:29:00] words anymore. Lyra! Wait there! She's not coming down the stairs. She's not coming down the ladder, the bunk bed. Oh wait, wait, wait, don't run away. Wait, quiet, just look.
[00:29:37] Joe Clements: Welcome to [00:30:00] the Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Mm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Bye.
[00:30:35] Joe Clements: All right.
[00:30:39] Joe Clements: So just finding a way to be that's good enough, comfortable, upright. Hey Jesse, don't, don't shut that all the way because it won't open from the outside. Yeah. Thank you, sir.
[00:30:56] Joe Clements: Just taking a moment. Shifting [00:31:00] in your seat a little bit. Finding a way to be that's supportive for the next 20 or so minutes. Finding a place to rest your eyes if you want to leave the eyes open.
[00:31:21] Joe Clements: Or gently closing your eyes. Peace.
[00:31:36] Joe Clements: And just checking into this internal landscape once again, maybe with like a, a childlike curiosity. Whoa, look at these thoughts. Look at these feelings.[00:32:00]
[00:32:03] Joe Clements: Maybe it's a little different from when you checked in in the beginning of the group.
[00:32:11] Joe Clements: Is there more energy, less energy,
[00:32:18] Joe Clements: the whole energy of this mind and this body
[00:32:23] Joe Clements: tingling, throbbing, tightening, swirling,
[00:32:37] Joe Clements: and just shifting your awareness to what else is present. What do you notice right now? The senses,
[00:32:55] Joe Clements: these sounds,[00:33:00]
[00:33:02] Joe Clements: might be some opinions.
[00:33:10] Joe Clements: What if you didn't know what this sound was?
[00:33:18] Joe Clements: Could you let go of the image of people playing bongos?
[00:33:28] Joe Clements: It's just some thumping in the background. Some rhythm.
[00:33:40] Joe Clements: Sound of the tea warming up, the hot water. Sound of my voice. Sound of the bell.[00:34:00]
[00:34:06] Joe Clements: Every sound has a flavor, yeah? Flavor of liking, not liking, somewhere in between. You can just notice, it's really easy to notice how the mind will send information of wanting, not wanting. But what if you let go of that? It's just sound, coming and going.
[00:34:36] Joe Clements: It's a flow, a movement of sound. Even the sounds that are repetitive, There's a rising and passing, different tones,
[00:34:57] Joe Clements: then letting that awareness drop, [00:35:00] drop down to the feet, down to the floor, really feeling this body pressed into the floor, the sea,
[00:35:13] Joe Clements: all these points of contact.
[00:35:25] Joe Clements: Beginner's mind,
[00:35:30] Joe Clements: just awareness
[00:35:35] Joe Clements: to what's being experienced in this moment. Sounds, touch, can feel the way the air is touching your skin. Clothes gently resting on your skin. Your hands resting.
[00:35:59] Joe Clements: [00:36:00] Notice
[00:36:03] Joe Clements: where this air is coming in and exiting this body.
[00:36:12] Joe Clements: Bring in a curiosity of where you notice this breath coming in.
[00:36:21] Joe Clements: Tip of the nose, top of the lip.
[00:36:30] Joe Clements: This breath, just breathing all on its own.
[00:36:47] Joe Clements: Maybe you notice taste and smell, seeing even with the eyes closed, shapes and colors,[00:37:00]
[00:37:06] Joe Clements: and of course, still thoughts. There's still emotions either coming and going or getting sticky.
[00:37:19] Joe Clements: But it's not all that's happening right now.
[00:37:32] Joe Clements: And this practice isn't about stopping anything from happening.
[00:37:47] Joe Clements: What we can practice is not giving these thoughts, these emotions, all the attention. They've been taking up a lot of space.[00:38:00]
[00:38:00] Joe Clements: Now we can do that. It's just for a moment. We notice there's this feeling, this thought, it's here. Name it. Take note. Is this a plan? Is it a memory? Are you trying to figure something out? Or is the mind trying to figure something out?
[00:38:21] Joe Clements: Let go of even trying to let go something in the past. And
[00:38:30] Joe Clements: once you name it, shift that awareness to a place in your direct experience that feels effortless, that feels Connected. Doesn't have a big story. Awareness could be shifting down to the feet, or the body laying, sitting.[00:39:00]
[00:39:03] Joe Clements: You come back to the breath.
[00:39:10] Joe Clements: Or if you're brave enough, the sounds.
[00:39:17] Joe Clements: This is what is being experienced right now.
[00:39:26] Joe Clements: See if you can just allow yourself to rest. Allow the mind to rest. Not forcing the mind to rest.
[00:39:49] Joe Clements: You bring a sense of curiosity and awe,[00:40:00]
[00:40:01] Joe Clements: softening any place that is holding tension,
[00:40:07] Joe Clements: the belly, the shoulders, the face,
[00:40:16] Joe Clements: allow yourself to be held.
[00:40:43] Joe Clements: And when you find yourself drifting in a thought and emotion, like a ship drifting off to stormy and stormy weather, choppy seas, use the [00:41:00] breath as an anchor to come home to, the feet, the seat, the sounds,
[00:41:10] Joe Clements: feel this earth beneath your feet, like gravity. Do its job. Come back home.
[00:41:26] Joe Clements: Reminding the mind that there's nowhere to go right now.
[00:41:33] Joe Clements: There's nothing you need to do.
[00:41:38] Joe Clements: There's not even a better you that you need to be or become right now. You can just rest.[00:42:00]
[00:42:43] Joe Clements: See the mind searching for a perfect experience.
[00:42:54] Joe Clements: This addiction of something different. Something more, something less.[00:43:00]
[00:43:07] Joe Clements: There's only what is.
[00:43:21] Joe Clements: Notice the coming and going of all things. This ephemeral nature of all things. No[00:44:00]
[00:44:32] Joe Clements: matter how many thoughts or opinions bubble up,
[00:44:45] Joe Clements: it's not a mistake. It doesn't mean you're doing this practice wrong. That's actually an opportunity. It's actually awakening. You've woken up in a thought.[00:45:00]
[00:45:02] Joe Clements: It's the moment you can practice releasing the grip and returning.
[00:45:10] Joe Clements: Feet, see, sounds, breath
[00:45:16] Joe Clements: and rest.[00:46:00]
[00:46:19] Joe Clements: It's simple practice.
[00:46:24] Joe Clements: Doesn't mean that it's easy.
[00:46:57] Joe Clements: You can even use this awareness within the [00:47:00] mind to shift, steer the mind to reflect on something that Something is good in your life today,
[00:47:16] Joe Clements: something you appreciate, brings you joy, grateful for,
[00:47:24] Joe Clements: the shift in the season, longer days, warm,
[00:47:41] Joe Clements: noticing the blossoming of leaves, flowers, spring,[00:48:00]
[00:48:01] Joe Clements: being in tune with this, nature's not forcing anything, it's just happening, so in the same way,
[00:48:16] Joe Clements: can we just till this soil, this internal muck, plant seeds of gratitude, goodness, goodness, goodness, goodness.
[00:48:36] Joe Clements: Pull out the weeds of greed, hatred, and delusion.
[00:48:58] Joe Clements: Greed of [00:49:00] wanting or not wanting something more or less.
[00:49:07] Joe Clements: Hatred of hating the way things are.
[00:49:15] Joe Clements: The delusion that we have control over anything else but our response. Don't
[00:49:31] Joe Clements: have to like it. We can learn not to hate it.
[00:49:38] Joe Clements: As the breath breathes, the body rests.
[00:49:51] Joe Clements: What is good right now?[00:50:00]
[00:50:51] Joe Clements: No matter what the mind is saying otherwise. You are totally meditating right now,[00:51:00]
[00:51:05] Joe Clements: whether you feel peace or not,
[00:51:11] Joe Clements: whatever you feel, whatever you're experiencing,
[00:51:19] Joe Clements: meeting it with awareness,
[00:51:26] Joe Clements: meeting yourself right here, right now, perfect, with room to grow[00:52:00] [00:53:00] [00:54:00]
[00:54:21] Joe Clements: in these next few moments, wherever the mind is. Gone. See if you can gently shift and bring it back. The feet, the seat, the sounds, and the breath.
[00:54:42] Joe Clements: I'm just checking in, listening if the body needs to move a little bit or stretch. Taking these next few moments to experience the shift from inward attention to [00:55:00] outward attention. You don't need to wait for the bell. You can listen. If the body needs to move, it can move. If you want to slowly open your eyes, you can do so.
[00:55:14] Joe Clements: Or if you want to just rest for a couple more moments here, you can do that as well.
[00:55:34] Joe Clements: And as I ring the bell, just gently bringing your awareness back into the room.[00:56:00]
[00:56:08] Joe Clements: Yeah,
[00:56:25] Joe Clements: you did it. Whatever you did, you totally did it without doing anything.
[00:56:36] Joe Clements: So I want to do something tonight and yeah, somebody might like it, somebody might not, but lean into it. I'm going to share experience with the, with the neighbor. So I want you to pair up with person next to you just turn towards introduce yourself if there's you know you can just pair twos or if there's groups of threes [00:57:00] just get a couple just we're going to share experience and then just introduce yourself and wait for the prompt okay just take a moment to shift around
[00:57:30] Joe Clements: All right. So, so once you introduce yourself to,
[00:57:48] Joe Clements: so I know you already started, but real fast, I just want to give a prompt, a little prompt. Is this is a, a, uh, a practice too, of listening as well. So what, [00:58:00] what I would like to encourage you to do is. Is one person just speaking at a time and we don't need to, it's going to be hard, but no giving feedback, you know, you can nod your head and stuff like that, but just really just listening.
[00:58:13] Joe Clements: See what it feels like to really listen to someone's experience, and the person that's speaking just speak to something that was difficult that came up if there was anything something that you noticed that was interesting that you noticed, and then something that you're grateful for. Yeah. All right.
[00:58:29] Joe Clements: And just listen to that. And then once, uh, probably a minute or so, and then I'll ring the bell and then the next person will go. Okay. And then we'll have time to go back and forth that you want, but try mindful listening to see what it's like to just really listen. And how are you listening? Stay in your experience to feet, seat sounds, breath as you're listening and notice.
[00:58:52] Joe Clements: Cool. Okay. Thank you. And go ahead. Whoever wants to go first.[00:59:00] [01:00:00]
[01:00:19] Joe Clements: So the first person has like another minute to start wrapping it up.
[01:00:53] Joe Clements: It's just taking a few moments here to wrap up whoever's going first.[01:01:00]
[01:01:03] Joe Clements: And then giving a kind of appreciation for whoever spoke, person that spoke, giving some appreciation for their listener.
[01:01:21] Joe Clements: And then the next person can go now.[01:02:00]
[01:02:44] Joe Clements: Just taking a few moments to wrap up.[01:03:00]
[01:03:07] Joe Clements: So there's a, I
[01:03:11] Joe Clements: think there's one or two groups that have three. Yeah. So this last round we'll do the, the groups that have three, the third person will, will go groups that just have to just go ahead and have some dialogue. Yeah. Whatever you related to, or what else?[01:04:00]
[01:04:47] Joe Clements: I'm just taking a few moments to wrap up.[01:05:00]
[01:05:27] Joe Clements: So taking a moment to wrap up and thanking people for listening. Thank you for sharing your truth.
[01:05:58] Joe Clements: So what was that like? [01:06:00] What'd you notice of listening, being able to talk about your experience with somebody of meditation of what meditation is to you or whatever is happening. Yeah, please.
[01:06:16] Joe Clements: Yep. Letting back up is super cool, what they were saying, really not the experience of what they were saying. So that's cool.
[01:06:29] Joe Clements: Yeah. It's like shedding those layers. Yeah. It really does scare somebody. Um, and yeah. Actually, yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Who, who would've thunk it? . Who would've thunk it? Yeah.
[01:06:52] Joe Clements: I, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. The [01:07:00] tippa? No, no, the, the Bongos. Bongos, yeah. So that's interesting. Right? I just wanna reflect on that a little bit. So knowing what it is was helpful, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, and then we can kind of, okay. You know, and then there's like, oh, okay. Yeah. Maybe some appreciation or just it is what it is kind of thing.
[01:07:21] Joe Clements: Yeah. Cool. And that practice, the practice of listening is so important. It's, it's a practice and we notice like, it's, it's difficult. We want to keep responding to somebody, but can we really listen and can we really be heard?
[01:07:38] Joe Clements: Nick, please.
[01:07:43] Joe Clements: Yeah. Yeah, man.
[01:07:53] Joe Clements: Yeah.
[01:07:58] Joe Clements: Yeah. Recovering. We're all [01:08:00] recovering. Discovering. Thanks, Nick. Normalizing experience. It's super important about this group, I think, you know, who else will share something? What was that like? The meditation or being able to talk about your experience with someone, please. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.[01:09:00]
[01:09:29] Joe Clements: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:09:39] Joe Clements: It's beautiful. Beautiful. That's great that you shared that. Yeah. Right. It's our relationship to the pain, not the pain itself. Yeah. Shift in the awareness. That's it. The awareness is it right? And then the mind and mind will follow. So if our awareness is just Yeah. It's on the pain. The mind is just going to be stuck there, but there is, [01:10:00] we broaden it.
[01:10:00] Joe Clements: Sometimes we don't even notice that we broaden it just in the senses. It gives it some space and like, Oh, there is other things happening. Yeah. That's the practice. No destination. It's just right here. Thanks for sharing that ginger and thanks for sharing that wisdom to anybody else.
[01:10:31] Joe Clements: No, so part of doing, you know, I know it's, it's intimidating, right. To talk about our experience with the big group. So it's like, you know, getting to know each other is really important and the normalizing of the experience. We don't realize we feel like we're just going through this alone. Right. And there might be, you know, or it's, it's just, you know, we, everybody has their experiences, things happened, but we all have this, [01:11:00] this.
[01:11:01] Joe Clements: This unique, unique pain, but this also this collective pain as well. It's like, you don't realize like, Oh, you know, we compare, we compare, we compare our experience so much, but do it so much in retreats. I remember like, you know, I would always like look around and I'm like, God, these people are so peaceful.
[01:11:25] Joe Clements: And there's always like, I remember there's one person. They, they just look so peaceful every meditation. I'm like, fuck, I really want that. So I was like really trying. And I remember after the retreat, I'm like, I was talking to this person and I'm like, man, you just look like you're just having just like you're in it, you know, you're just like, where'd you go?
[01:11:48] Joe Clements: And she goes, I was fucking suffering so bad. I was in so much physical and emotional pain. You know, and we talked forever about it. [01:12:00] I'm like, Oh my God. So our perception, you know, it is like pairing mind, you know? So when we get to talk to each other, it's like, Oh, okay. Yeah, we all suffer. You know?
[01:12:21] Joe Clements: Yeah.
[01:12:28] Joe Clements: Yeah.
[01:12:42] Joe Clements: Yeah. Right. Teachers come in many forms, you know? Yeah. Holy. Everything is a learning. Yeah. You know, when we come, [01:13:00] I'm so happy that you're all here. Like you thought of you'd just been showing up on Thursday night. It's so beautiful, you know, in this practice, it's a practice, right? It's a, we're retraining the mind in a way.
[01:13:12] Joe Clements: And not to get somewhere, but just to become it's here, become who we truly are. It's right here. It's all right here, but it takes some deconstructing the decolonization of the mind, right? There's like so much causes and conditions. We said it last week or the week before this uncovery group that we're in, we're uncovering this goodness that is here, but it takes patience.
[01:13:38] Joe Clements: If there's one thing that my practice has taught me, it's just patience. Because we want it. It's like, Oh, I'm doing this meditation. I should be feeling better.
[01:13:51] Joe Clements: I feel a lot more sometimes really heavy stuff and the deeper we go. And sometimes I think that [01:14:00] we have these little awakenings, this, you know, there's these little awakenings, these shifts in our experience and each one can be a little bit more difficult, but we stay in that pain. And there's just such a gift at the end, because we're showing up for ourself in a new way.
[01:14:13] Joe Clements: You know, so being patient and giving yourself time, keeping yourself attention. So we come here on Thursday. Great. This is great. We sat for 25 minutes. That's big. That's good. You know, but doing this practice whenever you can, if you can get formal practices, cool. I know life is busy, but even like five minutes, if you're, you know, part of my practice is, is I'm very habitual.
[01:14:42] Joe Clements: So there's a good practice for me. It's like, I get it. Habits, right? Great. You know, I have my rituals before I go to bed, you know, different depression, teeth loss, my wife was like, can I start the show yet? And I'm like, I gotta do it. She goes, once you do all your things. So I put [01:15:00] meditation in there a little bit, or just a little bit, you know?
[01:15:03] Joe Clements: Morning, the more we do, the more it starts cultivating and training the mind to just be in this state, not in a blissed out state, but a state of awareness where we see the little gifts. We see the teachers, like you said, like this was a teaching, it's a frustration, whatever, but, uh, I'm aware that this whatever you're aware, you know.
[01:15:27] Joe Clements: You know, and we don't have to pick up the big it's like going to the gym, right? We don't have to pick up the 400 pound deadlift right in the beginning. You're gonna mess up your fucking back Just do the baby weights five minutes a couple minutes, you know We don't have to go into the deep emotional awareness yet.
[01:15:42] Joe Clements: You just notice emotions are there Touch the edges of them like a yoga pose. It's like, okay And then shift your awareness. Like you're saying, there's the pain. Okay. Here's come out. We type and then the next time, maybe we can go a little deeper and be curious about this emotion a little bit more. [01:16:00] We'll get more into that as the feel part of this practice.
[01:16:03] Joe Clements: And I think is really important with mindfulness is it includes the thoughts and emotions. It changes our relationship to them, but we got to get to know them first gently because we can get really stuck, right? So the message is, you know, I, I'm not a fighter, but if, you know, I was going to tell you guys, okay, I got an announcement.
[01:16:27] Joe Clements: I have this wacky idea next month. I'm going to get in the ring with an MMA fighter and just kind of see what I can do, you know? And you're like, okay, you're going to go to the gym. I'm like, yeah, I might hit it a couple of times. Yeah, what would you guys say? I already see it, right? Same thing with this practice, right?
[01:16:48] Joe Clements: It's like, we're going to get caught up in that out there, you know? So it's not just how long we can sit,[01:17:00]
[01:17:00] Joe Clements: it's the, It's how we take it to the street, how it just becomes, we don't know when it's there, unless we're paying attention. Oh, I'm feeling really spun out right now.
[01:17:16] Joe Clements: My mind's tripping. Are my feet tripping? No, feet are okay. Mindful moments important. If you can get a daily practice, I would encourage you, you know, the people you talk to, if you connected, you know, see if it'd be okay to have a, um, a accountability buddy if you want to, let's, let's do a practice. Let's this, you know, just see if we can do five minutes every other day this week or something and just shoot a text or something.
[01:17:48] Joe Clements: That was really helpful for me. It was a mixed bag for me. I would kind of get resentful cause I wouldn't be practicing and other people would be texting him like, Oh, fuck, you know, sit and resent.[01:18:00]
[01:18:01] Joe Clements: Yeah. I was shamed into doing it, but it was helpful too, at the same time, same work. What's your relationship with Shane? Cool. Anything else before we end? Yeah, please. Mm hmm.
[01:18:25] Joe Clements: Right.
[01:18:30] Joe Clements: Yep.
[01:18:37] Joe Clements: Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Please.
[01:18:46] Joe Clements: Yeah. I hope it's not triggering anything.
[01:18:53] Joe Clements: Okay. Yeah.[01:19:00]
[01:19:23] Joe Clements: It's amazing what we could suffer over. Right. Pick the wrong scene.
[01:19:33] Joe Clements: Love it. All right. Yeah. So a couple, couple announcements. Um, so the group was 10. So there's a, there's a bowl back there if you have cash or there's PayPal and Venmo links back there. Um, no one has turned away for lack of fun. So pay what you can, when you can, if you can. Um, there's also, um, t shirts back there for sale.
[01:19:57] Joe Clements: You can ask Christian. Is that okay? Christian? Yeah. [01:20:00] Christian can help you out. You can pay the same way. And there's some stickers for free. And there's also a book exchange. There's some books up there. If you're looking, you want to, something inspires you, go ahead and grab one of the books. And if you have something at home, something you read that you think would be helpful for someone else, bring it.
[01:20:17] Joe Clements: Do a little book exchange.
[01:20:22] Joe Clements: I think that is it. And yeah, um, so right now I'm streaming this stuff. I'm recording it. So the recordings will be up on my website. So you can get, if you, there's something about the talk or the meditation that you want to revisit, you can get that at, um, my YouTube thing is, uh, hella meditated or just on my site, Joseph or joeclements.
[01:20:43] Joe Clements: com. And, uh, eventually I'll be streaming too. So we'll see, not just to my kid. All right. Cool. So we'll end with a little offering of merits. Take a moment in the Buddhist tradition [01:21:00] to express that we practice, there's so much goodness that is cultivated from practicing together, but we practice not just for the wellbeing of ourselves, but for the wellbeing of all beings.
[01:21:12] Joe Clements: So just take a moment, bringing your awareness inward, and I'd like to do a little reflection on just your practice tonight.
[01:21:22] Joe Clements: Getting here to the group, seeing people, sitting, listening, connecting, practicing, and notice, as you reflect, any goodness that's been cultivated tonight from your practice, from just showing up,
[01:21:47] Joe Clements: let that goodness sink in. Let it sink into the marrow of your being. It's well deserved. You're doing the work,[01:22:00]
[01:22:02] Joe Clements: but then also let this goodness ripple out, let
[01:22:08] Joe Clements: this goodness be for the benefit of all beings, those suffering, hands of oppression, sexism, racism, homophobia.
[01:22:27] Joe Clements: May we all experience peace,
[01:22:35] Joe Clements: may all beings experience ease,
[01:22:40] Joe Clements: may all beings know true liberation and freedom inward and outward.[01:23:00]
[01:23:00] Joe Clements: Thank you all. See you in another dream.
[01:23:03] Thanks for listening to the Hella Meditated Podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review. Stay up, stay true, be you.