Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön Read Free Book Online Page B

gives us a way of working with thoughts and emotions, with the fears and doubts that arise over and over again in our minds when they are triggered by difficult outer circumstances. Supported by the breath, we learn to stay present with all of our experience, even great adversity, and to label the thoughts, let them go, and come back to the here and now.
    Some people think that labeling is cumbersome and unnecessary, but the practice can be very profound. Labeling without judgment helps us to see the very nature of thoughts as ephemeral, always dissolving, always elusive, never predictable. When we say “thinking,” we are pointing to the empty nature of thoughts, to the transparency of thoughts and emotions.
    This basic meditation technique is designed to help us remain open and receptive not only to our thoughts and emotions, not only to outer circumstances and the people we encounter, but also to groundlessness itself, to this underlying energy that is so threatening to the part of us that wants certainty. This practice allows us to get very close to this edgy, uncomfortable energy. It allows us to become familiar with nothing to hold on to, with stepping into the next moment without knowing what will happen. It gives us practice in taking a leap. It also gives us the space to notice how the mind immediately tries to entertain us or come up with scenarios of escape or revenge or do whatever else it does to try to provide security and comfort.
    As we continue the practice, we will come to experience life’s impermanent and changing energy not just as threateningbut also as refreshing, liberating, and inspiring. It’s the same energy—we just experience it in two different ways. Either we can relax into it, seeing it as the true nature of our mind, our unconditional goodness, or we can react against it. When we react against it—when we feel the energy as scary and uncomfortable and restless, and our body wants to move and our mind wants to latch on to something—we can train in the basic technique of labeling thoughts and letting them go, then bringing our attention back to the breath and staying present with the feeling. If for only ten minutes a day, we can sit and practice being mindful, being awake, being right here. We can practice warmth and acceptance. We can train in letting go of the breath, letting go of the thoughts, and greeting the next moment with an open mind. This is the preparation we need for the three-step practice, not to mention for living a wakeful life.
    Sakyong Mipham recommends that as we sit down to meditate, we contemplate our intention for the session. Our intention might be to strengthen the natural stability of mind by training in continually coming back to the body, to our mood right now, and to our environment. Or our intention might be to make friends with ourselves, to be less stern and judgmental as we meditate, so we might train in noticing our tone of voice when we label and lightening up and not being too tight or goal oriented in our practice. Our intention might be to let go and not hold the breath tightly as if it were a life raft, not cling to our thoughts, not believe our story lines. We might intend to acknowledge thoughts as they arise and train in letting them go. Our intention might be to train in all of these—or in something different altogether, something that is particularly important to us.
    Each day, we can set aside time for meditation. It can be as short as five or ten minutes or as long as we want to keep going.

     
    First, contemplate your intention for this practice session. Then run through the six points of good posture to settle your body. If you like, you can then count breaths from 1 to 10, or from 1 to 20, to settle the mind. Then drop the counting and simply bring light awareness to the breath. As you continue to meditate, maintain gentle awareness of the breath as it comes in and goes out, or just as it goes out. When the mind wanders, gently label