Three references for standing: anatomy, sensations and energies. Setting aside what isn’t needed and firming up what is useful, allowing the body to complete itself and come into balance. Free from obstruction, free from intrusion, free from harm.
We tend to get the situations that will work on us. Our approach, if we get wise, is to meet dissatisfaction in the body. There is a possibility to unhook from the tides of affliction that cause us to form up in these challenging situations. We can pause, unhook, and bear open, steady presence. Shifts occur by themselves.
Rather than following the mental movements of the mind, there’s the possibility to just open to the manifest with no particular engagement. The particular point is meeting dukkha – where we chafe, want, resist – and recognizing it as it is. At the moment the engagement changes, the mind releases. Then the world doesn’t have to be that good.
What we are doing by coming together, practicing with the overall framework of the Dhamma, is developing spiritual friendship. Over the short period of a retreat period as we meet and connect in the silence, our energies come together and we become unified as a group and find support.
Walking from your center, finding fluidity of movement, sensing with the torso rather than the eyes. [Ends 10:10] For reclining, laying flat on one’s back, allowing front of body to completely open up, extending awareness from the feet to the head and the space around.