Handshake II

Recall, if you will, that the first point of Handshake Practice (Compassionate Presence to Feelings) is to Remember Who You Are!

The second point of handshake practice from Tsoknyi Rinpoche leads us into the access point for remembering who we are.

Here is what Rinpoche says about this point:

2. Mind the Body.

Throughout our lives we’re urged to define ourselves and our experiences in particular ways. Over time, these definitions become so familiar that we end up identifying with them completely as the absolute truth of who we are.
We can, however, begin to break down our mundane, everyday identities into smaller pieces a process through which we begin to discover that who we think we are isn’t quite as solid as we believe. One of the easiest ways to begin is to spend a little time with our bodies.

It’s surprising how many of us forget our bodies. It’s so easy to get caught up in thoughts and feelings and overlook this extraordinary system of muscles, bones, organs and so on that serves as a physical support for our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

So, one thing we can do — preferably while sitting in a comfortable position with the spine straight and muscles relaxed — is to start simply and gently appreciating that we have a body, a basic ground of experience. We can begin by simply noticing: “There is a leg. There is a toe.” We can simply notice, too, that there is a heart that is beating; there are lungs that are expanding and contracting; there is blood coursing through veins. We can also notice physical sensations such as being cold or being warm, feeling pain in the knees, back or shoulders, and so on. The point of the practice is to simply allow ourselves to become alert to the physical aspect of our being in a very easygoing and gentle way, without judging it or identifying with it.

So here is the key to being mindful of the body: aware of our experience without judging it or identifying with it.

Sounds simple, right? But as was mentioned in the first point, it’s not always easy.

Our practice of being present to our feelings is about becoming comfortable with the fact that we are NOT our feelings. We experience them, yes, but we are not them. We come to notice and embody the reality that all of our thoughts and feelings are held in a greater awareness, held in the spaciousness of our true nature, who we really are.

This can lead to a profound equanimity that enables us to be comfortable with whatever arises without the suffering caused by identifying with our limited expressions of who we are.