The Practice of Inclusivity: Opening the Heart to Everything [Episode 51]

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

I want to invite you into one of the eight inner postures of awakened consciousness, one that reveals yet another way to let things be, another portal into the mystery of being. This is the posture that we’ve come to call inclusivity. Inclusivity is the heart that embraces the totality of existence.

Inclusivity as a Radical Position of Embracing Everything

From one point of view, what makes it difficult to let things be, or what might make it difficult at times to practice equanimity in the face of things, is that there are certain things we do not want to experience. There are certain feelings we don’t want to feel. There are thoughts that arise that we either don’t want in our mind, or we don’t think should be in our mind, or we certainly don’t think could be included in freedom or awakened consciousness—things we believe are not part of our true nature and not part of the sacred nature of reality or the sacred dimension.

This posture of inclusivity invites us into another very radical position. It’s the radical position of embracing everything, of including everything. It’s taking a position that is part of the natural knowledge of enlightenment, the natural awareness that we come into in awakened consciousness, which is that there is nothing that is not part of wholeness. There is nothing outside of my true nature. There is nothing that cannot be embraced in this radical realization of unity, oneness, or wholeness that awakening always invites us into. Everything is included.

Everything is part of it. Every experience I could possibly have. Any thought that could possibly arise. Every feeling. Every sensation. The entire world in all of its complexity.

If I’m really going to let things be, I must find a way to make room for all of it. I must find a way to allow it all to arise within me. That’s really the key distinction here.

Letting Things Be: Non-Attachment and Inclusivity in Meditation

There is a way of practicing freedom where I take the position of being that which is untouched and unmoved, like a giant boulder—impenetrable, impermeable, unshakeable.

In that posture, there can be a subtle sense of all these occurrences pulling at me, tugging at me, bashing up against me, or rushing past me. It’s like watching a river, watching things float past without getting distracted by them. It can be a sense of the most profound non-attachment, a kind of un-involvement. This is one way of practicing this freedom. It’s one way of practicing this “letting be.”

The posture of inclusivity, in a sense, does the same thing. But instead of being like a boulder that is untouched or unmoved, we’re more like an infinite womb that includes the entire cosmos, all the chaos and complexity of the world, everything that has ever happened, and everything that could ever happen.

That’s all part of the birthing of this cosmos, the birthing of life, the birthing of humanity, the birthing of awakening. It’s all arising. It’s all included. And so we become not impenetrable, but utterly penetrable, unconditionally permeable, where we no longer take the position that there is anything outside of me.

Everything that has ever happened, everything that’s happening now, and everything that could ever happen into the infinite future—I embrace it all. I include it all.

Including Everything Without Defense or Judgment

Notice the freedom of no longer needing to defend myself against all the things I think I need to protect myself from. Again, in consciousness, in meditation.

Obviously, going through life there may be all kinds of things we need to be cautious about or protected from. We’re not advocating a careless relationship to the dangers of living. But we are asking: can we, for this period of meditation, let down all the defenses? Can we let go of all the judgments about what should and shouldn’t be here, what should be happening in my meditation, what shouldn’t be happening, and all the preferences?

I wanted to feel peaceful and comfortable and sweet and blissful. I don’t want it to feel uncomfortable or scary or tedious or anything else negative.

We include all of that equally, without preference for one or the other. We embrace the totality of existence unconditionally in this moment, however it is arising now. And we embrace it in the next moment, however it arises then.

Of course, experience changes. It evolves. It devolves. It goes this way and that. The stream of life, the stream of happenings, the stream of consciousness is ever-changing.

We embrace it all equally. We include everything. We include it within us. Nothing outside of me. Nothing to push away. Nothing to protect myself from.

This is the posture I want to invite us all into for our period of meditation. I invite you to assume your meditation posture.

Working with Resistance and Preference in Meditation Practice

Allow yourself to fully be here, with your heart wide open and your consciousness wide open, for whatever shows up in this period of practice. No preference. Letting it all be. Letting it all happen.

As you engage this posture, trying to make room for everything and including everything, you may notice that you do have preferences. It’s common to notice that there are certain feelings you’re deeply convinced should not be part of meditation, or that you simply don’t want to feel. You may realize you’ve been avoiding those feelings for a long time.

You might not even know what it would mean to include them, because they feel like a minefield emotionally, or like a Pandora’s box. We’re afraid that if we let ourselves feel them, we don’t know what they would do to us.

These aren’t only negative feelings. Sometimes very positive, incredibly powerful spiritual feelings have the same effect. We notice we’re hesitating. We’re keeping them at bay because we feel they might overwhelm us and sweep us away, and we don’t know where we would end up. That kind of magnificence isn’t something we’ve included in our idea of what reality could bring, or what our life could be.

It’s the same with certain thoughts. Habitually, whenever they arise, we push them out. “Get that away from me. I shouldn’t be thinking that.” All of this is based on the error that we think we’re the thinker.

If you notice yourself resisting something or trying to avoid something, don’t make a problem out of that. Don’t wrestle with yourself or try to convince yourself to allow it. Just include that. Include the resistance.

Okay, there’s resistance. That’s part of this too. Make room for that. Allow that.

Practicing Inclusivity as a Path to Awakening

Allow it all to arise within the vastness of who and what you are. Let yourself be big enough to include absolutely everything, without exception, without judgment, without preference—even if preferences are present.

The key here is that we’re not acting on those preferences. You’re not excluding something because of a preference. You’re including it all, regardless of preference.

Whatever is arising in your experience right now, make room for it. Make more room for it.

Whatever feelings are present, let them fully be here. Whatever is happening at the level of mind and thought, fully allow it. Whatever your body is feeling, embrace it.

Take a moment to scan through your experience with a fine eye and notice if there’s anything you’re not including or embracing. Notice any subtle preference still being exerted, where you’re wishing the meditation were different, judging that it should be different, or coveting a particularly enjoyable experience at the exclusion of its opposite.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying good things when they happen. But in meditation, we want to make sure we’re not clinging to those and, in doing so, inadvertently resisting their opposite. We want to include everything and its opposite, everything that arises and its opposite.

We’ll continue with that.

[Meditation Bell]

I now want to invite you to gently let go of the formal meditation posture.