PRACTICE #1

This meditation originally aired May 1, 2020

TRUST • FAITH • CONFIDENCE

Welcome to your first day of practice! I’m so glad that we’ll be practicing meditation for a whole month together — and in one of my favorite themes for practice: Trust. Faith. Confidence.

We're doing a bit of a triangulation with these three as our theme, as they all spring from the same vernacular roots, and it can be fun to spend time with such a close-knit family.  
In Latin, "fid" means to trust, or to have faith -- which we can see in the classic dog name "Fido" which means "faithful one". Add a few extra syllables, and "fid" becomes confidence -- the state of having thorough trust or faith. 

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring this triad of Trust, Faith and Confidence from a number of different angles -- beginning with today's practice.

I share a bit about how Trust (or at least a leap of faith ) is not only an attitude that we're encouraged to bring to the meditation cushion, but that Trust is something that can develop in practice, over time -- we develop more trust in ourselves as we continue to show up and treat our own attention like it matters, we develop trust in our ability to meet whatever arises - skillfully, we develop trust in the benefit of meditation practice itself. 

Trust can be a critical ingredient in sticking with anything: a practice, a relationship, a direction or an idea. The important thing to note about Trust -- and especially Faith -- from a meditation perspective, is that we don't buy into anything blindly here. We're encouraged to hold a view of healthy skepticism, and check it out for ourselves.
Our own direct experience is the ultimate barometer for what to Trust when it comes to practice. Which, is what we do today. 

Just grab a comfortable seat, a pen and paper to capture any insights after practice, and then click the video, above.

Practice begins at the 4 minute mark. 
May it be so.