“Surrendering Vigilance” this Sunday with Benjamin Hohl at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

Sunday 10am Community Practice & Discussion

This Sunday, July 7th, Benjamin Hohl will lead an exploration of the theme “Surrendering Vigilance” based on Matthew Brensilver’s July 2022 interview on the Ten Percent Happier podcast. All are welcome! Registration and Zoom information available here.

Below is a quote from the very beginning of the interview when Matthew was asked how he understands being in the moment or being present.

Do we understand the present as a kind of sliver of time that is sandwiched between the past and the future? How long is now? Is the present just a metaphor? Usually when people say "be present," that's just a kind of direction not to be identified with discursive thought, that we are present when we are not identified with the narrative of the moment. And to not be present is to be absorbed and identified in the story of now, whatever that story is. And then to be present is to re-establish mindfulness, to have some metacognitive awareness of the phenomenal world of what's arising and passing moment by moment. And so usually, to be present just means don't be stuck in that bubble of thought, right?

But to be present is a pretty radical gesture and it's one that takes us through all of the past and one that requires that we radically surrender the vigilance we have about the future. And so to be present in like the most radical way, I was thinking, actually, during meditation this morning, this is what came up: to be present is to be willing to die. Which is a maybe jarring way of formulating it, but to actually be present is to surrender the sense of vigilance, of orientation, of tracking phenomena as threat and opportunity and to be this like, just profoundly porous, defenseless embodiment, and that's a lot to swallow in a way.

With metta (loving-kindness),
Minneapolis Insight