Being with Being
Philosophy, contemplative practice, and the physics of nature's flow — for finding your own way. For those who don't need the added pressure of another's way, but are curious about ways of understanding, perceiving, and living that mesh with each other — and that only you can make your own.
Each episode is a complete live recording — typically around two hours — opening with a 15-30 minute inquiry into the session's theme, moving into an hour-long guided practice, and closing with comments and discussion. These explorations grew from years of my own searching — trying to fit into practices that promised relief, never quite finding home in any tradition, and stumbling upon a rational basis for getting traction on ways I don't have to try.
As your fellow explorer, I'm Mackenzie Hawkins — researcher in philosophy of physics, contemplative practitioner, and co-author of several books with physicist and Tai Chi Master Dr. Wonchull Park. Drawing from his nowflow philosophy, these series-based explorations use philosophy and physics as ways of understanding and perceiving what's here already.
Not ways to follow, but ways that might help you find your own — for anyone looking to explore beyond the pressures we put on ourselves.
Being with Being
A Tangible Metaphor: Lay Down to the Ground - Simply Settle Series
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this opening session we explore what these two words, “simply settle,” can mean at the most tangible level — hands simply settling into the support of a lap, body simply settling into the support of the earth. And what it’s like when we notice the absurdity of our own language around it. How do you allow your hands to be heavy? They have the weight that they have. Nothing to do. Nothing even to allow. And yet there’s this uncontrived immediacy when we feel it — hands and lap together, seat and ground together, just how they are naturally, already, and always. Mutual flow of lay down and support going on without anything needed from us.
As Master Park says, it’s already laid down reality. All of my prompts are not about a special doing, or cultivating, or altering. It’s just simply settle into what is the nature of your body and the ground in this moment. And that is it.
It’s just two words. And perhaps instead of coming up with an answer to what they mean, being with the felt and experiential response you can feel into — simply settle.
Simply Settle Series: A Practice That’s Not a Doing
Two words from Patrul Rinpoche’s Self-Liberating Meditation — simply settle — so resonated for me. Not from the perspective of a Dzogchen practitioner — I’m not one. More like hearing a piece of music where I couldn’t begin to know the mind of the composer, but I can share what it evokes in me.
What it evokes comes from over ten years of Taoist practice with Master Wonchull Park, who is also a physicist. He always starts with what is immediate, tangible, and in a way universal. And I needed that. I had such a tendency to over-try, to over-control, to really just torture myself with pretty much any practice. One of the practices that first opened up for me was something so basic — laying down to the ground. It gives me a starting place where I can know that way of nature is there. As much weight as I give the ground, the ground is going to hold me up. I don’t have to search for it, make it, go someplace else for it. I just get out of my own way and simply settle into the support that’s there. As Master Park says, it’s already laid down reality.
So this series takes that tangible metaphor as its starting place and asks — what else is a way of nature we can simply “lay down” to? What else could we simply settle into without having to create it, cultivate it, or alter it in any way, as Patrul Rinpoche says? From laying our physical body upon the earth to simply settling into the flow of nature, we can come to know a direction in practice that’s not toward what should be but is simply is-ward. A practice that’s not a doing. And then wondering what it would be like to apply that to both thinking and non-thinking, to the nature of mind itself, to whatever is arising in our experience.
Thank you for Being with Being.
beingwithbeing.org
mackenziehawkins.substack.com
So welcome. Welcome to this fan club of two words. And it's a lot more than two words today. But two words that so resonate with me, and I have found so personally helpful that come from Pachal Rinpoches, self-liberating meditation. And I'm gonna put right here a in the in the comments and in the links when this gets posted, and maybe as a recording, uh, two links. One is to Salmonary, JSR's Insight Timer link, and the other is more specifically to her reading of this meditation text, this guidance, and really it was by listening to her and her voice and her meaningfulness of it that made these words have a have a deeper feelingfulness for me. And so highly, highly recommend going to the source, listening to this meditation delivered by Salmonary JSR, and being open to your own experience of it, and see whether you'd like to join the fan club, which is that for many of you who have you know are coming back, you have probably seen a trend in what I share here, that it's how we can help ourselves get out of our own way and let's try that.
SPEAKER_02Actually, a lot of our trying is what blocks us from let's just say our true nature and the experience of our our nature as it is, as it always is.
SPEAKER_00And one of the things that has been really impactful for me in uh my journey through some of this is that for many years I was uh trying my best to uh follow Buddhist wisdom. And then I met Tai Chi master uh Wanshul Park, who's also a physicist. And uh for those of you who piecing together the puzzle pieces here, Tai Chi is a Taoist martial art, so it's it's steeped in the Taoist tradition, and especially the way Master Park was conveying it, even his school is called the Wu Wei Tai Chi school. Wu Wei is a Taoist principle, literally can be translated not doing, but it's that sense of not interfering, not interfering in the Tao, in in the way of nature, which includes the way of our own, our own nature, and just as context, um, because this is where the source spring of my appreciation for not trying and ways we can both practice and cut through you know some of the methods and techniques that we can get wrapped up in, and they are there to help us, you know, realize another level of two nature, yeah, it would give me another whole game of trying. And so, like, for example, for me when I first was uh meditating when I first began with Launchal Park, like if I if I just would uh you know try and do basic uh mindfulness of breathing, I would I had so much anxiety in my whole system that I would feel like I couldn't breathe. So there was such a tendency for me to over-try even with breath, you know, just over control or or try too hard with anything that I was given. That one of the things that first opened up for me was to actually do meditation with a sense of connection with the earth, with a sense of my feet on the ground, or just lying down, my body on the ground. And so one of the things that I have come to feel in my own experience is that something as simple as lying on the ground, and we're gonna be lying on the ground quite a bit today, it's so basic, it's so obvious, it's you know, the opposite of what you know might be the ultimate, you know, Dzogchen realization and and these kinds of things. And it gives me a starting place, it gives me a starting place where I can know that nature is is there you know, pretty much.
SPEAKER_01The ground is gonna hold me up as much weight as I give it. The ground's gonna hold me up.
SPEAKER_02So I can lay down into the support of the ground. I can lay down into the support of the ground, and it's not a doing. The ground is already supporting me up.
SPEAKER_00I don't have to search for the ground that supports me up. I don't have to make and create the ground that's holding me up. I don't have to go to a special place for this to happen. I don't have to work hard for this to happen. I just get out of my own way and appreciate and feel and simply settle into the support of the ground that's there. Now let me just read a passage from Pacho Rimpochet's self-liberating meditation.
SPEAKER_02You don't need to buy it. You don't need to create it. You don't need to go someplace else in search of it. Nor do you need to work for it.
SPEAKER_00It is enough to simply settle in an experience of whatever is arising or taking place in the mind.
SPEAKER_02It is enough to simply settle into whatever is arising.
SPEAKER_00Whether what is arising is desirable, undesirable, he says simply settle upon that arising without altering it.
SPEAKER_02And of course he's he's talking about at the level of mind, the nature of mind.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what it would be to simply settle directly into it. But as part of a fan club, what I recognize is that I get a taste of what simply settle can mean, when I literally just simply settle onto the ground, and then experientially that lets me have some felt sense of what that can be like, so that when an emotion or thoughts or doubts or searching or anything arises in my experience, I have some sense of what that simply settling directly into it without trying to alter it in any way might mean. Don't try to adjust or improve or block or cultivate anything.
SPEAKER_01I mean, just for the moment, like think about all of the practices that we tend to do and the way many ways we approach meditation and practice. Don't try to adjust or improve or block or cultivate anything. So what are we what are we going what is practice then? What is it that we're going to do? And again, I I don't I don't claim to have the answer.
SPEAKER_00But I do know that my best shot of having uh an inkling of what that could mean is to do it in uh a very simple situation first, simple example first. So what would it be like as we lie in the ground to not try to adjust or improve or block or cultivate anything, but to simply settle into the support of the ground that's there.
SPEAKER_02As Pachal Rampochet says, allow whatever occurs to unfold and settle into it directly.
SPEAKER_00So let's say that Earth's gravity and earth's support, that that's let's just take that as the example of what's unfolding. And that we don't have to buy that, make that, work for it, create that, cultivate it, block it out, adjust or improve upon it. It's just going on.
SPEAKER_02And all that's left for us is to simply settle directly into that experience of it already going on.
SPEAKER_00So shall we have some have some exploratory fun with this? Let's first begin um let's begin in sitting, unless you want to uh adjust and be comfortable in any way that works for you. As you can tell, we're not uh preferencing sitting over lying down, we're actually heading towards completely lying down. But I do tend to go through just a foundation practice that yes, helps me to simply settle, help me to feel support of the earth in that sense, and also kind of hones in my sense of the more refined feeling of experience, and then spreads that more into the rest of the body, and then from there, and we'll interweave more of the settling into things throughout the foundations, but that gives a that gives a just I mean selfishly practically that helps me so that when I go into this adventure more in the second half of what more fully does it mean to simply settle upon the earth, then I'm I'm just more primed to be able to feel the way of nature just as it is. And for these sessions, you're welcome to. I mean, it's always up to you what you want to try, but you might find it interesting to practice with eyes open as a little bit of a different uh approach to meditation. That gaze can be soft, and that can just in a way help us feel that it's not a special inward stance, it's not a special state uh that we're cultivating in our mind. We don't have to close our eyes. All of living, all of life, well that made me jump. I don't know if you heard that.
SPEAKER_02All of life can be this meditation. And beginning with a few full deep breaths. Letting go.
SPEAKER_00Feel free to be on the side of a kid just having some fun. Get the wiggles out, and then just drop.
SPEAKER_02And let the shoulders simply settle into their lowest resting place. Let them rest with the weight of your arms.
SPEAKER_00And taking a few more outbreaths just to see if there's some pockets. Propping up pockets in your shoulders that are kind of insisting, no, there's something more you need to do here to hold your shoulders up. And then beginning to gently notice that your hands are already laying down to the support of your lap.
SPEAKER_02To feel into the subtlety of tension holding even a vague sense of needing to do something in your hands. And for the next couple of outbreaths, inviting the hands to simply settle directly into the support of your lap.
SPEAKER_00You can help to pair that kind of peeling back and letting go of settling with the outbreath, with that sense of letting go.
SPEAKER_02It helps them release unnecessary holding or tension so that they feel heavier. Then I have even more of a felt sense of the support that's meeting that heaviness.
SPEAKER_00And even just with hands and lap like this, you know, I could spend the whole rest of the hour just peeling back extra layers.
SPEAKER_02We'll do it for all of all of our body more as we lie down.
SPEAKER_00As part of this exploration, I think you might be getting the the gist here that we can feel this for what it is, and we can also explore it as this metaphor that is experiential. So now just imagine that someone told you that it's it's very important for a good posture and good health and being a good person, that your hands are fully in contact with your legs as you sit. That's part of what's gonna make you a good meditator and a good just a good person, right? That you should do that.
SPEAKER_02There should be a fullness of contact and connection between your hands and your lap, and approach it as something that you need to do.
SPEAKER_00Maybe there's even a tendency to press with your hands down into the lap of it to make sure, to make it happen, to do enough, and it can be subtle, and probably even exploring it at a subtle level might be more revealing.
SPEAKER_02Certainly, when we work with mind, it's very subtle.
SPEAKER_00Probably next session we'll explore this more with a sense of rooting in Tai Chi.
SPEAKER_02But just notice if if some extra tension and a sense of doing has crept into your hands, that there's something here to cultivate, keep up that how it was before wasn't enough, and you needed to alter it in some way, and then what might someone say to help you less feel that pressure without altering or manipulating your hands in any way, just let them rest by themselves and settle into the support of the lap as that interaction unfolds. It is enough to simply settle in this experience of hands resting upon lap as it is as it's already going on. Just going ahead and opening to the possibility that that's also happening between your seat and the ground already with nothing extra or special needed from you in this moment, you can't make yourself have more gravity, can't make the earth have more support, can't change the way of nature of mutual flow, where nothing's one-sided, the forces always are met by an equal and opposite force in the same instant, weight of body going down, support of the ground coming up already, and as we sit, we're probably feeling very likely, and I count myself amongst it, even after ten years of practice doing this kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00Highly likely, we're feeling only a fraction of that mutual flow. That mutual flow of nature, us in the ground, and so beginning to feel the breath and the releasing sense of the outbreath. And yeah, we practice, it's like laying down the burden of our weight more fully to the earth on the outbreath, sense of letting go, giving the earth our weight, healing back the layers of extra tension or sense like we have to hold ourselves up by ourselves. And you know, with the language that I'm using here as prompts, giving your weight to the earth, lay down more fully, it sounds like there's something you need to do.
SPEAKER_02Actually, all of my prompts are not about a special doing or cultivating or altering, it's just simply settle into what is the nature of your body and the ground in this moment. That's it. Every little place to every other little place, all simply settling in this mutual flow.
SPEAKER_00And that what I threw in there every little place to every other little place.
SPEAKER_02We started with big chunks and body and ground. But it's happening in every little interaction of interbeing.
SPEAKER_00So let's begin to hone in on the fineness of how nature flows, that it's not clunky, that it's not big chunks laying down to other big chunks. Well, that's there, but the big chunks are all made up of little chunks.
SPEAKER_02And for this, we usually just begin to feel the flow of the breath at the nose, the breath flowing in. Just quite literally that flow of air passing out again. Right in the space inside our nose. That's the finest flow. This opening in the next instant. See if it dissolves into an even finer, subtler sensation.
SPEAKER_00For today, this will just be a gentle warm-up to how there's not a limit, not a chunky limit to how finely we can feel or to the flow of nature itself.
SPEAKER_02All the way down inside, right into the middle of us, and as we breathe out, just noticing the movement of the torso, front body, back body, side body, and then again breathing in, the fine free flow of air coming in, and then maybe not so very different, the fine free flow of the body as we breathe out. And whether or not there is a finest flow you can feel in that wave like motion. Perhaps observing it first in the front body. And maybe noticing the subtle movement from the armpits to the lower ribs at the side. Maybe feeling the ripple like motions along your spine from your shoulders all the way to your sip bones.
SPEAKER_00And every layer of your spine and body is simply settling onto what's beneath.
SPEAKER_02All down our spine. Let's come to laying down to feel. Position of our body.
SPEAKER_00Perhaps having the arms out to the side.
SPEAKER_02Just can help the upper back feel a little more laid down. Can help to put a bolster underneath your knees.
SPEAKER_00Help the pelvis more comfortably lay down without putting tension or overarching in your spine.
SPEAKER_02And the feet can just flop open under their own weight. The way of nature is that this is already going on fully. A very heavy head. And instead, what would it be like to let yourself feel how the earth is already supporting up your head? And to simply settle into that support. Into that way it is. Do I roll my shoulders more back? Should I change the position of my arms? Can creep in really easily. Not just the idea of hand, an idea of the ground, really the direct and immediate feeling of all those sensations in space, all those parts and particles of our hand all participating in this laying down. Way down there. Our feet and our toes could feel like our hands and our fingers. You may like to spread the toes or wiggle the toes just a little bit. You may like to feel as though you're breathing in and out of your toe tips. And then just allow the feet to be floppy and the heels to be heavy. Just notice the absurdity of my own language. How do you allow your feet to be heavy? They have the weight that they have. They're drawn to the earth whether you allow it or not. Nothing to do. Nothing even to allow. Directly into the support of the earth. Without us trying to do extra. Or without us trying to pretend like it's not so. From the shoulders to the fingertips.
SPEAKER_00What would it be like to feel the length of the legs from the hips to the toe tips?
SPEAKER_02Also laying down into support. Already laid down into support. So that all there is for us is to simply settle directly into that way of nature. All of you, all the physicality of you. Simply settling directly into the nature of mutual flow. You and the ground. The ground and you without trying to alter it in any way. Because that interaction is not something you alter. It's not up to you. It's just the way nature is. All your physical being simply settle directly into Earth support. And that is it. Of simply settle into the very nature of what is that's not up to us in this one case of it. The mutual flow of physical body and physical heart. And perhaps instead of coming up with an answer seeing what is the felt and experiential response that you can feel into. It might be prompted by these words simply settle. And gradually begin to move maybe your toes, maybe your fingers. Maybe going for a juicy stretch. Or just stay where you are, up to you.
SPEAKER_00And I do just want to give those links again. So these are two links again. I this is uh Pacho Rinpoche fan fandom here. Uh not to make light of uh esteemed and venerable Rimpoche, but I also feel like it was the reading of his self-liberating meditation by uh Samanari Jayasara. Um and she is here on Insight Timer, and this this uh meditation that she reads aloud is one of her free tracks here on Insight Timer. So do enjoy those links. I cannot begin to do it justice, and uh if you continue in these series of fandom explorations, um I think if you listen to the the full um self-liberating meditation by Pacho Lampouche. Oh Teresa saying, where are the links? Uh you're not seeing them? Are you seeing them? Uh David said he already listened to them. Yeah, I think they'll give you uh further context um for some of these explorations and we will be picking out certain quotes um and certain aspects of uh his his words and his guidance and continuing to evolve. What could the simply subtle mean experientially? Uh we did it lying down here. Probably will begin to do it a little bit standing up next time, and then also beginning to simply settle into other aspects of experience that are not just so literally in the um description. I quite literally needed the support of the ground with my anxiety to simply settle.
SPEAKER_01What's the most obvious, evident, least tryingful way I can, you know, connect with some some comfort, some support?
SPEAKER_00Well that that's that's it right there. Um so we'll also do what is it like to simply settle into you know that free flow, for example, of nature. Or simply settle into the wholeness of everything arising. Those are more like uh unconditional ways that we can be like, okay, that's the way of nature, we can simply settle directly into that. It's not up to us, and then maybe it kind of gives us this further versatility so that it's like, well, well, what would it be like to simply settle directly into any experience? Because that's a lot of what uh Pachula in Pochet is pointing towards to simply settle into any experience, especially the nature of mind, whatever is happening in the mind. So let me see what questions or comments we have here. Um gonna scroll up to the beginning. People saying hi, hi, thanks so much. Uh Swiss Vagabond, David, Donna, great to see you back. All of life can be this meditation.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And if you did it with eyes open, yeah, I can make a comment about that in um certain practices of meditation. Uh it's it's actually a key part of meditation that is eyes opened, given what their uh view is. Uh Kyla, hi Vagamon Day, Teresa. Uh where are the links? Let me know if you're coming through with the links. Um, I don't know. I'm I've posted them three times. Not seeing. Oh no, not seeing the links. Um, you know, maybe insight timer has some kind of a block on links. So I'm just gonna say um search on insight timer Samanari Sah.
SPEAKER_02Um and you can search for some, I better spell it right. Okay. Oh, that's a clever idea.
SPEAKER_00So if you go to Seminary JSR on Insight Timer, and let me see. This is so if you go to insight timer.com backslash seminaryjsr guided meditations, so meditation, guided patchalimpish, that will take you. She does. I am such a fan of uh listening to her. And um, you know, of the many ones, she also has more uh oh, I should only say things that she has on inside timer, but yes, she's amazing.
SPEAKER_01Um yes, that one's like you guys are you guys are troubleshooting for me. You guys are looking out for me, thank you. Uh uh the names and such are in the description of the live events, so you can also find them there in the live events.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Uh uh Emily, great to see you back. I will definitely be looking for the tracks to listen to Miss Hi, back again.
SPEAKER_02Oh, can you still hear me?
SPEAKER_00Okay, uh Matt, there's a helpful hint about the making the links incomplete. Let's see. Davies, thank you. Firefly, love this. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to checking out her work. David says I can hear you just fine. Yes. You can you can uh tell me how you would like me to pronounce your miss if you'd like.
SPEAKER_01Spell it out phonetically for me. Uh doing the best I can here. It's okay. Sounds good, thank you.
SPEAKER_02So I'll just leave it for this.
SPEAKER_00Um for here for now. And maybe it's just kind of an open question of kind of putting it in the back of your mind.
SPEAKER_02What would it be to simply settle into the very nature of the one who's worried of the one who doubts of the one who is trying so very hard.
SPEAKER_00And how if that's our view of what practice is like what Pacho Rinpoche talks about, it can become very simple. Yeah. Me too. Let me see if there's anyone up here that I have. I was not multitasking looking up as I was. You have quite a few new people here as well. I think Donna, you said hi earlier. Andrew, great to see you back. And all the people who share in the comments, I really do appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Yes, welcome.
SPEAKER_00Welcome all. Good to see you with the cutest German shepherd ever. And Marta, I thought I saw you. Yeah, wonderful. Yeah. Sorry if I missed anyone. And we'll be back, I think it's this um this Thursday. For more fandom of Simply Settle. Till then, take care. Oh, one more thing. Uh I'm heading to bed very soon, and I'm so relaxed. When I first started meditating, I found myself trying to do it right without really without realizing that I could just be.
SPEAKER_02And it would happen as it was going to. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_00One of the things that this can reveal is how much we are trying. How much we're trying to get it right. And actually discover that in a really straightforward example. That then can become the model for what it might be like in other ways. And for sure, this is uh a great one for right before bed.
SPEAKER_01So relaxing all the extra tension and holding from your body can naturally be a wonderful way to head into head to bed.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, rest well, whether it's happening soon or happening in a bit. And take care. Take care all.