Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Stop Turning The Miraculous Into The Mundane | Bonus Meditation with Pascal Auclair

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

This is the first time you’ve ever been here, now. Pascal invites you to discover the vivid and mysterious experience of this new moment.About Pascal Auclair:Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where he is now enjoying teaching retreats. Pascal teaches in North America and in Europe. He is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of TNI’s Guiding Teachers.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Rediscover the Familiar.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey, everybody. happy Friday, time for a bonus meditation. Today we're going to explore an extremely simple technique that is great for beginners, but also it's an excellent reminder for long-time meditators. Our teacher du jour is Pascal Eau Claire, who's been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997.

He's been mentored by great teachers who have appeared on this show, like Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield. And Pascal is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of TNI's guiding teachers. Here we go now with Pascal Eau Claire. Hi there, friend. My name is Pascal. What is meditation? Good question. Someone said it's discovering the familiar. Let's play with this a little. Take a moment to find the right posture for you.

Could be sitting, standing, or lying down. You should be at ease, or relatively at ease, and be able to close your eyes if you want. Let's take a few deeper breaths, just to help us settle, and let go of extra tension that can be released. Now, notice the immediate experience. The body in its posture. The sounds or silence in the room.

You have never been here now before. Take a few moments to experience this. We are invited to discover the familiar or rediscover the familiar, what might be there all the time that we are not aware of anymore. The breath, for example, always there but often unnoticed. How is it to be breathing? To be a breathing human right now? Take some time to let your silent attention answer this question. How is it now to experience the environment if you open to it through hearing? To become aware of the silence or the sounds around, the soundscape.

Take this moment to discover, rediscover hearing. Meditation, we could call it waking up, means turning attention to what is happening now and realizing how this experience here is new, mysterious, vivid, fresh all the time. Take a moment to feel it. To taste what it is to be alive, sensitive and conscious right now. Meditation could be defined as not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something that is not doing something defined as not doing something else, simply being consciously alive for a moment, experiencing as it's happening what it is to be sensitive, to have senses, to

be conscious, to breathe, to hear. Continue to play with this. You can open your eyes if they're closed. Today, rediscover the familiar as you walk, as if for the first time, as you hear, as if for the first time, and as you see the world, as if for the first time, wishing you the best until we meet again. Thank you, Pascal. You can find more meditations like this one over on the 10% Happier app. Just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. If you like 10% Happier, and I hope you do, you can listen early and ad free right now

by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.