In-person meditation classes recently resumed at Monterey Centre. We came together on a warm Wednesday evening to kick off another season of connection and exploration. How wonderfully affirming that our first night focused on basic brilliance.

Basic brilliance (aka: buddha nature, basic nature, and/or basic goodness) points to a number of qualities that are fundamental to who we are. Clarity, tenderness, ease and well-being, for instance, are present in us whether we are having a good day or bad, whether we are meditating or not, whether our hair is silver or blonde.

This view can significantly impact our understanding of ourselves and others. Knowing well-being and ease are built into us, to raise an example I return to frequently, allows us to lighten our search for the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ (ie: not too hot; not too cold) in life. After all, those qualities are always here and ever accessible.

Placing basic brilliance at the centre of meditation is an act of empowerment. It affirms the fact we have everything we need to practice. Certainly some sense of formal technique and teachings can be extremely helpful. At the end of the day, though, meditating does not rest on these. Instead, meditating rests on what is essential in all of us: basic brilliance.

How can this be so?

One of the qualities inherent in our being is mindfulness, more particularly somatic mindfulness. This points to the gentle but inevitable draw this embodied moment exerts on our attention. Like a magnet with metal, paper towel with water, somatic mindfulness subtly pulls our attention toward this. And this dynamic – this basic dynamic – is what guides our meditation practice.

Again, a sense of technique can prove helpful. It can help us connect with the innate absorbency of this instant. This is why I offer a three-part alliteration to people I practice with. Together we (1) slow down, (2) surrender to the mindful draw we become increasingly aware of, and (3) settle into the fullness of our embodied lives.

Of the two, however, meditation rests much more on somatic mindfulness than it does on any kind of technique or teacher or tradition. Meditation rests much more on what is basic in all of us. Which is why placing this, placing basic brilliance at the centre of our practice from Day One is such a potent and empowering act.