Vast Like Space (Talk + Meditation)

"The way is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. It is our choice to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things." - Sengcan. This includes teaching from "Trust in Mind" along with commentary and guided meditation practice.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Daniel.

I would like to read to you this passage from the text Faith and Mind,

Okay?

And I'm gonna read this passage and then I'm gonna comment on it.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

The mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

The mind's essential peace or stillness is disturbed to no avail.

So what does that mean?

It means simply that if we are not seeing things clearly,

We're disturbed.

If we're not seeing things clearly,

We're disturbed.

So if we're telling ourselves untrue things about the world around us,

If we are lying to ourselves about our circumstances,

Lying to ourselves about things that are our fault,

Misjudging everything,

Not seeing the world clearly,

Then we're struggling.

We're struggling.

So if we are going through life like a daydream and we are putting everything in categories that aren't true and we are just obsessed with nonsense all the time,

Then we're unhappy.

That makes sense,

I think.

I think we all know that if we don't see things clearly,

We're unhappy.

So it says when we don't understand things,

Our peace is disturbed.

When we don't understand things,

Our peace is disturbed.

So part of what we're doing with our meditation practice is sort of developing clarity,

Learning how to see things as they are instead of just having a skewed perception all the time instead of seeing things through a filter of delusion because that's what we're doing all the time.

We're seeing things through a filter of delusion instead of seeing things as they really are.

So what I want to advocate for is learning how to pause and pay close attention and see things more clearly and put down some of our baggage because that's the situation is we have our baggage,

We have these neuroses that we're carrying around and because of that,

We don't see things as they are.

We don't see things as they are.

A famous philosopher said we don't see things as they are,

We see things as we are.

And I think that's true.

A lot of times our perception is shaped by what we wish we could see or what we're afraid.

So we either expect the good thing and so we see the good thing or we expect the bad thing and so we see the bad thing.

If you've ever been in a relationship where you made excuses to stay with a person that was bad to you,

Then you know what you were doing.

You were seeing the good things,

Sometimes even good things that aren't there.

We do that.

We see the good things that aren't even there.

So that is the way we are.

And at the same time also,

Like if you meet someone and something about them seems off or there's something about them that you just don't like for no reason,

That's kind of the same thing,

Just the opposite side.

Because we then look for reasons,

We sort of feel weird about this person and then we look for reasons to not like them.

We look for that,

Even though maybe that's not there.

And gosh,

We get into this a lot when we think about politics and I don't want to comment on that much except to say that it's really easy to see things that you don't like on the side that you don't like.

And it's very,

Maybe it's not hard to see things you don't like on the side you like,

But it's easier on the other side,

Usually.

Usually.

Sometimes we can see things clearly,

But it's often easy to pay attention to that situation when it's other people,

When it's them.

And especially also,

We're the same way with ourselves too.

A lot of the time our own flaws we don't see,

We don't want to see,

So we don't see,

But the same flaws in others,

Even if it's the same flaws that we have,

Really jump out at us and they're really clear.

Although I do have to mention that I think rarely do we have a clear picture of ourselves.

Sometimes we think we're the greatest person and we know what we're doing and we know everything and other times we just think we're on the bottom and we're below everyone else.

And both sides of that are not true.

But rarely do we see ourselves in the middle,

Even though almost all of us are,

Presumably,

If we can measure people in the middle,

Right?

So when we don't see things clearly,

When our minds are diluted,

When we always think things aren't good enough or we're not good enough,

Then that's when we get into trouble in life.

That's when it's very hard to be happy.

That is when we are always chasing things,

We're always buying things we don't need,

That essentially when we don't see things clearly and we think we're not good enough,

It's really easy for people to sell us stuff.

It's really easy for people to sell us stuff,

To manipulate us,

To get us to do things because we're not seeing things clearly.

So that's,

I mean,

That's what,

You know,

We know what scams are.

That's what scams are.

You're not seeing something clearly and someone's taking advantage of you and that happens too.

But more importantly,

When we're not seeing things clearly,

When our attention's fractured,

When,

When we feel like we're not good enough,

We're not making the best decisions for ourselves or for the people around us.

We are not making the best decisions when we're not seeing clearly.

So it's really important to learn how to see clearly and to not see things shaded by our baggage so much.

I like to say,

And I've said this before and I like to say it,

We sort of see the world sometimes through,

In a situation that's like those old timey 3D glasses,

You know,

With the red on one eye and the blue on the other eye and you,

And you just see color if you're not looking at a 3D movie,

You just see like weird colors.

I think that is sort of the way our perception is.

So if you've had a bad relationship,

It's very easy to see every relationship that way.

If you've had a bad job,

It's very easy to see every job that way.

And good,

Same thing.

Good.

It's very easy to have expectations of what happened before will happen again,

Even if there's no clues of that,

Even if there's no clues of that.

And it's very easy to sort of carry something around,

Sort of start seeing the world in a negative way and then see everything in a negative way.

I was,

Before I started practicing Buddhism,

I was a very negative person and I saw the bad in everything all the time and I did not like life and I did not like anything and I was just one of those sad,

Miserable people.

And that's because I was carrying that baggage.

I was carrying that baggage and it was shaping the way I saw reality.

That doesn't mean that was real,

But it just means that that was shaping the way I saw the world.

The Buddha once said something like,

Our mind makes the world.

Something like that.

I'm paraphrasing.

Don't comment.

But something along the lines of our mind makes the world or our mind makes reality.

And that doesn't mean literally like I have superpowers and I created reality,

But it means that the world I live in is shaped by what I expect,

By what I've seen before,

By my baggage and neuroses.

It shapes the way I experience the world.

It shapes the way I experience the world.

And because of that,

I don't see the world clearly.

I don't see the world clearly.

I see sort of my own misperception and we all see our own misperception.

It's like watching a black and white movie or a 3D movie.

It's,

We're not seeing it as it is.

We're seeing it with our expectations and our baggage layered on top of it.

So with our meditation practice,

With learning to concentrate and learning to be present and learning to focus,

We're learning to see through that shit so that we see things as they really are.

That's clarity.

Clarity is really important because with it,

We can learn how to make better decisions.

We can learn how to pay attention to the things that we want to pay attention to.

And we can really show up for the people in our lives too,

Because we're not fully present,

Because we're not seeing things clearly.

A lot of the time we're not showing up for the people in our lives.

And I think life is about showing up.

So I think that's really important.

And we're not,

Also we're not showing up for the causes we believe in all the time.

Sometimes we are and sometimes we aren't.

And part of the reason for that is we're distracted and we're not seeing clearly.

And we just have all this stuff going on that we're trying to get through.

And that's what awakening is about.

That's why I call it a daydream and I call it awakening,

Because that's what we're trying to do.

We're trying to sort of learn how to put that down and just be in the world as it is and see ourselves clearly and see the world clearly so we can make better decisions so we can have happier lives and we can accept the way things are and we can be in harmony with the world around us instead of making enemies out of everything all the time.

That's what it really comes down to.

I don't want to make enemies out of everything all the time and that is what we do.

That is a huge tendency we have.

So all of that being said,

We just went over two lines and that's pretty great.

I'm gonna read those two lines again.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

The mind's essential peace,

Stillness,

Is disturbed to no avail.

It's sort of.

.

.

If you can't see the problem clearly,

You can't work on the problem.

Or if you can't admit there's a problem,

You can't work on the problem,

Right?

So that's why we're disturbed and that's why we struggle because we're not even agreeing on what reality is sometimes and it causes a lot of problems.

Our minds are disturbed and if we learn how to see things clearly then we can come to stillness and if we can come to stillness then we can find joy and peace and harmony in our lives.

I really believe that.

We can.

So all of that being said,

I'd like to go ahead and lead a meditation.

So I want you to sit up as straight as you can.

If you're in a chair,

Plant your feet on the floor like I'm doing.

If you're in a chair like me,

Plant your feet on the floor firmly like I'm doing.

And we want to sit up straight.

We don't want a lounge like this that is considered.

.

.

That's more.

.

.

This is relaxation,

This is not meditating.

So we want to sit up straight.

Your point is this is an attention practice and we sometimes tend to think mind and body aren't connected and we're wrong,

They're totally connected.

So my body being at attention means my mind is at attention.

And I have two hand positions I recommend and one is called relaxation which is just hands on your lap and the other one is called the bowl.

One hand on top of the other,

Thumb gently touching,

Resting in your lap.

I like both of those so whichever one works better for you.

I'm gonna do an eyes open practice so I'm gonna be looking at the wall behind my computer up here and if you prefer an eyes closed practice I think that's okay but I like a nice open practice.

And the practice we're going to do is the open awareness practice.

So instruction will be minimal and I'm not gonna tell you to follow your breath or repeat a mantra or anything else.

What I'm gonna tell you to do is just be present and just notice what's going on.

Just notice what's going on but try not to get carried away by it.

So I'm gonna have a thought and I'm gonna think I'm gonna just notice I'm having a thought and I'm gonna try to not get carried to the next thought.

So if I start to think I'm hungry I'm not gonna the goal is I'm not gonna start to think oh what's for dinner but rather just think oh I'm hungry and then let that pass through because thoughts we are not our thoughts we are I like to say we're like the sky and thoughts are like clouds passing through and they are passing through we think they aren't we think they aren't we think we have to chase them and seize on them but they're just passing through.

So I'm gonna ring the bell now.

And I want you to begin by taking three deep heavy breaths.

I want you to just be present with your experience.

Just notice what's happening.

Some people find this a very difficult practice but I tend to think anyone can do it.

We're practicing it's a meditation with no anchor we're just being here and just seeing what's going on and that teaches us a lot of things about ourselves and how our brain works and we'll just sit like this for a few minutes.

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And we'll close the meditation by taking three deep breaths again.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me today and that's it so have a good day.