Freedom In Turning Attention Inward

This is a 25-minute talk followed by a short meditation offered at a live Insight Timer session on September 14, 2025. The theme of the talk is that turning our attention inward is a path to the deepest freedom. When we turn towards our present-moment experience with kindness and acceptance and without judgment, we have the opportunity to see where we are stuck, or caught up in suffering. And in seeing where we are stuck or tangled, we have the possibility of getting untangled.

Mindfulness allows us to find the space between stimulus and response. That space makes choices available--and with the freedom to choose our response, we can make healthier choices that lead to greater well-being and happiness.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background sounds.

Transcript

I want to share that the theme is that turning our attention inward is a path to freedom,

Is a very powerful path to freeing ourselves from suffering.

So this is the theme of the talk today.

So just beginning with turning our attention inward.

Now what we're talking about,

What I'm talking about,

Is we're turning towards our experience as it is from moment to moment in a certain kind of way,

With kindness,

With acceptance,

And without judgment,

Without resistance,

Without trying to get anywhere.

Just as I spoke of in the meditation instructions and before getting into the meditation,

We're not trying to get somewhere,

We're not trying to control anything,

We're just bringing this,

You could say,

Non-controlling awareness,

Non-judging awareness to what we're experiencing.

And to say that this is a path to freedom,

I want to explore,

You know,

How and why it's a path to freedom.

The Buddha spoke about this conscious awareness,

This,

Essentially what we're talking about is mindfulness,

As a direct path to liberation.

That's a kind of translation of what the Buddha said.

Mindfulness is a direct path to liberation,

Not just an indirect one that contributes to it or is supportive of liberation,

But is a direct path.

It's a kind of a doorway inward,

A path inward.

And so I want to explore how is it a path to liberation.

And what I say is,

When we turn towards our experience in an honest,

Accepting,

Kind,

And non-judging way,

As we do in meditation,

One of the things we see is we see more clearly where we are stuck,

Where we're tangled,

Where we're confused.

In other words,

Where we're suffering.

We can see where,

You know,

The ways in which,

You know,

I use metaphors and many other teachers,

Practitioners use metaphors for suffering.

You know,

I like tangled,

It's one I like a lot.

And it's one that the Buddha used,

The idea of a tangle,

Being caught up in a,

You know,

Tangled up.

Reminds me of Bob Dylan's one of his great songs,

Tangled Up in Blue.

You know,

He's talking there about being tangled up in unhappiness,

Basically,

And dukkha in suffering,

But not so much necessarily from a Buddhist standpoint.

But being tangled,

Being caught up,

Being,

You know,

Things not going the way we want them to go,

You know,

Life not being the way we want it to be at that time.

So some examples,

We might be caught up in fear about,

You know,

In America,

For example,

And other countries too,

About where the country's headed.

You know,

That's something I talk to people,

People speak to me about how concerned they are,

And,

You know,

Many,

Many good reasons to be concerned.

So it's not a problem being concerned.

But when we get kind of tangled,

Of like,

Oh,

My God,

Where's it going to go?

And,

Oh,

What am I going to do?

And,

Oh,

You know,

All of these ways we get caught up in our minds about it,

Then that's suffering.

Or it could be that we're worried about our health,

You know,

There may be something we're experiencing.

And we think,

I wonder,

Could it be cancer?

Could it be something serious?

And then what will happen?

Then when the mind proliferates,

That's when there's suffering.

Likewise,

We could be concerned,

We might be complaining about an adult child and how they're living their life,

You know,

Not the way we think they should or what we think is good for them.

And we're kind of caught up in that as well.

We're tangled,

We're kind of hooked into that.

Or we're feeling the need for something we don't have,

You know,

Some could be an addiction,

Could be just something,

Oh,

I need a drink,

Or I need a drug,

Or I need to be in a relationship.

Or I need some new shiny object,

A car or a device or whatever.

And it's,

It's this,

When we,

When we get really caught up in,

In this,

In this kind of tangle,

That's what the Buddha is talking about as suffering.

So I'm talking about when these kind of behaviours,

Either behaviours in the world,

Acting things out,

Or thought patterns,

Things that we're thinking in our mind,

I'm talking about where they lead to,

To happen to unhappiness.

There's also a healthy kind of concern we can have about the political situation.

It's wise to be concerned,

Because there's things to be concerned about.

You know,

If you're not concerned,

As they say,

We are not paying attention,

Because there's a lot of stuff happening that's very,

Very painful.

And,

You know,

As bad as,

You know,

Bad,

I don't want to use the bad,

Bad,

But serious in some ways,

As anything in my lifetime,

I think,

You know,

I mean,

On a larger scale,

You could say World War One and World War Two,

And,

You know,

With a more serious or maybe the Great Depression,

But so it doesn't help necessarily to compare it,

But it's politically in the US things are in,

In my view,

Again,

This is my view,

But one,

I know a lot of people here share,

You know,

The,

You know,

In some ways,

The feeling is,

You know,

That things are,

You know,

Very,

Very,

Very serious in terms of,

You know,

The threats to democracy in the country.

Anyway,

Not noting that without getting into the content of it,

Because easily we get into our heads about it,

And know my view,

Your view,

Their view,

Etc.

I'm not wanting to do that today.

I'm just wanting to name that,

Important to name it.

And all these other things I've named,

There's a way that we can have healthy concern about things,

You know,

About our health,

About our children,

About,

You know,

All of those things,

You know,

About wanting something nice,

You know,

To have,

You know,

It's not in itself a problem.

It's only when we kind of get into the clinging,

It's the clinging that's the problem,

Problematical part.

So seeing where we're stuck is essential to finding a way out of being stuck.

Does that make sense?

Seeing where we're stuck,

Because if we don't see it,

We can't find a way out.

We're suffering,

But we don't know how to get out of it,

Because we're not,

We're not aware of it.

Or we may be very aware,

We may be aware of it as a kind of a background harm that doesn't feel good,

But we're not really aware of it.

There's a wonderful quote from the renowned playwright and author and civil rights activist James Baldwin,

Has a new biography of him come out recently I'm reading.

But he said,

Not everything that is faced can be changed.

But nothing can be changed unless it is faced.

I'll say that again.

Not everything that is faced can be changed.

But nothing can be changed unless it is faced.

We have to,

What he's saying is,

We have to face the truth.

He was talking,

You know,

60,

70 years ago,

You know,

And that things were very serious then,

And he was very involved in the civil rights movement,

Civil rights struggle in America.

And,

You know,

It was basically saying you have,

We have to look honestly at how things are both in our own inner lives,

But also in the world around us.

We have to face up to the truth of how things are.

Nothing can be changed unless it's faced.

And that's really a very much a statement of the Dharma of the teachings of the Buddha and other wisdom teachings that we have to turn towards our experience.

What comes from this awareness?

One of the things,

One of the central things that comes from this awareness from turning our attention inward,

Is that we have a choice about how we respond.

Without awareness,

Without mindfulness,

There's no meaningful choice,

Because we will just be playing out old habit patterns.

We'll be on autopilot or we'll be lost in a kind of trance.

This is a word that Tara Brock uses often.

She pronounces it a little different.

I have the more UK,

The trance,

Trance.

But we're kind of,

It's like we're sleepwalking,

You know,

We're kind of going through the motions.

And,

You know,

People can have that,

You know,

Realization about their life that in some way they're almost,

They're kind of like they're sleepwalking,

Unaware,

Just kind of going through the motions of their life.

And that's a very painful place to be,

To be,

You know,

Caught up in that,

In that,

In that trance.

And it's,

It's a way I think a lot of people actually live their life.

There's like this sense that there may be something more to it,

To things,

To life,

But they've,

They don't,

They don't have,

They don't have access to that.

You know,

I've experienced it with people close to me,

Even,

Where,

You know,

They've asked,

You know,

About the culture of drinking,

You know,

And how,

In some way,

They're troubled by it,

By their involvement,

Not,

Not the,

By their involvement in,

In this kind of drinking every night,

You know,

You know,

I grew up in a culture where that was kind of the norm,

You know,

It's very much the case in UK,

Ireland,

Scotland,

You know,

As part of the culture,

Maybe changing some since I was younger.

But,

You know,

And in the US,

You know,

In different kind of ways,

It's very much there as well,

A little bit more of a puritanical attitude,

I would say in the US.

But,

You know,

Having a conversation and,

You know,

With family members,

Even and,

And,

You know,

Them knowing that,

You know,

There's something about the culture of it that,

That is,

That is troubling to them.

And,

You know,

I spoke about,

Well,

You can,

You can actually stop or you can,

You know,

Cut back to just a lot,

You know,

Much more limited amount,

Not going out every night,

Or,

You know,

Five nights a week or whatever.

And yet,

When I've had those conversations,

You know,

There's,

There's,

You know,

The response has been kind of to take it seriously,

But then to say,

But I can't imagine my life without that,

Because their whole life is tied to that the culture is all tied to that,

What would I do if I wasn't doing that?

You know,

And it's like,

It's like,

It feels like it seems like,

To me,

It's like an opportunity lost when you kind of look at what might be possible.

And then you kind of say,

Well,

No,

I can't do that.

Because my life,

What would my life be without that?

That's just one example of kind of where we we might choose the autopilot,

Because the alternative of letting something go of,

You know,

The word in Buddhism,

Maybe other traditions as well as renunciation,

Which has a bad reputation,

I think it's kind of seen as like,

Oh,

Wouldn't want to do that renouncing.

But it's really what it's about is really letting go of things that do us harm.

It's not letting go of love and connection and joy and all of those things.

It's letting go of,

Of clinging,

Really,

That's what renunciation is about letting go of clinging.

Rebecca says,

What can I let go of is a reflection I sometimes do.

That's a wonderful reflection.

And so here's the thing that,

That we have to coming back,

We have to,

We have to turn inward,

In order,

Well,

Let me say,

What comes from turning inward is to have a,

Have a,

See that we have a choice,

I could actually let go of this,

You know,

In the example I was giving,

I could actually let go of this.

And it's a choice.

And it may seem like,

Oh,

That's a big,

Big thing to do.

But it's something I've done in my life.

And,

And I,

You know,

I've seen in all I see enormous benefits from it.

You know,

I,

You know,

Just the,

The freedom that comes to not be dependent on anything,

Really,

Not dependent on anything,

You know,

Of having something in order to be,

You know,

To feel okay.

Choice,

Having that choice means that we can make better choices,

Obviously.

And making better choices leads to greater happiness and well being.

That's what the key and,

You know,

Perhaps the best way of saying it is what in the way that's attributed to Viktor Frankl,

You know,

The great writer,

The Holocaust survivor,

He wrote Man's Search for Meaning.

But in this case,

He said,

Between the stimulus,

And the response is a space,

In that space lies our ability to choose.

And in our ability to choose lies our growth and our freedom.

So just to kind of unpack that,

Between stimulus,

Like somebody said something to you,

And rather than just reacting out of kind of on autopilot,

You know,

Out of habit,

You pause.

Stimulus is kind of what comes in,

And then response is what kind of goes out.

And if you can pause between stimulus and response,

There's a choice,

Oh,

I could just reactively say to the person,

You're a jerk,

You did a blah,

Blah,

Blah,

All of that.

I could do that.

But maybe that wouldn't be the most helpful thing.

It probably wouldn't be.

And so can I pause?

Can I breathe?

Can I step away for a little bit,

And maybe come back and say,

You know,

When you said that to me,

I felt really sad,

Because I felt,

Or I felt angry,

You know,

Because I want to be connected.

And,

And that's,

You know,

I felt,

I felt hurt by what you said.

So in that way,

You could say that rather than you're a jerk,

You know,

You're an idiot,

I hate you,

Or whatever,

You know,

It's a very different kind of response.

But we have to be aware to,

To be able to do that,

To have the presence of mind to do that.

So between stimulus and response is the space,

Space allows the choice.

And the choice obviously means we can make better choices.

And that's where he says,

In our ability to choose lies our growth and our freedom,

We can make better choices.

And we can make choices that lead to greater happiness and well being.

In fact,

To freedom.

Yeah.

So the way turning inward,

That turning inward is the path to freedom first comes through being able to see where we're suffering,

To kind of acknowledge,

Oh,

Yeah,

I am I'm hooked on this or caught up in this.

So I'm suffering.

And this is the first noble truth,

Just to recognize this is suffering,

Suffering is present right now.

And the second noble truth of the Buddha,

The central teaching is to recognize where we're caught cause,

Causing suffering to ourselves to recognize how we're creating suffering for ourselves.

It's not just that a bad thing is happening,

But that some way we're doing something that is harming us that's keeping us locked in suffering.

You know,

I spoke,

You know,

Some sessions back about the,

The teaching of the two arrows,

You know,

Where we're adding the second dad arrow,

Where we're adding resistance to pain,

You know,

Something happens that's painful.

And we add to that,

Oh,

This shouldn't be happening.

Why is this happening?

Why are they always doing this?

This is the second arrow,

It might be the third arrow.

This is the second noble truth where we recognize our own role in in creating or perpetuating suffering.

The Buddha said that craving or clinging is the cause of suffering.

It's really when we're in conflict with our experience with reality,

That we being in conflict with life that we suffer.

And just to say,

Yeah,

That's exactly right.

Pain is inevitable,

Suffering is optional.

And just to note,

And it's important to say this,

Because sometimes this can be misinterpreted or misheard.

Suffering isn't inherent in what we might call a bad thing happening.

You know,

Just because something quote,

Bad happens,

We get a,

You know,

Really serious diagnosis that doesn't inherently lead to suffering doesn't have to be suffering.

It's only suffering when we take that.

And then we start proliferating about it.

You know,

Oh,

My God,

What's going to happen?

What's going to happen to my children?

What's going to happen?

If I,

You know,

If I,

You know,

Get really sick,

And I won't be able to work,

And I won't be able to pay my rent or my mortgage,

And I'll be out on the street,

You know,

All of that,

That's the second hour,

That's the add on.

The pain is just that,

Oh,

That's hard.

That's the pain of sickness.

That's the pain of difficult,

Painful information.

But it isn't inherently suffering.

Even,

You know,

Having your house destroyed in a hurricane isn't inherently suffering,

Because you could meet that with,

Yeah,

This is really,

Really hard.

I've got to start again.

But if you met it with equanimity,

That wouldn't be suffering.

So when we see our own role in our suffering,

That that allows us to,

The possibility of letting go,

And that letting go leads us to freedom.

Letting go is the third noble truth.

You know,

I'll talk about this more next week.

But I had to give an example,

I could give an example of where,

You know,

My dad died when I was,

You know,

A young adult.

And,

You know,

I had resentment towards him at the time,

And judgment,

And blaming him for certain things,

You know,

That contributed to certain things in our family.

And I held on to that for a long,

Long time.

You know,

It wasn't,

You know,

It wasn't there every day of the week,

But whenever I thought there was a filter that I looked through,

You know,

The filter of judgment or blame.

And finally,

You know,

After about 40 years,

I kind of looked at that clearly,

I said,

This isn't serving me,

This isn't helping me.

And it isn't obviously telling,

Giving him any information,

Because he's been dead for 40 years.

So I was able just to kind of work that through to let go of that,

And to find much greater freedom in that situation.

That's just an example of the letting go and the freedom that can come.

And it's been a real freedom.

But again,

It's not the complete end of suffering,

You know,

Because I'd be caught up in other areas as well.

But it's like the Arjun Chah,

The great Thai teacher said,

Let go a little,

And you'll experience a little freedom,

Little peace.

Let go a lot,

And you'll experience a lot of peace,

A lot of freedom.

Let go completely,

And you'll experience complete freedom,

Complete peace,

Your struggle with the world will be at an end.

And these teachings,

What they're pointing to is that we can end our struggle with the world,

End our struggle with life,

To live with complete freedom.

Even whatever is happening in the world,

We can meet it with equanimity.

Just allow what's here to be here and to let it come and go and then respond,

You know,

Respond to the suffering of the world.

Absolutely.

Be engaged,

Be engaged socially,

Politically,

You know,

With what's going on.

Absolutely.

But have it come from this,

This place of peace and equanimity.

This is what comes from turning the attention inward.

Turning the attention inward is in fact,

The fourth noble truth.

It's part of that practice of training the mind through ethics,

Living wisely and kindly,

Through meditation,

Training the mind,

And through cultivating wisdom.

And one of the key elements of this path is itself mindfulness.

So it brings us back to the beginning again,

Of turning towards our experience as the practice that leads to the end of suffering.

So I'll continue some discussion of this.

And one of the things I was wanting to talk about today,

But knew it would take too long,

Is why do people avoid engaging with this,

With the freedom?

You know,

There's been a lot of interest in mindfulness and,

You know,

In recent years,

But a lot of people still turn away and know that's not for me.

And I want to talk a little bit about that.

And I may do that next,

Next week.

So let's just have a couple of quiet minutes of meditation.

So maybe take a breath or two,

Close your eyes,

If you like,

Let your attention come inward.

Just notice what's present for you right now.

I've been talking,

I talked for 25 or 30 minutes.

And just notice what's how the body feels.

What's how your heart feels,

Your emotions feel right now.

You know,

Notice what's happening in the mind.

And just meeting whatever is here with kindness,

With acceptance,

Without judgment.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

And just appreciating all of us here together.

You know,

Overall,

I have here 572 people who've joined,

Not necessarily everyone here right now,

But have been here for some time during our session today.

Just appreciating,

Appreciating everybody,

Appreciating this great gift of community of Sangha.

This gift of being together,

Practicing together,

Sharing these teachings,

Sharing the benefits of the Dharma,

The wisdom of the Buddha and other great teachers.

And breathing in,

Just wish yourself well.

Breathing in,

Send yourself a wish of loving kindness or compassion.

May I be safe.

May I be happy.

May I be kind to myself.

May I accept myself just as I am.

Thank you,

Liza.

And breathing out,

I send a wish to everyone here,

A wish of goodwill,

Happiness to all of us here together.

May you be happy.

May you be safe.

May you be kind to yourself.

And may you accept yourself fully as you are.

And again,

Breathing in,

Wishing yourself well.

And breathing out,

Wishing everyone here well.

And let your wishes go out into the world,

Into our suffering world.

Wishing that all beings everywhere be happy.

May you be safe.

May you be kind to yourself.

May you recognize your inner goodness.

May you accept yourself just as you are.

Being a loving,

Compassionate human is such a gift to the world.

Wishing everyone well.

Reviews

Really wonderful ❤️🙏🏼

This is a wonderful talk. Thank you.

It felt like I was there. I've listened twice in two days.