We have an important talk about the difference between mindfulness and thinking.
Mindfulness does not come from thinking.
Your thoughts do not form mindfulness.
Mindfulness is like a big vast sky and each one of your thoughts is like a patch of cloud that temporarily crosses the sky.
So mindfulness is a lot larger than individual thoughts.
Mindfulness is like a salad bowl that holds the tomatoes,
The lettuce,
And the cucumbers.
In this example,
The tomatoes,
The lettuce,
The cucumbers are individual thoughts.
Mindfulness is that big salad bowl that holds the entire collection of your thoughts.
A lot of people think that meditation is about forcing negative thoughts to stop.
A lot of people think that meditation is about purposely thinking positive thoughts.
Meditation is none of that.
Meditation is a practice where you anchor yourself to the breath.
As long as you are aware of breath comes in,
Breath goes out.
You become a mindful being who is able to watch passing thoughts,
Watch passing emotions,
Watch passing physical sensations.
The one who's watching is very different from the thought itself.
So you might ask,
What is the transformative power of sitting there twice a day,
Eyes open or closed,
And just watching anger,
Watching jealousy,
Watching anger,
Watching impatience?
Now here's the key.
When you watch anger,
Instead of drowning in anger,
You no longer feed energy to the anger.
That is the healing power of mindfulness.
So imagine on a particular day,
You are very,
Very impatient.
During those impatient moments,
If you follow the breath and you become aware,
You become mindful that you are impatient.
That mindfulness about impatience is very,
Very different than completely losing your control and being lost and confused in impatience.
So when we watch passing emotions,
When we watch passing thoughts,
We're no longer giving them energy.
We are allowing them like clouds to cross the big last sky of mindfulness.
When you can watch an emotion,
When you can watch a thought without identifying with it,
You realize that the real authentic you is not made of impermanent passing moods,
Thoughts,
Or physical sensations.
In essence,
Through mindfulness,
Through meditation,
You're coming back home.
Why is that?
Because when you were born,
When you were a baby,
When you were two years old,
You were so pure,
You didn't identify yourself with jealousy,
Financial insecurities,
Hatred,
So forth.
So when you become the watcher,
When you become the quiet observer,
By following breath comes in,
Breath goes out,
That quiet observer is the real authentic you.
Before you became programmed with repetitive habits,
Negative thoughts,
Prejudice,
Hatred,
Or many other emotions and beliefs that we can adopt during our adult years.
Sometimes the rush of thoughts,
The rush of intense emotions are so powerful,
They become like a waterfall.
So you know,
If you fall into a waterfall,
You might be crushed by its power and weight.
But imagine that you can step into a cave behind the waterfall.
Imagine you can watch the waterfall without stepping into it.
That's what mindfulness is.
And the healing power of mindfulness is because you get to watch and observe passing thoughts,
Passing emotions,
Passing physical sensations,
Without identifying yourself as passing emotions,
Passing thoughts.
So understand this,
Mindfulness is something you can always come back home to.
Anytime you follow two inhalations and two exhalations,
By merging with the motion of the breath,
You step into mindfulness.
You were born with mindfulness and the real authentic you is mindfulness.
When you realize that you can always come back to mindfulness and disentangle yourself from irritating thoughts,
Emotions,
You'll be very happy,
You'll be much more confident,
You'll be centered,
And you will be a much more secure,
Happy human being.
