Hello,
This is Kambiz Nafisi,
Spiritual guide and meditation master.
Today I wanted to speak to you about the fact that spiritual practice begins the moment you stop running from this present moment.
Not the ideal moment,
Not the peaceful moment,
This one.
See,
This moment is the only gift you've got from God.
So this moment could be silent,
It could have distractions,
It could have pain,
But the breath,
Following your breath,
Gives you that sheer honesty to walk into this moment,
Not trying to control it,
But accepting it.
There's a part of you called the ego,
Me,
Me,
Me,
Mine,
Mine,
Mine,
My preferences,
And the ego always finds that this moment is lacking something.
Because our intellectual mind,
Our ego,
Always thinks that we are lacking something,
This moment is lacking something.
Then we're always trying to manipulate life,
Control life,
Try to harness life so that the way this day is caters purely to our preferences.
If you're doing that,
My friend,
You're dreaming.
Because spirituality doesn't mean that the ocean of life does not have any waves.
The moment you start meditating,
The ocean of life is not totally calm.
The waves of life are constantly there.
Spirituality shows you how to serve those waves.
Now,
The moment you want to face this moment,
You're going to generate heat.
What do I mean by heat?
Your subconscious mind that controls 80% of all of your habits,
All of your old beliefs,
All of your preferences,
That subconscious mind has a comfort zone.
The comfort zone is what your ego prefers this moment to be.
But this moment has its own qualities.
So when you want to accept this moment,
Walk into it,
And flow with it,
You're going to generate some heat.
Because your old subconscious mind,
Its comfort zone,
Its past conditioning of habits and preferences,
Is going to resist this moment.
In spirituality,
We're not looking to perform.
We're not looking to become a holy person.
We're not looking for some holy spirit to step into us.
In spirituality,
We're really looking for presence.
Presence means that you're mindful,
You're aware,
Your present self walks into this moment,
No matter what the moment presents.
You don't need to go to a retreat center or a sacred mountain.
What you need is a little space.
That space is right here,
Right now.
Anchor to your breath.
Feel the breath coming in,
Feel the breath going out.
That'll help you pause for a moment and not get carried away by the noise in your mind.
So spiritual practice is not something you do.
Spiritual practice is something that does you.
In other words,
Life with all of its incidents becomes your teacher.
Your breath becomes your guru.
You anchor to that breath,
You feel it going in and out,
You feel your body,
You feel your emotions,
Whatever they might be,
And you become present.
In presence,
The world becomes quieter.
You learn how to surf the waves of life.
You learn to act instead of reacting blindly to the knee-jerk reactions of your subconscious mind,
Which has been conditioned long ago.
That conditioning in your subconscious mind is affected by your religion,
By your childhood incidents,
By a divorce,
By death of a family member in your early life,
On and on and on.
All of that is conditioning.
There's two ways you can live.
You can either be taken hostage by the programming of your subconscious mind,
By the conditioning of your subconscious mind,
Or you can live in this present moment.
The only thing you've literally got is this moment.
Can you bring your presence to it?
Can you bring your mindfulness to it?
Trying to control this moment is foolish,
Because the ocean of life is always full of waves.
Now,
If you discover some peace and rest in this talk,
In your meditations,
You don't need to broadcast it to your entire family,
Because sometimes they're at a different place in their spiritual journey.
So,
When you try to broadcast your discoveries in spirituality,
You're actually falling further away from that still quiet place in the depths of your heart.
Every time you try to control others by making them spiritual,
Just touch the tips of your fingertips to remind yourself to take a breath,
Come back to your center using the breath.
Let that moment pass,
That moment when you're trying to change others or control others.
Instead of convincing others,
Why don't you liberate yourself?
When you liberate yourself,
When you start to breathe easier under your own skin,
All of those other people around you will become curious about your changes.
Your breath is ancient.
It's your oldest,
Oldest friend.
Your breath knows your past,
Your present,
And your future.
Anchor to it.
Watch the breath.
Feel the breath.
And instead of doing,
Doing,
Doing,
Once in a while,
Step aside and just be.
When you just be,
You can witness the turbulence of life around you.
And when you bring presence to your life,
You'll see that presence brings you peace,
Brings you joy.
Why is that?
Because then there will be nothing lacking in this moment when you show up and face the moment with beingness and mindfulness.
God bless.
Godspeed.
