So sometimes as human beings we do a lot of thinking,
Have you noticed?
And sometimes we think that these habit patterns that we have,
This depression or this anxiety,
It's going to be that way forever.
This is it.
This is how things are.
And we have an amazing capacity as human beings to kind of come to these grand conclusions.
This is how it is,
You know.
But we live in a world where everything is always changing.
And we have a capacity for change,
For unfolding and growth and development.
It's kind of astonishing what's possible inside and what can come and develop within us.
And one of the challenges for this to happen is our thinking.
How we get caught up in certain ways of thinking.
Like it has to be this way or it has to be that way.
And what happens is our perspective of ourselves,
Our perspective of the situation kind of shifts according to the state of mind that we're in.
So when you meditate there's a kind of mind state shift that goes on.
And those shifts give us different perspective for what's happening.
It gives us space.
Who are we and what matters?
So it's pretty remarkable when we are no longer living in the world of our thinking.
Where we're not experiencing the world and perceiving the world through thoughts.
Thinking about viewing the world through the lens of our thinking.
And when we're swirling around in our thoughts,
Which we often do,
That's where we arrive at these grand conclusions.
It's always going to be this way.
It's never going to be like this.
They're always going to be this way.
We can talk ourselves into certain conclusions about just about everything.
And the idea that sort of that fixed view,
This is how it is,
It's kind of dangerous to think that way.
So you know the one of the great three world Dharma sayings,
The three word Dharma sayings that comes from the teachings of Suzuki Roshi.
And we talked about this,
Is these three words are not always so.
Not always so.
So not always so kind of breaks the grip that our thoughts have.
It breaks the grip that it has to be a certain way when you say not always so.
It's pretty convenient.
It's something you can carry with you,
Very portable.
And this old slogan from Suzuki Roshi who said that all of Buddhism could be summarized in these three words.
Now I don't know if that's all you need to know to become free and awake,
But it's certainly something that we can carry with us.
Not always so.
You're probably not going to get so quickly stuck in your thoughts and your views and your opinions.
This is the way it is.
When you pull out of your pocket,
Not always so.
Maybe it's true sometimes,
Maybe it's not always so.
What other perspective can we bring?
So this is one of the ways to kind of think Dharma-cally.
To think what other ways can we see a situation unfolding.
Maybe it's not just one way,
One perspective.
What other ways?
What else is going on here?
There's a famous story that I've told a lot and I apologize if you've heard it too many times,
But in case one of you hasn't heard this story,
It's worth hearing again.
And it's a Chinese story of a farmer,
A poor old farmer who has an old weak horse that pulls his plow and one day the poor old horse somehow escapes and the neighbors come to the poor old farmer and say,
Oh,
You poor person,
It's going to be really hard for you now without your horse.
And the farmer says,
We shall see,
We shall see.
And the farmer's son goes out and happens to find a wild,
Beautiful,
Young,
Strong stallion and brings it back.
And the neighbors say,
Wow,
You're so lucky,
Your son found this beautiful horse.
Now you have a good strong horse and you can plow and things will go much better for you.
And the farmer says,
We shall see.
And so the horse has to be broken.
And so the son begins to train the horse,
But the horse throws the son off his back and he falls off the horse and he breaks his leg.
And so now the neighbors come and they say,
Oh,
You poor man,
Now how are you going to manage without your son to help you?
How are you going to manage?
It's going to be really hard for you.
And the farmer says,
We shall see.
And so the king of all the lands decides to go to war with the neighboring kingdom.
So he recruits all the young men,
But the son with the broken leg,
He can't go.
So now the neighbors say,
Oh,
You're so lucky,
Your son's not going off to war,
To die or to be gone forever.
And the farmer says,
We shall see.
So that's another way of thinking.
That way of not being stuck in a view or in a story or to have this idea,
You know,
We'll have to see,
Let's see how it goes.
Let's see how it goes.
The equanimity practice in this tradition goes along with this phrase,
Not always so.
Equanimity is a kind of love,
You know,
Sometimes it's called grandmotherly love.
You know,
Grandmothers,
They love their grandchildren,
But the grandmother has seen it all before,
You know.
So they're much more equanimous about the childhood dramas that their grandkids go through.
You know,
For first time parents,
They're not equanimous.
You know,
We can be trained.
But to grandmothers,
Like they can just love the kids and they don't get riled up or upset by any of the dramas that are happening.
So one of the ways to have this kind of equanimity is again with this phrase,
Like not always so.
The choices you make are your own.
Let's see what happens.
So when you're making your choices,
You can just say to yourself,
I'm going to be present and see what happens.
So this openness,
You know,
This is one of the ways of this,
This Dharma that we practice.
This is a dharmic way of thinking,
To be curious,
To be open to something unfolding.
We're often kind of stuck in this is the way that it is and it's not going to change.
And when we have that view,
We're not open to seeing how things evolve and how things develop.
Let's see,
Let's see.
I have known many people who have gone through hardship,
Including myself.
In the middle of hardship,
I think it's pretty common to think that this really sucks.
This is really bad.
How could this terrible misfortune have happened?
But a year later,
Or 10 years later,
You look back and you realize that it was the best thing that happened to you because it forced you maybe to look at your values or your priorities.
It forced you to reconsider your life.
You know,
It allows you to drop some of that mental weight,
Some of the stories that you have lived by,
The opinions that you've lived by.
So sometimes our difficulties are blessings.
And sometimes what seems like blessings,
Maybe they're not.
Maybe they're not what you think they are.
Who knows what they are?
Not always so.
Let's see.
