Unshakeable Peace Is Found In Seeing Reality

In this excerpt from our Weekly Sangha meeting on Insight Timer, we look at how we find unshakeable peace in seeing the reality of how everything, including us is arising in each moment - interconnected and interdependent.

Transcript

But unshakable peace is not dependent upon external conditions.

So in any way that we are making our peace dependent upon external conditions,

It's shakable,

It's dependent,

Because when those conditions change,

We'll start grasping,

Oh no no no no no,

I only want the good conditions,

I only want the praise,

I don't want the criticism,

I only want the winning,

I don't want the loss,

I only want things to work,

I don't want things that aren't going to work.

That's not reality.

It's not reality,

It's not the world we live in.

And we are trying to live in reality,

To live in peace in reality,

To see how everything is flowing and changing moment by moment,

That anything that is mechanical,

Its nature is to break.

Its nature is to break,

Don't be shocked when it breaks,

That's its nature.

Going on an RV camping trip with three young boys and your husband,

The nature of the trip is that it's going to be a little bit of chaos.

The kids are going to be excited,

They're running all over the place,

Everything's a little bit more difficult,

You're getting used to the RV,

You're doing everything in a really small environment,

Everyone's trying to maneuver around each other.

It's not to push back on that but it's to go oh this is what's going on,

We got to flow,

We got to bend back,

We got to bend forward,

We got to make the best we can out of this situation and we got to laugh and we got to laugh because sometimes things get a little crazy and that's okay because it's all just changing.

It's causes and conditions coming together and changing and changing and changing but we do not see the world that way,

We see the world in a very fixed and binary way.

This is the illusion that how we see the world and how we see ourselves in a very fixed and binary way.

I'm good,

I'm bad,

I'm mindful,

I'm not mindful,

I'm a good spiritual practitioner,

I'm a bad spiritual practitioner,

I'm worthy,

I'm unworthy.

I'm so smart,

I'm such an idiot,

I'm so competent,

I'm such a loser.

Like we just go back and forth,

Back and forth to these experiences,

Like we're all of it.

You know one moment there's success arising because of causes and conditions,

Another moment mistakes are arising.

Not that there is anyone making a mistake but just seeing oh those were the conditions that arose and out of that things went a different direction.

Not I'm an idiot,

I made a mistake.

Even in fact what we would call a mistake because we're so quick to impute bad,

This mistake was bad but how many inventions have we had in the world that came out of mistakes?

Penicillin came out of a mistake.

I can't remember the guy's name,

I think the 1920s,

Late 1920s,

He had a,

I have a degree in microbiology,

I should remember this but I can't,

It's a long time ago.

He had a bunch of petri dishes filled with bacteria,

Went on holiday,

Came back,

Noticed some of the petri dishes had mold and as he was cleaning them he noticed well the ones that had mold the bacteria died and then he was able to isolate the compound that it was penicillin and we came up with penicillin.

How many lives were saved out of that mistake?

Potato chips were,

Potato chips,

Actually this is interesting,

I love potato chips.

In New York there was a customer,

It was like grumpy customer that sent his potatoes back,

His fried potatoes and said they're too soggy and they're too thick and out of spite the chef,

I don't remember his name but it was out of spite,

He was so just upset with this guy for insulting his potatoes,

He said I'm going to slice the potatoes really,

Really,

Really thin and fry them,

I'll throw a little salt and then we'll send them back,

We'll see how he likes those potato chips despite those causes and conditions,

Right?

So even all of these things like we're so quick to want to label something as one thing,

We don't know.

In our suffering we're so quick to want to label like a bad spiritual practitioner.

No,

This is maybe exactly what you need in this moment,

Exactly what you need in order to wake up.

We generally do not wake up under peaceful conditions.

We do need a certain amount of peaceful conditions,

I will argue that we do need a certain amount.

If it's too much,

Right,

There's a sweet spot,

There's a sweet spot and of course when we're having those peaceful conditions to not take to not take those conditions for granted and to not assume that we'll always have them,

Right?

So to practice,

You've got a few extra minutes,

Meditate,

Got a few extra minutes,

Practice some gratitude,

Practice some sympathetic joy,

Practice some tonglen,

All of these conditions help those little moments,

Few minutes here,

A few minutes there,

A few minutes there,

All of it adds up,

All of it adds up,

All of it adds up to help to creating the conditions for us to be able to see what is really going on,

How we have misperceived reality and ourselves and everyone else,

To pull back the veil so that we can see all of this stuff I've been carrying around,

My anger,

My regret,

My bitterness,

My resentment,

My doubt,

My self-loathing,

All of these things,

They were so misplaced,

I'm not one thing,

I'm everything,

I'm everything arising interdependent of each person,

Right?

And that's what makes this so beautiful,

Is that we really are just all arising interdependent of each other and interconnected,

But we don't see that,

We don't see that,

We think I'm a little independent me over here forging ahead,

I was determining whether I was mindful or not and therefore I shall punish myself when I'm not,

Just staying lost in the illusion,

Just staying lost in it.

Even if you cannot see all of the conditions and you can't,

We can't possibly know all of the conditions that led to one mindful moment versus one unmindful moment,

But we know in general when we have a daily meditation practice,

When we really,

You know,

Have that intention,

Still having the intention of being mindful,

Of being kind,

Saying forgiveness prayers and other beautiful prayers that help lead us to more patience and more openness towards others and ourselves.

Every single one of these things,

And coming on Dharma Talks,

Coming with our sangha,

Coming with our sangha,

Right?

Every single one of these things,

These are conditions,

But it's usually the egg gets,

It's usually to wake up,

You got to crack the egg,

It's not in these peaceful conditions,

That's the result.

If it's the internal still,

It's the result of getting cracked open in the suffering and you're like,

Oh my god,

I get it,

And then everything just opens up and we're peaceful.

And after a little while though,

Especially in the beginning,

After a while those old conditions start to come back up again,

It's like,

Oh,

I thought I was done with that,

Well I guess I'm not,

I guess I'm not,

I don't have to fight this,

I guess I'm not,

I guess I still need some things to learn here.

I saw it back there that time,

That was great,

Great,

I'm so grateful,

I'm so grateful for all the conditions that led me to seeing that,

But there's so many conditions at play that we can't possibly know them all.

Our job is just to simply keep doing our practices and trusting the process,

Letting go as best we can because we're not controlling any of this,

But every condition makes a difference,

Every word that you hear from a fellow sangha member,

From a teacher,

From a book,

Right,

Is another condition leading you along the path.

And the result is unshakable peace,

Unshakable peace,

Even when everything seems to be falling apart,

That inside there's no grasping,

There's no disturbance by it,

Ah,

This too doesn't feel as nice as getting praise or a latte,

But there's no pushing back on it.

Reviews

i love stores like penicillin was a mistake or potato chips spite 😂- Thomas Edison had over 200 prototypes for the electric light bulb that didn’t work. he said each mistake showed him one less way to make a light bulb. the man who started fedex first drafted it as his college thesis (overnight delivery) and he got an F. his teacher said the concept was impossible.

i am very fearful about making mistakes (childhood programming), but it gets better little by little. and these stories are inspiring to embrace mistakes… embrace the chaos 💚🌻💛💚🌻💛💚🌻💛💚🌻💛

I am everything. Yes! Letting go of the binary perspective I hold of myself & others & allowing for more compassion & grace. Deep bow of gratitude 🙏🏼♥️