What if we begin this session by pausing everything that we know.
There is no problem solving here.
There is no decision making.
No choices to be made.
Nothing.
No opinions.
So there's no need to rely on prior knowledge of anything.
To be now and to be in the now,
We don't necessarily need any reference of the past.
Like even your name is not necessary right now.
Nobody is calling you.
You don't need to introduce yourself to anyone.
Once we pause everything,
The only thing that remains is the current experience.
Whatever sounds you may hear.
Whatever sensations you might be feeling.
Whatever thoughts that might be coming up.
We're not pausing anything about the current experience.
We're just pausing whatever we know from the past.
And whatever is appearing in our experience right now,
There's no right or wrong there.
Or why am I feeling this?
Or why am I thinking that?
Or why is this hurting?
It is just what it is right now.
It's a light and sound show.
And there are no reviews.
It's like sitting on the banks of a river or at a beach when waves are crashing.
There is nothing needed to be said in that situation.
We don't say this wave crashed incorrectly.
It is too small.
I don't like it.
I want that.
The magnanimity of the ocean and the beauty of everything happening there.
It's just perfect.
Or it's just the way it is.
There's no right,
No wrong.
No category either.
Just like when you're seeing the waves arise and explode at the beach.
We don't know at that time that what is the next wave or next series of waves that's gonna rise.
What size,
Shape,
Which direction.
We might try to get some pattern out of it.
But we just don't know what's gonna rise.
Just like that.
Right now,
We don't know what the next thought is gonna be.
What the next image in our mind is gonna be.
What sensation is gonna arise in our body.
Where our attention is going to be directed.
It's like our attention is zooming in onto my words sometimes.
Onto your thoughts.
Onto your sensations.
Onto your feelings.
There's no set pattern.
It's like a wave moving.
Even if you try to control,
You will soon realize it's in vain.
You can't control what you attend to.
Maybe for a minute or two,
You might exhaust yourself into being focused.
But that's not what we are doing here.
We're in a natural state.
We're just letting everything that arises arise.
But seeing while everything arises.
That everything is arising outside of our control.
Like my sentences are constructed as I'm opening my mouth.
I don't have a script.
And whatever mistakes I'm making while speaking.
Just like you are hearing them,
I'm hearing them.
And I'm going back and correcting them.
You're just at the beach,
Seeing the ocean move.
Waves arise.
Hearing the waves crash.
Seeing them crash.
Seeing them crash.
This urge that we have that we need to connect whatever is happening now with something in the past is completely absent when we are at the ocean.
We don't try and correlate a wave with some wave we saw two years ago or 10 minutes ago.
It's a dance that's choreographed and performed at the same time.
And has never been performed that way ever.
And you don't care to even correlate it.
Although the ocean might have been there for millions of years.
The whole thing is fresh and anew for us.
What if we adopted this same attitude right now?
Unless for practical reasons,
Which right now there is no practical reason.
We don't correlate anything.
We just watch and enjoy whatever is appearing.
Whatever shows up is free to show up.
And you are free to let it be the way it is.
I heard a beautiful statement last night that the best waves,
The best waves are the ones that do not interfere with what the ocean wants to do.
And the ocean allows whatever is happening.
This constant mental exercise of correlating,
Of predicting,
Of going to the past.
And peeking into the future.
It's only mental gymnastics that leaves us exhausted,
Scared,
Tensed,
Stressed.
Do you think you can ever take your body to the past or take your body into the future?
Sounds like an absurd question.
But when we think about the past constantly,
When you peek into the future,
We're trying to take it there.
Re-experience the past experiences and pre-experience the future experiences that may or may not happen.
And from what we have lived and seen,
It never happens the way we imagined them to do.
And it creates a havoc in our body because we are trying to take our body along with our mind.
And that's why there's constant tension in our bodies because it can't go where the mind is going.
Yet it is being attempted to.
The only true experience is right now.
The only place where experience takes place is right now.
We can't experience in the past.
We can experience the memories of the past right now.
But we can't go to the past and experience the past or have any experiences in the past.
Neither can we go experience in the future.
The only true place,
And when I say true,
The only one that can be verified through our own experience,
Through our own intelligence,
Is right now.
So we can relieve our bodies and minds from the shackles of tyranny that somehow we have imposed on ourselves.
The only healthy place for the body is right now.
And only when the mind cooperates,
The body can be healthy and present,
Healed.
This is not a function of willpower.
This is a function of wisdom.
We are free to choose to impose this tyranny on ourselves,
Or we are free to choose to let it go.
It's like going into a store that sells imitation flowers.
The moment we enter the store,
We see flowers,
But we know that those flowers are fake flowers.
That doesn't mean they are not flower-like.
But deep down,
We know it's not real.
It's only there to serve some purpose that we might have for those fake flowers.
Just like that,
The thoughts that are coming up,
The imaginations that are coming up,
Might have some practical purposes for us,
But they're not real.
I mean,
The content of what they are portraying is not real.
If you think of a tiger in your thoughts,
It might serve some purpose,
But the tiger is not real.
The fear is not real.
We experience it as real because we think the content is real.
We think that the fake flower is the real flower.
So this wisdom doesn't change our experience.
It just changes the way we see things.
And maybe,
Relieve us of our suffering and unhappiness.
Thank you.
