What we'll be talking about this month,
Ongoing,
Is the unshakable self.
I think that when we look at the unshakable self,
We're really looking at the core of all things.
We're looking at that place that exists inside of us that is beyond the yes and no of things.
It's in a place of non-duality.
There is no judgment.
It just is experiencing what exists in front of it as this amazing gift.
This morning,
I wanted to share just a practice that I've been doing that is really shifting my life for the better.
If we understand that what's really happening for us is that we are being allowed to have this planetary experience,
We get to live on this planet and get to have all of the experiences that don't matter in the way that we think they do because we exist in a duality of pass or fail,
Good or bad,
And either I'm going to ace this life or I'm not.
That's setting us off on the wrong course.
There is no acing this life.
There is an experience of life for whatever it is.
The things that uplift us and the things that challenge us are all there for our benefit,
And yet we don't see it that way.
We often feel like we've been a victim or something is being done to us.
I remind myself every morning that all of the experiences are a huge gift,
And it pulls you almost immediately back into the self,
Into the higher self.
You see things from this broader perspective,
And then I say,
Thank you.
That's all that is needed to be said,
Is this thank you,
Because it puts you in this seat of receiving and experiencing without judgment,
Just appreciation,
Just gratitude.
And then when I move through things,
I've already started from this beautiful platform of gratitude,
And I see things differently.
The sky comes into my eyes differently.
The rain comes into my sphere differently.
The spilt tea just gets experienced differently.
The feeling of,
I get to wipe up the tea.
I get to do that.
It's not a problem.
It's something I get to do in this experience of life.
There's a way that maybe when we were younger,
Sometimes some of us still do it now.
You go on a vacation,
Which is really a journey,
Right?
You didn't book the nicest hotel with all the creature comforts,
Right?
You put your backpack on and you decide to explore something,
And you innately know that it's not going to be easy.
You didn't set it up to be easy,
Right?
You set it up to have this journey,
And you know that you're going to miss a bus,
Or you're going to get to a hotel and it's not going to be at all what you expected,
Or you're going to have a problem finding a place to sleep,
Or the food you're going to eat isn't going to always be greater.
All the things,
Right,
That happen when you're on an unplanned journey,
And yet it makes the whole thing so wonderful.
You remember all of it when you return home with a big smile on your face,
Because the struggles sometimes are the funniest stories or the deepest experiences.
What if life was that,
Right?
What if the whole journey of life was all of the things that you get to encounter and have a relationship with so that you can grow?
That really is the truth of things,
Right?
It's not to be in a place that makes us feel so comfortable and so safe.
That kind of takes us out of life itself.
It's about having all of the fluctuations of experience with a huge thank you,
With a huge appreciation for this journey.
And the way that we can get there is usually through meditation.
That when we sit with our thoughts,
Our fear-based thoughts,
And we look at them and understand that those fear-based thoughts are,
When boiled down,
A restriction from our life experience,
We sit with them a little differently.
We sit with them,
And we soften them,
And we say,
Okay,
You can be a warning,
But you can't block my life.
You can make me think a little harder about what hotel I'll book next.
I want to learn from some of my difficult situations,
But you can't block my life,
And so you can sit beside me.
So,
Of course,
That's what we're going to do this morning.
So find your comfortable seat,
And let's take our journey,
Even in our meditation,
Right?
We want it to be comfortable and peaceful without any thoughts,
Or I failed.
This is not true.
Our most difficult meditations offer us the biggest gifts.
So find that seat of comfort or discomfort,
Whatever it is.
And just be there.
Let your eyes rest upon your gazing point.
Isn't it nice to just be sitting,
Experiencing your own stillness?
Maybe it's quiet in your space.
Maybe it's noisy in your space.
It doesn't matter.
It's just another experience.
And as you let go a little more and allow yourself to be here now,
There is a way that you feel drawn more deeply into the back of your body,
Back of your head,
The seat of the Buddha.
There is the possibility that perhaps you can locate the center of yourself and receive your gazing point from there.
If you were sitting in the center of a huge vortex,
This vortex is noticing everything around it,
But still remaining the center of itself.
And when you discover that sometimes those experiences around you pull you out of your deep center,
Your deep vortex,
You just merely need to notice it and return home,
Sitting in that unshakable self.
I wonder what will happen now as you close your eyes and turn your focus inward,
More deeply into the center of self.
Maybe you're noticing more internal things like your breath,
Or the beat of your heart,
Or the pain in your hip.
Whatever it is,
It isn't you.
It's just an experience you're having.
It's just a gift you've been given.
We can sit in that seat in a fullness.
That fullness is essentially the absence of fear,
The release of constriction,
The opening of your heart,
That childlike curiosity.
And all you could do was expand because it was essential to your learning.
Children are said to be fearless as it's their job to learn and learn and learn.
At some point,
That switches.
We start being more fearful and we stop learning.
Perhaps this is a choice.
Perhaps we could love learning more than our desire to be seen.
I wonder what that would feel like in every contracted moment.
What would it be like to feel more curious than afraid,
To feel more desirous of the experience and the comfort of the safety,
The safety merely an illusion.
Breathe into that as we view it all from that deep and unshakable self.
Perhaps that relationship gets deeper every time we sit.
We become more of it and less of everything else.
What might it feel like to listen to the vibrations of the singing bowl from that deep seat?
And go ahead and deepen your breath.
Feel that space inside and the energy that comes through that space.
Notice the energy as your blessing,
The blessing of this meditation.
And as you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
And if you'd like,
You can share that blessing with us in the comments.
Remember,
Our blessing doesn't always have to be happiness and joy and calm and groundedness.
It is simply what we're feeling truthfully,
Honestly.
Something that we can share in this safe place and know it will be received with love.
Thank you for sharing your time with me.
In our community.
