Hi everybody,
Welcome back to SHU,
The podcast about emptiness.
Today we're going to explore the idea of emptying the trash.
Emptying the trash.
In chapter 48 of the Tao Te Ching,
Lao Tzu shares with us,
In the pursuit of knowledge,
Every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
Every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
Until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
Nothing is left undone.
True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way.
It can't be gained by interfering.
So what is this practice of letting go?
We could think of our body-mind as a container,
A vessel.
Likewise our heart-mind as a vessel.
And each day as we move throughout the marketplace,
We go to work,
We talk to our family,
We take in media,
We're putting stuff in this vessel.
Everything we take in from the external world goes into this inner container.
And this container gets very,
Very full.
And what do we do when our trash can gets full?
Why we carry it out and empty the trash.
Turn the container over,
Shake it out,
Let everything fall down and release.
And we return the empty vessel,
The vessel of Shu,
Back to its proper place.
Empty and ready for the next whole day.
And these days we have so much that we're taking in from the external world.
So many stories,
So many ideas,
So much color and sound.
We turn on our screen and we get all the arguments of the world in front of us.
With the click of a button.
So our containers get very full every day.
Now Shu,
The emptiness,
Is our true natural state of being.
A state of being that is pure potential.
Ready to respond to life,
The living field of life around us each moment.
Responding from a place of the prenatal body.
The intuitive heart.
But if our vessel is always full,
Then we feel further away from that potential.
From that intuitive nature.
From our prenatal body.
And we enter what's called the postnatal mind.
The thinking intellectual mind that feels separate from nature.
That feels like it has to figure everything out through thought and rationalization.
And this creates a stagnation.
What's called a knowledge stagnation.
We take in so much,
But then how do we let it out?
How do we transform it?
And this is the importance of developing a daily practice.
Because it's through our cultivation,
Through the practice we develop to align ourselves between heaven and earth.
To relax our joints.
To develop the upright energy in our body.
To breathe with the universal chi.
To shake out all of the stagnation within us.
It's through this cultivation that we transform knowledge into wisdom.
So if you're a student at university,
And you're writing papers,
You're reading tomes and grimoires and books.
Taking in so much.
You feel so full.
One of the best things you can do is to step away from the intake.
Close your eyes,
Go within,
And develop your cultivation in order to transform all that knowledge you're taking in into wisdom that's embodied through every cell of your being.
And then it becomes a felt and known wisdom.
Not just a nightmare.
Wisdom.
Not just an idea floating around in the intellectual mind.
Like Bob Marley says,
Who feels it knows it.
Who feels it knows it,
Lord.
So this taking out the trash,
No matter what your life is like,
You're taking in trash every day.
You're taking in input of all different types,
Whether you know it or not.
So one healthy thing you can do is just take time each day to shake your body.
Just to bounce up and down.
Shake your arms,
Your hands,
Your shoulders.
And let everything shake down into the earth.
It's like the earth is the drum,
Your feet are the drumsticks.
Drumming on the earth with your feet.
Finding your own inner rhythm.
Your inner dancing and drumming of the heart.
This is a way to release the fullness and the stagnation from your physical body,
From your energetic body.
A way to let out the trash.
And as you're shaking,
You can breathe in the new life energy through all the pores of your skin.
You do this by just thinking about the sunlight surrounding your body and entering all the pores of your skin as you inhale.
So you feel like you're merging with the sunlight.
And you can gather all that sunlight down into your dantian,
Your home within the body in the lower belly.
By making the HMM sound.
The sound is the word HENG,
H-E-N-G,
With the mouth and teeth closed.
HMM.
You feel that drop down and gather everything into your core,
Into your dantian.
As you're shaking,
As you're moving.
Each breath,
Breathing that new life energy in.
HMM.
And gathering it into your home within the body.
Dantian.
And now I'm going to share with you a meditation you can work with to empty your spiritual trash.
To clear your field of heart wisdom and consciousness.
I'm going to invite you to imagine the full moon shining in your heart.
The full moon shining in your lower belly.
Just thinking about the full moon is good enough.
Imagine yourself as the universe surrounding this moon.
Remember to breathe.
Within this moon is contained every thought,
Every concept,
Every judgment,
Every idea that has ever been thought.
All held within the moon.
You are the shu,
The universe,
The emptiness surrounding the moon.
As you sit with a stable posture,
Head upright,
A little tucking in the chin,
Eyes relaxed,
Looking within.
Whenever a thought arises,
Put that thought in the moon.
You are the emptiness surrounding the moon.
When an idea arises,
Place it in the moon.
You are the emptiness surrounding the moon.
When a judgment arises,
Place it gently in the moon.
You are the emptiness.
Be the shu.
And as you sit and breathe with this visualization,
Anything that arises within you gets emptied into the moon.
That need to be somewhere else,
Put that into the moon.
You surround this moon with pure,
Loving awareness.
The moon is sacred and holds everything.
You are the emptiness,
The shu,
Surrounding the moon.
And when that idea arises,
Empty it into the moon.
There's nowhere else to be.
There's nothing else to do.
Just breathe.
And that thought that arises next goes into the moon.
And this thought that arises next goes gently into the moon.
The moon is transforming everything into pure,
Nourishing life.
Infinite cauldron of transformation.
And that thought goes into the moon.
And you are the loving awareness surrounding the moon.
There's nowhere else to be.
Nothing else to do.
Nothing else to do,
Just enjoy the sensation of being pure awareness,
Pure love.
As you empty your inner trash,
Let it transform into new life energy.
With this practice,
More and more you remember yourself as the shu.
As the field of pure potential,
Sprouting into your life like a beautiful mushroom.
With the mycelial awareness reaching deep into the invisible realm,
Into the pure potential.
In this way,
You begin to live from the inside out.
You become a field of supportive,
Loving awareness for the world,
For your own life,
And for all beings.
Because the Tao is simple.
Every day,
We let something go.
The innate wholeness is already who we are and who we have always been.
There's nothing we need to add.
And what a relief that is.
You are exactly enough in this moment.
And put that into practice.
