So the question we are asking today is,
How do we overcome habitual unconscious patterns?
How do we create change in our lives?
How do we create positive change?
How do we manifest a new life?
So these are some questions we are asking today.
One statement that comes to me is a statement by Lama Yeshe.
He said that Overcome the tyranny of ordinary experiences.
What he was referring to was the tyranny of the ego.
The tyranny of feeling separate from others,
Feeling limited,
Having a lack of sense of self-worth.
And these patterns,
These habits that we keep on repeating in our lives and we know that we need to get out of these patterns and create something new and live life more fully,
Love more fully,
Have more abundance,
Experience more joy,
More peace,
More magic in life.
But there's something that stops us and this is the ego.
This is the tyranny of the ego.
And the ego is the idea that I am a separate limited being.
That,
You know,
This is what my life is supposed to be.
We get attached to our story.
You know,
I'm Saqib and this is my life.
Or,
You know,
We have different stories.
I'm a father.
I'm a mother.
I'm a,
You know,
Sister,
Brother.
I'm a CEO.
I'm a president.
Or,
You know,
I am some other label,
Some other title.
This is who I am.
And we build a story around this.
And we stay limited to this story.
And we keep repeating patterns based on that story that we tell ourselves,
About ourselves.
And this keeps our life limited.
And I keep repeating the same patterns again and again.
I find myself doing the same things every day again and again in the same way.
You know,
Same way of working,
Same way of making love,
Same way of,
You know,
Moving,
Walking,
Same way of meeting people.
Same way of you know being habitually attached to different things like you know picking up our phones or going to social media or watching tv or getting entertained whatever that pattern is.
But many of us want to break free from these patterns.
Many of us want to create a beautiful,
Wonderful life to live more fully.
We know it's time.
We know that life is limited.
The Buddha said,
Your problem is you think that you have time.
So.
.
.
How do we overcome?
How do we bring this change into our lives?
How do we overcome these patterns that we are stuck to?
So there is an analogy that I use here,
I call it the train analogy.
And The analogy is that I think of two types of trains.
So first type of train is the train of the ego.
Now the ego has a certain momentum.
The ego is running.
It's repeating the same pattern.
So it's like there is this train of the ego that is going in a loop again and again,
Waking up in the morning,
Doing the same things in the same way,
And then sleeping in the night,
Just in a loop again and again.
And think of this train of the ego,
And think of the coaches,
Different coaches in this train.
So one coach can represent a certain area of your life,
Let's say your work life.
You know,
The other coach can represent your relationships.
Another coach can represent your spiritual life or something like that,
Or you know,
Your wisdom or knowledge.
Another coach can represent your social life.
Think of these different coaches.
You know,
Imagine that you are in this train and you are,
You know,
These different coaches look the same every day.
You are in the same coaches,
You know,
You are in the same train and this train keeps going on in the same loop,
Going to the same stations,
You know,
The same office,
The same place,
The same grocery store.
Or it's not only about the physical locations,
But the same way of doing things.
The same way,
For example,
Of approaching a project or something like that.
So.
.
.
What do we do here?
Develop the courage to get off this train.
Because we are attached to this strain.
You know,
And the ego is very attached to these habitual patterns.
But we develop the courage to get off this train and we switch the train and we move to another platform.
And there on another platform is what I call the train of your soul.
Now you can call it something else,
Higher self or higher understanding.
Let's call it the soul.
So the train of the soul is a very unique train.
There is no fixed destination.
It goes with the flow.
It reminds me of that quote by Rumi that,
As you walk on the path,
The path appears.
So this train,
The path appears,
It will take you to unknown places and that is scary for the ego.
That's why we want to stay in the same train of the ego.
But this magical train,
This train of the soul can take us to any places,
To magical lands,
To new experiences,
New relationships,
New work opportunities,
New way of experiencing meditation,
New way of experiencing spirituality.
And We are scared to get on this train but we have to develop the courage to get on this train.
So let's do a short visualization here of this train technique and I ask you to now get into your meditation posture just for a while.
And now.
.
.
Through your mind's eye.
Imagine that you are in this train.
Which is the train of the ego.
So just notice here as you are in this train that how does this train look like Maybe it looks like your house.
Something familiar,
Something similar.
And notice that this strain is taking you in a loop.
Same stations every day.
And now.
.
.
Imagine that this train comes to a stop.
And now you have the opportunity to get down of this train.
You deboard the train.
You move to another platform.
And here you see a magical train in front of you,
The train of the soul.
That can take you anywhere.
Can take you to new experiences.
There is no fixed destination.
So you get onto this train of the soul.
And notice how this strain looks like.
From inside.
And now this strain has started moving.
And it's taking you through new experiences.
And now you are moving through new lands,
New landscapes.
Look out of the window and see the new experiences that this train is taking you to.
These new experiences are the possibilities of new things that can happen in your life.
It is the potential for magical experiences.
New relationships.
New opportunities.
New projects.
New way of experiencing Meditation.
Spirituality.
Wisdom.
And just be in this energy of newness.
Feel this train of the soul.
And gradually In your own time,
You can let the vision dissolve.
Keep bringing your awareness back.
To your body.
And very gently then you can allow your eyes to open as we bring this practice to its completion.
