The 2nd Factor of Awakening: Investigation

The great teacher Joseph Goldstein tells us that the awakening factor of investigation (vicaya) is a refined quality of mind that “discerns and illuminates the truth by means of discriminating wisdom.” In our practice, this is the crucial factor that can cut through our delusion, and liberate the mind. In this talk, Shell explores how we can develop, nurture, and harness this important quality of wise discernment to discover more clarity – and therefore more joy and ease – in our lives.

Transcript

I hope you enjoyed this talk.

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Com.

Thank you so much.

So tonight we're on the second factor,

Awakening.

And so I wanted to start out by sharing this famous story from the Pali canon that really exemplifies for me one of the main reasons I was so drawn to the Buddhist teachings in my 20s and why I continue to be so passionate about it today as I find myself inching closer to 60.

The Sutta,

The Kalama Sutta or the Charter of Free Inquiry,

As it's often called,

Really defines for me how we are being asked to practice,

How we're being asked to relate to our own minds and hearts and bodies.

The great Burmese monk Sumatera once said of the Sutta,

They love this.

The instruction of the Kalamas is justly famous for his encouragement of free inquiry.

The spirit of the Sutta signifies a teaching that is exempt from fanaticism,

Bigotry,

Dogmatism and intolerance.

And really,

This is just as true today as it was 2600 years ago when the Buddha first offered the Sutta.

Just why I love it.

And for about 45 years after the Buddha's enlightenment,

Starting at age 35,

He often traveled to all these different towns and cities in India to offer his teachings.

And when he did,

People who had heard of this great enlightened being would,

Of course,

Gather in large crowds to hear him speak.

What did the Buddha have to say?

But as you might imagine,

Even like today,

The Buddha was not the only spiritual figure around during his time.

And so other spiritual teachers would very often frequent these towns and go offer these sermons.

But because of the Buddha's great reputation and the rumor that this former prince was actually enlightened,

His wisdom was generally really well respected.

And so as the story goes,

After he'd arrived in this town of Kasaputta and a crowd had settled around him,

A man raised his voice from the crowd to ask the Buddha a question.

He said,

Venerable Sir,

Some other monks and Brahmins,

Venerable Sir,

Come to Kasaputta.

They found and explain only their own doctrines,

The doctrines of others they despise,

Revile and pull to pieces.

Venerable Sir,

There is doubt,

There is uncertainty in us concerning them.

Which of these Reverend monks and Brahmins spoke the truth and which falsehood?

So here the Buddha has been given this great opportunity,

Right,

With this question to tell a whole town full of people which teachers are giving them the good advice,

The sage advice,

And which ones are just charlatans.

Tell us which one.

So instead,

The Buddha famously tells them this.

I'm going to read from the suttas again.

It is proper for you,

Kalamas,

To doubt,

To be uncertain.

Uncertainty has arisen in you about what is doubtful.

Come,

Kalamas,

Bless you.

Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing,

Nor upon tradition,

Nor upon rumor,

Nor upon what is in scripture,

Nor upon surmise,

Nor upon axiom,

Nor upon specious reasoning,

Nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over,

Nor upon another's seeming ability,

Nor upon the consideration this monk is our teacher.

Kalamas,

When you yourself know these things are bad,

These things are blameable,

These things are censured by the wise,

Undertaken and observed,

These things lead to harm and ill,

Abandon them.

And to help explain this a little further,

The Buddha went on to ask the crowd some questions of his own.

He said,

What do you think,

Kalamas?

Does greed appear in someone for their benefit or for their harm?

The crowd answered,

For their harm,

Venerable Sir.

Kalamas,

He continued,

Being given to greed and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by greed,

Someone takes life,

Steals,

Commits adultery,

Tells lies,

And prompts others to do likewise.

Will that be for their harm and ill?

Yes,

They replied.

And what do you think,

Kalamas,

The Buddha asked,

Does hate appear in someone for their benefit or harm?

For their harm,

They replied.

And Kalamas,

Being given to hate and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by hate,

This person takes life,

Steals,

Commits adultery,

And tells lies.

And this person prompts others to do likewise.

Will that be for this person's harm and ill?

Yes,

They answered.

And so it goes,

With the Buddha continuing to ask the same questions about delusion,

Which,

As you might recall,

Is one of the three main ways,

Of course,

That we create suffering for ourselves and others,

Along with greed and aversion.

So here,

Even in his response,

When he asked questions of the crowd,

Instead of just answering directly,

The Buddha is giving us an example of what I want to talk about tonight,

Which is the essential factor of investigation in our practice and in our lives and why it is such a fundamental and even defining element of our practice,

Investigation.

As a confession,

I think about 30 years ago now,

When I first heard the sutta at Naropa University,

Where I was studying creative writing and Buddhism,

It prompted me to go out and buy a bumper sticker that stayed on my car for the next decade,

Which was question authority.

And when I first bought it,

I was so pleased with myself because I think it because I was young then and I was female and I was rebelling against patriotism.

If I'm going to be honest against my controlling father,

You know,

Question authority,

It just made me happy to have it on my car.

So I assume that the sutta simply meant not to trust what anyone else told me,

But to rely on what I considered my own self-righteous opinions and beliefs.

But after a few years of practice and being trained by the monks and nuns and teachers there and humbly ended up buying another bumper sticker that I put right next to the question authority one,

Which was don't believe everything you think.

I had those two side by side for quite a while.

So one of my very favorite insight teachers,

Larry Rosenberg,

Who founded the Cambridge Insight Meditation Society,

Describes our practice of investigation this way.

He says the question is,

How do we balance internal authority with external authority?

As the Buddha says,

Just because something is ancient does not mean that it's true.

Just because it's new does not mean that it's true.

Just because it's in the scriptures doesn't mean that it's true.

Just because it seems reasonable or you like the person teaching it doesn't mean that it's right.

What's left then?

Where do we turn for authority in terms of knowing how to act?

In the Kalamasutra,

The Buddha is not saying that ancient teachings are irrelevant or that you have to reinvent the Dharma wheel every time you think.

He's not saying not to accept the guidance of teachers or not read the scriptures.

After all,

How else are you going to find out what's criticized and praised by the wise?

No,

What he's saying is do not give final authority to these teachings.

Do not give final authority to your own ideas.

You have to test the teachings and your ideas in the laboratory of your actions.

OK,

Really summarize the Buddhist practice there.

So in essence,

In our practice,

We are being asked to examine very closely,

Very directly for ourselves.

What thoughts,

Beliefs and actions are truly leading to our own and others happiness?

Which ones?

And which ones are ultimately leading us to suffering?

And guess what we get to decide?

We get to test that.

The great modern monk and scholar,

Thanissaro Bhikkha,

Tells us this.

For all the subtlety of the teachings,

The Buddha had a simple test for measuring wisdom.

You're wise,

He said,

To the extent that you can get yourself to do things you don't like doing,

But no will result in happiness and refrain from things you like doing,

But no will result in pain and harm.

I think that's true.

That's wise.

In fact,

The Buddha once very famously said about his forty five years of teaching the whole entire Pali canon,

He said,

I teach only two things,

O disciples,

The nature of suffering and the cessation of suffering is that.

Of course,

The way we discern all of this is through the practice of investigation,

The Pekiah in Pali,

Which is,

You might recall,

Is the second of the seven factors of awakening or the seven treasures,

As they're called,

Or the seven friends,

These seven factors,

Which is Satta Bojanga in Pali.

I love that word,

Satta Bojanga.

And these seven factors,

When we cultivate them,

Are said to be the causes of awakening,

The causes of enlightenment itself.

And as a reminder,

Here's another list for you.

These seven factors include mindfulness,

Sati,

Which is where we begin.

We cannot do without mindfulness.

That's where we start,

Followed by investigation,

The second factor of Pekiah,

And then energy,

Virya,

Joy,

Piti,

Tranquility,

Pasadithi,

Concentration,

Samadhi,

And equanimity,

Which is opakah.

Again,

We'll be going over these,

Exploring these in the next few months.

And really,

We need all seven of these.

And the practice is said to proceed from the first one,

Mindfulness.

It proceeds in a progression from the first to the last,

To equanimity.

And then all the factors actually continue to mature together.

So they lead kind of in stages,

But then they mature together.

They keep growing.

What this means is that in order to start our practice of investigation,

We first need to practice and develop our mindfulness practice,

Our Sati,

That first treasure.

And as I mentioned a few weeks ago,

On its own,

Mindfulness does not develop wisdom.

Right.

We need that crucial factor of investigation to develop wisdom.

So our mindfulness practice actually informs our practice of investigation.

It shows us how we are being asked to investigate,

Which is through our bare,

Direct,

Present moment experience.

Okay.

And this is what this famous sutta that we've been exploring is really trying to emphasize,

That we can't truly know something,

Truly know something,

Unless we ourselves have actually experienced it and investigated it and gotten to know it for ourselves.

Over the years,

I've often heard the phrase,

The Buddha loaned us his map,

But the trip is ours to take.

So no one else can walk this path for us.

Others can point the way,

But we ourselves actually need to walk the path,

To feel our feet on the path,

And we need to make our own way through it.

So we really do want to use our intellect in this practice and not just abandon it when we walk in the door.

We want to use our intellect and make a strong effort to really learn the teachings and study them and contemplate them.

So if you think about it,

Thinking about a map,

We really want to study that actual map and have some idea of where we're going and detailed instructions about how to get there.

When we have this,

We're going to be much more likely to discover where we're going more quickly than if we were just wandering around on our own.

We actually have a map.

This is,

Hey,

This will get you there quicker,

Instead of just a few pointed fingers here and there.

We actually have a map that we can study.

But again,

Even though we have a map,

We're being asked not to trust any of the directions on it,

Right,

Without first examining them and investigating them again through our own direct experience.

And I'm reminded here often of my,

I have an old GPS,

Which I don't often update.

And yet so often,

I just kind of blindly trust it.

And I can't tell you how many times it's led me into a dead end or something.

I just blindly trust the map and say,

Just take me there,

Right?

Just do your thing.

I don't have to do anything.

I don't have to look at the map.

I don't have to get out another map.

Just take me there.

And takes me to a dead end.

My husband,

On the other hand,

Trusts not only his own instincts,

But his past direct experience of driving around town.

And he always gets us there faster because he knows exactly where he's going.

It's a direct experience,

Right?

He knows.

He knows.

No one has to tell him.

He just knows it.

To quote the Buddha again from the Sutta,

Our wisdom is not acquired through repeated hearing,

Tradition,

Rumor,

Scripture,

Surmise,

Axiom,

Specious reasoning,

A bias towards a notion that has been pondered over,

Another seeming ability,

Nor upon the consideration,

This monk is our teacher.

So there's actually a short phrase from the Zen tradition that I love to remember from Master Linji,

Which is,

If you meet the Buddha,

Kill the Buddha.

Sounds really violent,

But it's actually a koan or kind of puzzle that we're asked to contemplate.

And there's,

Of course,

Many different interpretations of that koan.

And in our Western understanding,

The general idea is that if we perceive the Buddha to be separate from ourselves,

This is an illusion.

And it's a belief to do away with,

Though,

Of course,

Not in a violent way.

It's an illusion.

If you see the Buddha,

Kill the Buddha.

It's an illusion,

Not separate.

In fact,

This practice of trusting our own direct experience was so central to the Buddhist teachings that when he was 80 and literally on his deathbed,

What he was doing was reminding all his Sangha members,

All his monks and nuns about this,

About this practice.

And his last dying breath,

As he was dying and his Sangha members were all around him,

Kind of desperate to know what they would do without him.

And they kept asking him,

What are we going to do without you?

In his last breaths,

Even here,

What he did was try to strenuously remind them not to get caught up in the teachings of any authority figure,

But to use the practice of investigation that he had taught them to discover the truth.

Very famously,

His last words are,

Be a light unto yourself.

You take yourselves to no eternal refuge.

Hold fast to the truth.

Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves.

His last breaths,

He was telling us to do this.

So how do we do it?

How do we practice investigation,

The second factor of awakening?

In Pali,

Again,

The term for what we're doing is called Dhamma-Vakaya or investigating Dhammas.

And Vakaya means to investigate,

Scrutinize,

Analyze.

And here the word dharma can mean something as precise as a very particular state of body and heart.

Or it could be the teachings or it can more broadly mean anything of significance in our lives that we're using the practice to investigate.

It's a lot of different things.

It's endless,

Really,

These Dhammas that we can investigate.

But before we can explore what we're examining,

I really want to emphasize the how of it.

As I mentioned,

We begin with our mindfulness practice,

Which is training us to be right here and right now with our bare present moment experience,

However it is.

We're just experiencing it in the moment,

Which means being with,

Exploring,

Investigating our aching,

Difficult bodies,

However they are,

All the different sensations that we're experiencing.

It means being with our hearts and whatever our hearts are experiencing,

Being with it,

As well as our thoughts and our beliefs and whatever we're thinking about or believing in this present moment right now.

And again,

We're mindfully investigating this,

Even if what we're experiencing in the moment is unpleasant,

Without allowing ourselves to be dragged away from the present moment and into the dream world of all our narratives and stories about what's happening in the present moment.

And if you think about it,

We really can't truly experience or even investigate the direct moment if we aren't actually here to experience it,

When we aren't fully present or awake,

But are instead in a way asleep in the dream world of our thoughts.

How can we explore the present moment if we're asleep?

Or when we're allowing our old beliefs and our conditioning to cloud the present moment by bringing our kind of predetermined judgments or biases or opinions about what's happening,

Which clouds the present moment.

So when we're investigating,

It's really important to note here that we aren't just watching or observing our experiences,

Like we're standing at a distance from them.

You're not,

As Ram Dass says in his classic book,

Be Here Now,

Quote,

Standing on a bridge,

Watching yourself go by.

Right.

That's not what we're doing.

The teachings are asking us to be truly in our experience,

Fully in our bodies,

Embodied,

Experiencing and sensing them directly as they're happening,

As they're happening.

And a really helpful way to understand the practice of investigation is actually through a very popular practice,

Which is an acronym,

Which I know many of you are familiar with,

Which is the practice of RAIN,

R-A-I-N.

And just to say we can actually use this process of RAIN during our formal meditation practice and maybe right on the spot in our daily lives as we practice this,

It becomes more natural to do it whenever we notice that we're experiencing something that we'd like to investigate in the moment.

So you might recognize that the R in RAIN means recognize.

And it's a part of our mindfulness practice,

This recognizing this first factor of awakening.

The R is our first factor.

The R is being mindful of when we can stop long enough to notice or recognize that something's happening in the mind and the body and the heart.

That's our mindfulness practice.

So,

For example,

Maybe we recognize that something physical is happening.

Or maybe there's some emotion that's arising along with the physical sensation.

And we might even notice,

Of course,

That thoughts are also arising along with all of this and seeing all three of those things and separating them in a way.

Sometimes they're all together and separate them.

When we can notice or recognize that this is happening,

We can then go to the second step,

Which is honestly truly the most difficult because it involves staying with that first factor,

With our mindfulness practice,

Without jumping right away into the second step of investigation.

The staying is the hard part.

This is where we allow.

This is the A in RAIN.

This is a more sustained mindfulness.

So,

As you might imagine,

Before we can investigate something or even as we're investigating,

We actually need to stop and take a look at it,

Which means being with it,

Allowing ourselves to feel whatever's happening to really stay.

Right.

And I've said this many times before,

But this is the hard part is the allow part.

The staying part,

Being willing to investigate.

We have to become willing to investigate.

And the A,

If you think about it,

Has a point to it,

Right?

It pokes us.

It's our point,

Which means what we tend to do is we want to jump over it and go right to the investigation and fix it.

Right.

Because it's uncomfortable sometimes and it's painful.

So it's counterintuitive.

We want to jump over it.

So our tendency is to not want to stay.

We don't like it generally.

So we want to fix it or try to figure it out,

Which is,

Of course,

A way of aversion,

Not wanting.

And it actually has nothing to do with the investigation that the Buddha is talking about.

In our practice,

Investigation is not a kind of intellectual research project or something we might do in a therapist's office,

You know,

When we're sort of digging into our past and going over and over old conversations or all of our old stories,

Kind of digging.

It's not that it's not a digging.

When we are investigating,

We are not psychoanalyzing.

Really important because the wording investigation has that sense in our Western culture.

I can figure this out.

It's not that.

So if you think about it,

When we're psychoanalyzing,

We're not really present,

Are we?

We're going away somewhere,

Away from the present moment.

And it's more of an attempt really to not be with what's actually happening.

It's a way of saying,

If I can just psychoanalyze my way out of this,

I actually won't have to be with this uncomfortable feeling.

Right.

So what we want instead,

Again,

Is a more sustained mindfulness practice,

That first factor where we become more and more willing to just stay with whatever's happening and very intimately take a look without also getting lost in the story around it.

Or even believing that story that we have around it.

So,

Of course,

This type of looking or being with process is really hard to put into words.

Right.

I know you've all done it,

So it's easier to know it when you've done it.

Again,

Same kind of concept.

I've done that.

I get that a little bit.

But I like the way Senekaro Biku talks about it.

He says,

I like to think of the image of a jeweler working with precision.

You see these guys with their little monocles to which they hold up a jewel and they look at it very carefully.

They examine its color,

Its texture,

Clarity and shape.

They examine it for flaws of various kinds,

And they don't just hold it up.

They turn it around and see how it looks in the light from different angles and so on.

This whole examination is very active.

There's participation.

It's dynamic.

It's engaged.

OK.

Get a clear idea of the process.

So,

For instance,

Maybe we're noticing that we're feeling anger,

Frustration.

We can start by investigating the home,

This home of our body,

Which,

As you might recall,

Is the first foundation of our mindfulness practice,

The four foundations of mindfulness.

The body is the first foundation,

This home where we experience our entire world.

So we might notice,

For instance,

OK,

Right now everything feels tight,

Like I want to explode out of my skin when we're angry,

Right?

Or my jaw and my fist feel tight.

My breathing feels more shallow.

You know,

Maybe like I'm hyperventilating.

I can sense that my heart is beating faster.

And I'm actually having a difficult time concentrating.

You notice that with anger?

You concentrate?

Just got it,

Right?

I can't.

It's really hard,

Really hard.

So when we're allowing like this,

What's happening is that we're already starting the investigation process just by noticing all of these sensations in the body,

Investigating what's manifesting in the body,

And staying with it almost on a kind of nonverbal level.

I mean,

You can name some of it sometimes like shallow breathing or tight,

Whatever.

It's really more nonverbal.

As we continue then,

We might start asking ourselves some very gentle questions.

And a great one to ask is simple.

It's what is this?

What is this?

Right?

Continuing to allow the emotion to just be,

Notice how it's expressing itself and moving in the body.

What is this?

Really curious.

We might even begin to notice that the feeling shifts and changes in some way.

Right?

So maybe it gets really more intense,

You know,

Or maybe it subsides a bit.

Or maybe it even,

You know,

Changes into something else,

Which is really common.

This is that direct experience that the Buddha is pointing at.

We are staying with it,

Feeling it,

Investigating it for ourselves in the present moment as it's actually happening.

And some of the words I like to remember when applying investigation are curious,

The word curious,

Open,

Maybe open,

Right?

Not expecting anything,

Open,

Curious,

Open.

And patient,

Patient,

Right?

Not wanting it to speed it up.

What is it?

What is it?

What is it?

You know,

With the intention again of exploring,

Keep this thought in mind.

What is this?

So we really want to use a very light touch without trying to dig again for the answers,

Without trying to analyze or psychoanalyze.

And what can help in this process is intentionally tapping into our practice of relaxing.

Right?

As much as possible,

We very intentionally use our practice to relax the body,

Which as we all know,

Relaxes the mind.

So,

For instance,

We might even just in that moment take a few deep breaths to help calm the body.

And then we become more intimate with it as we maybe lower our shoulders,

We let the muscles in our face relax.

Again,

We can do this in formal practice or out in the world.

We let the center of our palms be soft.

We let go,

Especially with anger.

I almost find that my fists are,

I mean,

I have fists I'm holding.

We soften the center of the palms.

We let our tummy soften.

And all of this in turn relaxes the mind.

When we can do this and sustain the gaze,

Often something that's been under the surface can just suddenly arise when we're doing this during the softening and the investigation.

And I think it's really similar for when we're trying to remember where we put something.

Right?

If we run around the house trying frantically to find it,

It just takes longer,

Doesn't it?

Doesn't it?

Like you're just trying,

Where is it?

Where is it?

Just run around.

But if we stop and just take a breath and relax,

Often suddenly it comes to us.

Ah,

Right.

That's where I put it.

Or even when you walk into a room and you don't remember what you're doing,

Anybody at that stage,

Right?

What was I doing?

Right?

Instead of getting frantic,

You just relax and it comes to you,

Doesn't it?

Ah,

That's right.

OK.

Let me relax here.

So it's that kind of thing.

Another really excellent way that we can practice investigation is to remember the Buddhist teachings on dependent origination,

Which reminds us that nothing whatsoever exists independently of anything else.

OK?

It's the main essence of dependent origination.

And so another simple question we can ask is,

When I love,

On what does this depend?

On what does this depend?

And so,

For instance,

Maybe we're feeling a sense of sadness or grief or anger or shame or even joy.

Whatever it is,

We might very gently ask,

On what does this emotion depend?

And what does this emotion depend?

This question might reveal a belief about something,

Maybe a current belief,

But very often,

If we stay with it,

Especially with those difficult emotions,

It might even unearth a very ancient belief.

And very often this means an old belief about ourselves,

How we're identifying ourselves in some way.

Right?

Then we get to investigate that belief by asking ourselves some other gentle questions,

OK,

Which might include things like,

Is this true?

Question your beliefs,

Right?

Don't believe everything you think.

Is it true?

Is it always true?

Is it always true?

Can I absolutely know that it's true?

Absolutely.

How do I react when I believe that thought?

How do I react when I believe that?

These are some gentle questions we can ask.

Another question,

Which I need to confess is my very favorite,

Is who would I be without that thought?

Right?

Who would I be without that thought?

I can just untangle it.

It's such a powerful question,

Actually,

Because,

You know,

Basically it brings us to now the end of RAINN,

This question,

Which is about non-attachment,

Not identifying with that feeling or belief,

Rusting in natural awareness.

So,

For instance,

We might be experiencing something or believing something,

But we are not that.

We don't need to identify with it or make ourselves that,

Which we all tend to do.

So,

For instance,

Even though we might be having a feeling of anger or a feeling of shame,

We can recognize that we are not a shameful person.

We are not an angry person.

It's simply a feeling or shifting energy that is passing through us.

It's just an old ephemeral belief that's passing through us.

So,

We don't need to identify with it.

We can simply rest in that end of natural awareness,

Which is simply experiencing whatever is happening right here,

Right now,

In the present moment,

Recognizing that this,

Too,

Is going to shift and change.

That's going to shift and change.

Are you always the same moment to moment?

You're just really not,

Are you?

Right?

But we try to pin it down.

And as we take this even further,

Then,

We can even investigate that.

We can investigate for ourselves what are called the three truths of existence or the three characteristics of life,

Which is that all things are impermanent,

Imperfect,

And impersonal.

Right?

Impermanent,

Imperfect,

And impersonal,

Which is anicca,

Impermanence,

Dukkha,

Suffering.

We all suffer.

And anatta,

No permanent solid sense of self.

And again,

We're going to know these things not because some authority figure or teacher told us so,

Or the scriptures told us so,

That there's anicca,

Anatta,

And dukkha,

But because we will have investigated directly for ourselves,

And we will more and more just naturally know this directly.

As the poet Beth Ferris tells us,

Then there is the listening at the gates of the heart,

Which has been closed for so long and waiting for that mysterious inner voice to speak.

When we hear it,

We know it is the truth to which we must now surrender our lives.

So I think I'm going to end there.

We've got about five minutes,

And I want to offer you a brief,

Very brief meditation practice.

Maybe taking a nice deep breath in and out.

And then settling here in that first foundation of mindfulness in the body.

Settle in the body.

In this moment right now,

Not somewhere else.

Notice how quickly the mind wants to go into the future or the past.

And see if you can just bring it right here.

This breath,

This moment,

This body.

And as you're ready,

You can slowly start to think about some maybe struggle you're having in your life.

And see if you can start to notice some belief.

And this really could be a belief about yourself that's hooked onto this particular struggle.

See if you can soften and allow and be curious.

See if something arises without digging.

What are you believing about yourself in this struggle?

If it's helpful,

You can always place a hand on the heart or both hands on the heart or one hand on the belly,

One hand on the heart.

Just to really tap into the heart and drop out of the mind a bit.

What am I believing?

And sensing how that feeling resonates in the body.

The belief attached to a feeling in the body.

And then consider some of those questions.

Is it true?

Can I absolutely know that it's true?

How do I react when I believe that thought?

And how does that affect the quality of my life and my body and my heart?

And then you might even just consider,

Who would I be without that thought?

What if I choose not to believe that?

Who would I be without that thought?

Just consider that.

And then you might even just consider,

Who would I be without that thought?

I'm going to encourage you this week to not always believe everything you think.

Question your beliefs.

Investigate them.

Question them.

Question what truly brings you happiness and what brings you pain.

Like the Buddha said,

If it brings pain,

Abandon it.

Finally some encouragement from an unlikely source.

This old Catholic,

I'm going to end with a quote from St.

Teresa of Avila,

Who tells us,

This magnificent refuge is inside you.

Enter.

Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway.

Be bold.

Be humble.

Put away the incense and forget the incantations they taught you.

Ask no permission from the authorities.

Close your eyes and follow your breath to the still place that leads to the invisible path that leads you home.

Amen.

You

Reviews

This brought about a mental block release and allowed a light to fill its space. Thank you!

what a wonderful teacher! so glad to be here!

I felt a a deep understanding of 2nd building block. Love the space for meditation at the end of talk. 🙏