Hi there,
Welcome back to your daily meds.
You know if you can let go of expectations,
Imagine how much less you would suffer.
My gosh!
But of course we can't turn them off,
There's no switch.
However we can take a look at them and we can evaluate them and most importantly we can see where they lead.
We can actually watch as it happens.
This watching as it happens is different from building up a scientific theory about how it happens.
Because we see it in real time it affects us viscerally.
It changes the way we see ourselves and it changes our direction.
We have a natural tendency to seek what's good for us.
When we see how the patterns of expectation hurt us then we actually contain our expectations.
This doesn't apply to everything,
It's quite reasonable to expect the Sun to rise in the morning.
It's the expectation that when I go to work I will be treated fairly.
Now you may have a right to be treated fairly but to expect that to happen may be unrealistic.
It depends on the people around you.
So when we feel righteous like that,
Stuck in our own sense of being injured,
Then that sort of emotional attachment to the outcome,
In other words that sort of visceral expectation,
Is that we will be treated fairly.
So as soon as we're not we are outraged and we suffer.
And when you suffer the first thing you should do is take a conscious breath.
Be fully aware of where you are,
Where you're standing or sitting,
Of how you're breathing,
Of how you feel and around you.
What's happening?
You don't have to open your eyes,
You can listen.
Just pay attention to this present moment.
It's a very big,
Big moment.
It stretches in every direction.
Here you are,
Sitting in your shell,
Your body.
And it's to protect this body and the person within it that you hold your expectations.
And you feel the inertia in your body but you also feel an urge,
The urge to move,
To do.
The urge is driven by hope and expectation.
It's hard to separate those two.
My mother always used to tell me that I get my hopes up and then I'd be so disappointed.
And I did it repeatedly like banging my head on a brick wall.
Be aware of your body now,
The balance between inertia and the urge to act,
To do something.
Breathe deep into the body and breathe deep into the surroundings as well.
Connect the two.
When you really pay attention to the present moment,
You don't need to rely on expectations because you're in touch with what's actually happening.
And the more you become accustomed to seeing things that way,
The more realistic you become.
You don't get carried away.
You don't get carried away like I used to be by counting on it,
Praying for it,
Wishing for it so much that when it doesn't happen,
There's a certain ringing in your ears,
Confusion.
What happened?
What's going on?
The suffering is actually caused by being out of touch with reality.
In small ways sometimes,
But still out of touch and setting you up.
So we want to see that set up.
You want to see the mechanism for yourself,
See it in action,
See how it's a habit rooted in your behavior.
And the more clearly you see it,
The less able it is to keep going.
It's been found out.
But only as long as you keep your gaze on it.
It's not a once-and-for-all thing.
You have to be attentive always.
And that's not really a problem because being attentive is the best thing you can do with any moment.
Remember each day to look at one thing,
Perhaps a tree or the sky or a person or a brick.
And see it clearly without expecting anything of it and savor that sense.
That's all for this time.
We'll see you again.
