Good morning.
So if you've just joined us,
I say a few words and then there's a spacious guided meditation.
In those spaces of silence it's for you to feel into your own experience.
That's the only experience you can tune into so,
Can't tune into somebody else's.
Very simple.
There's no path to presence.
Where do you have to go to be present?
No,
It's here.
You're already here.
And all the wisest traditions in my view start there.
To start where you already are.
Start where you are,
Not where you're not.
Don't have your sights on where you're not or where you think you should be.
The reason that we feel like we're missing something or there's something not quite right is because we're listening to mind and mind has beliefs.
And so we believe those thoughts we are fooled by these beliefs because we've been listening to mind for decades and we believe what it's telling me is true.
About myself,
About ourself,
About other people,
About the world,
About life.
Life is hard.
It's a belief.
Completely.
It's made up.
So what we do here,
We start where we are,
Whole and complete.
Your true nature,
Your deeper nature is whole and complete.
Absolutely.
Always has been,
Always will be.
And that's where we start.
That's where Zen starts.
That's where schools of Tibetan Buddhism start.
Where my teachers start and where I start.
There's nothing to attain.
There's nothing to get.
It's a shedding.
Things fall away.
It's like a jewel,
A diamond in a big block of ice.
The diamond's already there.
You just need to melt the ice.
So let that be your starting point.
The diamond's already here.
One of my teachers used to call it the indestructible heart essence.
The essence of who we are.
And the moment we start to try and get somewhere,
That's the moment we,
As it were,
Move away from it.
So we stay here.
We look at what's covering the cage of concepts of the self-centered thinking,
Ego-centered thinking.
So we just release and we notice that we're on one of these thought rides.
No drama.
Just let go.
We relax back into our actual experience.
Nothing to ponder.
Forget these words once I've said them.
There's nothing to ponder.
The answer's not in the mind.
Okay.
So don't go sprinting off into this meditation because we ain't going anywhere.
Relax.
Just sense that.
Sense just the ease of being here.
There's no effort.
Just relax into the body.
Feel the breath if you wish.
And we relax back and down.
And just welcome whatever's here.
You've woken up with a sadness,
Heaviness,
Feeling relaxed.
Everything is welcome.
You're lost in the imagination or you're here.
Nothing to work out or drop the mind.
Just drop it.
It's not an enemy.
Just drop and return.
Return home.
Feel into your own presence.
The bodily sensations.
No need to name or label.
Just feel what you find.
Just checking that you've not gone tense and tight.
If you have,
Just take a deep breath and relax.
And just feel any tension if it is there.
If you're into trying,
Just relax.
Just rest back.
Feel the breath.
The breath isn't trying.
It's just being the breath.
Turn your attention away from the commentary.
To what's actually happening.
Which is always right here,
Right now.
Don't put effort into trying to stop thinking.
Fruitless.
Waste of time.
Doesn't work.
When you find you've been lost in thinking,
Just say,
Thinking.
And return back home.
Simple.
Turn the attention away from the mind movies,
Horror shows and comedies,
Fantasies.
And rest the attention back in the body.
The breath.
Or the sound of the rain.
Okay,
So you can begin to end the session.
Open your eyes if they're closed.
Have a little stretch.
Thank you.
