So I'm going to start off with a poem.
I think I may have read it before but it's worth hearing again.
It's called Lust.
Stand still.
The trees ahead and bushes around you are not lost.
Wherever you are is called here and you must treat it as a powerful stranger.
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes.
Listen.
It answers.
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it you may come back again saying here.
No two trees are the same to raven.
No two branches are the same to wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.
Stand still.
The forest knows where you are.
You must let it find you.
That's why we just turn up.
We don't do anything.
The forest finds us.
But if we're too busy running away with our stories and fantasies and hopes and fears and just about everything else,
It won't run after you.
We can't hear it.
And this is what's difficult because we want to grasp something.
This can't be grasped.
What we're talking about is just simply the present moment.
I say simply,
It's what makes life worth living.
It's the joy of life.
And it includes sadness,
It includes frustration,
It includes everything.
Because everything arises in the present moment.
It's like the container.
So we,
It's not quite right,
But it's accurate enough.
We attune ourselves to be here,
To listen,
To feel.
And if you're just awoken from sleep,
Then sleep has left you with something,
Maybe a sadness,
Whatever it is,
Just be with that.
Just feel it without the story.
You've just come in from work,
The day from work has left you with something.
And where is it?
It's always here.
You're never not here.
You're only never not here in the imagination.
And that begins to dawn on us.
And the charge goes out of all those stories and emotions.
And for the first time in our lives,
We start to relax.
You can't try to relax.
It's not about trying.
Though,
You know,
We have to use language,
Become intimate with whatever's here.
So we can keep eyes open or we can close them and just turning the attention towards experience.
Hello,
Sadness.
Hello,
Doubt,
Confusion.
Hello,
Calm.
If you get lost,
You've just been in thought.
Just come back to here.
The sound of the traffic or the birds.
The feeling of the breath.
There's nothing to understand.
If you're very distracted,
Then feel the breath,
The end of the out-breath.
You can calm the nervous system.
So we feel what's here.
What does this feel like?
This sadness or whatever.
Feel the texture of this,
Whatever.
It's all you need to do.
If you find yourself lost,
You can just repeat here.
Simple instruction.
Relax here.
Straining here never works,
Never helps.
Where's your attention right now?
There may be a time when you feel like you've stayed with a certain experience for long enough.
And just relax the attention.
Feel your bottom on the chair.
Listen to the silence.
Enjoy the stillness.
So maybe as we go on with our day,
Maybe the instruction of here is something we could use.
Simple.
Okay.
That's it for today.
So thank you.
