Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening.
So.
Imagine we have a car.
And just imagine we don't know very much about cars.
Not difficult to imagine.
And we don't know this,
But it runs out of petrol.
It runs out of fuel.
So for some bizarre reason,
Just play with this image,
With this metaphor.
And add the car.
And we push it to work Don't forget to.
.
.
We're exhausted but we do a day's work,
Then we push the car to the gym.
And when we finish the gym,
We push the car home,
And we do the same again the next day.
Pushing,
Pushing,
Pushing.
And someone comes along and says,
What are you doing?
Push it in the car.
Put some petrol in.
Watch.
Put the petrol in.
And off it goes.
Simple.
It goes all by itself.
We spend nearly all our life pushing,
Pushing to try to change.
But we need to know how change happened,
Like you need to know how the car goes all by itself.
So you don't have to push it.
We need to know how change happens.
It doesn't happen through pushing.
It's the obstacle.
And most of us don't realise that.
We're pushing for change.
We might criticise ourself,
We might grit our teeth and,
You know.
Just try to be better.
And in my experience,
It's very limited.
In fact,
It doesn't lead to a.
.
.
Sense of ease.
So if you just join us,
I'm talking about how change happens.
Many of us try to change,
We push ourselves and push ourselves trying to change.
What I'm saying is change happens when you stop trying.
What do I mean by that?
In meditation we just sit.
Good morning,
Hilary,
By the way.
Welcome.
We just sit,
We just experience what's here.
We don't look for experiences.
A mature practice is a practice that's gone beyond looking for experiences,
Looking for the fireworks.
And that's when change begins to happen.
And I'm just going to read a little something.
I've read it before and I'll read it again because it's a reminder to us.
Expecting an epiphany.
A single moment of insight.
That will forever banish the experience of fear,
Anger and neediness,
May prevent us from noticing the slow and almost imperceptible ways that our practice subtly transforms us.
With patience and perseverance,
Our reactive patterns just simply,
Slowly erode away.
Until one day we find ourselves in a situation that it always made us anxious and the anxiety is just not there.
That's what I'm talking about.
You try to get rid of anxiety.
You criticise it,
You criticise yourself for being anxious,
You wish it would go away.
You resist it.
We resist and feed it.
That's what we do.
And the resistance is feeding.
So in meditation we just sit.
Feel the breath.
Feel the body.
Hear the sounds.
It's so,
So simple.
But the human mind wants to do something else.
Wants to achieve.
Wants to follow its own ideas.
End up getting messed up.
Because the mind is not equipped for this.
It's like those Chinese finger traps or whatever,
You know,
Pulling and resisting and it gets tighter and tighter until we just relax.
Just experience this present moment over and over again.
And see the thoughts as thoughts arising.
There can be anxious content,
And if you believe them,
There's the anxiety.
So you just take the attention away.
From the thoughts into the body.
So just take a deep breath or two.
Drop into the body.
Feel the breath.
And relax.
It's not about going all sleepy and dozy either.
We're here.
We are awake.
Au revoir.
Relax.
About trying to get into some deep,
Deep meditative state.
Just be here.
Let relaxation happen.
Don't push.
Just checking that you are not gone all tense.
Trying to achieve.
Just take a deep breath.
Just relax.
Where is your attention right now?
What's happening now?
Listen to the sounds.
Feel the bodily sensations.
Just experience this very moment.
As it is.
The mind will chunter on.
If there's anything there that's rather painful,
The emotion or something physical.
Is welcome it.
Just feel it.
Stay soft.
May it be sadness.
From sleep.
Leftover.
Just checking that you are not trying to achieve some state or experience Take the foot off the accelerator,
The throttle.
And just rest in the body.
Here how the mind is obsessed with next.
Just drop those thoughts.
Just drop them like an unwanted stick.
Yet frustrated,
Then you're listening to mind.
It's not about getting anywhere,
So just relax.
You're already there.
Okay,
Have a little stretch,
Little wiggle,
Whatever you do.
I'll send out the recording in a little while.
And have a good day guys and see you tomorrow.
