Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening.
So in the Zen tradition.
They have meditation.
Thank you for the heart.
Meditation called just sitting or sometimes called serene reflection.
And they liken the they're like an awareness or presence to being like a mirror.
What's really interesting about this analogy,
This comparison,
Is that a mirror never reacts.
Never as an opinion or a judgment,
A criticism,
A like or a dislike,
To what appears within it.
To what it reflects.
So it reflects,
You know,
If you haven't had a shave or your makeup's all over and,
You know,
The mirror doesn't have an opinion.
It doesn't say,
Get a shave,
You know,
You lazy thing.
He just reflects.
If an elephant went by in the room 20 years before,
It wouldn't remember it.
You wouldn't remember that.
It just reflects,
It simply just sees,
Is.
In the sense of the five senses.
Presence here has five senses.
And the word presence is interesting because it's pre-sense,
It's prior to the senses.
It's not just a word that was just sort of thrown out.
We'll just call it presence.
It came from direct experience.
So what do we do when we're meditating?
We're just like a mirror.
That's why it's tricky for us,
Because we don't want to be like a mirror.
Want to be in the drama,
The personal drama.
Think about our latest obsession,
Our latest purchase,
Latest holiday.
Making up worries.
Off we go to the problem factory,
Creating problems.
And what we want to be doing is That's what we find tricky.
It means nothing.
I've got to.
.
.
I've got to get somewhere.
I need to achieve something.
I've only got so much time on this earth.
In the project.
Says Ico.
And good luck with that.
So we meet the thoughts,
The thoughts that arise,
No matter what thoughts they are,
We meet them with silence.
Or you can just say to yourself,
That's a thought.
It's not an opinion,
It's just a statement.
That's a thought.
And then we simply return back.
There's no distance.
Return back to presence,
To awareness,
To the body.
And you can pick up the breath if you like.
Attention,
Mind is overly busy.
Go back and go back to the breath and follow the end of the out-breath.
Tool to use when you need it.
It's like.
.
.
Walking stick or a set of crutches.
And that's simply all we're doing.
It's no more complicated than that.
And feel what's here.
That's part of the mirror.
Just feel what you find.
Feel the sadness.
Feel the joy.
Without the story.
So serene reflection.
And when you do pick up the thoughts,
It's okay.
It's just a habit.
We just want a hit.
It's our addiction.
Just drop them.
Having thought.
No big deal.
Then it is comfort.
Do your best not to turn away from it.
Turn towards it,
Just feel it.
That's all you need to do.
No need to analyse.
Don't try to work out why.
Beautifully simple.
You may notice when you're caught in thought,
The body tenses.
So just relax.
I's teaching is relax.
Where are you now?
If you are frustrated,
Then you are trying to achieve something.
So just relax.
Feel the end of the out-breath.
Is being in the mirror.
And you see what appears Can we be at ease with what appears?
Innovative sadness.
The mirror never gets disturbed.
Only the mind gets disturbed.
That's okay.
Instead of listening to what can sometimes be a blunt instrument of mind,
With the sounds we tune into.
And intuitive wisdom.
Just quite naturally.
Okay.
This is the end of this session.
Have a little stretch.
Okay guys,
Thank you very much and we'll see you tomorrow.
