Morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening.
So one of the traps we can get into is the acceptance trap.
It's a very.
.
.
Sort of people are very fond of the word acceptance in this spiritual world.
And I think it can be a real trap.
Because what we tend to do is we are accepting.
Now it'll go away.
If I accept it,
It'll go away.
So it's not acceptance,
It's rejection.
And that's what happens.
Acceptance actually happens.
It's not something we do.
It's something we stop doing.
Stop doing the opposite.
So if you take the opposite,
Rejection and acceptance,
What's between them?
There's just silence.
There's just direct experience.
It's that direct experience that we're looking for.
Don't think about direct experience.
That's not it.
Just go straight to the experience.
Maybe a sadness.
So we short circuit these ideas.
That you still or unhelpful.
They appear to be helpful.
So all we do is,
In maybe a simplified way,
Is just feel what's here.
That's all you need to do.
Then once we establish that,
Then we can ask questions if there's something troubling us.
Put those questions there.
A kind of just genuinely asking questions,
Just being interested.
Not so it'll go away.
And we all fall into that to some degree.
I won.
One's entity to call it.
Acceptance happens when we stop arguing with reality.
Let's use that.
Space that opens up.
So I am just going to open the door here because I feel I am going to melt.
There will be nothing left of me by the time we are finished.
Okay so let's Just settle in.
Acknowledge what's here.
Left over from sleep or and do it work.
The rumbling of worry in the background.
Is there something more obvious?
Is there a sadness?
So we put to one side ideas of acceptance and trying to change.
And just go direct.
To that sadness,
For example.
Is begin to feel it.
Be more of a heaviness.
It doesn't matter what it is,
We treat everything the same.
And have strategies for different emotions.
Just notice the texture of this something.
Just be curious about what's happening.
Not intellectually.
Come out with a list.
So keep simplifying,
Just feel it.
Give it space.
You do want to ask a question?
And some little inquiry.
You can ask something like.
.
.
You're asking this part of yourself.
This sadness or whatever,
This heaviness,
What gets you feeling like this?
You don't need to ask the question,
They're optional.
Maybe something like,
What do you need from me?
I just keep feeling it.
And the space around it.
Not really about observing it.
From the head.
It's about feeling it intimately.
Drop the observer.
OK,
So.
I'm not looking for any conclusion here.
I'm not interested in those.
So just.
.
.
Expand awareness too.
Include the rest of the body.
Notice this hearing and feeling,
Seeing.
Where are you right now?
Where is the attention?
OK.
Into the end.
Coffee time,
I think.
See you guys.
See you tomorrow.
