Good morning,
Get comfy.
So from the point of view of this,
What we are involved in here,
Is the harder you try,
The harder it is.
And it's not hard.
And the harder you try,
The harder it gets.
And that's because there's no path to presence.
How can there be?
Are you present right now?
Yeah.
How far did you have to go?
But see what happens is,
Well,
This is not enough.
It's still not enough to the mind.
It's never enough to mind.
So the mind strives,
Trying to find presence or find something that's satisfying.
And that makes us tense.
Actually,
It's a denial of presence.
That's why the instruction is to relax.
And the mind likes that,
It's,
Oh,
Relax,
That's nice.
And then,
Oh,
Well,
This is not delivering the goods.
So let's try,
I need to try just a little harder.
So it's more of a falling back.
And this trying harder eventually,
It just creates frustration,
Because it can't work.
It will never work.
No matter how hard you try,
The harder you try,
The harder it will be.
It takes commitment.
But the commitment is to be here,
To relax,
To watch the show,
There's a show going on.
And when we find ourselves,
Again and again,
Lost in thought,
Lost in the show,
What I want to begin to do is to,
And I know some of you are seeing it,
Is to see the thoughts as thoughts and not facts.
Just talking to our nephew yesterday about this,
He's been doing this for a few months now.
And he's actually seeing it,
A 21-year-old is beginning to see it.
And at 21,
Seeing that,
Even a glimpse of it,
It's,
It changes life,
Because life isn't what we think it is.
We are not what we think we are.
That's why we get messed up.
Your presence,
Your true nature,
Is watching you trying harder to find presence.
Isn't that ridiculous?
It's watching you,
But presency is quiet,
It's silent,
It's still,
But it's full.
It's full of just life,
It is life.
But the mind wants to do tricks and entertain and to take you on rides.
And that's why a lot of us find ourselves unresilient.
We don't really look at resilience,
We look at the opposite.
We're already resilient.
Presence is already resilient,
It can't get upset.
So the upset,
It's an inside job,
And that's where we look.
Okay.
I thought I'd start light on a Monday morning.
Okay.
So I just take a deep breath or two,
Settle into the body,
And become interested in the body.
We can access presence through the senses,
Through the body.
And just feel that rise and fall of the breath.
No acrobatics and tricks here,
Just very,
Very simple.
You find yourself striving,
Pushing,
Just take a breath and relax,
Relax back and down.
We're not going anywhere,
You've already arrived.
And just feel into that,
Not looking for anything special.
Within presence,
There are sounds,
Thoughts,
Sensations,
All just firing off.
The sound of traffic or the birds,
Just effortlessly arises,
You don't have to seek it,
It comes to you.
Just watch how mind may pick something up,
Something's painful,
Off it goes.
Just rest back,
Just relax,
And feel into this,
The mind's very busy,
Feel the breath,
Particularly the end of the out-breath,
Just to steady the attention,
Just check that you're not tensing up,
Trying.
Just take a breath,
And relax,
Feel into that,
Where are you now,
Wherever that is,
It's okay.
Just drop the attention back into the body,
To the breath,
No big deal.
Okay,
We'll bring this session to an end,
Just have a little stretch,
Open your eyes if they're closed,
And then we'll meditate with our eyes open or closed,
It doesn't really matter.
Okay,
I think it's coffee time,
Thanks,
See you tomorrow,
Thank you,
Bye.
