More in the afternoon.
Evening.
So I'm going to read a little something,
And then towards the end,
Maybe questions,
Or I can say a little bit more,
We'll see.
This for me is the essence.
Is what we keep coming back to.
There is a simple ever-present aliveness.
It is immediate.
It is known even before it is described.
The mind cannot directly grasp this aliveness,
This presence,
As it is.
Instead,
It creates concepts about it.
It says things like,
This is awareness.
This is consciousness.
This is presence.
I'm experiencing something special.
I need to understand this.
That's probably the worst of them.
In doing so,
The living reality is translated into a thought.
The map then replaces the territory.
See the difference?
The map.
Would take the map to be the territory.
Look at the map.
The aliveness itself is not a concept.
It does not say,
I am aliveness.
It simply is.
The conceptual mind comes afterwards and places labels,
Interpretations,
And stories on top of what is already here.
Always.
This is why many contemplative traditions,
Including Zen,
Point out that reality is always one step closer than thought.
Before the mind calls it presence,
God,
Awareness,
Or emptiness,
There is the simple fact of being.
The interesting thing is that concept is not a problem.
The difficulty begins when the concept is mistaken for the reality it points to.
The word water never quenches your thirst,
Yet it can remind us where to look.
So the mind conceptualizes aliveness by turning the immediate into an objective thought.
It takes what is wordless and says something about it.
The aliveness remains unchanged.
Only a layer of interpretation has been added.
And that can seem like a million miles.
That's where the suffering is.
All suffering.
Not pain.
Physical pain,
But mental,
Emotional suffering.
Let's sit quietly.
So there's no path to this presence.
And just say just rest in the body the Alivenesses.
The body is part of this aliveness.
It's easy to access.
It's never troubled.
If you wish you can just feel the breath Just relax if you.
.
.
Trying to get somewhere,
To achieve something.
It doesn't exist.
It's just an idea.
The wanting will just continue.
Will never be enough.
Where is your attention right now?
Going on.
Okay,
So are there any questions?
Even if you're listening to the recording.
You can send over questions.
Respond during the week or mainly on a Friday but because if you've got doubts get them out because we'll just eat away at your practice Thank you.
In all this seeking we do.
Once you realise that what you're seeking for is already here,
The seeking ends.
That's what contentment is.
It ends,
Comes to an end,
Or gradually weakens in most people.
It's gradual.
Because they don't recognize what's here.
It's like the prince wanted to go out of the palace into the.
.
.
The towns and villages of ancient India.
His father was worried that he'd fall into poverty,
So he sewed a gold coin into the hem of his jacket,
The son's jacket.
The son went out,
Went away.
As he would guess he fell into poverty.
Barely enough to eat.
And he stumbles back up on his palace again.
His father barely recognised him,
But he did.
And the father said,
I thought you might,
This might happen.
You fall into poverty.
Did you realize you had wealth beyond your imagination right where you are?
In your own jacket.
He was ignorant of it,
So he didn't realise it was there.
So,
Off he goes.
And all the towns and villages that once he fell into poverty he was looking for.
Use that all the time.
You know,
We don't recognize it because we've been trained.
Conditioned Programmed To go into mind,
That's what we're drunk on.
The mind is a beautiful tool.
The brilliant tool.
But we've forgotten what it's for.
That's why.
You know,
When we fall into mind,
So to speak,
Walking along the street,
Or doing the washing up,
Or drinking coffee,
We fall into this other world,
This imaginary world,
And it feels absolutely true.
Because you believe those thoughts are the actual,
That's what's happening.
It's so obvious when you start to see,
It's like,
Oh my God,
How on earth?
Because everyone's doing it.
Unless you've started to look at this.
And you start to wake,
That's what waking up means.
You hear the term waking up?
Go start.
Drunken world,
You could call it a dream world,
Literally dreaming.
Like you do during the night when you're sleeping.
You're sitting there,
Cup of coffee in your hand,
By yourself,
In the garden.
And you're arguing with the neighbor,
Or.
.
.
With a work colleague.
And it's all imagined.
It's just there.
And you feel the tension here.
Oh,
How dare he?
And off we go.
Just that.
That's it.
Hang on.
What the hell's going on?
The mind is mainly drawn past and future,
Again.
Necessary concepts.
For communication.
For practical planning.
But the mind takes those concepts to be the actual,
And then that's it.
Spend our time worrying about the future and regretting the past or whatever,
Whichever.
Now,
Lives fluctuate between past and future.
Open fear.
Okay,
Give him a ping-pong.
Hoping Hoping Fearing Fearing Hoping Hoping Fearing Fearing I've done it,
And I'm still capable of doing it,
Don't get me wrong.
It just weakens.
It's like you see the game.
And that's what waking up means.
You wake up to what's already here.
Oh my god.
That's why I say don't put down the effort.
It's not about effort.
What effort does it take to be here?
To slow reveal,
Revealing it to slow unfoldment.
But if we keep,
If we're more interested in all the and mind stuff.
Well,
Pay the consequences.
Okay guys,
That's it for this week.
Another week gone.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
