So hello,
Welcome to another day of story,
Another dose of the medicine.
So I'm not going to read a story today from the book,
I'm going to tell you a story,
And then explore it with the use of a metaphor,
And then we'll have a guided meditation,
Just a short one to end on.
So,
A few years ago I was sitting in my car in a traffic jam,
A queue of traffic,
In a city in the centre of England,
And I looked to my left and I saw a woman walking along and texting.
I didn't think much of it,
We all do it.
Then a few seconds later I looked back and I saw that she was leaning forward,
Rushing and texting.
And my mind does this,
It played with the image,
And a word came to mind,
And that word was nexting.
And I thought,
Oh goodness me,
Yes,
That's what most of us do,
Most of the time.
We are nexting.
It's almost like,
It's almost like this moment isn't enough.
We want to be in the next moment,
Because surely that must be better.
We have this assumption,
This belief that the next moment will be more fulfilling,
More exciting,
Or whatever it is we're desiring.
And so what we end up doing,
We end up skimming across our life,
Trying to find this next perfect moment,
Or this next better moment,
Like a better moment in time.
And it never actually materialises,
Because everything just slips through our fingers,
Like sand just slips through your fingers.
And what we yearn for is depth.
We yearn for a depth of experience.
We don't want to live on the surface of the ocean no longer,
Because it's always choppy,
It's always moving.
That's the world of thought.
We want the depth where the beauty and the silence and the stillness is.
That's what we're searching for.
Of course we can still use the surface,
Still use thought when it's needed,
For planning,
For working something through,
For comparing the prices of flights or holidays,
Whatever.
See that functional,
That practical thinking isn't the problem.
The problem is the self-centred,
Ego-centred thinking.
So what we find ourselves doing is kind of leaning forward into this next moment,
Trying to find some degree of fulfilment or satisfaction,
And we're chasing an idea.
See we hear this term a lot,
Don't we,
The present moment.
We hear it a lot.
Or being in the now,
Whatever your term is.
And we have a sense that that's where I want to be.
And when we are truly in the present moment,
Nothing can touch us.
The Buddha gave a wonderful description.
He said,
Being truly in the present,
We are moved by everything but touched by nothing.
Isn't that beautiful?
So the world moves you,
You are moved to tears,
To laughter,
To whatever,
But nothing can actually touch you.
What causes psychological suffering?
I'm not talking about pain here,
That's different.
Is the wrong use or the wrong kind of imagination?
The imagination can be a wonderful thing.
It's creative.
But it also creates suffering,
Catastrophizing,
All the what-ifs.
What if this happens,
What if that happens?
It's almost like there's a movie playing in the mind and we are watching it all day long.
So what does it mean to be in the present moment?
It means to be in the senses,
It means to be in the body.
But most of all it means to be in what I call presence.
Because we all want to feel okay.
I'm just going to use that word for now,
Okay.
And presence is that place of okayness.
Let me share a metaphor with you.
Imagine there is a house and this house is the house of okayness.
Now if there were such a house,
We wouldn't want to leave it much,
Would we?
Because it's okay here.
It's peacefully,
I'm happy here.
Now this house is the present moment,
That's what it represents.
The present moment is the place of okayness,
This house is the house of okayness.
What I'm suggesting is don't go beyond the porch.
Don't step outside of the porch.
What that means is,
Be vigilant about getting lost in thought,
In self-centered thought.
That's when we go beyond the porch,
So to speak.
That's when the stories and the scenarios and the catastrophizing begin to happen.
When the imagination can play havoc with our well-being.
Because in the world of mind,
Anything can happen.
There are no rules,
No laws.
What I'm suggesting is your practice is one of coming back home to this house of okayness.
Right here,
Relaxed.
It's not a forced coming back or trying to fix yourself in the present moment.
It's more a kind of resting and we'll do a meditation around this in a few moments.
So instead of nexting,
We are resting.
Resting here.
Whether you're washing up,
Walking the dog,
Chopping a carrot.
It doesn't matter.
Very neutrally,
Very gently.
When you notice yourself wandering into this,
Just beyond the porch.
Bring yourself back.
Now the mind is still available in the house of okayness for creative thinking,
For functional and practical thinking.
In fact,
It works better.
So become familiar with your house of okayness.
With this sense of presence.
That's when the imagination can't get to you.
It can't drag you away from this sense of okayness.
But the human habit of going into mind is strong.
Because that's where the entertainment is.
And you know what we're like for entertainment.
That's what we want,
We want to be entertained.
So I hope that's helpful.
Now let's have a few minutes of meditation.
Of being in the house of okayness.
And noticing how we leave or how we go beyond the porch.
So just settle.
Just resting the attention in the body.
You can rest the attention on the breath if you wish.
If that helps.
This present moment can seem quite elusive at first.
But it isn't.
It's not an object,
It's not a thing.
It's that sense of presence,
That sense of being here.
That sense of aliveness.
So rest in that.
If it helps,
Rest the attention on the breath.
And just rest there.
Be interested in just that movement of the breath.
It may not feel like much right now.
But we begin to get a taste of this.
It reveals itself more and more.
So just resting there.
I'll go quiet for a few moments.
So you can sense into this.
Now notice when you go beyond the porch.
And you find yourself lost in thinking.
In the moment you do,
And it's fine for that to happen.
When you do.
Just very gently,
Neutrally,
Shift the attention back.
Home to the house of okayness.
Back to presence,
To the breath.
Don't look for the euphoria,
The bliss.
That's what the mind is looking for.
Just this,
Just rest here.
When you find yourself in the head,
Stepping off the porch,
It's okay.
No criticism,
No judgment.
If you do,
It's fine.
Just step back onto that porch.
Ah,
Right here.
Okay,
I think that will do for now.
I just wanted to illustrate the simplicity of it.
But that urge to go into thought is very strong.
So just back here.
And at some point this sense of presence,
That depth of the ocean,
Will begin to reveal itself.
But we have to leave behind,
So to speak,
Let go of,
Maybe a better term,
All that chatter.
Okay,
Thank you,
Bye bye.
