Okay.
So most of us most of the time running around,
Avoiding ourselves.
On trying to avoid ourselves.
Because with it,
It was a kind of existential.
.
.
Just join us.
I'm just talking about how we keep busy trying to avoid ourselves.
Because underlying our experience,
May not be so underlying,
Is an existential anxiety.
Or anxious.
And we don't want to experience this,
So we keep busy.
We have avoidance mechanisms,
Lifestyles.
And one of the main ways that we avoid just being here.
See,
Our life is just this moment.
There's only this moment.
Everything else is imagination.
Fantasy.
This is all there is right now,
Hearing,
Seeing,
Feeling,
Touching,
Etc.
What we're doing is just coming back just to this moment just feeling what's here experiencing what's here That's why this is not a concentration exercise,
Guys.
Meditation isn't about concentration.
Because we concentrate,
You have to block something out,
Otherwise you get disturbed.
I've done it.
I did it in a retreat centre.
I was always sitting there trying to concentrate.
A sheep.
Bleated off.
Bloody sheep!
If someone shuffles in the meditation room,
We should stop shuffling.
But with this practice we welcome everything,
The sound of the bus.
Nothing can disturb presence.
How can something disturb presence?
How can anything disturb anything?
If you haven't got this idea,
There should be a certain way.
It's an opening now.
It's a relaxation.
With life as it is.
And that's what heals our life,
That's what.
.
.
That the The emotions are locked into the body.
They opened.
When we're present with them.
We just experience them,
Just experience this moment.
And that's where the wonder and the joy is.
It's like we have a plum tree here,
Just outside the meditation space.
And we have a dog and.
.
.
All types of animals come round underneath the plum tree.
There's dog shit,
There's bird shit,
There's leaves,
Dead animals,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah.
Over the years,
What happens?
Over the seasons,
They decompose,
They become part of the tree.
Next year,
Or this year,
What are we eating?
Dog shit.
Bird shit.
In the form of a plum.
It's transformed.
And that is what our experience is when we are willing to put it in the right conditions,
Like nature.
On the dog poo,
Etc.
The right conditions transforms it.
The right conditions for our transformation is being right here.
Not here in the head,
Spinning our fantasies and regrets.
But just being here.
That's the equivalent of.
.
.
The decomposition,
The transformation of all that stuff around the tree.
And then the wonder arises out of that,
The plumb comes out of that.
And you can't try.
Try and just get in the way.
And you turn up OK,
So let's.
.
.
As you settle,
It's one of the ways we avoid ourselves,
The primary way is through thinking.
Think about anything.
For being here.
And that in itself leads to suffering.
Just take a breath and just feel into the body.
.
.
What wants your attention?
Is there something specific?
Heaviness,
A tightness.
Is there a sadness?
And anger.
Don't go into this story.
Feel the breath.
If there is something specific like a tightness,
A tension the sadness,
Just feel it.
Hello?
I normally push you away,
Don't I?
What does it feel like?
Stray off into thinking,
It's okay.
And turn back to the breath.
Maybe to this tension.
That we normally avoid.
Maybe a background sadness,
Anxiety.
And allow it to reveal itself.
Just to be.
What does it feel like?
Is it heavy?
It's not a big shit.
It is not questions to be answered.
Just for us to explore experientially the physical sensation,
Perhaps there's an emotion.
Trapped inside.
Where are you right now?
This is kindness.
This is all a kindness practice instead of running away.
Those energies that are hurting.
Exactly what they want.
Attention,
The right kind of attention.
We just failed them.
Now we can just relax.
The attention if you wish.
And you sit with an openness and follow the breath by all means.
Is sitting,
The sense of the body.
In order to see it become tense,
Are you striving?
Just relax into the body.
Where is the attention?
Okay,
That brings us to the end of the session.
Open your eyes if they're closed.
A little stretch or a shake.
Thank you guys.
