Please! Stop Watching The Me Movie

Suryacitta through the use of metaphor explains how we are rarely present with life because our attention is so often hijacked by our own ME movie playing in the mind. We take this ME movie to be real so long as our attention is lost watching it. He shows how to see this movie for what it is and to be more present with real life here and now and to bring much suffering to an end.

Transcript

Hello,

Sareechita here again.

I want to share a metaphor with you because I think metaphors,

They touch places where just ordinary language doesn't.

Images are very useful for getting beyond or going deeper than the rational mind and that's what I want to speak to.

The rational mind is fine but I want to speak to something that's beyond the rational mind.

So we all know that one of the secrets to life,

To use that term,

Is to be here,

Present with it.

When we're doing the washing up,

When we're going for a walk,

We want to be doing the washing up.

We want to be there walking to appreciate life.

We can only appreciate life if we're here.

It sounds so obvious but we miss that self evident truth.

If we're talking to a friend we want to be there listening to them because we appreciate life through the senses and the senses are always in the present.

They're spontaneous.

The seeing and the hearing and the feeling and the tasting,

They just hear spontaneous and that's how we appreciate life.

The thinking mind is a tool but often that's where we spend most of our time and the metaphor I want to give you is what I call the me movie.

For example,

You go to the cinema and you're watching this movie and there's these different characters and you're enjoying it,

You're absorbed in it and you're really enjoying it,

You're there.

Oh lovely and you get absorbed into the story.

But then at the end of it you leave the cinema and you get on with your life.

Even while the movie was playing you knew it was a movie,

You didn't take it completely for real,

Though you enjoyed it,

You were absorbed in the movie.

There's another movie that plays on the screen of your mind so to speak and that's what I call the me movie.

So the majority of your thoughts,

The majority of your thinking,

Of our thinking is about me.

It's the movie of me and that's what hijacks our attention.

So your attention is not in the hearing,

In the tasting,

In the feeling,

In the sensing,

It is for short periods.

Anybody who's tried to meditate knows how slippery the mind is,

How slippery the attention is,

How it's so easily hijacked with the me movie.

Now the me movie is something that you're not actually doing it,

It's just a film being played on the screen of your mind.

But what's interesting is that when your awareness,

Shame this wasn't visual because I used a lot of visuals in my sharing,

It's like you as awareness,

As presence,

What happens is you're here,

Aware,

You're in the senses,

Then a thought comes into awareness and your awareness,

You as presence,

Awareness,

You collapse into the thought made world,

Into that me movie and that becomes your world.

It's like watching that movie in the cinema and thinking that's really real,

It's really happening.

We know it's not when it's on that screen.

The movie that's played in the mind,

We keep disappearing or being absorbed into it and losing awareness and we take that to be our life,

We take that to be real life for that period.

It might only be a few seconds,

It might be a few minutes and then you pop back,

Oh.

Then what happens is if the me movie's been one of,

Let's say you've been criticised by the boss and so you're in last week as it were in your mind and you're talking to the boss and you're trying to reason with him in your mind,

It's not really happening,

You're sitting in your garden and the birds are singing.

Here you are last week at work,

Think about what he said and what she said and if only she was more open minded,

She would understand what I was trying to do and then at some point you pop back into awareness here,

Oh.

Then you suffer the consequences of that me movie,

Of that story.

So you might feel frustrated.

Now that frustration isn't a response to what's really happening in real life,

It's a response only to your thoughts,

To the me movie.

Then the mind likes a solution,

Then it jumps to the future when you're going to meet your boss again on Monday morning and you're going to tell him or her and you explain yourself and things will be,

I'll put them right.

So there's the past,

There's the future,

In this case just mind made and that's how many of us live our lives,

Living in the mental past and the mental future.

Now I'm not talking about,

You know,

If you have been criticised to sit down and think consciously about how to approach it,

That's different.

That's using the mind wisely,

That's necessary,

It's part of our human functioning.

We're going to have a short meditation in a little while guys just to illustrate how we keep getting caught up in what I call the me movie.

I mean just notice during today,

For the rest of today or you know,

Rest of the afternoon or whatever time you have,

Notice how many conversations you have with people who are not actually with you.

It's astounding,

You know what I mean?

This is such basic stuff but it's something we don't look at.

So that conversation,

You're walking through the beautiful park,

It's a Sunday morning,

Walking through your local park,

You're not actually there,

You're actually arguing with a friend or having a disagreement with a friend or you know,

You're thinking about something that happened three years ago,

A conversation or a holiday or wishing for something.

A lot of our mental chatter or conversations and just notice oh goodness me,

That's the third one in ten minutes and that's how a lot of us spend our lives.

So my suggestion is that you start to,

How do I say this?

You start to identify the thoughts rather than identifying with them.

There's a world of difference.

One can lead to misery,

Identifying with them and the other identifying them leads to happiness,

Peace.

So when you notice yourself that you're being lost in that kind of thinking,

We call it self-centred thinking in the Buddhist tradition and I don't mean self-centred as a judgement,

It's just about me.

Even if it's about that person,

It's what they said to me,

It's how they refer to me and there's nothing wrong with that,

It just closes down our world and our thinking is all about me and we monitor ourselves by our thinking and how am I,

Am I acceptable,

Am I doing okay,

How do I feel and it's not a very pleasant way to live.

If we're honest,

It can be painful.

What we want is to be able to relax,

Not think of ourselves about ourselves so much in the way that I'm describing the neurotic thinking.

So when you've seen yourself lost in a me movie or the conversation with somebody or the disagreements that you're thinking about in the future that may never happen,

The what ifs,

When you notice yourself lost in them,

You pop back and you say to them,

That's a thought,

That's a thought.

So you're identifying it as a thought,

Not a fact,

Not a truth because although the thought is happening now,

The content is about something that did happen and it would have happened exactly like you're thinking it did or that may happen or may not.

Well really what we want is to be here with what's really happening,

The sound of the birds,

That's the joy of life,

Just being here with it.

Right now,

Do something for me.

I want you to be really anxious without thinking or without imagining in any way.

That's not allowed.

Go ahead.

Impossible isn't it?

Be unhappy without thinking or imagining in any way.

Impossible.

The mind is a brilliant tool,

Left to its own devices,

Left on discipline,

Just doing what it wants to do.

It can create unhappiness even misery.

Okay guys,

I think I've said enough,

Let's have a little,

Just a short meditation,

Just about five minutes or so.

I hope I've explained it well enough.

You can contact me and ask questions over insight time.

I'm very happy to respond to any questions.

If it's not clear,

Just sit with it.

What's not clear about this?

It's very simple.

So just sitting quietly,

Taking a couple of deep breaths.

That's it.

That's it.

And just taking your attention to perhaps the movement of the breath.

Just something to rest the attention on.

And we are here.

We are sensing the breath.

Now I'm going to be quiet for a few moments,

Intentionally,

And I want you to notice when you get lost in the Me movie or in a conversation on the past,

Just notice and just say to yourself,

That's a thought.

Okay.

That's it.

For most of us it doesn't take long before we're lost in thinking.

And just say to yourself,

That's a thought.

Then return home.

Bring your attention home to the body,

To the senses.

Maybe there's distant traffic,

Maybe there's the sound of birds or people talking.

That's really happening.

The movement of your breath is really happening.

That image of you talking to a friend isn't really happening.

Wonderful.

So the reason we sit quietly,

The reason we meditate,

Guys,

Is to see this happening.

And then this ability to see what's happening and to,

That's a thought,

And to come back home starts to spill out into our everyday life.

So just,

If you can,

Just once or twice a day,

Maybe you already meditate,

Incorporate this if you wish,

Or have a separate practice,

Just five minutes,

Once or twice a day.

This is your practice.

This is true meditation.

Meditation isn't about getting somewhere,

Achieving something,

Getting something that will satisfy me.

It's seeing the source of your own dissatisfaction,

The way your mind makes you unhappy.

When you see how the mind makes you unhappy,

The mind ceases to do so.

It slowly falls away because you've seen it.

Okay.

So thank you.

And yeah,

Hope this was helpful for you.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

Reviews

I so enjoy and like your meditations, your clear expressions, visuals and humour. It helps mind to remember and practice during the day. It helps me to leave the movie early...
Very helpful, thank you.🙏🏻

Thanks HB!

I could really feel the difference between me and the thought. Thank you! 💚🙏

Excellent explanation of meditation and mindfulness!
Thanks you
Love and blessings to you

The mind creates our reality. Sometimes that’s not actually reality though. Truly mind-blowing insights in this meditation!

A perfect description and explanation of a pattern i was unable to name, or fully understand, but was very aware of and prevalent for many years.
Many thanks for this. 🙏

Very helpful, thank you. A short, simple and effective practice to come back to through the day 🙏🏼

Great talk, straight to the point and well explained. Thank you 💞

So eye opening, helpful, and accessible, Thank You!!

Excellent! So simple