The Constant Commentary

We are all walking around with a constant commentary about what's happening. To be more accurate the commentary is often about what is not actually happening. The commentary keeps grabbing our attention and we suffer the consequences of the story within the commentary.
There is a short teaching, a technique, and a guided meditation.

Transcript

In this session I want to talk about the constant commentary or the incessant chatter of the mind. I want to share a technique with you for helping with thoughts, For seeing into the nature of them and taking the attention back from them, Coming out of the world of thought. And we're going to end with a meditation. So imagine you're watching a game of tennis on TV. It's a great game. You're engrossed in it and the commentator is getting excited. And then somebody, For some bizarre reason, Turns the sound off. No commentary. Does that lack of commentary actually change the game? No. In fact you may pay more attention to the game with the commentary off. Then the sound is turned back on and the commentary appears once again. But you realize something odd. The commentary, A lot of it, Maybe 80% of it, Has nothing to do with the tennis. The commentator is talking about going out for dinner, About problems they have, Or problems they don't have, About fantasies and regrets and just sort of a constant buzz of activity going on in the mind. They too have this constant commentary and they're sharing it with you. Now, If the commentary was connected, Had an impact on the game, The players, The two tennis players, Would have earphones listening to the commentary and, Of course, They don't. It has no impact on the game and it's similar to what goes on in each of the other games. We all have this constant commentary on life and most of it has nothing to do with what's actually happening. Often in meditation here, I will ask people to notice what's happening in the mind. Notice the thoughts, Notice what you're thinking about. Then at the end, I will suggest to them that most people are actually more interested in what's not happening than what is actually happening. And that's how we spend our life, That's how we spend our days, Because the thoughts, Most of the thoughts, That commentary, Is about what's not happening. So, For example, You may be walking down the street in a beautiful park and what you're doing is actually having a disagreement with a work colleague, For example. The work colleague's not with you. It's all going on in mind, In your own head. You're missing what's actually happening. You're having a shower and what's happening? You're thinking about something else. Your attention is taking out of the present moment and is landed somewhere else on the planet, Some other place, Some other time, Doing anything but just being here with having a shower, Feeling the beautiful water on the skin. Ring a bell? It should do because that's how most of us spend our time. And then what can happen is in the mental realm, In the world of thought, There are no rules. Anything can happen, Anything. And so, Whatever thoughts arise, We believe. If it's an anxious thought, There we go. We take an anxious ride. The mind is offering us rides and we accept the ride. So we go on an anxious ride or we go on a poem-y ride or my life's no good ride. I'm not good enough ride. It doesn't matter. We're not fussy which ride we go on because we don't pay attention to the content of the thought. We just get lost in the content of thought. And what this does, Well, It does a number of things. I want to just draw one point out. It keeps our attention locked in thought. And so we miss out on the aspect of being human. And that is, There are two kinds of intelligence, Let's say. There's the intuitive intelligence or the realm of wisdom, Which is innate. It's quiet. It whispers. It's infinitely intelligent. But we miss it because our attention is fixated on the mental realm, On the realm of thought. So there's the realm of wisdom, The intelligence that comes from or arises out of the realm of wisdom or the intuitive intelligence, Which is also the realm of love, The intelligence that's imbued with love and compassion. And the other intelligence is the intelligence of mind, Which is fear. It's imbued with fear. Now, Not all thought is imbued with fear. There's practical thinking. There's functional thinking. There's creative thinking. I'm not talking about those. They're fine. They continue. And in fact, When mind quietens down, They become sharper. But you then have access or you are aligned with this innate intelligence, This loving intelligence. And that's what we're looking for. But we need to drop below the level of thought by dropping from the surface of the ocean down to the depths. That's where the beauty and the power and the stillness is. That is what we need to do. And that is what we can do. If you're listening to this, You can do this. It just takes a little bit of getting this message, Taking this message in, Absorbing it. And it's not even a practice. We call it meditation. But just seeing, Identifying thought rather than identifying with thought. Do you see that distinction? I'll say it again. We move from identifying with thought to identifying thought as thought. Oh, I'm just having a thought, Dot, Dot, Dot, Which we've done before. That exercise, That technique. So that's where we're heading here into the realm of wisdom or aligning ourselves with that intuitive knowledge, Intuitive knowing. Because we're under this impression that to know anything, It's got to go via your mind. We've got to be able to think it. But there's a knowing that's closer to home, That knows things in a different way. Just a quiet inner knowing that doesn't need thought or verbalization. It's just this intuitive, Uh-huh, Uh-huh. And it's beautiful. When you're resting there, It enriches the whole of your life. And when we start listening to that, The mind, The realm of fear, Quietens down. Because we're seeing life more as it truly is. Because when we live in mind, Listening to that all day, It's full of troubles and problems and what-ifs and what might happen and what could have happened and. . . The realm of wisdom, The intuitive knowing, Doesn't do that. And we align ourselves with, Well, Reality. There's one reality, One universal reality, One source, And you are it. So let's just explore this world of thought. So, What if your internal dialogue, This constant commentary, Particularly if it's negative, Like critical, What if it all turned to a language you don't understand? If you don't understand Chinese, It all turned to Chinese. If you don't understand German, It all turns to German or Dutch, Whatever. If it all turns to a language you don't understand, Then what? You wouldn't understand the words, I'm not good enough, What's going to happen. Wouldn't understand any of it. It would mean nothing. It would mean nothing to you. You're still here, Aware, Bright, Alive. We don't need all this constant commentary to keep us engaged with the world. It actually does the opposite. It disengages us from the world. And instead of being here in the sense of life as it is, We're spending more and more time in what I call a virtual reality of mind. Because most of that thinking, Or the content of that thinking, Isn't happening. It's all made up. So let's just do a technique, Then we're going to finish with a meditation. We did the having a thought in the last session. So what I'd like you to do, I'd like you to, Again, I want you to think an anxious thought or a judgmental thought, Something that will normally wind you up a little. Make it real, So that we can get a clear seeing of this. So I want you to think it through now, Or imagine something. Something negative. Go ahead. Now I want you to rest your hands together, Clasped them together gently, And I want you to take your attention to your hands. In your direct experience with your eyes closed, Do your hands have a colour? Don't imagine, In your direct experience, In feeling them. Now, Of course not. Can you actually feel the nails on your hands? Can you feel the hairs? Do they have such a definite shape, Or is it all a bit amorphous, Just clusters of sensations? Now I want you to really feel into the sensations of the hands. Go ahead, Really feel into them. Okay, Where's the anxiety now? Gone. Because you took your attention away from mind, Into your direct experience of the hands, And it can be anything. So one way of slowing down, Or taking your attention back from the world of thought, Is to give your attention to something else, Something worthwhile, Something that's not going to drive you crazy. Something that's actually really happening. The sensations of the hands are really happening. It's not rocket science. You can't think your way out of the problem of mind. You can't solve the problem of mind with more mind. It's outside of mind. It's in awareness. It's in presence. Okay. So I want you to sit quietly. I'm going to have a short meditation. I want you to notice when mind offers you these, What I call, Tickets to suffer. One of my teachers, Colette Whiteman, Talked about this. I think it's a great way of expressing, Or explaining, Illustrating just what the mind is doing. It's offering you tickets to suffer. Offering you tickets to go on the anxious ride, Or the I am lonely ride, Nobody wants me ride, Anything ride. So sit quietly. You can close your eyes if you wish. Or you can rest your gaze on a blank wall or look through a window. Take one or two deeper breaths and drop down into the body. Down into the hara, Which is the lower belly. Breathe down into that area. So rest your attention on the movement of the breath. I will go quiet at times to enable you to follow the instructions and directions. Just sitting, Feeling the breath, Feeling the end of the out-breath. And I want you to notice when the mind is offering, Or has offered you a ticket in the form of a thought, And you've accepted the ticket, And you're on a ride. Notice. Ah, Get off the ride. Get out of there. Neutrally, Don't make it a drama, Come back into the body. Drop down. Feeling the breath, The end of the out-breath. And there's that delightful pause as it ends and the in-breath begins. Feel that. Again, Notice when you're on a ride, Doesn't matter what the ride is, Just neutrally let go, Release, And relax back into the body and the breath. Let the thought melt away. And it's this simple. There's nothing to work out. There's nothing to solve on the intellectual level. You can't think your way out of this one. So, Just sit as you wish. So just remember that it's your attention that keeps this whole thing going. Remember the mind is an energy system, And it wants your energy. It's an energy vampire. And remember, I'm not talking about functional, Practical, And creative thinking. Fine. Action-oriented thinking, Fine. That's what the mind is designed for. It's a beautiful instrument. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Reviews

thank you. i’m learning and gaining tools to help me stop 🛑 listening to my thoughts 🩵🙏🩵🙏🩵🙏🩵

Great 👍
Very appropriate the idea of tickets to anxiety or, from another meditation session, of invitation cards to parties we don't like to go to...seeing the 'offer' and gently refusing is a prime achievement. 🙏🙏🙏

Brilliant! Always, always grateful for your clear & simple guidance, with joy! Deep bow 🙏🏽