Waking Up To Each Moment Of Your Life

What each of us wants to do is to wake up to the natural wonder and joy of life, instead of spending most of our time living in the head with its worries, anxieties, hopes and fears. With a short talk and his usual simple, and direct explanations, along with a guided meditation, Suryacitta - the happy buddha - shows you just how to get out of your head and wake up to each moment of your life.

Transcript

Hello,

Surya Chittor here.

In a little while I'm going to guide you through a meditation on being here.

So simple,

So delightful,

Just a meditation on being here.

Where else would you want to be?

I'm going to start off by giving a short reading from one of my favourite teachers,

She's no longer with us,

Charlotte Jocho Beck from Nothing Special.

Now I'm going to unpack it a little and then we'll meditate.

It's so sad that we don't understand that each moment of our lives,

Drinking coffee,

Walking down the street,

Reading the paper is it.

We could put in there texting for modern day,

Couldn't we?

Why don't we grasp this truth?

Well we don't get it because our little minds think that this second that we're living has hundreds of seconds that preceded it and hundreds of seconds still to come.

So we turn away from truly living our life.

So I've actually guided a weekend retreat on that very theme,

Just on that paragraph.

I think there's such a lot in it because most of us are not truly living our life and we know it.

We feel it.

And we all have different responses to this.

Some of us may feel sad,

Others may feel angry or resentful in some way.

Why aren't I truly living my life?

What's holding me back?

Well there are many things but I'm just going to cover a few of them here.

See we don't realise that this,

Like she says,

Reading the newspaper,

Sending a text,

Brushing your teeth,

Tying your shoelace,

We don't get that this is our life.

Why?

Because we have a picture of what our life should be like.

And it can't be,

Surely,

Tying my shoelaces.

This is just like something done to get somewhere else.

That's what this is.

This is not life,

Surely.

Being criticised,

Surely.

That's not life.

That's something I have to put up with until my life happens,

Until my picture manifests,

My picture of life.

And so we put off being with the simple everyday tasks of life.

We put it off because our attention is not really here.

It's in some imagined future.

And the problem with that is we are split.

Yes,

The body's here,

The body's brushing the teeth,

But our mind,

Our attention is elsewhere.

You notice,

Next time you're brushing your teeth,

Just notice where the attention goes.

There are moments when it's,

The attention's here with what you're actually doing.

That's when you are whole,

So to speak.

But the mind so wants excitement.

It so doesn't want to be here with this activity.

It wants to imagine.

It wants to hanker after the past.

It wants to imagine a brighter future or worry about a future that may be worse than the present.

The mind cannot be still for long.

And if we live in mind,

If we live in thought,

We'll find that we are very restless.

There's a teaching in the Zen tradition called stirring the porridge.

And what it means is,

If you can be happy and at peace,

Stirring the porridge,

Then you can't be happy anywhere.

What's the best you get?

You make a nice bowl of porridge or a nice pan of porridge.

And you know,

The monks and nuns like it.

They appreciate it.

That's as good as it gets.

So it's learning to be at one with all the activities that actually make up a life.

Look at when you go on holiday.

We like going to Italy.

We go to Italy.

What do we do over there?

Exactly what we do here.

We get up in the morning,

We go to the bathroom,

We put on our clothes,

We brush our teeth,

We tie our shoelaces,

We stub our toe,

We get toothache,

We go see some beautiful buildings,

There's some nice sunshine,

A glass of wine.

Everything we do over here.

I'm not saying don't go on holiday.

There's a different environment which is restful and refreshing.

But if you look at what makes those days up,

It's all these little ordinary everyday tasks.

Walking up the stairs.

Oh,

Walking up the stairs.

That's boring.

That's your life.

Right now,

Listening to this is it.

I'm afraid there's nothing else.

Everything else is imagination.

I'm not saying that's bad.

Not at all.

We need the imagination.

You imagine what you're going to have for dinner.

It can be useful.

The imagination is an essential faculty,

Is that the right word,

Of the human mind,

The human being.

The capacity to imagine.

But the mind,

Or our attachment to thinking,

Our obsession with thinking,

Seemingly takes us out of here,

Takes us into the next moment.

Let me give you an example,

Something that really happened.

A few years ago,

I was sitting in a traffic queue,

The traffic jam in the UK,

In the city on my way to work,

And we were bumper to bumper.

And I looked to my left,

And on the sidewalk,

On the pavement,

Was a woman walking along and texting.

I thought nothing of it.

We all do it.

Then I turned back,

And I think Bohemian Rhapsody was on the radio,

And I was singing away to it.

Then I looked again,

And I noticed she was leaning forward,

Rushing,

And texting.

And my mind played with the word texting.

I thought,

Ah,

What she's doing is nexting.

And again,

We all do it.

As you practice,

You just do it less than you used to.

You're more present.

But what nexting means is,

This moment is not it.

This moment doesn't fit my picture of how I want it to be.

So I'm more interested in the next moment.

This cannot be it.

It's our mantra,

This is not it.

See,

We waste so much of our time and so much of our life in thinking,

Being obsessed with maybe our latest fantasies,

Our latest plans,

What she said,

Or what he said,

Or what he didn't say,

Blaming other people,

Blaming ourself.

When will life ever go right for me?

Will I ever meet the right person?

Will I ever be the right person?

Will I ever meet the right person?

Whatever it is,

We all have our different obsessions.

And they just take us away from truly living our life.

So what happens when we are present,

When we begin to taste presence?

What happens when you wake up to the wonder of life,

To the joy of life,

Like a newborn,

Or like an infant?

Everything's just full of wonder.

Take my five-year-old Border Collie dog,

He's blind,

And I take him on walks.

I take him on the same walk every day because he knows it,

And he can have a run in the field.

Every day the same walk,

And you know what?

It's always fresh and new for him.

Fresh and new.

And I have a ball,

I throw the ball for him.

He can hear it,

He jumps up,

And he never catches it.

But you know what?

Every time he jumps for that ball,

Whether it's the first time or the 20th,

It's always the first time,

Always just this time.

He doesn't criticize himself,

Doesn't think,

That's the 12th time I've missed it,

I'm useless.

It's just fresh and alive,

And that's what it can be like for ourselves.

But we have to drop the obsession,

The fixation with thinking.

So I'm going to guide you through meditation.

I'm going to meditate on just this theme,

On being here now.

In a sense,

It's the only theme.

You can play with it,

Obviously.

But if you want to heal your emotional life,

When is it done?

Now.

You can only do it now.

You can't do anything that's not now.

Just before we meditate,

I just want you to do a short exercise for me.

Close your eyes.

Imagine what you were doing at this time yesterday.

Picture it.

Okay.

Now imagine what you'll be doing this time tomorrow.

Just imagine it.

Just do it.

Okay.

So where did the image of yesterday and the image of tomorrow,

Where did they appear?

On the same screen of the mind.

And they only appeared now.

They didn't appear yesterday,

And they didn't appear tomorrow.

They appeared now.

Both of them.

So past and future are really useful concepts.

In fact,

They're essential.

But they're concepts.

But we believe that there's a thing,

It's actually a thing called a future.

There isn't.

It's an essential concept.

Anyway,

Thought I'd just drop that in.

So,

Just sitting quietly.

Close your eyes if you wish.

Just a little over five minutes for a meditation.

Just take a deep breath and then drop into the body.

Yeah,

That's it.

Just feel the breath coming and going.

Just feel the breath coming and going.

That's happening now.

Feel the hands resting in your lap.

Happening now.

Just rest in what's happening now.

Just sense into the hands all the sensations.

There'll be silent moments during the meditation to allow you to follow the guidance.

Noticing sounds.

The sound of my voice.

It just comes to you.

Now.

Presently.

Maybe sounds of distant traffic or the hum of the refrigerator.

Whatever.

Try to drop your picture of what it should be like.

Just put it to one side.

Not interested in the next moment,

In the next breath,

In the next sound,

The next thought.

Now feel around the face.

All those sensations.

And when you notice that you've been lost in thinking,

I just want you to quietly say to yourself,

That's thought.

And then return back to the body.

And then return back to now.

The actual thought is happening now.

But thoughts have a story within them that's not happening.

Future or past.

Some other place,

Some other time.

And then return your attention back and feel around the face.

Around the lips.

Feeling around the eyes.

Very interesting.

And then just shift your attention to the area of the belly.

Just rest there for a few moments.

Feel its movement.

Just feel it.

You can open your eyes if they're closed and just sit as you wish.

I just wanted to introduce you to a very simple way of meditating.

But it's effective.

Being here in the body,

In the senses.

That's where your aliveness is.

That's where your life is.

It's not forever living in mind.

The mind is a tool.

It's brilliant.

We can't live there.

Thank you.

Goodbye.

Reviews

So helpful at this time of my life as a caregiver. I often want my life to be different, but when I am able to be present, I am able to find peace. Thank you.

Thank you for this guidance — it was eye-opening in its simplicity.
Things I’ve been contemplating and meditating on for years, suddenly dropped into true understanding, a puzzle piece finally falling into place and completing the picture, like how the mind is a screen for the projections of our thoughts.

The story of your little blind dog joyfully chasing after the ball — not criticizing himself for not finding it, not proclaiming himself useless — touched me so deeply, it actually made me cry.

They say there’s a time for everything, and today, listening to this meditation, was apparently the right time for me to truly understand that I need to let go of my ideas of how things should be — and instead appreciate the present moment for what it actually is.

I’m deeply grateful to you for recording this meditation the way you did — and for the fortuitous coincidence of me coming across it on Insight Timer this Sunday morning.

Your explanation about living in the mind really spoke to me.

I really like the way you describe the present. To drop into the body. My mind goes to the image of being on the water, tossed about and then dropping into the still waters beneath.

So very helpful. Will relisten. Great reminder to be present and out of the mind.

All of your meditations are delightful and make me want to have a cuppa with you. 🙏You make the present moment a gift 🎁

I embrace everything you offer Suryacitta! This one was a gem as usual :)

One of my favorite talks and meditations ever. Since the death of my husband, it’s interesting to see how my thoughts like to try and figure out what the rest of my life is going to look like. I will make this talk a regular part my day. Reminding me that my life is this moment, right here right now. Thank you. 🌹🕊️🦋🌹🕊️🦋🌹🕊️🦋🌹🕊️🦋🌹

I much appreciate the teaching. It showed a slightly different way of understanding for me. 🙏

Amazing revelation of what being in the present moment actually is.The here and now.