Your Daily Meditation | Day 13: Pond Like Mind

These tracks are recordings of live sessions, so please keep in mind the sometimes spontaneous nature of the sessions.
This session is about ceasing to try to calm the mind and just allow it to relax.
There is a short talk followed by a spacious guided meditation. The meditations are deliberately spacious, with plenty of silence, allowing you to experience the practice for yourself and notice what the mind keeps presenting to you—without needing to change, fix, or understand it.

Transcript

Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening guys. So, In the Buddhist tradition, The lake and the mine too. A pond, Just a simple garden pond. If the pond's left alone. All the mud. Settles to the bottom, Becomes clear. You can see the fish, All the little newts, All the little, The life in the pond, All the little creepy crawlies. And the mind is similar, If we leave it alone. It all settles. But if you go stick and you wave it about in the pond, You stir up all the mud. You're using effort. You're trying to do something. In the pond. Assembling with the mind. If we try to do something, Even if we try to calm ourselves, We're using effort. It just stirs it up. So it's really just seeing what's happening in mind, Just having a thought. It's not an opinion or judgment, It's just a statement. Oh, Just meet those thoughts. With no drama, Neutrality, Just let them come. Be engaged in them. Or not, Probably will for a while. Don't just let them go. They're already on the way out as they arrive. We keep stopping them. Got to convince there's something useful there. We don't need to pick between useful and not useful thoughts. That's more mind games. You don't need to do it. The Arduino. If you're not sure. Having a thought. It's all you need to do. And come back to what's really happening. Come back to the breath. Come back to the sound of the traffic, The birds. Whatever it is. Whatever is actually happening. And just stay with that. Until the next hijack comes along. So take a deep breath or two. Is derived in the body. Remember, There's a mantra if you need it, Sharing. To two. Just checking that there's no urgency. There is just take a deep breath. And relax into the out-breath. Are you messing with the pond? Just drop the stick. And settle into the body. Settling to the breath. Just feel it. What's happening right now? Allowing yourself to relax. Where is the attention? For watching what appears in the pond. But trying to control what appears. Or get rid of what appears. Go on into fear, Will you, Sir? Pass through. What's going on? Okay. That brings us to the end of the session.

Reviews

Thanks Suryacitta.

À mantra is a tool… that was very useful to hear. Great, 🙏🩵

I had a good laugh this morning, as the thought of 'no swimming' appeared in my mind! So, I gave it heed :)
Thank you, as always !