Your Daily Meditation | Day 17: Don't Be Taken For A Ride

These tracks are recordings of live sessions, so please keep in mind the sometimes spontaneous nature of the sessions.
The mind takes us for rides: there can be the anxious ride, the 'poor me' ride, or the fearful ride. This session is about declining the rides—or at least getting off them once you see you are on one.
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

Morning, Good afternoon, Good evening. So just a reminder. Us are all just reminders. Remember? That just as we go to. . . Amusement parks, Theme parks, Gone all these rides, The Walser, The Big Dipper, The ghost train. And the currency is. . . Pound sterling or dollar or whatever currency it is. Money. The mind is similar to a theme park. It takes us on rides. Takes us on the anxious ride. Takes us on a what's gonna happen ride. And even take us on what didn't happen or what did happen or what should have happened ride. It's got more rides than it knows what to do with. Just as the ghost train etc are real rides, We really go on them. The mind rides are imagined. And just watch this in your own experience. That's the only way you free yourself from all this, Is through your own direct experience. Can read all books in the world. My point when I write it. Good direction, But. . . I can't do it for you. Just like you read a book on food. Recipes but to sustain you. Just nourish the body, Do what the real thing. So what do we do when we find ourselves on a ride? Get off. Just get off. I'm having a thought. Because that's all that's happening, Just having a thought. And just, You can just. . . Watch the The mind trying to sell you these. And temptation to go on to these rides. Knows which one you like. Knows your favorites, And the currency is your energy, Your attention. So. Let's take a deep breath or two. Drop into the body. And just feel what's here. Welcoming everything. Just feel the breath. Just be mindful of going on a ride, About to ride. May be in the form of choo-ching his songs. Just get off. Come back to what's really happening. Sound of the birds or the traffic. The breath. Is facing your experience. Whatever it is, The sadness. A heaviness. A grief. Just feel it without the story. What's going on? And these rhymes. They're just stories we tell ourselves. They're fiction. They just feel real. We're just sitting here. So just relax. Into the body. Into that. In very own presence. Where is your attention? You's found yourself on lots and lots of rain. Focus on the end of the out-breath. Just to help steady yourself. Don't force it. Always be kind. Just watch the eve. Not ten stir. Yeah, Just to open your eyes. Take a deep breath and just relax. There's nothing to achieve. Nothing. Relax into presence. Okay. That brings us to the end of a little stretch. And have a good day.