Your Daily Meditation | Day 25: A Fish Out Of Water

This track is a recording of a live session, so please keep in mind the sometimes spontaneous nature of the session.
We often spend our lives thrashing about in the dry air of our own mental commentary, feeling entirely like a fish out of water. Just as a fish belongs naturally in the ocean, our true home is right here in the present moment. But the moment we get caught in a story about how things should be, we suffer the suffocation of imagined futures and remembered pasts.
Expect a short, grounding talk followed by a spacious guided meditation with plenty of silence to let you rest in your own direct experience.

Transcript

On the afternoon evening. You know, If you take a. . . A fish out of water. It can't function. And it's not a long time and it'll just die. But take it out of the water, It loses something. What does it lose? Loses its life. Even before it dies, So to speak, It's lost its life. It's helpless. Every day we lose our life. Well, Just as the ocean is the natural home of the fish, So the present moment is our natural home. We keep leaping out of it. We only leap out of it in the imagination, Brute enough to create suffering. And offers to lose our life. Because life happens through the five senses and creative, Functional, Abstract thinking. Where we need it. It's actually very simple. Now can you imagine a fish going up to another fish? And saying, Where's the ocean? But we do that. Looking for. Oh, I'm looking for certainty, Looking for security, Looking for. . . Meaning. I was talking to a couple of friends yesterday. Well, We look for meaning. Or we do if we don't know who we are. See how a dog doesn't look for meaning. He might what we call worry a little if his breakfast is not ready on time. Or is it that I do the worrying for him? Maybe. Maybe. But who doesn't sit around worrying about the meaning of life. We do that because we have minds that. . . Think about life. There's something missing. It's a story we tell ourselves there's something missing, So we look for meaning. Look for stories. Try and get the best, Try and create the best story. So the present moment is our home, Just like the ocean is the home of the fish. It functions perfectly well. It's in its natural state. We're in our natural state when we're actually at home in the present moment. Which includes functional and practical thinking. 4C. It's the mental noise that does the. . . It creates the suffering. Psychological suffering. So if that creates the suffering. . . That's what we do in meditation. We again see where the tension is that we lost in thought. In that voice in the head. And will come back which is not. Come back to that which is not a voice in the head. Which is the feeling of the breath. The hearing of the traffic. The sensations of sitting on the seat. Just that sense of being here. It doesn't matter as long as it's what's actually happening. Will place our attention to become interested in what's actually happening. Instead of what is not happening. It's actually so simple. We're just growing to the habit of being more interested in what's not happening. What might happen, What could have happened, What should have happened. So take a deep breath. And what's happening may include So it's a little uncomfortable in the body, Maybe a sadness. Maybe some tension. That's included. Feeling the breath. Find yourself in thought, Okay? No criticism, No judgment, Pity. Just drop it. Just a small thought. Come back to the breath or hearing the birds. Ah, That sad feeling. Just feel it. Where is the attention right now? Both senses are open, We're not closing down. In some little cocoon. Just rest in the body. We relax. What's going on? And lose your weight, Okay? Just take a deep breath. Let it all go. Feel the end of the out-breath, If that helps. Where is your attention? Just checking you're not gone tense, Trying to. . . Return something. Just take a breath. Relax. Where are you right now? Okay, We can bring this session to a close. A little stretch. Have a good day. Thank you.