The Absence Of Suffering - Into Talk And Meditation

A short talk followed by a guided meditation with silence toward the end. An explanation as to how one suffers by allowing the thoughts to wonder into the past and future. Peace of mind is found in the present moment.

Transcript

The question comes up often times and people get confused that they feel like,

Well,

I shouldn't have any desires.

If I'm going to be a good Buddhist or even a good person,

I shouldn't have desires.

And is that right?

How can we live without having desires?

How can that be?

What if we took that word desire and called it preference?

We have preferences for this,

We have preferences for that,

We have preferences to be this way or that way.

And when we look at these preferences,

We can see that they are directly related to wanting something different in the future or wanting something that happened in the past to change,

To be different.

And so when we are resting in the present moment,

Like in meditation,

If we can manage to set aside the past and the future,

We can actually sit in meditation or be living in a state of mindfulness in this present moment and not have any desires for a while.

And it's very worthwhile to notice those moments when we don't have desires.

Meditation can be very pleasurable.

That's the kind of pleasure that we should cultivate because that pleasure is basically from the relief of our desires,

The relief of wanting things to be different from what they currently are.

In the present moment,

Having truly resting in this state of mind where there are no thoughts of the past or no thoughts of the future,

Just rest in that,

There are no desires.

Desires can encompass the past or the future or both at the same time.

In the present moment,

We will see that everything is fine,

That we don't desire for anything to be different because if we started desiring for things to be different,

We would notice that we're leaning towards the past or the future and that we would have these desires.

But we can plan,

We can think of our future,

We can think about things that happened in the past,

All these things,

While we're resting in the present moment.

So that takes a great deal of mindfulness to be able to do that,

To be very,

Very much aware that we are planning something for our future,

But knowing that we're doing it in this present moment.

And really what that means is realizing that when we are planning,

Or when we're thinking about the past as well,

That there is this self image and this identity that is placed in that,

And that's where that suffering comes from.

Our identity with the self that is doing the fixing or the identity of the self that completed or did something in the past that we regret,

For example.

As far as being happy and being complete,

Nothing out there has to change for us.

It's just our view of it and how we deal with everything out there,

How we see it,

How we work with it.

And it's us operating from this place of presence.

We can experience that presence in our formal meditation practice.

That's not the only place that we can actually experience that.

We can experience it in everyday living as well.

And that's where our happiness in everyday living comes from.

Feel free to close the eyes.

So with the eyes closed,

Bring your attention to the breath for a few moments.

And notice where your attention lands when I ask you to do that.

And ask yourself,

Is this the place where I feel the breath the most?

If I was going to focus on something for,

If I was asked to focus on something for an hour,

Could I focus on this aspect of the breath for that long?

Or could I at least return to it and come back to it again and again?

And if you feel like that is the area of the breath on the body or the movement of the body,

The feeling of the breath,

Sensation of the breath somehow as we relate to it.

If this seems like your spot,

Then that's something that you want to kind of cherish.

Because everybody focuses on the breath in a different way,

In a different place.

Usually when we start our meditation,

People are very,

Very focused.

They kind of feel like it's a relief that their day is kind of settling down.

That they can withdraw their attention on worldly matters.

Accept the invitation to go with them.

Bring the attention to something as simple as the breath.

And in that aspect,

Meditation can be very beautiful,

Very wonderful way of distressing.

And sort of picking up the pieces of life again by introducing our true nature to ourselves.

We bring ourselves to a nice quiet room.

Try to be comfortable.

Very few noises.

Not too many visual things happening,

Especially with the eyes closed.

Not too many strange senses as far as smells and tastes are happening.

Very neutral we could say.

But if something didn't go well,

There's a pain in the body for example,

Or a loud noise.

Some kind of agitation of any kind.

We would notice that our preference for things to be a little bit different would really throw our meditation off.

And of course this can happen throughout our days too.

And for some people this happens constantly throughout their lives.

With them having that realization or maybe even possibly not even realizing that they're in a state of preferring things to be different all the time.

So when we think back on our day,

This very day right now,

And if I asked you to remember a time when you had a very strong preference for something to be a different way,

A certain way,

Maybe a better,

More of something or even less of something,

Just a preference for things to be different,

Can you remember one of those preferences?

And so there's physical preferences and then there's mental preferences.

If the body is uncomfortable,

We can shift the body.

That's a preference.

Sometimes it's very subtle and subconscious.

We don't even know that we're shifting.

And we can have the mental preferences,

The preference for not to be agitated by a memory perhaps,

Not to worry about something that we feel might happen in the future or a meeting or some kind of an appointment that we're dreading in the future.

So some of the preferences that we have are anything that could be fearful that will happen in the future or any kind of anger or even hatred that happened in the past.

These can be very,

Very strong preferences and they can be a part of desires as well,

Which can encompass both the past and the future.

Typically meditation is not a time to visit these things and to look at these things.

But the idea here is to understand when we don't have the preferences and to primarily understand these preferences are completely mind-made.

Preferences that are mental created by thought,

Consistent thought creates feelings and feelings create states of mind,

Mind states.

These preferences are all mind-made and they're very much a part of our lives,

Very natural.

But as meditators,

If we set the intention to sit in meditation and bring our attention into the present moment,

We're asking ourselves to relinquish all of these preferences,

At least for a moment while we're in meditation.

So these preferences can act as triggers or signals.

We have to remember that they're completely natural,

Completely normal.

But the invitation is that whenever we notice one of these preferences that we bring our attention back to the breath,

Which means back to this presence,

Back to this present moment.

And we can experiment with this and notice that when we are present,

We are absolutely fine.

There's no worries,

There's no restlessness,

There's no fear or anger or desire.

The preferences are not there as long as we are in that state of presence.

And so we want to do a little investigative work and notice when our attention shifts from this present moment awareness to any kind of thought or preference of things to be different than what they currently are.

Past,

Future,

Or more of this or less of that.

Jelly?

Now we go?

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If our attention is not already there,

Let's bring our attention to the breath.

Take a little deeper than normal inhalation.

Bring some energy into the body.

Then slowly exhale this air.

Do the skin,

Feel the air coming in.

A little deeper than normal.

Slowly exhale.

And then one more deeper than normal inhalation.

Thank you.

Reviews

Preferences wording really helps
Thanks Shane