There is this supreme control where everything is doing exactly what it needs to be doing in order for this miracle to be the miracle,
And the only argument I might have about all of that is that it doesn't seem to be supporting my ego and my insane quest of getting something in the world that's not really a something.
The more I see that it's all nonsense,
The more I can relax into right now,
Which means the more I can connect with all of these qualities of emptiness,
The space of love and compassion and freedom.
But in order for me to go there again,
I have to let go of all the noise.
What I'm feeling into is this innate longing that we have to be at peace,
This search for peace,
This seeking peace,
This wanting peace.
And of course,
You know,
Something I find so fascinating about these elements that we might call peace,
Love,
Freedom,
Even relaxation,
Even joy,
For me they're all just the same thing.
I wonder if you can recognize that.
Like these are just words that we use to describe something,
But the thing that we're describing has this commonality in it,
Where in some way we can summarize it with the statement,
I just want to relax and know that it's okay to be me,
That it's okay for me to be here right now.
Because so often in our humanness,
The mind pulls us in a thousand different directions,
So many expectations,
So many fears,
So much so that we can't just be.
And sure,
We can call that peace.
We can call that relaxed.
We can call that knowing all is well.
But it's all the same thing.
We can call that to be rested in the heart of God.
So many poetic ways we can illustrate it.
But I love the commonality.
I love that underneath all these words,
It's just the same thing.
So I invite you to be here with me in the spirit of that,
That maybe we don't really know what to call it,
But we know it's real.
We know this longing that we have to connect with something that is maybe both sacred and profound,
A deep knowing that we are supported,
That we are held,
That we are loved.
And you know,
My friends,
Even as I'm here with you right now and allowing myself to relax,
Allowing myself to totally be here,
I see reality so much more clearly.
Because of course,
Reality is right now.
Reality is what is real,
And what is real is right now.
And in contrast,
There's all of that which is not real,
Which is not right now.
And that's where my mind goes.
The mind goes into a world of imagination that's not real.
In fact,
We can live our whole lives in the imagination,
Assuming it's real.
And yet it's not.
And we become disconnected from what is real,
Which is also to say we become disconnected from what is sacred.
This speaks so much to spirituality,
At least for me,
That all of these things that my heart and my soul crave for,
Like these things that we might call peace,
Love,
Freedom,
Even liberation from suffering,
All of this that is craved,
The realness of it is only found in reality.
And it's so funny that in our humanness we go searching for these things in the future,
Which again is just searching for them in our imagination.
We're looking for what is real and what is unreal.
It's so easy it is to get lost and we don't even realize it's happening.
That's so adorable.
Isn't that fascinating?
How we live our lives in the imagination,
Thinking that it's real,
Thinking that what we're thinking is actually happening,
When yet what is really happening is just here right now.
Isn't that wild?
And all the while there is this space,
This presence,
Where there is only this love,
This freedom.
Thank goodness we have the opportunity,
Especially right now,
To remember these things,
To take a moment together and come home to what's real.
And this all seems so much more important than any fancy talk I might give.
It just seems so much more real.
And I also see that it's enough just to remind us of this.
And as we tap into this presence,
We can gently and beautifully acknowledge the adorable insanity of our humanness,
The humanness that gets lost in the imagination.
And as we get lost in the imagination,
We create such a,
Let's just say,
Troublesome human experience.
Because of course,
The things that we crave,
That are only found in what is real,
You can see that the opposite of what we crave,
Which we might call expressions of fear that lead us into suffering,
Are all indications that we are lost in the unreal.
And I invite you to recognize that.
All of these expressions of fear and suffering,
They are just indications that we are disconnected from reality.
This is so simple.
It's beautifully simple.
And maybe we will explore why we complicate it so much,
Because that's funny.
But really the whole thing has this profound simplicity to it.
And we can't find that simplicity if we are racing around in our imagination.
So in order for us to see the truth of things,
In order for us to connect with the sacred,
We have to truly go where the sacred is.
And do you see what I mean when I say we have to go there?
We have to really go there.
Which means you have to let go of everything else that can't go there,
Which is the imagination.
You can't bring your imagination into what is real.
Which is also like saying you can't bring all your problems,
Because these are just things that you're thinking about,
You're imagining.
What is real and sacred cannot be touched with the mind.
And this is partly why we struggle so much,
Because we're holding on to so much content in the mind.
We're determined to hang on to these things that we're thinking about.
Which is almost like we're determined to be right,
And we don't want to let go of wanting to be right.
You see this?
We just don't want to let it all go.
But yet in order to go there,
You have to let it all go.
Isn't it obvious why spirituality has always invited a stillness?
Why all the spiritual practices,
They all invite coming back to a presence and letting go of the mind's noise.
You see,
What do we recognize in this place?
This place of now.
Can you recognize that the life you think you're living isn't here right now?
The story about yourself,
Which is in the imagination,
It's not actually here in reality.
Everything you think about other people,
Even what you think about the world,
This is all just your imagination.
What's here right now?
And do you notice the fear that arises?
A fear that in some way says,
But I can't just let go of all of these things.
But you can.
Maybe the confusion is you think you have to let go of it for the rest of your life.
Again,
The rest of your life is your imagination of the rest of your life.
The invitation is to just let it go right now,
Because right now is what is real.
Just rest here.
It's like we are just setting down the dream for a little bit,
So that we can reconnect with reality and see that in reality we're okay.
In reality,
There's nothing missing.
In reality,
There's nothing to be afraid of.
Can we just breathe into that for a moment?
Just right now.
And if you find any difficulty in this,
It might be helpful to recognize that this difficulty is just wrapped around who you think you are,
Desperately trying to hold on to this image of yourself,
Which is simply the ego trying to survive.
In this idea of yourself,
This ego has been most likely running the show,
And we're just taking a break from all of that.
And the ego is going to try to scare you.
What about this?
And what about this?
And what about this?
Yada,
Yada,
Yada,
Yada.
Just breathe and come home.
You see,
To examine the,
Let's call it the human exploration,
Part of what makes this so incredibly difficult,
Which is also the healing that's pointed to in spirituality,
Is trying to point us back to the discernment between what is real and what is imagined.
And the difficulty we have in our human experience is that as humans,
We are convinced that our imagination is real,
Our thinking is real.
And so we go chasing all of these things that we think about.
We go chasing all of these things in the imagination as if they're real,
Thinking that they can give us something real because there's something in us that craves something real.
But of course,
These cravings get all confused because we create images of them,
And we go chasing the image,
Always to find out that they don't really satisfy because they're not real.
It's the classic if-only,
Where we say,
If only this,
If only that,
Which is,
If only it looked like this and didn't look like that,
Which again is just your imagination.
Your imagination makes it look like this and makes it look like that.
How many times have we said that,
If only?
If only they loved me.
If only I had more of this,
Less of that.
And how many times have you made it look like this or that,
And it still didn't satisfy?
Still couldn't maintain or sustain it?
And always brought back to this familiar pain that feels like it's all so empty.
And it is empty.
The mind is empty.
There's nothing real in there.
It's almost like playing games,
And you're constantly needing to win,
But yet to win doesn't really bring anything that's real.
It's like it's just an idea that you won,
And you tell a story about yourself as a winner,
But it's just a story.
It's not sustainable,
And so you have to keep trying to win.
Do you see how empty it is?
It doesn't really mean anything.
You can say it means something,
But it doesn't really mean that.
It's not real.
And this is what we do in our human experiences.
We're constantly chasing that which is unreal.
I wonder if that makes sense to you,
Because I can understand how that might sound incoherent,
Like it doesn't make sense.
But also for the one who can understand me,
It makes perfect sense.
And so I try and find a thousand different ways of saying the same thing,
So there can be some understanding of what I'm pointing to.
We're all on this exploration to discover what is real,
And we get to explore the ten thousand different ways of doing that.
We get to explore ten thousand ways it's not here or there.
It's like you get to explore ten thousand things you think are missing so that you can find out that nothing is missing.
I thought it was this,
I thought it was that.
Nope.
Nothing's missing.
And it's when you realize and find out for yourself that nothing is missing that you can finally relax.
So you see that that's the game that's been playing out your whole life.
The assumption that something was missing.
And you go explore it,
You go try and find it,
And you find out that the thing you thought was missing wasn't a real thing.
In essence what's going on here is that you just don't see yourself clearly,
You don't see what you really are.
And this is the thing,
It always seems like something is missing about you.
This is so fascinating how this is every human being's experience.
Again we can tell different stories about it,
But it's some flavor of inadequacy,
Some idea that I'm not enough,
Which is the idea that I'm missing something.
You see this always comes back to the self.
And the reason it seems like you're missing something is because you are seeing yourself as something that is not what you really are.
It's not real.
So of course it feels like it's missing something.
You want to know what you really are,
But yet you see a version of yourself that's not real.
And this version of yourself is simply who you think you are.
This is the ego.
And then you identify with it,
You think it's you,
It's not.
And the more you think it's you,
The more you want to protect it,
The more you want to defend it,
The more you want to build on it.
Constantly trying to make it real.
Which is like constantly trying to make yourself important.
And again,
The more you think it's real,
The more terrifying it is to find out that it's not real.
But the more you see that it's not real,
Then it doesn't really matter if you find out that it's not real.
It's okay that it's not real.
It's never been real.
This reminds me of this invitation that relaxes you to let go of what other people think about you,
Because it just doesn't matter.
And likewise,
You can see how much suffering and emotional disturbances are created because we care so much about the other thoughts that people might have about you.
What a vast landscape of freedom we are invited to relax into.
And I love how for some,
At least right now as we're relaxing into it,
It's so obvious.
Like oh my goodness,
It's so true.
And then maybe for others,
They're a little bit confused,
But yet intrigued.
There's something about it that speaks to your heart.
It's like something in you might not totally understand what I'm saying,
But yet you can feel a profound truth.
You see the invitation here is just a surrender.
Can we just surrender all the noise?
Can you surrender who you think you are?
Can you surrender who you think other people are?
Can you see how much is unknown and can you be okay with the unknown?
Because the unknown is the truth.
Can you surrender to the truth?
Can you let the truth be the truth?
That's what spirituality is.
That's what enlightenment is.
It's making peace with the unknown.
Do you see how deeply true it is that you don't know?
Do you see the extent to how much you don't know?
And likewise,
Can you see how much you pretend to know because you're afraid of the unknown?
Herein lies the invitation to see that it's okay to not know.
And this is scary.
The more we want something in the world,
The more you think there's some sort of prize out there in the future that you're missing now,
The more scary it is to rest in the unknown.
But the more you see that there's nothing out there in the world that you're missing,
The more you see how whole and complete you are right now,
Then it's perfectly okay for the unknown to be the unknown.
It's always been that way.
For me,
It's recognizing that life knows what it's doing and I don't need to figure it out.
Reminds me of the quote,
Relax,
Nothing's under control,
Which in a way tells me that everything is under control.
There is this supreme control where everything is doing exactly what it needs to be doing in order for this miracle to be the miracle.
And the only argument I might have about all of that is that it doesn't seem to be supporting my ego and my insane quest of getting something in the world that's not really a something.
And again,
The more I see that it's all nonsense,
The more I can relax into right now,
Which means the more I can see reality,
Which means the more I can connect with all of these qualities of emptiness,
Which is the absence of judgment,
Which is a space of love and compassion and freedom.
But in order for me to go there again,
I have to let go of all the noise.
And yes,
It's hard sometimes.
Yes,
In being human,
We get lost and we get convinced of things that just are not real.
We go on our adventure into the imagination and have a dream and forget that we're dreaming.
But then we have opportunities like this one right now to open our eyes and wake up and remember.
And you will get lost again.
You will have another dream.
And that's all part of it too.
That's okay.
Because don't you realize this?
When you go to sleep at night,
You can dream one of 10,
000 different dreams and it doesn't matter because it's just a dream.
As you're dreaming,
There's nothing really happening.
You're just dreaming.
And so it's perfectly okay for you to fall asleep at night and have any dream that you're going to have because it's just a dream.
There's nothing that happens in reality as you're dreaming.
And it's the same thing here in this life we're having as a human being.
We are having these dreams and we think they're real.
But then you wake up and you realize,
Oh my goodness,
Nothing happened.
And I know how that's a stretch.
I know how difficult that might be to see,
But that's the truth that I'm pointing to.
It's like,
Here we are in this moment right now and you've had this entire life behind you.
Can you see how your entire life behind you is just a dream?
Like it's just a story you've been telling?
That's your whole past is a story.
And do you see how none of that is here right now unless you bring it here in your imagination?
Like if you look past all of your mental commentary in this moment right now,
You're untouched.
What is real about you has been untouched from the whole thing.
And what is real about you is not what you think about you.
What is real about you is untouched.
Another way you can see this is that reality here right now in this moment is untouched by your mental commentary.
It doesn't matter what you think about.
Reality remains reality.
What you think about is what you're dreaming.
Isn't that wild?
And just as you can think your thinking is real,
You can become convinced that your dream is real and get lost in the dream.
Which again,
Reality is not concerned about this.
Because reality is untouched by your dream.
Which is why reality lets you dream anything you want to dream.
Which is to let you have any experience that you have.
This dream is not wrong.
This illusion is not wrong.
It's all part of it.
It plays an important role.
Just as when you go to sleep at night and have your dreams,
Even though maybe we don't even know what's going on and why we dream,
But it plays an important role.
Just as everything does.
Everything is part of it.
It plays an important role.
Life can't be life without it.
Meaning the whole of existence needs everything in existence for existence to be existence.
There's a supreme balance that allows this miracle to be what it is.
And again,
I don't need to understand the intricate details of why the 10,
000 things do what they do,
Because I know why they do what they do.
They do what they do so that this moment can be this moment.
And the more I can see this moment,
The more amazing life is.
The more you see its beauty,
The more you see its brilliance,
The more you see its miraculous nature.
You see this,
That life is doing something amazing.
And you can say God is doing something amazing,
You can say the universe is doing something amazing.
It doesn't matter what you call it,
But can you see that there is a sacredness that's holding all of this together?
There is something beyond your thinking that the mind cannot see,
But yet it's very real.
More real than anything you imagine.
It's the totality of everything.
And in the totality of this,
There is nothing to fear.
As I've said a thousand times,
We only fear our imagination.
You do not fear anything in reality,
Which is such a beautiful reminder that when you're afraid,
Just come home to what is real.
And sure,
Something in you is terrified,
That's okay.
Let it be a reminder to come home and surrender the dream.
And then as it relates to your humanness,
Just do the best you can.
Do the best you can,
And know that that's enough.
It's okay to struggle.
It's okay to feel lost.
It's okay to be human,
Part of it.
Because the more you judge yourself,
The more you think it's not okay,
Then the more wild and chaotic things become.
See yourself with eyes of compassion.
See the innocence.
See that you really are doing the best that you can.
You always have.
Stop comparing yourself to others.
Just have your experience,
And be as honest with yourself as you possibly can.
Thanks for hanging out with me today.
