Finding Stillness

S.N. Goenka once said, “Grasping at things can only yield one of two results: Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear. It is only a matter of which occurs first.” What is the experience of stillness? Jump in and find out. Let’s let go and practice.

Transcript

So get yourself ready. We're gonna jump in in just a moment. So find your seat. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. We're gonna work with just keeping it simple. Just stillness. Just stillness is what we're gonna work with today. So just take these eight, Ten minutes to become more mindful of yourself, Of your experience, Of your emotional life, Of your thoughts, Of your feelings. And stillness is absolutely a wonderful way to do that because stillness is going to make us, And we really demand stillness, It's going to make us more aware of our thoughts, Of our feelings, Because when we find that stillness our mind is gonna be like, What the hell are you doing? Why are you sitting still? It doesn't make any sense to me. So, But that's not the point. We want to be in control, Not our thoughts, Not our feelings. We want to find our center. We want to be the driver and a captain of our ship, Right, And not being enrolled in the mind and the feelings and our thoughts and stuff. So, Alright, Great. Close your eyes, Exhale your breath out. Good. Take a big breath in. Let that go. And again, Big breath in. Let it go out. Again, In breath. Exhale. One more of those inhale. Good. Go easy. Stay and breathe. Good. Just go easy everybody. Find your breath to start. Just like that is a very easy and accessible means of beginning your meditation because it's tangible. It's right here. It's right now. Naturally, When we smooth out our breath and deepen our breath, It naturally calms down our mind and our body. So just take the first few moments of our meditation just to establish a beautiful rhythm and relationship between our inhale and our exhale, Noticing four parts of the breath. We have an inhale, We have a pause, We have an exhale, We have a pause. Notice both pauses, Top and bottom of breath. And then establish your stillness intentionally. And that means not moving anything, Not itching a scratch or fixing your shirt or even like moistening your lips. Can you just resist any kind of movement whatsoever? Yes, Your body's gonna move because you're breathing, Your heart's beating like, Yeah, I get it. But how about all of every other part of your body? Can you just be still? And instead of enrolling in the cunningness of your mind to get you to do things, It's gonna speak up like crazy when you sit still. Can you just take a breath instead? Keep coming back to your breath and anchor yourself with your breath. Let go of those thoughts. Let go of your feelings or emotions that are trying to pull you into them. Just step back, Observe thought and feeling. Find your center in the midst of this ever-changing dynamic world and let go. And just be. Be here and now. There's only time it ever is, There's only a place there ever is. The mind is just gonna yank you to the past, Push you into the future. What about what about my checklist? What about what about this? Or like, Oh I shouldn't have done that yesterday. Why did I say that? Oh, It just it doesn't matter. Learn from the past. Be more present so you can be more effective with your choices now so you can be more effective with your choices that carry us forward into the future. Stillness. Are you experiencing what a wonderful teacher is? Are you experiencing how incredibly confronting it is to the mind and the ego? We're not battling the ego. We're embracing it, Hugging it, Holding space for thought and feeling. For the want and needs to shift, Change, To do something. Be here now. Keep letting go. Bring your awareness now to your hands. Feel the energy in your hands, Feel the contact if you're interlaced with your fingers. Make feel that contact. Feel the warmth or cold or whatever it is. Non-judgmentally being aware in the moment. Breath after breath. Find your head. Bring your awareness to the crown of your head. What sensations are you in real time experiencing? And maybe it's nothing. That's okay too. Maybe it'll change into something. Slowly scan down and forehead to chin. What's going on there? Non-judgmentally experiencing the information. How about the back of your head and neck? What is your experience there? And your throat. Can you feel the rise and fall of your breathing, Of your respiration in your torso, In your body? Without changing or creating or contriving, Just be and be still. Take a big breath in. Exhale out. Two more inhale. Let it go out. One more. Let it go. Take a moment and thank yourself for putting in this time and patiently working with stillness. Thank y'all for showing up. Thank you for any donation. Thanks for spreading the love. I brought this, I did stillness a little while ago on and it was like two weeks ago and I posted on an inside timer I'm putting all these meditations and I forgot the buzzard was in like someone fucking buzzed my door and people were commenting on the inside time like oh my god I was shocked I was laughing and but it was really good still. That's life sometimes you know so hey thanks I'll be back to. . .