Beginning Again With Sam Harris

In today’s session we contemplate the quote, ‘A willingness to begin again, is the key to freedom.’ From Sam Harris, an American philosopher, neuroscientist, and meditation instructor. This track is taken from my course, ‘Daily Contemplations For Living An Examined Life’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session.

I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.

You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

And just gently begin to open your mind to today's quote to contemplate the words with a free and open and supple mind.

To welcoming possibility and expansion and growth and to just allow yourself for the next few minutes to just sit and be with whatever arises.

In a moment I'm going to share with you a quote to contemplate and then we'll sit in silence for a minute and just let it percolate.

Then we'll talk about that quote and see where the discussion leads us.

Today's quote comes from Sam Harris,

An American philosopher,

Neuroscientist and meditation instructor.

And it goes,

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.

So this quote,

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom,

Is effectively a fundamental teaching of mindfulness,

Of meditation,

Of a lot of spiritual practices in general.

Just begin again,

Just start again,

Don't get caught up,

Let it go,

Just be in the moment,

Forgive and forget,

Move on.

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom,

Evokes these feelings.

We can take it down multiple different paths,

You know,

From a practical or practicing sense.

When we're meditating,

We must begin again,

And again,

And again.

If we have any hopes of,

Well,

Sitting,

How often do you meditate,

And sit,

And find your mind wandering,

Find yourself quote unquote not meditating,

Find yourself lost in thought,

In anxiety,

In apathy,

In anger,

In jealousy,

In planning for the future,

In lamenting the past.

And time and time again,

The practice is to recognize that,

And bring our focus back to the meditation object,

Whatever object that is for us in that time.

If we lose focus,

If we fail,

Quote unquote,

Then we stop.

But if instead,

We have a willingness to begin again,

We're able to get back on board,

Start the meditation practice once over,

And keep going.

This approach,

Or this quote applies to habit building.

I've talked about it elsewhere,

But one of the best ways to build a habit is when you fail,

When you break,

And most of the time you inevitably will,

That's life.

You accept it,

And you begin again.

Take the diet example.

You've tried to diet for a week,

For a month,

And then you eat a cake.

Does that mean you should stop the diet?

Or does that mean you should just eat well the next day?

If you're trying to quit a bad habit,

And you have one bad day where you fall to those gradings,

Does that mean you're back on?

Does that mean you're once again an addict?

Or does that mean that you just acknowledge that,

That you've had a bad day,

And move on,

Continue?

Same thing with exercise.

Okay,

You forgot to exercise today,

You didn't get around to it,

Cool,

Do it tomorrow,

And the day after that,

And the one after that.

Begin again,

Because by the end of the year,

In all of those examples,

Maybe you've had 320 positive successes,

And 20,

30,

40 failures,

But on a yearly perspective,

You're doing far better than you were the previous year,

When you tried for a month,

Failed once,

And quit.

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.

Same thing with life.

Life has endless tumults,

And setbacks,

And pains,

And ups and downs.

If you hang on to the past,

When something happens,

That causes a lot of resentment,

A lot of pain,

A lot of grasping at something that simply can't happen.

If someone leaves you,

If you're forced to leave a situation,

Yes,

Go through the grieving process,

Yes,

Process those emotions,

But unless you're willing to begin again,

You won't find success.

You will still be stuck in that pain of the past,

Because you'll be trying to reclaim something that is now gone,

And that hurts.

But denying the fact that it hurts,

Denying the need to continue,

Doesn't help that hurt,

It just prolongs it.

But even deeper than all of that,

Is applying this to a spiritual practice.

Begin again.

Acknowledge your mental state,

Begin again.

No matter your spiritual practice,

No matter what your religion,

No matter how you're approaching these contemplations,

You will need to be willing to begin again,

If you want to attain.

I speak primarily from a mindfulness perspective,

But also from a spiritualist perspective in general.

I have leanings towards Tantra,

Towards mindfulness,

Towards an internal spirituality,

Towards creative expression,

And connection to an internal muse.

I have more disparate connections disparate connections towards the Christian faith through my upbringing,

And I've also had deep and personal connections with members from other faiths.

No matter how you approach spirituality,

Or religion,

Or deep introspection,

The fact is,

You are not perfect.

You will not be able to live a perfect life.

Perfect based on scripture,

Based on instruction,

Based on internal consistency.

You,

And me,

And all of us,

Are infallible humans.

And if you get stuck up on that time that you failed,

That time that you sinned,

That time that you went against the practice,

That time that you indulged,

You know,

Insert whatever it is to fail in your version of spirituality and religion.

If you get hung up on that,

If you can't process and integrate that,

You'll find a lot of friction there.

I'm not saying that you should do anything and you will still attain,

Still attain enlightenment,

Heaven,

Connection,

Resonance,

Whatever you call it.

But what I am saying is that when you do something that goes against these core fundamental teachings and beliefs that you have,

Okay,

Accept it,

Learn from it,

Integrate it,

And then be willing to begin again.

Because from that place of beginning again,

You'll be able to take better,

More informed,

Wiser steps towards the future,

Towards whatever goal you're attaining.

And the final part of this quote that I'd like to look at is the key to freedom.

What is freedom?

To me,

It's a place of flow,

A place of ability to roll with the punches,

A place of clear,

Calm flow,

In which we're not stuck up on any one idea or thought or process.

If you hold on to something as truth,

If you hold on to a thing as a must,

These things are very strong and they grab you,

And they force you to conform your current reality to perhaps an ideal that's unattainable,

Or perhaps something that you set up long ago that no longer applies,

Or perhaps a teaching that someone's externally given you.

In all of those cases,

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.

Because if you can't begin again,

If you can't look at what you're doing,

If you can't reevaluate,

How can you take those steps towards a new life,

Towards a higher purpose and a higher calling?

So I ask you,

Do you have a willingness to begin again?

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.

A willingness to begin again is the key to freedom.

So well done.

This brings us to the end of the session.

At the bottom of your screen,

You'll see the option to view the classroom.

To ask a question.

Before moving on,

I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,

Read the answers from other students,

And to hear my replies.

Remember to start your responses with Sam Harris,

Or to restate the quote,

So we know what one you're referring to.

This is an opportunity for deep learning,

Further introspection and insight,

So please don't miss out.

I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

Thank you.

This track was taken from my course,

Daily Contemplations for Living an Examined Life.

It's out now on Insight Timer and available via my profile.

I invite you to join in.

Reviews

The willingness to begin again is the key to freedom. 🌺🌸 Thank you.

This was great.A lot of reflecting to do as I ponder on this quote.Thank you for sharing.Looking forward to your course .Much Love and Peace ❤️✌️