Podcast: Download (Duration: 8:26 — 1.9MB)
Suggestion: Each day spend a little time sitting.
Just sit, wherever you are, and let yourself drop in.
Transcript:
Here’s a little piece about being in the moment.
When we’re operating mainly through the mind, what we don’t realize is, we’re dividing our time, our day, our existence into sections. So, we are … doing whatever we’re doing. So, now we’re watching television. Now we’re at work. Now we’re eating a meal.
And it’s as though, in this way, we’re living in little boxes. And the mind’s comfortable with that ‘cause now … now I am eating, now I can turn off a little bit, because we’re going to eat.
Something to look at about that is, existence doesn’t actually work like that. Existence doesn’t have little sections and little boxes. It’s all continuous. It’s all a flow. And of course you realize that if, say, you’re doing one thing and then there’s an emergency, you immediately switch to the other. One way to experiment with living is, live like that all the time: You’re ready to switch at any moment. You don’t need a … an emergency or something dramatic.
You’re living in each moment. You sit down to watch television and then suddenly, “Oh, this isn’t appropriate.” then the mind comes in, “Well, what else ya going to do?” It doesn’t matter. If this isn’t appropriate anymore, let it go and see what else comes, if anything. And if nothing comes, just sit for a while.
Now, this sitting business is more … potent than you may imagine. And when I’m talking about sitting, I’m not talking about preparing yourself with cushions and candles and incense and gongs. I’m talking about just sitting wherever you are, even at work sometimes. Just take a few moments, just to disconnect … and sit. When I say disconnect, I don’t mean cut off. Include, include and just sit … anytime, anywhere.
Let’s come back to this thing again about … sectioning off parts of life. Let down the walls. Let everything flow like water
You’re doing one thing one moment and you’re ready to switch any moment … any time … living more fluidly … easily … flowingly. And as much as you can, spend some time sitting each day. No matter how short the time, just a little while dropping back into … now.
Here’s some more about sitting. What often comes up is the question, “When I sit, my mind gets more busy.” It may not be more busy, because when you’re distracted, you don’t notice how busy your mind is. And just to remind you again, this is the function of your mind. Your mind is very busy, keeping you out of trouble. So it’s scanning the whole time. So, when you sit, it’s as though your mind is saying, “Wonderful, now I have your total attention.”
Here’s what to do. Imagine that your thoughts are on a screen. You’re sitting in a theater and they’re on a screen. Imagine they come in of the right and you don’t stop them. You let them go and they go out on the left. So they keep coming onto your screen … and going out. Now, what you’ll notice is, something comes on the screen and you stop it … by thinking, “Oh, yes, I’ve got to do that.”
But then you don’t just … do that process. You say, “And I’ve got to do it by doing this, by doing that, oh, and so and so.” and then you hold the thought on the screen.
Let the thought come, if there’s something you need to take a note of just say, “Oh, yes.” and let it go. Let the thoughts come. Let the thoughts go. If you try and stop them, they’ll just build up and you’ll feel terrible and you won’t stop them anyway.
If you keep examining each one in detail, it’ll lead you off here and there forever. Let them come. Let them go.
I was just seeing … a train slowly coming into a…, or pulling out of a railway station. Watch the carriages as they go past. And if there’s something interesting, don’t grab the handle ‘cause it’ll drag you along with it. Let it come. Let it go.
Now, you might say, “I have tried that.” Yes. And you’ve got to keep trying, because the whole of your life and however many lives you had before this, you’ve been involved in your thoughts. And therefore, you have this vast background of thinking your thoughts. And you want to break it in one session? Not impossible but most unlikely.
You’re going to have to practice. And the mind is endearing. It is um … seductive, because that’s its job. So you need to practice sitting, thoughts come, let them go. Thoughts come, let them go. Practice.
There’s one more perspective here. As you do that, you might get frightened. And what you get frightened of? Nothing. We’re afraid of nothing. If you go into the average person’s house, you’ll find pictures all over the wall, trinkets, little things that they never look at, never use, they just dust them. It’s to fill up the space.
How often do you sit with a friend, gently and quietly? Normally, talking, talking, talking, talking. At night fill in with something; the television, a book, your computer. You fill, fill in.
You’re used to keeping filled in. You’re afraid of no–thing. If you doubt that, take five days off, get a friend to put food through the door and put yourself in a darkened room for five days, preferably blind folded. It feels like madness. The mind really goes crazy then. If you can’t afford the five days, just do a little bit each day. No-thing.
The stillness, the darkness, the mind goes crazy. Let it go crazy and you … be … here … now.