In the last talk I mentioned mental fasting,
A term my friend Tigre came up with after listening to another talk about,
There was discussion of food for the mind.
We talked about it a little bit more and realized that it's really,
The idea is content fasting.
There can be a tendency when seeking or just wanting to learn more about non-duality or spirituality or whatever,
To feel as if more is better.
If I read this next book maybe something will make,
Maybe this will make more sense if I watch the next video,
Listen to the next talk.
The space of being is found everywhere but the observation,
The witnessing of it can be found in an easier manner.
I struggle to even say easy,
Through quiet,
Without the extra content.
Your mind,
The mind does not need any assistance in creating content,
It doesn't need more stacked on.
And yet there is this,
There are these patterns and these programs,
You know,
Knowledge is power,
Knowing is half the battle,
The more you know,
Just stacking on,
Stacking on.
So there's never an opportunity for quiet,
It's just noise on noise.
You go for a walk,
You go for a run,
Put your headphones on,
Keep that space filled with something.
And there's certainly nothing wrong with any of that.
But I like this idea of content fasting,
The next time,
In the same way that fasting with food,
And fasting of all things I guess is the rage these days,
But fasting with food instead of going for that sandwich and that next thing,
You just don't eat it.
And content fasting can be useful in the very same way.
There's a reason for this.
Nagarjuna,
The book The Middle Way,
Just generally speaking,
There is this,
I don't know what the exact phrase is,
But effectively it is,
Reality is the escape of concepts.
And the funny thing is that even that sentence is a concept itself,
But therein lies the paradox of all of this.
Reality itself is the escape of concepts.
And the mind loves concepts,
Loves something to grab a hold of and solve and figure out and think about more and oh,
Once I get something solved and it goes for the next thing.
But concepts are not our true nature,
They're just phenomena,
They're just runnings of the mind,
Thoughts basically.
Not even basically,
Just thoughts.
So there's content fasting,
Mental fasting,
Whatever you want to call it.
And if it seems difficult to do,
One of the things about all of these talks is that everything mentioned,
Everything suggested,
Everything described is always followed with like,
You're going to do this or you're not.
It's just,
That's your karma,
That's how it's going to be.
And yet the descriptions and the suggestions happen anyway.
But it's worth considering,
It's worth trying,
That the next time it is seen that the mind is going for something,
The next book,
The next whatever,
Click,
You know,
That's why there's no like and subscribe here.
I don't know how many judges,
I think I've said that before,
But this is being done properly,
This is the last talk you listen to.
And yet there's no proper or improper right or wrong way to do any of this.
Next time you go for a book,
Next time you go to hit next,
Use that,
Use that as your signpost to stop.
If you're reading a book,
Reading a non-duality book and a sentence,
Maybe you already do this,
But a sentence makes perfect sense,
It gives some sort of pop,
Like,
Oh,
Put the book down,
Put the book down and just sit in this space.
You don't need the content,
You don't need any of it,
You don't need another talk,
You don't need another book,
You don't need another article,
Another satsang,
Another anything and it's okay that that content is consumed and experienced,
It's perfectly okay.
But as a step in the direction of allowing and accepting what is,
I want to share this idea,
This concept actually of content fasting.
Instead of listening to music or listening to a talk,
Listen to the space,
See what pops up.
Instead of reading another book,
Reading an article,
Watching another video,
Sit in the space of being and experience this miracle unfolding at every moment.
Content,
Content of the mind doesn't do that for you,
There are wonderful pointers,
But the quiet space of being is where this witnessing,
This observing,
In my opinion,
Is the strongest.
I love talking about an andhala,
I love talking to others about it,
But the space of being,
This quiet space is none of those conversations,
None of those words read actually do it,
They never get it there,
It's the half step to the wall,
Keep taking half steps but you'll never get there.
Try it.
Do some content fasting.
I love that phrase,
Reality is the escape of all concepts,
True reality is the escape of all concepts,
However I'm butchering it,
I hope it makes sense.
Concepts are not what we are,
Content is not what we are,
We are prior to that,
We are the observer of that content,
The observer of concepts.
Those come and go,
What we are,
True nature,
Was not born,
It never dies,
It's permanent,
Everything else,
Phenomena is all impermanent.
