We're deeply habituated,
We're conditioned to feel out of place,
Separate,
Cut off from ourselves and each other.
We're habituated to look for what's wrong in ourselves,
In each other,
In the world.
How do we touch and know the rightness of being?
Take a moment now to notice whether there's any habitual clenching or holding in the body.
Perhaps now that you bring your attention to it,
You notice that there's some tension in the jaw.
Maybe your shoulders are up near your ears.
Perhaps you're holding your abdomen in.
Let the belly go.
Release the shoulders.
Loosen the jaw.
Allow your eyeballs to float in their sockets.
Feel the breath caressing the body.
Breathe as if your breath is coming through the entire body and releasing from the entire body.
And then gently scan through the body and see if there's any other part of the body that responds to the invitation to let go,
To soften,
And to release.
When we're feeling separate from life,
When we're feeling other than life,
Outside life,
We get caught trying to impose ourselves back onto life,
Trying to fix ourselves,
Change ourselves,
Improve ourselves,
Trying to manipulate life,
Circumstances that are beyond our control.
The root of all of this is not only the tendency to see ourselves as separate from life.
Inherent in it,
There's a lack of trust in life itself.
So we lose touch when identified in this way.
We lose touch with the inherent fineness of all things,
With inherent goodness.
When indulging the activity of the conditioned mind,
The mind of habit,
We lose touch with the benevolence of the universe.
Bring your attention fully to the breath now and feel the way in which your breath is how you're integrating with the universe right now.
What would shift in your life if you trusted life completely?
If rather than falling for the temptation to identify with this activity of the conditioned mind,
Thought forms that suggest you're separate or not enough or need to do more,
Be more,
What would shift if you trusted yourself and therefore life?
Yourself not separate from life.
What would shift in your life if you trusted in the rightness of being?
How do we access this?
First by noticing what's in the way,
Whether we're attending to constriction in the body and then inviting release or constriction in the mind,
A distrust that arises in the mind,
For example,
And then inviting release.
In both cases,
Seeing what veils the trust that's always here,
The trust that shines through when we're not caught in constriction,
Physical,
Mental,
Or energetic.
If accessing this kind of trust feels like it might require effort,
Consider a clenched fist for a moment.
Picture it there,
Tight,
Locked.
It actually takes more effort to keep this fist clenched than it does to release and open.
Releasing our conditioned habit of distrust is like this.
We have to do something,
Identify with something,
Like the activity of the conditioned mind,
In order not to feel,
Know,
Touch,
Live into the rightness of being.
So this is about freeing habits,
Surrendering habits,
So that what's normally in the backdrop of our experience can shine forth,
Can come to the forefront.
The rightness of being,
Not just the rightness of your individual being,
Not just the rightness of mine,
The rightness of shared being,
The being you know yourself to be in the largest sense,
The most natural and easeful experience you have of you simply being you.
Inherently whole.
Inherently fine.
Inherently beloved.
I want to invite you now to rest in this space as long as you wish.
