If you're like most people in the 21st century,
You've been trained into a bias toward doing.
There's nothing wrong with doing,
But when life is all doing,
It's like a piece of music with no rests.
Like speed metal with a white noise generator filling in the gaps.
This training you've received is so firmly established within modern culture that unless you take matters into your own hands,
You won't even become aware of it.
And taking matters into your own hands is exactly what you're doing in listening to this talk.
The meaning of the word rest in our culture has become quite distorted.
The weekend,
In the typical time structure of the working week,
Is meant to be the time for rest.
But what it is for you,
If you live that typical model,
Is actually a chance to catch up on chores and then attempt to do something enjoyable in order to squeeze some pleasure out of life before you return to your post on Monday morning.
I have bad news for you.
None of the things you've been doing have the power to give you pleasure.
That's not to say you can't experience any though,
Rather that it's your interpretation of the things you're doing that's where the power lies.
Rest – genuine rest – is something quite different to what you were trained to do on the weekends.
If you practice mindfulness,
You may have an understanding of genuine rest,
But then again you may not.
There's a dangerous and well-hidden trap beneath most mindfulness practitioners.
This trap has been called spiritual materialism.
In the context of this talk,
The term spiritual materialism represents what occurs when you sit down to practice meditation and apply just the same kind of effort that you apply to your worldly endeavours.
Indeed,
To endeavour at all is in the opposite direction of correct practice,
And certainly in the opposite direction of rest.
The Buddha did teach something called right effort – right being the operative word.
What did he mean?
To put it simply,
He meant not too much,
Not too little.
This might sound simple enough,
But if you're already caught up in a bias toward doing,
It's very difficult,
Perhaps even impossible,
To find the middle way in this concern.
We can point to humanity's history to illuminate the development of this bias.
When we lived in the jungle,
There were many reasons to be on the move.
When we developed agriculture,
There were many reasons to be the one with the most land.
By the time we developed industry,
We might have taken our foot off the gas,
So to speak,
And allowed the machines to do what they were designed to do – to take some of the burden off our shoulders.
But we didn't.
We kept working just as hard,
Motivated by greed.
Now,
I'm not saying work is bad.
What I am saying is that work at the cost of wellness is bad.
You don't have to look very far at all to see someone who's stiff and hunched over as a result of a lifetime of manual labour.
You don't have to look far at all to see someone who can't relax into retirement because work has become their entire identity.
This bias toward doing begins on your first day of school,
And if you never question it,
Only becomes more and more ingrained as you progress through education and work.
So this bias is not your fault,
And yet,
Like all aspects of wellness,
It is your responsibility.
So what do you do about it?
You relax.
And if you find that you can't relax,
You relax about that.
You need to become insistent,
In the softest way possible,
About rest.
Insistent in the same way as you would serve a second slice of cake to a reluctant friend.
Insistent in the same way as you would send a sick family member to bed.
Insistent in the same way as you would give your seat to an elderly person on the bus.
Just rest with whatever is occurring.
Relax the thinking mind.
Don't try to stop it,
But cease indulging it.
See the stories it tells as mere stories,
Fabrications,
Dreams.
Realise what remains in the spaces between the mind's activity.
What is that?
What is it that remains between thoughts?
The best word we have for it is awareness.
That by which everything is known.
That in which all experience arises,
Including your experience of yourself,
Including all activity.
Awareness is never active because it is that which knows activity.
Awareness is never stressed because it is that which knows stress.
Awareness is never tired because it is that which knows fatigue.
Rest as this pure expanse which beholds all doing instead of as that which is doing.
Rest as this unidentifiable aspect of being in which being arises.
Rest as this timeless wisdom which knows without doubt whether or not you truly are resting.
Like a vehicle that must expend its momentum before coming to a stop,
You may need some time to settle into this quality of natural rest.
Just stop judging,
Rationalising,
Deciding,
Judging and seeking and you will settle naturally into your default condition.
The anxiety of generations and generations of ancestors seems to stir in you and yet it takes only a single moment of deciding to drop your burdens,
To relax fully with this moment just as it is.
Dorji Zeejee Sall Rinpoche recommends the practice of resting for short moments whenever you naturally remember.
And this recommendation encourages a quality of softness.
Correct practice,
Beneficial practice,
Is not to force our legs into full lotus and bully the mind into submission.
No.
Whenever you naturally remember,
Rest as awareness.
Take a break from your identification with thoughts,
Feelings,
Objects and sensations and settle into the unity of awareness and phenomena.
This practice and the realisation to which it leads is truly beneficial for one and all.
In the absence of the struggle to rearrange ourselves and our circumstances into some magical configuration that will finally bring satisfaction,
We find that we can be satisfied right here,
Right now,
With things just as they are.
When we're satisfied just as we are,
We cease making demands of ourselves and others and now we can be of true benefit.
May you experience for yourself the unlimited benefit of genuine rest.
May you realise your true nature as that which is beyond harm.
May you be peaceful,
Happy and beneficial to all.
