Are We Seeing Reality?

Everything that we are doing on a Buddhist path,

The Four Noble Truths,

Following the Eightfold Path,

Learning the wisdom teachings,

The compassion practices,

Meditation,

Mindfulness.

Everything that we are doing is about helping us to see the world as it is,

To see the nature of reality,

Of how things are arising through causes and conditions,

How they arise and through all these different conditions coming together,

Something appears,

Doesn't inherently exist on its own,

And then it changes.

That everything is arising interdependently,

Interconnected,

Impermanent,

And doesn't inherently exist.

And that when we see this,

When we have this view of reality,

Right view,

We let go.

We stop holding on because we see there is nothing to hold on to.

And letting go of our attachments,

We let go of our suffering.

And so,

It is really hard for us to see through this illusion of a fixed,

Objective,

Separate,

Independent world,

The way we see the world,

Because everything in us really believes that what we are seeing,

We are seeing everything,

That the world appears exactly the way we see it.

And yet,

We do not see the world the way it is.

We do not see reality at all.

We don't even see a version of reality,

Excuse me,

We don't see a sliver of reality,

We see a version of it.

So humans see in a particular range of the light wave spectrum.

We see in a way that allows our mind,

Our brain,

To impute color on certain objects based on the wavelengths of certain things hitting them,

So that we can distinguish different foods,

That we can see one another,

That we can make out shapes and faces and different textures,

That we can see when something is moving rapidly,

Right,

That we can detect that.

So how we see the world,

The way that we see the world is really for our survival,

It is based on how a human would survive.

We don't see ultraviolet,

We don't see infrared,

We're not a snake,

We don't need to.

So we see in a particular range,

We hear in a particular range.

We don't hear everything that's happening out there,

If we heard everything,

Nothing would make any sense.

So we hear in a particular range based on how we speak,

Right,

So we can hear within that range based on hearing a predator that might be approaching us,

So we hear in a particular range.

We don't hear everything.

And it's the same for our taste,

For our smell,

For our touch,

For our feeling,

That everything that how we perceive the world is not reality,

But a version of reality that is helpful for us to survive,

So that our brain really acts as this interface,

Creating icons of things for us to see that are helpful to us to survive.

And Donald Hoffman,

A cognitive scientist and psychologist,

In his book,

The Case Against Reality,

He gives a really good example of this,

That on our computers we have a desktop,

And on our desktop many of us have a little folder,

A little blue folder there,

And in that folder it might contain some important documents,

Maybe a book you're writing,

Maybe your thesis for your PhD,

Maybe some photos from your family trip,

From your honeymoon.

Now we know when we look at that icon,

That folder on our desktop,

There is not really a folder there,

But it is a useful representation for us,

Because if we saw what,

If we saw the reality of the folder,

The reality of the folder would be code,

And then the reality of the objects inside of it would be more code,

And it would be unusable for us.

So we don't see reality as it is,

Our brains create icons for us that make it useful for us,

Right,

Little icons,

Little hacks for us to see things so that we can survive.

But because there is no objective fixed reality,

And because our brain is creating a version of reality that is not true,

That is not absolute,

Then we are also very susceptible to misperceptions.

We are easily tricked.

And Dr.

Hoffman gives another good example in his book about the jewel beetle in Western Australia,

And the jewel beetle,

The jewel male beetle,

Flies around and looks for the female beetle,

And what the male beetle is looking for is something that is shiny and brown and has little bumps all over it and is big,

It's bigger than it,

That's its criteria for what it's looking for,

That's what its brain has said,

Filter everything out,

That's what you're looking for,

Glossy,

Brown,

Large,

Dimpled.

So this worked great for probably hundreds of thousands of years for the jewel beetle,

Until a particular beer company in Australia started making a stubby brown bottle,

Glossy brown bottle,

And that was fine,

Lots of the beer bottles were brown and glossy,

But then it put little dimples all over it,

And as humans tend to do,

To throw their trash,

These bottles ended up in the jewel beetle's environment,

And what happened was that all the jewel beetles,

The male jewel beetles,

Were trying to mate the bottles instead of the females.

The females could literally be right next to the bottle,

And all the males would be on the bottle.

So they were nearly going extinct,

Until some researcher discovered this and was able to go to the beer company and say,

Can you just take the dimples off,

Like that is really creating a lot of problems for the jewel beetle,

And they did,

And then everything went back to normal.

And we could look at this and we could think,

Okay,

Well the stupid jewel beetle,

Look how they could fall for it,

Like fall for the beer bottle versus the female,

And yet,

When you look at what we do,

When we chase a sense of belonging or validation through likes on social media,

How we feel this sense of I want to stay informed and I want to be engaged and I want to know the truth,

And so we go looking for outrage news,

Clicking all the bait,

Getting all this outrage news,

Becoming outraged ourselves,

Not learning anything that's helpful at all,

But kind of fooling ourselves that no,

I'm engaged,

I'm getting the truth here,

And I'm morally right.

Or when we look for external success,

Fame,

Recognition,

The bigger car,

The bigger house,

More money,

Beyond what we need for survival,

That when we're looking for all of these things in the hope that it's going to bring us peace,

When in fact all it brings us is a lot of stress.

So,

All of these ways,

There are countless ways that we mistake,

We mistakenly go after the beer bottle,

Like we've mistaken the icon,

Whether it's through shopping or gambling or sex or alcohol or drugs,

Millions of ways in which we have mistaken,

Where we have been hacked,

And we are going after something that is not giving us what we think it's giving us,

And yet we keep getting pulled in again and again and again.

So we are no different than the jewel beetle,

No different.

So because our perceptions are so easily hijacked,

This is how we are able to hold on to our anger,

To our guilt,

To our shame,

To our embarrassment,

To our regret,

To hold so tightly to something that happened three days ago,

Three months ago,

Three years ago,

Believing that this is objectively reality,

That what I am thinking right now is real,

And at the same time feeling threatened,

Feeling small,

Feeling like a victim,

Feeling unsafe,

When in fact we are perfectly safe,

There are no threats anywhere near us.

And we do this over and over and over again,

Believing the illusion without questioning it.

So this is what we are waking up to in Buddhism.

The Buddha,

Buddha means waking up,

Waking up out of the dream of illusion of a fixed separate solid world,

And seeing the nature of reality,

Of how the world is arising and changing,

Interdependent,

Interconnected,

Nothing inherently existing on its own,

It's just everything how it comes together and changes,

And comes together and changes.

And that includes us,

Because at the center of all of our attachments,

Is a little me that we take to be solid,

And independent,

And permanent,

And inherently existing,

And real,

And it's who I am.

So while we can look out in the world and we can say,

I can see how the tree doesn't inherently exist.

It came together through all these different parts,

And then it goes away.

It had the seed,

It had the soil,

It had the worms,

It had the sunlight,

It had the rain,

And then the tree eventually starts to degrade,

And then it goes back into the ground,

And then eventually comes back up,

Maybe as something else,

Another tree,

A plant,

Something else.

And we can see how that happens,

And we can see it on all these things around it.

We can see it in the mountains,

We can see it in the lakes,

We can see it in the cities,

How all these things are coming together and changing.

But at the same time,

Then we cling to ourselves.

We cling to ourselves and go,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

But there's a me here that is solid and is independent and does exist on its own that is inherently real.

And so,

A couple of weeks ago,

When we did the half-day retreat,

And we were looking at how we look for lasting peace and happiness in the wrong place by creating all these images of ourselves,

The new and improved image,

The spiritual image,

The more realized me,

The enlightened me,

Right?

And we looked at that really from this place of saying,

Like,

Look at how when you're doing this,

What you're really doing is fueling the opposite image as well.

You're fueling the unworthy image,

The unspiritual image,

The unimproved image,

The worst version of me image,

And how this creates a lot of suffering.

And what it really exposed,

Every time,

Every time we think of ourselves as there's a better version of me in the future,

What it is exposing is that we believe in the illusion.

We believe in the icon of me more than we believe in the reality of me,

The nature of me.

And then last week,

Where we looked at problems,

How we look for the solutions to our problems in the wrong place.

Always looking outwards,

Trying to fix our problems immediately,

And I've got to get that solution,

And if only they'd do this,

And if only I'd do that,

And if only this could have happened,

And I hadn't done that,

Right?

All these ways that we try and fix the solutions to our problem on the outside.

And we said,

Look at our problems as teachers,

They're pointing you,

There's something you're attached to.

You're attaching to your anger,

You're attaching to your disappointment,

You're attaching to your idea that I need to have a result.

But there must be something that is attaching to the anger,

That is attaching to the disappointment,

That is attaching to the enlightenment,

Something that thinks it needs to be enlightened.

And when we unpack that,

When we go a little deeper,

And we start to investigate that,

What we find,

It's not just another illusion,

The illusion that we don't question of who we are.

So this illusion of me,

The separate self,

The ego,

Right,

It is another trick of the brain,

That when I think about myself,

When I think about myself,

And,

You know,

I'm going to be somewhere in the future,

And I'm going to be happy,

Or I'm going to be somewhere in the future,

And I'm going to be unhappy,

Right,

So it's always with this,

There's something at the end,

I'm either going to be happy,

Or I'm going to be unhappy.

And it can be in the past,

It can be in the future,

We go back and forth.

But through this thinking about myself,

Through just imagining myself,

What I'm going to be doing later,

And oh,

Wouldn't it be great if I was so,

This new and improved version of me,

And I'll be so happy,

Through this thinking about myself,

We create a little icon of ourselves,

A little version of me,

That we take to be who we are.

And while this icon can be very helpful,

Yeah,

It's helpful when we're planning to think about,

Yeah,

Okay,

I've got to do this later,

I've got to do that later.

But the problem is that because we spend so much time thinking about ourselves,

An inordinate amount of time thinking about ourselves,

Because of the conditions where most of us are living in a relatively safe world,

We can live on autopilot,

So we go about our world,

Our day,

Moving through the world,

But constantly lost in thought,

I've got to get over there,

Now I've got to get over there,

Now I've got to get over there.

Believing the icon,

Mistaking that for reality,

Mistaking that for who we think we are,

Instead of seeing that,

No,

It's just that little me,

That little version of me just arises through certain kinds of thoughts,

Thoughts about me,

Being happy over there,

Thoughts about me being unhappy,

Because now I'm not getting over there or I'm not getting what I want,

Just through those thoughts,

And then as soon as those thoughts go away,

So does this version,

This little separate self,

The ego,

Me,

Who I take to be me,

Just comes into being and goes out of being,

Just like everything else.

But we,

Again and again,

We can be sitting safely in our homes,

Drinking a nice warm cup of tea,

And getting lost in our stories,

In our dramas,

Replaying things over and over,

Having a whole wall of tapes of just stories that we play again and again and again,

Feeling frightened,

Feeling threatened,

When we are completely safe,

Because we believe the icon,

We never question the icon,

We never question the illusion.

And while sometimes we're able to pull ourselves out with our mindfulness practice,

Sometimes we're not,

And when we're not,

It's because it shows,

Ultimately,

We believe the icon to be who we are.

And so,

In our mindfulness practice,

Initially,

Initially we let go,

Because we see the suffering,

We see the suffering that our stories are causing us,

That are holding onto our anger,

We see how that is what's causing our suffering,

And this is an important part of our practice.

When we use the RAIN acronym for our mindfulness practice,

We recognize anger arising,

Disappointment arising,

Right,

We recognize it and we accept it by feeling what's here,

Right,

Breathing into it and allowing it to be here,

Yeah,

This is what's here.

And then,

Through the investigation and nurture,

The I and the N in RAIN,

And how I've often talked about,

These two flip back and forth,

Because often behind our anger,

What we find is there's a sense of unworthiness there,

There's an insecurity in there,

There's something deep down below the anger that's fueling the anger,

And so we use nurture,

We talk to ourselves in a kind way,

Oh,

Sweetheart,

It's okay to feel this,

It's okay to be with your hurt,

It's okay to be with your anger,

And what else is here,

Anger,

And oh,

Is there a feeling of being left out,

Oh,

Sweetheart,

I'm so sorry,

Right,

So we're talking to the self in this case,

So we are talking to a self,

But not to fuel it like we're doing unconsciously in our thoughts,

But in fact to dissolve it.

So this is an important step that we honor the feelings,

Really important for us,

Particularly in the West where even if we didn't have anything deeply traumatic happen to us,

We just lived a normal kind of life,

There is so much pain that everyone is walking around with simply because of the culture that we live in,

That we value individuality,

Competitiveness,

Perfection,

External materialism,

Looking a particular way,

Having certain things,

Getting the recognition,

Getting the fame,

Because we value all of these things in our culture,

It breeds insecurity,

It breeds feelings of unworthiness.

So even if we haven't had really deep traumas,

And if you have had deep traumas of course then that needs to be dealt with a therapist,

You can be doing spirituality alongside of it but definitely dealing with that with a therapist,

But for most of us we do have a lot of wounds and we should never jump over this step of ignoring our wounds,

Of ignoring our feelings of unworthiness,

Of ignoring our insecurities,

Of feeling left out,

Of feeling like we're not enough.

We never want to jump over this step,

We will always fall flat if we jump over this step.

But once we have done this step,

Once we have found a relative sense of ease,

Of calm within the body where we truly have,

We have recognized what's happening,

We have accepted it by feeling it in the body,

Breathing into it,

And there is a sense,

Even if there's still some pressure,

There's still some tension there,

But a relative sense of ease and calm,

Your emotions aren't as heightened any longer,

Right,

There's a relative sense of ease and calm.

Now we can investigate what the N in RAIN was originally created for,

No self.

Not that you don't exist,

But that there is no independent,

Inherently existing,

Solid self.

So we can ask ourselves in that moment,

Then we've gone through the steps,

We've really nurtured ourselves in a way,

In a skillful way,

To be less reactive,

To be less emotional,

To be more present,

And then we can ask ourselves,

Who was suffering?

Who was angry?

Who felt unworthy?

Because remember,

As we ask the question,

And we're looking for it,

The separate self only arises when I'm thinking about myself in relationship to something else.

I'll be happy when I get over there,

I'll be unhappy if I can't get over there,

Or I'll be unhappy if I get something I don't want,

Right?

So it's only in this way that we create the separate self.

So when that thought goes away and I say,

Well,

Who is it that was going to be happy when they got over there?

Now we can't find it.

And we genuinely,

This is not a question that we are coming up with an answer for to speak.

It is to look,

Because there is this unspoken belief that we have that somewhere in here is where this me belongs,

Whether we think it's in the head or we think it's in the chest,

We generally don't think it's in our limbs,

But to look,

Okay,

Where is this me that I take to be me?

I should be able to find it.

So then we go and we're looking and you really start,

Not quite as like we did in the body scan,

But just,

But generally speaking,

Starting at the crown of your head and working your way down.

Where is the one that was suffering a few minutes ago?

Where is the one that's going to be happy when it gets over there?

And again,

It's not something that you answer verbally.

It's a reveal.

It's a reveal that you see when you can't find it.

It just flips everything on a dime.

You're looking and looking and looking,

And because you can't find it,

All of a sudden you're seeing reality,

The nature of reality,

Sorry,

The nature of reality.

I thought I was this thing my whole life.

I thought I was this little me.

Oh my God,

I believed every word it said.

I believed every tape it played,

Every story,

Every drama,

Every unworthy,

Every criticism.

I believed it all,

But its nature is just like a soap bubble.

It just arises and changes.

It comes into existence,

Comes out of existence based on conditions.

It's like when Dorothy pulls back the curtain on the great Oz that's controlling everything,

This great all-powerful Oz,

And she pulls back the curtain and she sees this little old man just pulling a bunch of levers,

And it's revealed to her,

Oh,

You're not the great Oz anymore.

And this is what is revealed to us.

I mistook the icon,

The illusion,

For who I was,

Because in all kinds of ways my brain is playing tricks on me.

It is so susceptible to misperceptions,

And this is no different.

This is no different at all.

This illusion,

I have been buying it for so long.

And so we keep asking ourselves these questions,

These what are called self-inquiry questions,

And we can start with little things,

Right,

Where we can,

Or little things where we don't have to go through all,

There's not a lot of emotion,

Let's say there's not a lot of emotion involved,

Where we're mindful,

Right,

And we're noticing,

We're maybe planning to go to the supermarket,

And as we're thinking about what we need to buy,

And then we're thinking about the route we're going to take,

And then we're going about the house,

Grabbing the keys,

Do I have my purse,

Oh,

I better get some shopping bags,

And oh,

Let me get my list,

Right,

And we're kind of starting to grab things.

And while we're doing this,

Because we spend so much time lost in our thoughts about me,

Right,

And we keep thinking about ourselves,

Getting to the supermarket,

And how am I going to get there,

And what's going to happen when I'm there,

And I'm going to be so happy when I'm there at the supermarket,

Remember,

There's always,

I'm either happy or I'm not happy,

Right,

And I'm thinking about that the whole time,

And so we can be mindful of that,

Notice that tension,

Right,

Because the separate self does always come with tension,

With contraction,

It always comes with a feeling,

Which reinforces its sense of solidity,

Which reinforces the sense of it's real,

Because there's a fear,

Because even in that,

The me being happy over there,

I'm starting to feel some stress now,

Because I need to be over there,

My happiness is over there,

So I'm feeling some stress now,

But we don't even notice it,

We're so locked into the idea,

Oh,

I'll just be so happy when I get there and when I get it all done,

Forgetting that,

Of course,

When we get to the supermarket,

Then we just keep moving the goalpost,

I'll be so happy once I get everything bought and I'm in the line,

Then we're in the line,

I'll be so happy once I get this all unloaded in the car,

We get in the car,

I'll be so happy when I get it home and get everything put away,

I'll be so happy when I make the meal with what I made,

I'll be so happy,

And this is how we spend our whole lives,

Believing the icon,

Taking the illusion to be the reality of who we are,

But instead,

We can just ask the question,

It's not a huge emotional thing in that moment,

It's just a little bit of,

It's a pull,

It's a pull of a habit,

A thought habit,

And so we can ask the question,

Who is it that's going to be happy when they get to the supermarket,

Because that's what we're believing,

That's what we're running around the house furiously trying to grab everything for in the belief that someone is going to be happy when we get there,

So we should know who that is,

We should be able to find it,

But when we ask the question,

Who is it that's going to be happy when they get to the supermarket,

And we look,

Because we think it's somewhere in here,

And we look,

And you see for yourself,

There was nothing here,

It was a thought that created an icon,

An illusion that I have taken to be me my whole life,

And I run around and do whatever it says as fast as I can do it,

Trying to make this illusion happy,

But it's never happy for very long,

It's just the moment it gets what it wants,

And really the only reason we feel good is because for a few moments it goes away,

And then it just comes right back up again,

Now get over there,

And we go,

Okay,

I better get over there,

Because now that's what it's telling me,

And we go rushing like a good little soldier,

And then we get there,

And for a moment it falls away again,

Because we got there for a moment,

Feel some relief,

And then it just starts right back up again,

And so that we have taken the icon to be the reality,

We have taken the illusion of who we are,

Is to be who we are,

So we keep questioning,

We keep asking ourselves,

You're doing the dishes,

And we know how we love to rush through the dishes,

Or rush through the paying the bills,

Or rush through the just cleaning the house,

Brushing our teeth,

We love to rush through these things,

It's just such a habit,

I've got to get on the other side,

And we can,

Who is it that's going to be happy on the other side,

So we keep questioning it,

We have to question it again,

And again,

And again,

Because we are so tricked into believing it's real,

We are so tricked into it,

We have to see it again,

And again,

And again,

And as you know the different situations mount up,

Right,

And they do become more emotional,

And they do become more intense,

We go through the rain as recognize,

Accept,

Investigate,

Nurture,

And then once we're feeling settled,

Relatively speaking,

We're feeling more at ease,

We go,

Who is it that was so worked up about that,

Who is it that feels like their life was over,

Who is it that's suffering,

So that we can see again in our deepest,

Darkest despair,

There is nothing there,

It is an illusion,

It is an icon meant to represent something to be helpful,

But we have,

It has hijacked us,

Because again,

We live in this relative safety,

And yet it's constantly creating these stories,

And these dramas,

And this one's it,

Oh and this one's it,

And this one's it,

No this time it's over,

I know the last thousand times I said this,

It wasn't true,

But this time,

This time it's really over,

This time you really,

You messed up too much,

Right,

And we fall for it again,

And again,

And again,

And so we have to keep looking for it,

We have to keep seeing it,

It arises through these conditions,

Thoughts about me,

Me in the future,

Me in the past,

Me just talking myself through my day,

Like again,

Just that little interface,

I've got to do this now,

And I'm going to do that later,

Right,

So we kind of see it up here,

What's happening up here,

The interface,

There,

Excuse me,

The icon is there,

We're so used to it,

It feels like when it's not there,

It's kind of,

We even feel unsettled after a while,

Like I better get back up,

Where's the icon,

What's going on,

I need to evaluate how I'm feeling,

I couldn't,

I couldn't possibly just see how I'm feeling in this moment,

Explore how I'm feeling and be okay with it,

I need to go back up and check,

Well what's going on in my world,

Oh don't forget you said that last week,

And that was really embarrassing,

Oh and you know what you've got coming up,

Oh my god,

I don't want to do that,

Even though it's in five days from now,

Let's feel the pain of it now,

Right,

And we just go along with it,

So we have to keep looking for it,

We have to keep looking for the illusion,

Seeing how it's arising and changing and fading away,

It arises and passes away,

It arises and passes away,

It's not real,

It's not who we are,

So the more that we question it,

The more that we keep looking for it,

The more that we ask ourselves these self-inquiry questions,

Making sure that we're doing our mindfulness practice,

And that we are bringing the right tools to the right situation,

Because I know very often self-inquiry is taught as you don't need any of this,

Just ask the question,

And while I would say maybe for some people that works,

For most of us,

I find if we jump over these steps,

It's not very stable,

It's not very stable,

And we want to make sure this is stable,

So we do want to create the conditions,

Right,

We want to make sure that we're doing our meditation practice,

Slowing down a bit,

Right,

Having that sense,

That openness,

That spaciousness,

That even in our meditation then,

Like when we get into those deeper states,

When we're doing,

You know,

Mindfulness of breathing,

And we get into those deeper states of Samadhi,

Into the jhanas,

Right,

Where the mind,

Still even some thoughts going by in the beginning,

But then you're just not engaging with them,

And there's such a sense of spaciousness,

Of openness,

And even then you can even say,

Well,

Who's the owner of that thought?

Who am I?

And to keep investigating in that way,

So in our meditation we can be doing it,

In our mindfulness practice we can be doing it,

But still using our self-compassion practices,

Still using our mindfulness practice,

Coming in and feeling,

And breathing into what's here,

And opening up to what's here,

That they're all tools that we need,

But ultimately where we are headed on this path,

The true freedom,

The true liberation,

The true lasting peace and happiness that we are seeking,

Will never be found as long as we believe that the icon is who we are,

That the ego is who we are,

That the separate self,

The little me,

Because it is always stirring the pot,

And as long as we keep associating that,

It will always get us,

We might be able to skate through life on a lot of things and say,

Oh,

I let that go,

And I let this go over here,

But there will always be something that can come along and grab us,

And we fall for it,

So we have to start looking for it,

Who is it that wants that?

Who is it that thinks they're going to be happy if they get X or Y or Z?

That's not to deny saying that,

Yes,

You want to do things,

You want to plan things,

You want to experience things,

Yes,

We all do,

Let's not deny these lives that we have,

But to catch ourselves when we're saying,

And I'll be so happy,

And I'll be so happy,

Because that's when we're,

Because even every time we do that,

All we're doing is sustaining this trick in her brain,

This misperception of who we are,

And ultimately leading us to endless amounts of suffering,

So the more that we inquire,

The more that we understand the nature of reality,

The more that we see how the version of who I think I am simply arises and changes.

This here,

This one here,

Also arising and changing moment by moment,

Right,

Not arising and disappearing moment by moment,

But just arising and changing moment by moment,

Ultimately,

Yes,

Disappearing,

Right,

But just arising and changing moment by moment by moment.

Don't get too caught up in it,

Don't hold on to anything,

It's just a changing experience,

Respond appropriately,

Yes,

If there's something to do,

If there's someone to apologize to,

If there's something you need to do for work,

Or there's a bill you need to go and pay,

Like do these things,

But not with the burden of,

And then when I get that done,

Finally I can be happy,

Ah,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

You're not helping me,

You can be a useful icon,

As long as I am clear,

That's not who I am.

So we can still function in the world,

We can flow through the world,

Because that's what this is,

Flowing means,

You know,

There's nothing stagnant here,

Right,

The separate self implies stagnancy,

Implies solidity,

Implies independent separateness,

That's where our feelings of unworthiness come from,

Ultimately stem from,

Ultimately,

Because we've separated ourselves into two,

Instead of being here,

And recognizing in the world,

We have good conditions,

And we have unpleasant conditions,

Sometimes we get praise,

Sometimes we get blame,

Sometimes we win,

Sometimes we lose,

Sometimes we feel comfort,

Sometimes we feel discomfort,

But we don't have to go through grasping,

And clinging,

And attaching to all of this,

But instead,

Ah,

This is what's happening,

This is nice,

Yeah,

Good conditions,

Enjoy the massage,

Enjoy the upgrade,

Enjoy the piece of chocolate cake,

Enjoy the good conditions,

But when they don't have your favorite chocolate cake,

Or they ran out of your favorite meal at the restaurant,

It's like,

Ah,

And this too,

That's okay,

Let's see what else is here,

Let's see what else is here,

So that we're opening up to the world also,

I'm not getting in this fixed,

Because the separate self always has a little fixed view of what it needs,

It's like,

Well,

Let's open up,

Let's see what's here,

Let's experience what it is that's happening,

Not with this overlay of a story,

Of a narrative,

Of a commentary,

That is just a filter between me and my experience,

And typically,

Sorry,

Always a harmful filter,

So instead,

We're opening up,

And we're experiencing the world more directly,

And then we don't suffer,

Doesn't mean we don't experience unpleasant conditions,

Doesn't mean we don't get sick,

It doesn't mean we don't lose someone we love,

But we're here with it,

Whatever the experience is,

We're here with it,

We're not going up into our heads,

What does this mean for me,

What does this mean for me,

So,

You know,

Reifying the sense of separateness,

Instead of acknowledging,

Yes,

Sadness is here,

Grief is here,

Yeah,

And I can be with that too,

Right,

So this is where we are ultimately heading on this path,

This is,

In Buddhism,

It's about seeing the world correctly,

What's called right view,

Not right from a right and wrong perspective,

But meaning seeing how things are,

The nature of reality,

What is happening,

Being in accord with harmony,

Being in harmony with reality,

Flowing in harmony with reality,

Not fighting it,

And being very,

Very mindful and aware of all the ways in which our brain tricks us,

We're not seeing reality,

We're not seeing a fixed objective reality,

We're seeing it from the perspective of a human,

And I find that also can just be interesting to see that,

Like,

I'm not really seeing this in reality,

So the more that we can do that,

I find the more things open up again,

Not that I'm all of a sudden seeing infrared or ultraviolet,

But we're seeing more of just what it is that is here,

And we're seeing more of the awe and the wonder of the world,

Because we're seeing how it truly is unfolding in each moment,

Millions of probabilities in each moment,

Millions of probabilities,

And then just seeing how it goes,

That we can have a plan,

Great,

Have a plan,

And now let's see what happens,

Don't get too attached to the plan,

Right,

Be open as you go,

Right,

And so this,

When we see the nature of reality,

When we see the nature of who we are,

Of what we are,

Not claiming ourselves to be something again,

Right,

Because this is where we get stuck again,

Well,

Then what am I exactly,

And we can't really know that for sure,

All we can say at best is,

I can see what I'm not,

I can see that I'm not the separate self,

Because every time I look for it,

Every time I look for it,

I can't find it,

Right,

And I can see just being mindful and paying attention,

How,

Yeah,

All day my thoughts,

My feelings,

And emotions,

Just changing,

Changing,

Changing,

Any perceptions of myself that might arise,

Oh yeah,

Because still old habits are there,

Yeah,

But just like little,

Like little thought bubbles,

Like little soap bubbles,

Nothing to get too attached to,

They're just little images that appear and go away,

I don't have to reach out to them,

Right,

So you can see that,

And you can see what you are not,

And you can recognize as well,

Anytime I try to name this,

Anytime I try to put something on this,

That's not it,

That's not it,

You've got to be careful of that too,

The ego wants to know what it is,

It's enough to just know what you're not,

It's enough to know the nature of what you are,

Because ultimately,

Again,

What we're doing here from a Buddhist perspective,

What the Buddha taught,

The Buddha taught the cause of suffering and the end of suffering,

And by seeing the nature of reality and the nature of who we are,

We are ending our suffering,

And in the absence of all the grasping and the clinging and the attachment,

What comes up in its place is wisdom and compassion,

We don't turn into a vegetable,

We don't become non-functioning,

In fact,

Just the opposite,

We start to function much better because we are living in accordance with reality,

Using the icons as appropriate,

As necessary,

The little simulation,

No problem,

But noticing how tempting it is to get caught in it and to keep coming back,

It was a helpful representation,

Let's see how it goes now,

Now let's see,

Now let's see,

And to keep living more in accordance with the nature of who we are,

With the nature of the world,

How it's arising,

To end our suffering,

This is where the lasting peace and happiness is in our view of reality.