How much of your life is spent?
Waiting for things to happen before it can begin.
We wait until things settle down.
Until we've got a bit more money.
Until we're healthier,
Fit and strong.
Until we're in the right relationship or until we feel good enough to be in that relationship.
And as we get older,
This is transferred over to until we retire.
Do we ever feel?
With ourselves truly.
Is that a point in time?
I wonder how many of us are doing this as well without even realising.
Live in this quiet assumption that the road ahead holds flowers and rainbows and Everything's.
Wonderful.
A point when we can finally enjoy ourselves.
But there's something so odd about this,
Isn't there?
While we're waiting for life to arrive.
This one.
Is happening.
And it's slipping through our fingers.
We're missing it.
We're not feeling it happening.
We're not there for it.
So perhaps the most uncomfortable question we can ask ourselves right now is if this life we are waiting for to arrive.
Never does.
We never feel good enough.
We never have enough money.
What if?
We're always going to feel that way.
Things do improve,
Of course.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Wanting a better life.
I'm certainly not suggesting that we.
.
.
Should abandon our ambitions,
But there's.
.
.
A difference between wanting something to change and making our happiness entirely dependent upon that change.
And I think that is a line we cross far too easily.
We might spend years working towards.
Retirement and imagining all the wonderful things that we're going to do.
But we get there and we discover we've taken ourselves along for the ride.
We're still the same person.
Worrying comparing ourselves to others.
Even then.
Though we're not working,
Still wondering if we're doing enough.
Even though we've spent a life.
Doing.
The problem quite often.
Hardly ever isn't.
The circumstances of our lives.
It's the habit of believing that our happiness is actually somewhere other than here.
And we carry this habit with us.
The whole of our lives.
So we have this imaginary version of ourselves,
Don't we?
Like the future me.
The future you.
Everything's perfect.
Got it sorted,
We're calm,
We're kind.
We have enough money.
We're confident.
Feel good in our skin.
Finally.
Where fitter.
Healthier,
More disciplined.
And we finally,
In this future scenario,
We finally get around to doing all those things we've been putting off.
And we think When I become that person I'll be happy.
But have you ever stopped to consider that this future person is still going to be you?
With your same mind.
Your same tendencies.
The same habit.
Of worrying about things that haven't happened and probably never will.
You might get that house you've always wanted and then start worrying about the roof.
You might get that perfect relationship and worry about losing it.
You might get your finances sorted.
But then be spooked.
By every bit of news.
That tells you that things are unstable.
Savings on what they were.
So the minds.
Trying to make us miserable.
It's just doing what minds do.
Looking out for us.
Looking ahead.
Checking the coast is clear.
Anticipating everything and trying to make life safe for us.
But if we wait.
For the mind to give us permission to enjoy our lives.
We might be waiting a very long time.
And that time may never come.
One of the things I've always appreciated about Buddhism.
Buddhist practice is this emphasis on life as it shows up.
On being with this life.
And it's not always wonderful.
Suffering.
Happens and it exists and things go wrong.
But our lives are taking place here.
We're always skipping over the present moment,
Jumping backwards and forwards.
We're revisiting conversations.
Rehearse in arguments imagining the worst.
Or looking back and wishing things had turned out differently.
And then planning where.
Going to finally make everything better.
And the mind is so useful.
This is not to vilify the mind.
But there's a cost when we become so absorbed in it.
That we lose contact with the experience of being alive.
I sometimes think it's like.
.
.
Going on this beautiful war.
And always expecting.
The countryside to improve and get better.
The birdsong to become sweet.
The sun to shine brighter.
And we're missing.
Grey clouds.
Great clouds are beautiful.
Stop and look!
Lock up.
Rain is beautiful.
Everything.
Has a place.
So live this life now,
Whatever shape it arrives in.
Stop waiting.
Waiting is wasting.
And life is far too precious,
However it shows up.
Far too precious to waste.
You meditate.
You'll know most of this.
If you don't.
I've taught meditation for.
Over 20 years now.
And it's dramatically transformed my life and I'd like to take you on that journey with me.
I don't ask for anything.
I share this freely.
So if you just go to this next video.
That will take you into a meditation practice.
And if you start meditating with me,
Trust me.
.
.
Trust me.
Your life will improve.
But it won't be because.
.
.
Things get better.
It'll be because.
You're not missing it,
And you're seeing the value in all of it.
And somehow,
That can switch things.
Into the right way.
The way we want them to go.
Peace.
