Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening So I'm going to start off reading something which might be of interest This is from Zen which I tend to read a lot from You've got something in each of us Well I'll just read it,
I can't put it back to myself and I'll say a few words Each moment is as it is Complete and full in itself Seeing this,
No matter what arises in each moment,
We can let it be Right now,
What is your moment?
Happiness?
Anxiety?
Pleasure?
Discouragement?
Up and down we go,
But each moment is exactly what each moment is Our practice,
Our zazen,
Is to be that moment and let it be what it is If you are afraid,
Just be fear and right there you are fearless Not the story It's not the story of the creation of fear,
The cause of it There's a story of three people who are watching a monk standing on top of a hill After they watch him a while,
One of the three says He must be a shepherd looking for his sheep he's lost The second person says No,
He's looking around,
I think he must be waiting for a friend The third person says Ah,
He's probably a monk,
He'll be meditating They begin arguing over what the monk is doing And eventually,
To settle the squabble,
They climb up the hill and approach him Are you looking for sheep?
No,
I don't have sheep Oh,
Then you must be waiting for a friend No,
I'm not waiting for anyone Ah,
Well then,
You must be meditating Well,
No,
I'm just standing here Not doing anything at all Now that's difficult for us to conceive of it Why the hell would anyone do that?
Because it's our mindset that we have to be doing Now,
Nobody's suggesting we do that for eight hours a day It's not But what happens is that you're doing The essential doing of life,
Things need doing Comes out of this space of non-doing,
Of being Rather than from guilt Or I should Or let me cram another email in before I catch the bus Or whatever it is So to be really precise,
Right here,
What we do here isn't even meditating by the usual standards It's being It's letting each moment be as it is The sound of a bird,
The sound of the refrigerator buzzing on and off The feeling of anxiety The sense of peacefulness,
Calm The barking of a dog Then we get carried away by thoughts about the dog It's the third time this week,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah Drop There's nothing else to do There's nothing else to do That takes care of it But that's difficult for us to,
I know,
But I need to,
I need to do something Even if it's quite semi-conscious,
Sort of subtle,
A subtle belief That's it,
Just be this moment without the story If the story's rattling through and you're not,
You know,
You're just resting You're not in the story,
It's fine It's when we start to believe the stories,
That's the problem But don't beat yourself up,
Never beat yourself up for it Because that's part of another story In Zen,
They're saying,
Drop all stories Or see through all stories And you've achieved everything you need to in this life It's only the conceptualizing that does the Zen The real life doesn't do a Zen It's the false life that does a Zen So let's Relax back into the body Take a couple of deep breaths if you wish Happy to arrive The body We'll just feel what we find You just hear what's heard If you find yourself lost a lot in mind,
Maybe you can use the breath Particularly the end of the out-breath The senses are open We are relaxed Where are you now?
If you're finding it boring and you're listening to mind Be interested in this sense of presence,
Sense of being aware Rather than an interest in the stories and the thoughts How are the shoulders?
Soft?
Soften the eyes If you wish,
Listen to the silence And I don't mean just the absence of sound Sounds appear out of the silence and fall back in Where's your attention?
It's okay,
Wherever it is Because that's happening You shift it back to what's really happening That's all you need to do Rest there Okay Have a little stretch A little movement Thank you all See you tomorrow Bye,
Have a good day
