Morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening.
So no matter what we seem to do in life,
There's effort involved.
We have to do it.
But if you want to melt ice,
What do you do?
What needs to happen?
You put it in the heat,
Or the sun.
Does the ice have to try,
Does it have to put effort in?
To melt?
To transform?
No.
There's no trying involved.
There's no effort involved.
It's just what happens.
Your own attention,
Your own awareness.
Let me backtrack a little.
The heat,
Let's say the sun,
The heat of the sun comes into contact with the ice and there's a natural transformation.
The ice transforms back to its original nature,
Which is water.
So now the water can flow,
Then life can arise in it.
There's no life in ice.
When we bring just the very simple attention,
This is not concentration,
So it's not a concentration exercise.
If we bring our sense of presence or our sense of attention just right here with what's happening,
That's it.
That's the sun hitting the ice.
But what happens is ego,
To give it a term,
There isn't one,
But there's an activity of egoic activity.
Ego gets involved and tries to do something.
That's when it prevents the transformation.
I want to try a bit harder.
Good luck with that one.
I'm going to change it.
I'm going to modify it.
I'm going to calm it.
I'm going to do something to it.
I'm going to make myself a better person.
Sorry,
But that's not what we do here.
What we're doing here is what happens is when we're just sitting here,
Presence,
And there's just a little bit of easing of ego,
Which happens,
And you won't even notice it.
What happens,
That transformation is allowed to happen.
What wakes up is your own innate wisdom,
Your intuitive awareness,
Your natural presence giving different names to this so we don't tie it down.
Don't think the ego knows what it is because it doesn't know what it is.
It thinks it does.
Oh,
It's this.
Yeah.
Comes up with a concept.
It's this.
Then you read another concept in the other book.
Oh,
So which is it?
How do you go to concepts?
It's easier than what we're making.
So we're just here.
And that's what brings the transformation.
That's what turns your life around.
You don't do it.
You just have to turn up.
Because this wisdom is innate.
It's already here.
Sense of ease.
It's always this natural wisdom presence.
It's always its quality or one of its qualities.
It's just natural ease.
It's the inner teacher.
Intuition.
The internal teacher.
But we can't listen to it if we're listening to this.
And it's the most blessed thing you will find because it's what you are.
You're not this little chatty little thing.
Mourning and groaning and whining and whinging.
That's not what you are.
You weren't born into this world to be whinging,
Whining,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah.
It's a case of misidentification.
And that was the Buddha's primary teaching.
It's a case of misidentification.
Which starts around the age of two.
So just be with your present,
Your immediate present experience.
That's all you need to do.
Just feel it.
Hear it if it sounds.
Just be right here.
And just be not intellectually curious.
We don't need to name and blame and describe.
It's unnecessary.
Just feel what you find.
That was what I was told.
I thought,
What do you mean?
Feel what you find.
What's the point of that?
Doesn't sound very enlightening.
And then I got it.
Ah.
But you have to do it for a while.
Because it feels like I need to do something.
And that relaxes.
And then it's take off.
The ice melts underneath the surface of the ocean first.
The work is being done.
It's invisible work.
And you come to trust that at some point.
Okay.
I've said a lot there.
So let's have some quiet time.
That's why we keep coming back.
Coming back to this simple practice.
If you think you're beyond this simple practice,
Then you can think you're beyond it.
Feel the breath if you wish.
Where are you?
Keep your foot off the accelerator or the throttle.
Off the brake.
And relax.
The experience that you're having is the one you're supposed to be having.
Don't need a different one.
Just don't add to it with the stories.
Should be different.
And if you do,
It's okay.
Just drop it.
Where's your attention?
Sensing that you haven't tensed up.
It's okay if you have.
Just feel that too.
Just relax into it.
You'll never be anywhere other than here and now.
Or how hard we try.
So we may as well relax into it.
Feel it.
Okay.
A little stretch,
A little wiggle.
And keep visiting presence.
Drop in during the day.
You don't need to go very far.
Okay guys,
Thank you.
