Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening.
So in one of Charlotte Joko Beck's books,
She has a chapter called the eye in the hurricane.
And basically what she's pointing to is,
What captures our attention?
She says,
Airline pilot,
When they're caught in a hurricane,
They have to fly in the eye of the hurricane so that they keep the aircraft safe from being buffeted by the winds.
And that's a good thing to do.
So they need to keep their eyes on the control panel,
Make sure they're on course,
Staying in the eye of the hurricane.
And that's absolutely necessary.
But she likens that to someone in a glider pilot,
No controls,
Just up there.
And what's happening there,
Going with the thermals,
They're going with the wind,
They're enjoying the lashing of the lightning and the rain and just everything.
The whole experience is just there,
There with the experience.
Now,
She asks the question,
Who is going to enjoy the ride more?
Who is going to enjoy the thrill of the ride?
Who is going to notice more?
Who is going to experience it?
The hurricane is,
Of course,
The metaphor for life.
She said,
What we do is we're so intent on our control panel,
That's where all the attention goes.
And what's the control panel?
Just call it mind.
Am I safe?
Am I loved?
Am I this?
Am I that?
Am I that future past?
So we miss out on the winds of life,
The hurricane of life,
That's what she's talking about.
But what's going to happen to both,
Both going to come down at some point.
So the purpose of practice is to start taking our attention away from the control panel into actually what's actually happening.
Because what the control panel is telling you is happening,
Isn't happening.
It's like this other substitute life that we're all living,
And that gets our attention.
It's actually divorced from real life a lot of the time.
It's a beautiful tool,
Don't get me wrong,
But that's what it is,
It's a tool.
Now you put,
You have a game of,
Let's say I have a game of tennis on the TV,
And you have a commentary,
You have a football commentary over it.
It doesn't change the game of tennis.
Then you take away the football commentary and put a cricket commentary on it,
On the tennis game.
Does it change the tennis game?
No,
That's what's really happening.
The commentary is just all this.
So we have life happening,
Now we have this,
As I said before,
We're so drunk on it.
So that's all we're doing here,
It's seeing this and coming back to sense of presence,
The body,
The sound of the wind,
The birds.
You turn the commentary off,
And the game of tennis is still happening.
And those little rides at the fairground,
Where the children get in and out there,
They grab all the steering wheel,
Thinking they're steering the little car,
It's just going round in circles.
And then,
Well look,
Mummy,
Daddy,
I'm driving,
That's what we're like,
Our hands are gripped and that's why the attention goes to the control panel.
And what we're doing is learning to do this.
We're all learning to do the same thing.
Because it's happening anyway.
You don't have to think when you're hungry,
The hunger happens and you get up and then you might,
Oh,
I think I'll have cornflakes.
Thought comes after the impulses to do things.
So just take a couple of deep breaths,
And count the breaths for a few minutes if you wish,
Or use the mantra,
Sharim.
Help to steady the system.
Rest the attention on the breath,
In the body.
And really feel what's here,
Don't strain,
Just feel what's here.
Hear what's heard.
Don't name things.
Just use that first direct experience.
Me being the airline pilot or the glider.
A glider has no mind,
No controls.
That's just what's happening through the senses.
Where are you now?
Are you relaxed?
Are you tensed up?
If you're frustrated,
Then you're listening to the control panel.
Wanting something to happen,
To get somewhere.
Have a nice experience.
Shift your attention to your face.
Just feel that.
Any tensions,
Sensations,
Little itches.
It's also a kind of spaciousness.
Just feel around it.
It's all you need to do,
Not looking for anything special.
Notice how you veered away to the control panel.
But no drama.
Having a thought,
Dot dot dot,
Or thinking.
Then come back to the direct experience of the face.
Now shift your attention to the belly.
Just feel what's there.
Now you may,
If you wish,
Pick out a sound.
Or even the silence.
Listen to the silence.
Notice how the sounds come out of the silence.
Okay.
That brings us to an end.
Have a little wiggle around.
Thank you guys.
Have a good day.
Bye.
