Can this be a moment where you just give yourself permission to be here?
A moment where you don't need to be distracted?
A moment where you don't need to know what's coming next?
And can that just be okay?
Allow ourselves to experience what it is to really be alive,
To notice that life is happening.
And whatever difficulty that might be there,
In just allowing yourself to be,
Maybe that's okay too,
And yet we can still just be however we are.
Moments like this can be so important,
A moment to just be.
Maybe a moment where nothing has to be figured out,
There isn't some maze we need to unravel in our minds.
We can just be.
It is a fascinating thing how difficult that might be sometimes.
In a way it's like pulling back the curtain and seeing the chaos in the mind,
Oh my goodness,
There's so much going on in there.
We can still just be.
It is funny that the more quiet I get,
The louder the birdsong becomes.
The more still I become,
The louder I hear a song of peace.
What a gift to give yourself,
To be still and recognize what's always here.
Isn't that amazing,
That it's always here?
No matter how chaotic our life becomes,
No matter how lost we are in the mind,
The stillness,
The peace that is here right now,
Is always here.
And of course that exposes the great comedy in rushing around trying to find peace,
Or demanding that somebody else give you peace,
When in actuality it's the very fabric of existence.
The question is,
Can you come home?
You know it's funny that in order to come home,
There's like this invitation to let go of so much,
Like you can't have both.
You can't come home and hang on to every thought that passes through your mind.
The noise has to be surrendered.
Do you want to come back to peace?
Okay,
Then set down the backpack that says you can't be at peace.
Set down the backpack that says somebody else took your peace,
Or the backpack that says peace is far off into the future.
And of course this is just taking off the backpack of the mind.
Isn't that funny,
We can think it's so many things,
But it's just the mind?
We have 10,
000 thoughts,
And we think it's 10,
000 different things,
But it's just one thing.
It's the mind,
Or it's the simple belief in thought,
Which then believes in 10,
000 different things that are all just thoughts.
Oh my goodness.
Do you see how the noise quiets down when you see that it's all just the same thing?
Every sound is the same sound.
Every thought is the same thought.
Every moment is the same moment.
What a stillness that emerges from that.
The invitation for a great rest.
A great rest that doesn't need to battle with 10,
000 things.
I also find it amazing that no matter what is happening inside of us,
Whether that's a physical sensation or an emotional experience,
Whatever it is,
Somehow it is simply held by this moment.
There's nothing that rejects it.
There's nothing in this moment that demands it be different.
That's just coming from the mind,
A mind that wants to argue with what is,
As it chases a life that thinks it knows how life should be,
Ultimately as we are trying to run away from what's happening on the inside of what we are.
That's cute.
And in this stillness,
We see that we don't really need to run.
We see that regardless of what's happening on the inside,
What we really are is perfectly held.
Isn't that extraordinary to see in some regard that within you is a capacity to hold space for whatever is showing,
Especially when there is the automatic assumption that you should turn and run,
But really if you just stay,
You see that you're okay.
My goodness,
How much that can translate into our everyday lives.
I don't need to run from what's happening on the inside of what I am,
Which might also look like I don't need to blame this on somebody else.
I don't need to distract myself.
I don't need to numb myself.
I can just be.
In some way,
I know it might not make sense,
But this is the love that we're searching for.
A love that sees that we're really okay.
A love that sees that it's okay to be you.
And of course,
This love that we're seeing is the very fabric of life.
It's only the mind that disagrees.
It's only another thought believed in.
And my goodness,
How many thoughts and stories do we have about how you're not worthy of love,
About how you're not worthy to just be what you are.
Such scary stories we tell.
And yet when we come home to what is real and true,
When we come home to this moment,
All of those stories disappear.
We see that they were never true.
It's funny to hear that dog bark.
In one way,
The mind can argue,
Say,
Oh,
If only that dog wasn't barking,
This moment could be so much more peaceful.
How is that different from saying,
If only life wasn't life?
If only dogs weren't dogs?
Do you see that,
That it's only the mind that argues?
It's only who I think I am trying to be important that would argue.
It's interrupting what I'm doing.
Life is about me.
The dog should do what I want it to do.
And if it doesn't,
I will withhold love from the dog.
So many daily irritations that could be like that.
Things not going how we think they should go.
Your own version of a dog barking,
Interrupting your peace.
Maybe it's your partner that is barking.
Maybe your spouse is your dog.
Maybe it's your boss.
Maybe it's your business.
And furthermore,
As we argue,
As we proclaim that life made a mistake,
It only makes the bark louder.
It only makes the dog bigger.
And fundamentally,
There's the assumption that we are somehow not okay,
Even though the dog is barking.
Which is to completely miss the truth,
That you are okay.
It's such an innocent misunderstanding.
I just didn't see what I really am.
And in that,
I got scared and I blamed the dog.
That's understandable.
Good thing you can go to the dog and say,
Oh my goodness,
I'm so sorry for blaming you.
I love you.
Thank you for being the mirror that tries to remind me what I really am.
And of course,
This is what life is constantly doing.
Trying to remind you.
Trying to point you home.
What a beautiful design.
Thanks for meditating with me.
