Let's just take a moment and allow ourselves to be here.
I want to invite you to just check in with yourself and feel what's there.
It's kind of like just giving full permission for all parts of yourself to be here.
So easy it is to show up to something and feel like we have to leave some aspects behind.
We have to show up a certain way.
But we can enter this space and just be aware of that.
That it's all allowed.
And it's really an honor and an opportunity to do this together.
Because I understand that sometimes that's very hard to do on your own.
I find it really fascinating and extraordinary.
The depth of complication the mind can create.
As we live our lives,
As we move from one moment to another moment,
Which is all just the same moment.
It's like there can be 10,
000 movies playing out.
A thousand different stories.
And my goodness,
The expectations,
The questions,
The what-ifs.
And yet always,
And I love just recognizing it here with you right now,
There is the simplicity of just this.
And it's so profoundly simple because it's so easy to miss.
And at least for me right now,
It's so beautifully obvious that the truth is just this.
It's here.
Right now.
And I invite you to acknowledge the reality of difficulty we experience.
How easy that is to forget.
We can get so lost and it's like we don't even know where to go.
We start trying to think our way out of thinking.
And the invitation of all spiritual practice is all just a doorway into this.
And if there seems to be some sort of block that doesn't allow you to recognize just this,
Then see that that block is just being captured by thought.
See that there is a doorway behind all of the thinking.
It's such a gift that we have,
If we're open to it,
To recognize the reality of this in contrast to the reality of what we think is our life.
And I see it so clearly in my experience with just day-to-day doing my life,
Doing my work,
Doing my relationship.
There's just so much thinking that can be going on.
And you think that what you're thinking is happening.
It can seem so much more important than this.
And this is what I want to dive into a little bit,
Is the letting go of all the noise.
And I'm going to have to go slow here,
Because I don't want to point to a way out of the noise by just adding more noise.
As we talked about last week with the discernment,
That within what you are,
Your awareness,
Is this capacity to discern,
To look,
To see.
And the great discernment is to discern the difference between here right now and the mind's content.
And to just see that and then give yourself to the here right now.
Which is also beautifully like saying,
Give yourself back to yourself.
Because this human dilemma that we have,
We are giving ourselves to a world that doesn't exist.
Like the tension and the anxiety,
The fears.
That's all being given to something that's not even you.
And it's not to say that that play of giving yourself to that is wrong.
It's just a misunderstanding.
And so it's important that we take moments like this and come home.
And see what's real.
Feel into what's real.
And let the dream be the dream.
Let it return to a place of play,
Of imagination.
See that it's not nearly as serious as we can imagine it to be.
And really allow yourself to just breathe.
To breathe without worry,
Even if it's just for a few minutes.
Even if you're just going to get lost after we're done here.
That's fine.
Isn't that funny?
Because that's often what the mind does.
What about an hour from now?
What about tomorrow?
What about next week?
Let's just do right now.
I sense the mind cannot see the power of that.
The power of just fully giving yourself to one moment.
One moment of remembering.
And you know,
My friends,
Throughout our journey,
Throughout our day-to-day,
Throughout our interactions,
Life in the most gentle but perceivably intrusive way is trying to get your attention to come back home.
You see,
These tensions that we feel,
Any anxiety that arises,
These little pain responses that we have,
Those are like just little nudges that says,
Hey,
Come home.
It's not a demand.
You're certainly allowed to give yourself away to something that's not real.
But it also hurts.
It also doesn't serve the sincerity of what you really crave.
You know,
As much as I don't like it,
It speaks to why I really do like it,
And that's pain.
To be honest about it,
And I imagine you might see this too,
As beautiful as pain is as a reminder,
I see that the way that my human sees pain is that it gets in the way of my agenda.
It gets in the way of what I think I want.
It gets in the way of where I think I'm going.
It gets in the way of that thing that I'm holding on to because I think that thing is the solution,
The prize.
And then when I finally listen to that pain and come home and be still,
I see that it's all just play.
And I've been in this space 10,
000 times before.
It's all the same thing.
And you see,
This speaks to the magnitude in our human capacity to create in our imagination.
You're so good at creating,
You fool yourself constantly.
It seems so real.
And so this is an invitation to maybe find a gentle humor in it all and see if you can recognize a willingness within you to let go of everything you think is happening in your life.
And I do also mean everything good that you think is happening in your life.
And what I mean by letting go of it is to just see that it's not what you think it is.
But it's okay to think that.
You see,
The pointer of letting go,
Of course we can take it literally and think you have to open your hand and release something.
It's not that,
Of course.
Letting go is like a willingness to admit that it's not what our mind is turning it into.
That's what we're letting go of.
We're letting go of this belief that it is what we think it is.
And the more clearly we see the truth of things,
It becomes obvious that it's not that.
What becomes obvious is,
Oh,
I'm seeing it that way.
I think it means that.
And just like letting go of things in the past,
It's like you're just seeing that the way that you see it is just a way to see it.
But yet the pain of it is the belief that it is that.
Then,
Of course,
The mind says,
Well,
If it's not that,
Then what is it?
Looking for another name to give it.
And it's still not that?
You know,
I wonder,
I wonder if there can be a space within us that allows it to be nothing.
Is that possible?
Does it have to be something?
You know,
And I'll tell you,
For the ego it really has to be something.
The ego has to define it.
It has to put it in its box.
It has to think it knows something,
Which we then ultimately find out it's not that.
I wonder if we can just let it all disappear.
But yes,
Of course,
Within the deeply rooted psychological nature of us as human beings,
We cling so tightly to these stories,
So tightly to our thoughts.
And there's this conditioning that's playing out.
But you know what's quite amazing about that conditioning that's playing out?
These patterns and these habits,
Just like everything else,
What is it beyond your thinking about it?
Do you see all the stories we can wrap around it?
It's like,
What is a tree that falls over other than your thoughts about it?
And is it not true that what greatly intensifies this pattern of conditioning is all the judgment wrapped around it?
Should of this,
Should of that.
Does that not just keep it in place?
Does that not just feed it?
It's like,
The more you dig into the nature of reality,
The more you dive deep,
You start to realize that there's actually nothing happening.
There's actually nothing really happening.
It reminds me,
The other day,
I had a friend who really thought they disappointed me,
And they felt really bad about it.
They spent a whole day feeling bad about it,
And then we talked,
And it was just the funniest thing.
It's like,
Oh my God,
That's so cute.
Yeah,
But it seemed like you might have been bothered.
Yeah,
It seemed like that,
But I promise it wasn't about you.
You know,
This is the nature of forgiveness,
By the way.
That's a big one.
And that could be a stretch for a lot of people.
What's happening beyond your thoughts about something happening?
Like,
Is it really happening,
Or do you think it's happening?
It's just so obvious.
But it's scary too,
Because it invites us into such a great and vast unknown.
Like,
If I'm not all these things,
If I'm not all these stories,
Then what am I?
What am I doing here?
What's this about?
It's about this.
And you see,
What is the mind supposed to do with that?
The mind that's looking cannot see that.
It's like,
I ask,
What's here beyond your thoughts?
And then you start thinking about it.
And it's a great invitation,
Again,
Not with any judgment whatsoever,
But to just see in the human experience how much of our daily lives are made up of thinking.
And again,
Not wrong at all,
But just see that.
And if you can see that,
Then I ask you to look how much of your tension,
Anxiety,
Any flavor of suffering is because you believe that what you're thinking is actually happening.
You see,
It's not so much that thinking is happening,
It's that we're confusing it for reality.
And it creates this huge maze that's not really there.
And you know,
The path toward what we might call the embodiment of this awareness,
Dare I say awakening or enlightenment,
Which the mind turns into something it's not.
Not only is it going to bloom in its own timing,
But it can only bloom through this sort of space,
Through a devotion to this sort of space,
Meaning a willingness to take a moment and just see what's true.
It comes out of this space.
And I notice for myself,
There is the obvious great sacrifice.
The great sacrifice of who I think I am,
Where I think I'm going,
What I think I want,
And give myself to this.
And there's something that happens,
And it's beyond my ability to articulate,
But there's something that happens within the inner working of what you are that starts switching on little lights.
Little lights that you might not even know are being switched on,
That compound over time,
And you make progress that you're not even aware that you're making.
Have you noticed that?
It's like you look back 10 years like,
Oh,
I grew a little bit.
I see things a little bit more clearly.
And I invite you to see that maybe that's enough.
We don't need the fairytale enlightenment,
The fairytale moment,
The big boom,
But we can just find a deep appreciation that there is this evolution of consciousness that is unfolding,
And I can't really stop it.
It's happening.
But I can continually see more and more just how beautiful and important it is.
And you know what?
Just as I'm resting in this space with you right now,
And I don't know if it's the same for you,
But it might be worthwhile to mention,
And I feel those rough edges around my heart begin to soften,
There's something in me that just wants to tell everyone,
I love you.
I'm sorry.
Right?
Like as we collect all these little resentments and these irritations,
And then you take that moment,
Let it melt away.
It's like you just want to give everyone a big hug,
Because you see it's just all an innocent misunderstanding.
You know,
Even those people that my human really doesn't like.
From a distance,
I just want to whisper,
I love you.
I love you,
And I'm sorry.
And that's where you find the real liberation.
You see,
It's not in figuring it out,
It's just letting it all go.
Just letting it all go.
Even if it's just little bits and little bits.
