Do you see how much of our life is a dream?
And again,
Look at it without a lens of judgment,
Without a lens of it being right or wrong.
Look at it as the way of things,
Where you go about your life,
You interact with other people,
You have apparent circumstances,
This happens or that happens.
Do you see how much of that is a projection of mind while mistaking it as reality?
And I guess for me,
And you don't have to be the same,
But for me to see that,
To see how much I can go through this life and mistake my imagination for reality,
Which ultimately creates pain and suffering,
Makes me take a step back and say,
Whoa,
What's going on here?
Which,
In maybe a more practical way,
Is to say,
Finding myself to be very slow at judgment.
Finding myself to be very slow at proclaiming I know anything at all.
As it relates to what's right and what's wrong,
What is or is not,
As if I could see the big picture,
As if my mind could capture the totality of what is.
And of course,
The very interesting thing that happens in that,
It's almost like a spiritual magic trick,
But the more I see the truth of this,
I become much more sensitive to the heart of the matter.
I become much better at listening to others.
I become less defensive.
I become less inclined to take things personally.
I become much more open to possibility.
There's a deeper humility.
There is an embrace of the rawness of my human experience,
Which in a way is to be more connected to the totality of what I am.
It's kind of like seeing this life thing isn't about me being a particular something.
Right?
As if there's somewhere to get to in the future.
It's like,
Whoa,
There's a miracle going on right now.
What is this?
This is amazing to be alive.
Do you see the presence in that?
Rather than an anxiety that's running away from something or running towards something else.
And it's not disassociated from a very real human vulnerability.
In fact,
It's the complete opposite.
It's to be quite sensitive to what's actually here right now.
And to actually be sensitive to what's going on with other people without taking it personally.
Or to be sensitive to the fact that you're taking it personally.
And what's wild about all of this is that,
You know,
In the present moment of all of this,
The recognition,
The willingness to see,
That is the doorway to everything that I crave.
Everything that I actually want in this life.
And this,
Of course,
Is part of the hang-up and being human.
We're so confused about what it is we actually want in this life.
Which is to also say,
We want a bunch of illusions,
Which is to want a bunch of things that are not a real something.
Which is why it's so important to take a moment of radical self-honesty and ask yourself,
What is it you really want?
In the conclusion,
You might have your own words for it.
But we might say,
I want peace,
I want freedom,
I want love,
I want compassion.
I want presence,
I want forgiveness.
Which is so funny because all of these words,
We might even call them spiritual words.
But they are all pointing directly to the truth of reality.
So what is it you want?
You want the truth of reality.
Which is also like saying,
What you're seeking is the truth of what you are.
Which is also like saying,
I want to come home.
And it's wild to me that in the infinite display of illusions to chase after,
That which we think we want,
Something in the world,
It's amazing to see that the one thing you actually want is the truth of life.
And that in the world,
There's actually nothing for you.
And I can understand how that sounds like a wild statement,
But my goodness,
It's so profoundly true.
Especially as you see that the world is just your mind.
Do you notice this?
Everything that you think is out there in the world is just something in your mind?
Which is to also say,
It's imaginary.
I want this or that to happen.
What is that other than a story of you saying something happened?
I want people to think this about me.
Which is what?
You thinking other people think something.
That means something.
Which is all a product of your imagination.
Which is essentially to say,
We're searching for ideas about ourselves.
Which in one way is trying to seek to find yourself,
But you're looking in the mind.
Which is to say,
You're looking in your imagination.
How do you do that?
How do you find the realness of yourself in the imagination?
In that which is imaginary.
How does that work?
It doesn't.
And I can understand how it might seem so confusing,
But I hope that you at least notice there is a profound simplicity somewhere in all of this.
And that complexity,
Of course,
Is in the mind.
It's like imagining 10,
000 things that you want,
But you actually only want one thing.
Or imagining that you have 10,
000 choices to make,
When there's actually only one choice to make.
And the more you look at that choice,
It's not much of a choice at all,
Which makes the real and best choice quite obvious.
And of course,
This is the pointer in spirituality with all of the options for a spiritual practice.
They're all doing the same thing.
They're inviting you back to the present moment to get in touch with what's real.
To lay down the noise of the mind and connect with reality so that the truth of things might be seen.
And as you see the truth of things,
You start to chill out and realize,
Oh,
This is all much more simple than my mind's making it out to be.
Yeah.
You're imagining a lot of scary monsters that aren't really there.
You're imagining a lot of things to be afraid of that don't actually exist and can never exist.
Relax.
See what's true.
