Nondual Vipashyana on Thought and Feeling
We don’t goof around here. We don’t wait around. We dive right in. So, what I’d such as you to do is to establish your space, ensure that that your notifications are all turned off, that nothing anywhere is notifying you, there’s no phone, there’s no blinking lights, there’s no cell phones telling you anything, right? All the things’s turned off. For those who’re watching this on a phone all of the notifications are turned off. For those who’re watching this on a pc all of the notifications are turned off and also you’re in a secure quiet space.
After which from there arrange your posture. So, as usual, sit up nice and straight in a way that feels really, very nice. So, we wish our body to be each upright and relaxed, so our spine is sweet and upright, and our body’s relaxed. Once your spine is upright and the highest of your head is form of pulling upward a bit of bit, just let your spine wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, like a young sapling tree in a good looking wet wind, just a delicate wind, just a pleasant light wind. And just move around like that a bit until you discover just that right spot, just the proper spot, where the spine feels utterly balanced, utterly comfortable, after which come to rest there. Again, very upright top of the top pulling up, and the chin tucked a bit ,so never is your chin jutting up or out, never is your head tilted back, it’s at all times a bit of bit, tiny bit tilted down, so the topmost point of your head is actually pulling upward.
Okay, after which ensure that your shoulders aren’t tight and hunched forward. They’re relaxed and back. You’ve your hands either on this mudra, like this, right? Where the thumbs are only touching, they’re not pressed like that, they’re just touching. Or you possibly can have each hand resting in your thighs, either like this–flat in your thighs, like that–in that mudra, or same mudra but on the backs of your hands, flat in your thighs. So, they’re not up such as you see in photographs. They’re resting comfortably in your thighs, either way. Okay, so you’ve gotten that mudra or you possibly can do that mudra in your lap. So, those are our mudras for meditation. Mudra, after all, means gesture or hand pose but actually in its larger sense it may possibly mean a pose of your whole body. But that’s normally called asana. So, once we’re talking about hand postures we call them mudras. It’s interesting because certainly one of the traditions we’re inspired by is named the nice gesture, but on this case they’re not talking a few hand posture, they’re talking about something quite different than that. So, that’s a subject for an additional time.
In any case, once our posture is about up I would like you to spend a moment to get your intention together. Why are you meditating? What are you doing? Meditating, right? So, we’re not only form of arriving on the cushion chaotically, we’re sitting on the cushion, after which going, “okay, here’s what I’m doing. I’m meditating due to x, y, and z.” So, go ahead and try this while I take a sip of delicious peppermint tea because I’m guiding the meditation every occasionally I want to take a drink so my throat keeps working. Nonetheless, once we are meditating, you usually wouldn’t move in any respect. So, for those who watch the early videos I’m really adamant, because we’re in person all together in an area, that folks stay really, really still. Because we’re doing these on youtube, and we should not in one another’s living rooms presumably, I haven’t been saying much in regards to the movement, but actually, once we settle in it’s really vital to simply stay still. If our body moves fairly often which means our mind goes to maneuver. And so once we fidget, especially if we fidget in a form of distracted fidgety way, that makes our mind move in a distracted fidgety way. So we are inclined to need to let the body change into very relaxed, not unmoving in a good way, but unmoving in a relaxed way, such as you’re so relaxed you possibly can’t move. After which that tends to bring the mind right into a very relaxed and still place as well for the length of meditation.
So, once we’re arrange and we’ve set our intention then I would like to usher in a metaphor with which to meditate and tonight’s metaphor goes to again be the element fire. So, I would like you to see–well, first I would like you to picture your meditation, and that is identical to a poetic metaphor, but I would like you to feel as for those who are meditating like a fireplace. You’re meditating like a raging, burning fire, however it’s not crazy and chaotic. It burns really easily and really cleanly and it’s a form of total purification, right? This fireplace is just consuming all difficulties. It’s consuming all negativity. It’s consuming all obscurations.It’s consuming all ignorance. It’s consuming all distraction. It’s consuming all fidgetiness. It’s consuming all our difficult negative self-talk. The fireplace is just burning, and burning, and burning, and utterly consuming that which could otherwise block or get in the way in which of our meditation.
And here there’s just this beautiful, vibrant, perfectly clean, clear fire that’s just stuffed with energy. And that energy is pure, and that energy is vibrant. The energy is obvious. That energy is providing you with a lot life support. It’s like this life energy raising up and just exquisitely expressing itself as this flame, and you would possibly even see it–if you should consider the most important kind of fireplace–you would possibly even see it as a form of a sun, right? Or meditating like a sun. So, an image of a sun in front of you. Within the sun, again, it’s burning vibrant with the sunshine of pristine awareness. It’s radiant and pure with the sunshine of Buddha mind, and it’s utterly cleansing and purifying. It’s removing every form of obstacle, removing every form of obscuration, removing every form of difficulty, removing all the pieces that is just not healthy, and healing, and loving, and sweet, and delightful in your world, and in your mind. And it’s just this sun–this burning sun of fireplace in front of you is beaming a form of total love, and total kindness, and total acceptance towards you. It’s very nice, it’s not by some means hot or difficult, relatively it feels great. It feels almost like–the way it feels to you is like how the sun feels to a plant. It’s life-giving, it’s utterly stuffed with support, and it’s providing you with a form of tremendous joy simply to have this burning sun in front.
And also you notice that when the sun is present it also brings confidence, and it also brings playfulness, right? There’s a form of real joy occurring there that has these other qualities like confidence and playfulness. The sun of enlightened wisdom, this fireplace of your individual deepest pristine awareness.And now, on an in-breath, take that in. And as a substitute of the standard spots I would like you to let that sun drop all of the strategy to the bottom of your spine. Let that sun just sink all the way in which into your perineum, and the spine there, and feel that flame burning vibrant.
And this beautiful flame of enlightened wisdom, again, it’s cleansing out your body. It’s removing any form of toxins, or anything that doesn’t belong in your body. It’s removing any form of foreign beings. It’s removing any form of energy blockages. It’s removing any unhealthy anything, and it’s just purifying the whole body. And you are feeling your body begin to loosen and open, and you’re feeling the hearth going through every channel, every nerve system, all of the cardiovascular system, all of the fascia, all of the muscle, even contained in the bones. And it’s burning, and burning, and burning out anything that’s diseased, or broken, or old, or that isn’t serving your complete health. And as a substitute it’s just utterly filling your body with this sort of radiant wisdom, joy, love, but additionally healing and strength. And so just feel that now for a minute.
Good. And now, respiration deep, notice that that fireside starts coming up your spine. And it’s almost just like the spine itself is a form of a torch, a flame that’s burning perfectly, cleanly and with none smoke ,and the truth is it starts to shine really vibrant like sunlight. So despite the fact that the bottom of your spine is form of where it’s all coming from, the entire spine itself is lighting up and becoming increasingly more good, and increasingly more powerful, and increasingly more beautiful, and increasingly more awake. And your whole body at this point–this fireplace within the spine is popping your whole body from a flesh body right into a body of sunshine, body of just pure light, and this light body has various colours and delightful reflections. And this burning fire of wisdom, the exquisite flame of the Buddha nature, the utterly clear light of pristine awareness, and your whole body’s fabricated from just that.
So, that’s our opening visualization and now you, on this spot, you possibly can let go of the visualization for those who want. And I would like you to simply now begin to permit awareness itself–because your body is just fabricated from light, so awareness doesn’t feel stuck in your body in any respect, you’ve gotten this vast spacious awareness. Awareness could be very large, and really easy, and open. After which, coming into that awareness you notice the breath, the rising quality of the in-breath, despite the fact that the air is happening, there’s a sense of rising up within the in-breath after which the kind of dropping quality within the out breath as we breathe out. And so with this very vast awareness, very, very open awareness, perfectly pristine ,clear, vibrant, awake, we meditate on the approaching and going of the breath. Let’s just try this together for some time here.
And at this point we’ve let go of the vision entirely, and as a substitute, we’re just resting as open awareness. And I would like you to ensure that that despite the fact that you’re not focusing hard on the breath, like attempting to get every detail, you might be staying with it repeatedly, you don’t miss a moment of that breath. You’re not, again, you’re not focusing sharp, you’re letting awareness stay wide however the breath comes into awareness very easy. It’s very easy to note and so don’t miss a moment of it. Notice the start of the in-breath of the tip of the in-breath, starting of the out-breath and the tip of the out-breath, stick with it repeatedly with none gaps.
Now, let’s proceed to stick with the breath here, but now as a substitute of just noticing the start and ends of the breath, I would like you to stick with the entire breath, again just with open easy spacious awareness, not drilling down on the breath, or attempting to hold on to it or anything, but simply allowing it to be in awareness. Repeatedly noticing every moment of that in-breath
and each moment of that out-breath, not missing any a part of it, not the slightest part. Staying with it repeatedly, staying with it repeatedly. This could be very easy for awareness to do unless we start chasing off after some fantasies or whatever. So just keep allowing awareness to note every moment of the breath.
Okay. Good. Now let’s gently switch to our shamata without an object. So, we let go of the breath and easily rest as this spacious vast awareness in itself, right? So, awareness simply rests as awareness and awareness is just not doing anything. If thoughts come up, it is just not involved in those thoughts, feelings come up, it is just not involved in those feelings, sights and sounds, body sensations come up, it is just not involved with any of that. Slightly it’s simply resting in itself. The metaphor is prefer it’s like a king or a queen on their throne, this royal personage on their throne, simply resting, and if it goes tries to–if they struggle to exit to do anything or meet anything, as a substitute they simply loosen up, and are available back to resting. There’s no involvement with anything, okay? Slightly, simply awareness resting in itself. And also you’ll notice a form of stillness in that awareness, and that’s what we’re searching for–is just allowing that stillness to get increasingly more still. Every time awareness starts to get entangled in anything, just drop that and are available back to awareness resting in itself. It feels very, excellent. It’s just this broad, open, very clear, very awake spaciousness that rests in itself, uninvolved in anything.
Okay. Good. Now we’re going to do a variation on this that is definitely really fascinating. And so, we’re still doing our shamatha. We’re still resting as vast spacious awareness. But now I actually want you to permit awareness to note the contents of the mind. As a substitute of not being with them, now awareness will be with the contents of the mind, but remaining completely defused from them. So, previously we were just dropping the ball. Anytime we picked up a thought we just dropped it. Now the thoughts are allowed to return into the mind and awareness is noticing the thoughts but not getting inside them, not chasing them, not having desire for this thought and aversion to this other thought. We’re simply, it’s almost like awareness is solely observing thought arising and never interacting with it in any way but nonetheless really clear about its arising and passing, its movement, and so forth. Simply allowing this perfectly still awareness to note this movement of thought. This is named . So let’s try this now.
It’s very easy to get caught up within the considering, so don’t let that occur. We’re resting as this vast spacious still awareness but just allowing the thoughts to return and go. We’re not looking away from them. We’re letting them simply arise in awareness and pass an awareness without stepping into them in any respect.
Okay. Good. So, that was an additional shamatha step in there, and a special form of shamatha that we haven’t done before called And now we’re going to maneuver into some vipashyana. And this week we’re going to return to doing vipashyana that we’ve done persistently in these meditations which is vipashyana on considering, right? So, remember in vipashyana we’re seeing the emptiness of some particular arising, so now that we’ve been seeing these thoughts arise, now I would like you to note that the thoughts are empty. What does it mean that they’re empty? You see that they’re ephemeral, dreamlike mental constructions. There’s nothing more ephemeral and constructed than a thought, so just notice. Let’s start out noticing the audio portion of considering just like the blah blah blah and just notice that it arises within the space of awareness, and vibrates within the space of awareness, and passes within the space of awareness. And the entire time it arises and it’s empty.
Remember empty doesn’t mean it’s not there. Oh, it’s there, however it’s only a form of display, right? It’s a construction. In order that’s the difference between a constructing and the scenery in a play. You’ve the back, the scenery, it’s not likely a constructing, it’s identical to a picture of a constructing, and so it’s just fabricated from plywood or something, and it’s only one side, or perhaps even paper, but the thought is that. These thoughts are arising, and so they’re completely like–almost like mist, or like clouds, or like dreams, and so they never firm up into these solid objects. They’re totally ephemeral and we’re noticing that repeatedly in regards to the thoughts while not getting involved within the content. Once we’re doing vipashyana the content doesn’t matter, it’s the phenomena of the thought and the concept that we see it as empty. It’s like a dream of a thought. So let’s try that now.
Good. Now let’s also include, along with this verbal a part of thought, any of the image a part of thought. So some people, and I’m certainly one of them, have loads of considering that happens visually. And so, if that’s happening, again we’re not attempting to make it occur, but when that’s coming into the mind of its own accord, then we’re seeing that as empty as well. And that again, that’s identical to some form of image on a screen it has no substance in any way, it’s completely utterly nebulous and ephemeral. And so we’re seeing the visual thoughts as nebulous and ephemeral. We’re hearing the visual thoughts as nebulous and ephemeral. And so they’re utterly empty, and also you notice how much of a relief that’s.
Notice that there’s a way of relief when the thoughts don’t have a lot weight, and don’t seem so solid and real, but relatively we notice their total constructedness, their utter empty, vaporous quality. It’s an actual relief, and yet the thoughts are still there. We’re not eliminating them and even changing them. We’re just noticing this property about them called emptiness. Notice how mental images, imagination, and verbal thoughts are only a form of movie that plays in the top. It’s got sound and pictures, it plays in your head, and it’s possible to simply wander off inside that every one day. In truth, that’s what a lot of us do, however it’s also possible in meditation like this to step outside that movie and relatively than being incited and believing it, just notice, like you would possibly do for those who were watching a movie on a television screen at home. Sometimes you’re lost within the story but sometimes you back out and also you’re identical to, “it’s only a movie, it’s just on a screen” and that’s what we’re noticing now with the emptiness. There’s just mental images and mental talk happening and we don’t need to be involved in it in any respect. We are able to see its emptiness, we are able to see that it’s ephemeral and constructed.
Now let’s do the identical thing with emotions. So we are able to let go of taking a look at the thoughts now, and as a substitute notice for those who’re having any feelings of any kind come up. It could possibly be frustration, could possibly be mild anxiety, it could possibly be a pleasant feeling of joy, it could possibly be a form of a good looking feeling of affection or something like that. All feelings are welcome. All feelings are completely welcome, and at the identical time I would like you to note that also they are empty. Again, that doesn’t mean they’re not there. They’re completely there, and yet at the identical time they’re a form of construction. They’re a form of ephemeral, nebulous, right? We’re just noticing their ephemerality so if there’s not loads of emotions happening, then just keep working with thoughts. But for those who are noticing even subtle tiny background emotions, tune into that ephemerality, tune into the constructedness, the emptiness of the emotions. And spot, once we’re doing this, you don’t get entangled within the content. It’s not like, “oh, I’m feeling sad, I’m wondering why” that’s, we’re not doing that. We’re feeling the sadness and just noticing its emptiness, notice that it’s a form of ephemeral, constructed event happening within the sky of awareness.
Okay. So, whatever’s arising, we’re just seeing its emptiness. How do you’re really seeing the emptiness of emotion? Since the emotion won’t grab you so tightly. It won’t cause you to be quite as reactive. You’ll begin to–despite the fact that it’s still there, and you continue to feel it, there can be less…it should kind of…it’ll be less sticky. It’s just arising and passing and that’s it’s ephemeral nature, and also you’re not getting so caught up in it. And so there’s a form of relief.
Okay. Good. Now we’ve checked out thought and feeling, let’s take a look at the emptiness of the sense of being you in any respect, so your story. Who you might be, your history, your work, your loved ones, what you’re attempting to do, what you care about, all of that. When that form of stuff comes up, just allow yourself to note it as a mental construction. And now, also notice that it’s only composed of thought and feeling. So, we’ve already worked with thoughts, we’ve already worked with emotions. And so all this sense of your story, that’s going to be thoughts and feelings, all of the sense of who you might be as an individual, it’s a form of agglomeration, a mix of thought and feeling. And again, it’s not that it’s not there. It’s not that it’s nothing. It’s definitely there in something, in a technique. And in one other way, notice it’s simply a mental construction, and it’s just arising and passing, like a dream. After which normally we hang on to this very tightly, our story of ourselves, but I’m not asking you to do away with it. I’m just asking you to let or not it’s utterly with none grasping, utterly with none holding onto it. Just notice, it’s like attempting to hold on to a movie, or hold on to a dream, that just you possibly can’t try this with it.
And so just allow this sense of self that comes up, sense of being me–I like this thing, I don’t like that thing, that is going well, this is just not going well, I’m having a tough time with this, I’m not having a tough time with this, oh, that’s because I, or I hope this other thing happens–all those form of thoughts. The thoughts that arise within the mind of a being, an individual like that. We’re just gonna notice that every one of that’s utterly ephemeral, utterly nebulous, utterly dreamlike, utterly like a mirage, utterly and, completely, and totally, and without end–absolutely empty. Again, don’t get entangled within the content, just notice it arise and pass, as completely empty. What a relief it’s to note the entire personality structure, the entire story of me is identical to a form of dream, like a magic picture show, arising and passing. And we don’t need to react to it in any way.
Okay. Good. Now let’s let go of that vipashyana, the vipashyana on thought and feeling, and the sense of self, and are available back to the flame. The flame of enlightened awareness, and now the flame is coming together. It’s rising from the pelvic region and coming up, coming together in the guts, and also you notice that the flame is solar, it’s like a sun, and it’s burning brighter, and brighter, and brighter. And this flame of utterly pure, utterly pristine, Buddha-level awareness is radiating out, identical to the sun radiating out. Radiating out, bringing joy to all beings, bringing healing to all beings, bringing peace and contentment to all beings, bringing love and kindness and caring to all beings. Just radiating out–even just pure life force to all beings.For those who take a look at the traditional Egyptian carvings, this, the sun within the sky has rays that come out of it, and on each of those rays, there’s a hand. On the hand, each hand is holding an ankh, and the ankh is the symbol of life, and this radiate radiant sun in your heart is beaming out this life, and this joy, and this peace and contentment, but additionally wisdom, and clarity, also playfulness, and spontaneity. It’s tremendously beautiful, and tremendously clear light that’s radiating out in all places from the guts. And this is just not your physical heart, that is the guts of your individual enlightened awareness, your individual pristine mind. And just feel that beaming out in all places now to all beings, bringing happiness, bringing joy, bringing healing, bringing life, bringing love, bringing peace on earth, and on all earths, on all planets in all places, and healing the environment. And bringing kindness, and caring, and a way of dignity, and equality to even all of the animals on the earth, and each river, and each stream, and each rock, and each plant, and each bird, and each drop of water within the ocean, and each cloud, and each fish, and all beings on the whole earth becoming healed, and joyous, and thriving, again.
Good. Let’s end the meditation there. You possibly can notice that even that whole vision is itself only a form of a dream, it’s itself a construction of thought and feeling, and yet it has a robust sense, right? You possibly can still feel all the enjoyment, and the wonder, and yet it’s also ephemeral, it’s also empty. Let yourself notice that emptiness now. And the way that doesn’t by some means make it lower than, doesn’t by some means make it nothing, doesn’t by some means make it go away, but relatively we’re just not caught up in it on this tight way, right? We see that it’s simply an expression, simply a construction of mind.
Good. So, allow yourself to maneuver and stretch. Do some cat stretching. Oh, stretch like a cat. Ohhhh! Oh, that is how my cat stretches. Feel how good that feels to stretch. Let your body move in whatever way feels really good without delay. It doesn’t need to be big movement, it may possibly be small movement, any form of movement. Just feel how good your body feels to maneuver and stretch. Allow yourself to have a sip of delicious mint tea. That’s so good.
Dharma Talk
After which we’ll just proceed here talking in regards to the emptiness of thought and feeling.
You recognize, emptiness is a funny concept. It’s a Buddhist word, right? We don’t normally use that word in some other context, not less than not with that meaning, in regular English. We would say, the bucket was empty and its emptiness allowed us to place milk in it. Milk in a bucket because we’re on a cow farm, a dairy farm, but that’s not the form of emptiness we’re talking about here. It’s a very, utterly different form of emptiness. It doesn’t mean or or not-there-ness in the way in which that the English word emptiness normally does. Slightly, it means ephemerality. It means dream-likeness.
Notice I’m not saying because that has a very specific definition of you’re asleep at night, and also you’re having rapid eye movement, and all that. Dream has a really specific meaning, despite the fact that in English we also can use dream in a less specific strategy to mean, “I dream of someday buying a house” or whatever. It may well have more of the sense of just any form of mental visualization, right? But on this case we’re not even narrowing it all the way down to even visualization. It just implies that’s why I’m saying dream-like. It’s like thoughts arise, but on this case we’re talking in regards to the emptiness of thoughts, thoughts arise but they’re simply mental constructions.
And what’s so crazy, what’s so strange, and it’s almost bizarre when you consider it, is that almost all people–and me included, for loads of my life–are walking around with a movie playing of their heads. It’s got words and pictures, for some people it’s more words and almost no pictures, for some people it’s more pictures and only a few words, for loads of people it’s form of balanced between them. But there’s this almost like daydream occurring in your head, and also you’re up inside it, such as you’re really believing it, prefer it’s real–real within the sense of like as for those who were asleep at night and also you were having a dream. And you actually think that that knife within the dream can cut you, or the food within the dream can fill you up, or whatever. And so notice as you’re walking around it’s like, “oh, I like this, and I don’t like that, and I would like certainly one of those, and I don’t want certainly one of those, and I hope this person thinks this about me, and I hope that other person doesn’t think that about me, and what if this happens, and what if that happens” and all that’s just churning, and churning, and churning. But once we take a look at it phenomenologically, we see that it’s just a few pictures in your head, so mental images moving around like on a screen, like light on a screen, and it’s also some talk–blah blah blah blah blah, after which it’s feelings too about that stuff, “oh, I get joyful after I take into consideration that, and I get bummed out after I take into consideration that, and I get all excited after I take into consideration that.” And so, in other words, we’re lost in a movie in our heads. We’re lost in a dream in our heads, and identical to in a movie show once we watch a movie, we’re having all types of feelings about what’s occurring on the screen. We get freaked out when something bad happens to the protagonist, who we actually like, and we get a way of when the antagonist, the bad guy, gets their just desserts and something happens to them. Or when it’s in a love story, when the lovers finally can get together, you possibly can feel all this sense of joy, or warmth, or like some… So, whatever’s happening on the screen, there’s pictures, and there’s words on the screen, and also you’re having emotions about it, right? And what’s so crazy is; we’re doing the identical thing in our heads all day long. There’s images arising, there’s talk arising, and we’re having all types of feelings about it. “Oh, that person said that thing that makes me afraid, oh this other person is doing this other thing, oh, I get all enthusiastic about that, oh, this third person, I see that they’re wearing a certain way, I even have feelings about that.” Right? So, in other words, we’re just–there’s stuff occurring on this planet but we’re still involved within the movie in our head about that stuff.
And what I intend to make clear is that that movie in your head is utterly empty, utterly ephemeral, utterly like a dream. That’s its emptiness-nature, right? Oh, it’s empty. I don’t need to be stuck up inside that thing all day, being run around like a rat race, having that thing turn me every which way. For those who’re– that is the meaning of samsara, that is the meaning of why the world will be so difficult is that–for those who’re stuck up contained in the thoughts and feeling world, you’ve gotten zero control. I mean, it’s just controlling you, you’re just reacting, and reacting, and reacting, and reacting, and also you’re stuck up contained in the response. And that’s like being in prison. But not only regular prison, it’s just like the form of prison where they make you break rocks or something It’s really, really unpleasant and yet so a lot of us spend a lot of our time locked up inside that.
And what I would like you to see while you notice it with emptiness over, and over, and over. See the constructed nature of that dream, so you can step outside it and let it do its thing. We don’t need to stop it. We don’t need to by some means hate it, or make it go away. Moreover, we don’t even need to make it into a good looking dream. All we now have to do is just notice its ephemerality, its empty nature from the surface, just allowing it to arise in awareness. And awareness just notices that that is just a few thought and feeling arising, we don’t even need to get entangled within the content. I mean, the content’s there if we want it, but most of us, for loads of our lives don’t realize that that thought and feeling world is just not actually . We predict it’s us sometimes however it’s not actually us, and the tightest, smallest, most absolutely in-bondage, lacking-in-freedom a part of that thought and feeling world is the sense of self, story of me, where I come from, what I like, who I’m, what my personality is like, what this implies about me, what this implies about my past, what this implies about my trauma, what this implies about this, that, and the opposite thing. All of that may be a form of bondage.
Your actual being is just this vast spacious clarity, this utterly joyous, playful, experience thing. And it’s spending all its time crawling inside this tiny little box of personality, after which shaking the box around, and the world shakes the box around, and you only get increasingly more beat up. Or, like I say sometimes, it’s such as you’re a tennis shoe in a dryer just ga-ga-ga-ga-gunk, ga-ga-ga-ga-gunk since you’re just believing the story of . After which letting yourself get just knocked around by it. And the crazy thing is that that is the other of emptiness, right? We’re making that story of me with its thoughts, and its emotions, and all its history, and all its ideas. We’re making that appear so real and particularly since it’s . We would like it. We intend to make it solid, and we intend to make it lasting, and we intend to make people understand it. You don’t understand who I’m, you don’t understand where I’ve come from, and what I’ve seen, and it is advisable understand me since it’s real, and it’s serious, and it’s like just… Feel the energy around it. It’s prefer it’s the smallest, stiffest, saddest little cage and what’s hilarious is; it’s not even real. You recognize the way in which that we predict it’s, it’s only a dream. It’s like an image in our heads, and a few feelings we’re having. But what we actually are is that this vast pristine awareness that has no boundaries, that has no history, that has no story, that’s indestructible, that is totally free, utterly free. You’re free without delay and just watch yourself say why you possibly can’t try this, why? Oh, for this reason thought and feeling. If I say, “look, you might be utterly free without delay of your story” after which just watch yourself, “no, but–my story…” and just, okay, notice that you just try this. Isn’t that interesting? Isn’t that interesting? All right, you grab onto what? I don’t want to present up my little cell. I don’t want to present up my little super uncomfortable cold steel cage. It’s like that will be the worst thing on this planet, but would it not?
You recognize, we just spent an extended time on this meditation noticing the emptiness of that cage, noticing the ephemerality of that cage, noticing the constructiveness of that cage, noticing that it’s only a form of dream-like picture show, and that we are able to stand utterly outside it, utterly outside it as just this vast spacious, utterly free, cognizance, right? Playful, spontaneous, effortless, cognizance. And after all, when we want to think, when we want to have feelings, that’s still there. It didn’t go away. It’s not like, , we got out a jigsaw and cut open your skull and took out the flexibility to think and feel. It’s all still there. It’s all still present. But we’re not caught up inside it, we’re not believing it. We’re not crazy glued up contained in the ping pong ball anymore, right? We’re freed from the ping pong ball, let go. Let go of the ping pong ball and fly free little bird because you might be utterly freed from all that. And the way? We just see the emptiness, simply to see the incontrovertible fact that it’s a mental construction, it’s a movie playing in your mind, without delay, movie playing in awareness without delay and It is just not you, okay? In order that’s what I would like to say tonight.
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