WEBVTT 00:00:00.216 --> 00:00:02.746 >> This is a great way to get into the second practice set -- 00:00:02.746 --> 00:00:05.656 we're going to do which is mindfulness, the practice of mindfulness 00:00:05.776 --> 00:00:09.316 which is really the practice of being more aware of what's going on in our experience. 00:00:09.316 --> 00:00:12.666 Mindfulness is the kind of fashionable word for it right now but call it awareness, 00:00:12.736 --> 00:00:16.906 call it objectivity, call it -- it's there in every tradition and every -- 00:00:16.906 --> 00:00:19.696 lots of human beings and cultures talk about it in their own ways. 00:00:20.006 --> 00:00:22.426 It's just being aware of what's going on in your experience. 00:00:22.626 --> 00:00:27.646 And it turns out that there's layers and layers of stuff going on 00:00:27.976 --> 00:00:32.546 and that we're often ping-ponging around automatically with stuff. 00:00:32.546 --> 00:00:34.866 So patterns are being activated, and we don't really realize it. 00:00:34.866 --> 00:00:37.836 We're kind of walking around in a bad mood, or we're walking around [inaudible] 00:00:37.836 --> 00:00:40.226 on something, going around and around. 00:00:40.686 --> 00:00:45.416 And when we're inside these loops, these loops of behaving and acting 00:00:45.416 --> 00:00:47.806 and responding, what does it feel like? 00:00:47.806 --> 00:00:48.756 It can feel like fate. 00:00:48.756 --> 00:00:50.806 It feels like we're always going to be here. 00:00:50.806 --> 00:00:52.026 We've always been here. 00:00:52.606 --> 00:00:56.686 It feels -- it's so sticky, it's hard to kind of get out of it. 00:00:56.686 --> 00:01:01.756 And there is truth -- the reason it's sticky is because you're deepening a pattern 00:01:01.756 --> 00:01:03.316 or a groove that you go in a lot. 00:01:03.316 --> 00:01:09.446 You're like training your body and mind to continue on in that kind of a pattern. 00:01:10.196 --> 00:01:12.786 So that's the sobering part. 00:01:13.096 --> 00:01:18.156 Mindfulness practice is really a beautiful practice for kind of working with that, 00:01:18.156 --> 00:01:20.656 understanding, and noticing how that works. 00:01:20.866 --> 00:01:25.116 That is the work of a practice so that's it. 00:01:25.436 --> 00:01:29.566 The work of a practice is you have an idea that you want us [inaudible] and meditate and focus 00:01:29.566 --> 00:01:34.166 on your breath but you have a life and your being triggered in your life 00:01:34.166 --> 00:01:37.646 and you have shit that's going on and stuff that's happening at work 00:01:37.646 --> 00:01:41.406 and in your relationship and in your family and you're thinking and worrying about it 00:01:41.406 --> 00:01:44.276 because you're trying to sort it out and that's totally fine. 00:01:44.366 --> 00:01:49.466 So the first thing is to say this is completely natural that I have this pattern 00:01:49.466 --> 00:01:51.836 that I'm inside, that this is just how it goes. 00:01:51.836 --> 00:01:54.226 So you first except that you're having that experience 00:01:54.666 --> 00:01:58.146 so that the concentration we have working with that is just to go back to the breath 00:01:58.146 --> 00:02:00.796 and let it -- and do your best to let it be in the background. 00:02:01.196 --> 00:02:04.086 Eventually you get pulled up with it again but you notice it happens. 00:02:04.086 --> 00:02:04.946 You go back to the breath. 00:02:04.946 --> 00:02:09.036 Eventually the breath starts to become richer and fuller. 00:02:09.036 --> 00:02:12.816 The real estate of the breath gets larger than the real estate of that sticky pattern. 00:02:13.076 --> 00:02:15.186 And you can sort of shift ratios that way. 00:02:15.666 --> 00:02:18.726 But the mindfulness way of working about it is to say okay. 00:02:18.726 --> 00:02:20.816 Well, actually I'm going to look at this pattern. 00:02:20.886 --> 00:02:22.416 I'm going to actually go into it. 00:02:22.606 --> 00:02:26.286 Instead of just being automatically inside it, I'm going to start to explore it. 00:02:26.446 --> 00:02:30.306 So I'm going to -- when I'm in this thing -- and you can explore it different ways. 00:02:30.306 --> 00:02:34.406 You can -- one of the most constructive ways is just to kind of see what it's made of. 00:02:34.946 --> 00:02:41.026 Like generally you'll find it's made of body sensation, so emotional feelings and tugs 00:02:41.026 --> 00:02:45.456 like anger in the jaw or like heartache through the chest 00:02:45.456 --> 00:02:49.216 or vibrating agitation or whatever it is. 00:02:49.216 --> 00:02:51.756 Like the body sensations are really providing the juice of a lot 00:02:51.756 --> 00:02:53.856 of our emotion and thinking patterns. 00:02:54.186 --> 00:02:56.476 So you can just stay with the feelings in the body. 00:02:56.616 --> 00:02:59.636 And we'll kind of do one like that in a moment, a practice like that. 00:03:00.076 --> 00:03:03.686 You can also work with the head part of it, the thinking part. 00:03:04.226 --> 00:03:05.166 You can go in and go okay. 00:03:05.986 --> 00:03:08.986 Can I actually just notice what images are coming up right now? 00:03:09.056 --> 00:03:12.836 Instead of just being in the images, can I kind of have this objective witnessing thing? 00:03:12.836 --> 00:03:18.006 Can I disembed from this trance and just notice the images, 00:03:18.006 --> 00:03:21.576 the face of your disappointed mother or whatever it is? 00:03:22.086 --> 00:03:23.596 Or can you notice the talk? 00:03:23.596 --> 00:03:25.726 So that's another component. 00:03:25.726 --> 00:03:31.356 The voice in your head, the narrative you're telling yourself, the criticism, the -- 00:03:31.826 --> 00:03:36.206 you know the voice of the other person, whatever it is just -- and you kind of tried to -- 00:03:36.206 --> 00:03:41.306 it's this weird move of just like the act of noticing it means you're no longer inside it. 00:03:41.616 --> 00:03:45.856 So this is the single most important thing a human being needs 00:03:45.856 --> 00:03:47.036 to know in their life, I think. 00:03:47.196 --> 00:03:49.236 You know, probably there will be a few so it's not 00:03:49.526 --> 00:03:51.296 that the single most important but it's an important one. 00:03:51.796 --> 00:03:55.406 That is that you -- you're not fated to repeat these patterns. 00:03:55.406 --> 00:04:00.256 If you can notice the thing is happening, the active noticing it means you're not inside it. 00:04:00.796 --> 00:04:05.986 You're now outside it because the crazy punch line in the contemplative world, 00:04:05.986 --> 00:04:09.756 in the Buddhist world, in the Hindu world, in the Taoist world, and even in -- 00:04:09.756 --> 00:04:13.896 talked about in different ways in the Abrahamic traditions, the crazy punch line is 00:04:13.896 --> 00:04:16.896 that you aren't -- like that's part of you. 00:04:16.896 --> 00:04:20.956 That's the process of your personality but the act of being aware it self, 00:04:21.065 --> 00:04:24.646 the knower is the same knower in everybody else. 00:04:24.756 --> 00:04:25.366 It's empty. 00:04:25.676 --> 00:04:26.896 It has no material. 00:04:26.946 --> 00:04:32.066 The act of knowing is this act -- it's this expression of your freedom. 00:04:32.656 --> 00:04:35.706 So it's different than -- knowing is different than thinking. 00:04:36.026 --> 00:04:38.226 This is what people don't really realize. 00:04:38.226 --> 00:04:39.896 It's like you're thinking about something. 00:04:39.896 --> 00:04:40.856 Thinking is tractable. 00:04:40.856 --> 00:04:41.416 It's images. 00:04:41.416 --> 00:04:41.946 It's talk. 00:04:41.946 --> 00:04:43.306 It's a little bit of tension in the face. 00:04:43.306 --> 00:04:44.486 It's all this stuff. 00:04:44.666 --> 00:04:49.036 The knowing is just the knowing but we think knowing and thinking are the same things. 00:04:49.126 --> 00:04:53.206 But a mindfulness practice basically lets you disembed from the thinking so you can know it. 00:04:53.206 --> 00:04:56.086 So the knower is here and then that thinking is happening here. 00:04:56.086 --> 00:04:56.786 Does that make sense? 00:04:57.676 --> 00:05:01.516 Okay. Because it's kind of a weird thing to get around but that is the experience. 00:05:01.516 --> 00:05:05.716 The experience is that you can pop out and start to observe the thing from outside. 00:05:05.716 --> 00:05:07.116 And then guess what? 00:05:07.116 --> 00:05:09.796 It turns out that process just keeps going on and on 00:05:09.796 --> 00:05:13.936 and on because the place you're noticing from, which at first seems like oh, yeah, 00:05:13.936 --> 00:05:17.916 I'm noticing it as this empty knower then gets slowly coagulated 00:05:17.916 --> 00:05:19.166 into being another thinking process. 00:05:19.166 --> 00:05:20.126 And then you've got to pop out of that. 00:05:20.126 --> 00:05:21.706 So you've got to -- and then you've got to pop out of that. 00:05:21.706 --> 00:05:23.476 And there's always another layer to pop out of. 00:05:23.476 --> 00:05:25.906 It just is like turtles all the way down basically. 00:05:26.406 --> 00:05:31.556 But that's okay because it's like it's about getting free incrementally or continually moving 00:05:31.556 --> 00:05:34.366 into a more spacious perspective and then getting caught up again 00:05:34.366 --> 00:05:36.316 and then more spacious perspective but over time 00:05:37.006 --> 00:05:39.316 that perspective becomes the place you take a stand in. 00:05:39.896 --> 00:05:42.886 So I'm going to make that more tangible for you guys. 00:05:42.886 --> 00:05:45.226 Let's actually try that as a practice now. 00:05:46.046 --> 00:05:49.556 In a very uncomplicated way, it's just being aware of what's going on in your experience. 00:05:49.996 --> 00:05:55.906 And as we start to look, it starts out kind of crude like we can't really detect it. 00:05:55.906 --> 00:06:01.796 It's sort of murky but the longer and more patiently we are -- that we spend investigating, 00:06:02.106 --> 00:06:04.816 the more subtler qualities begin to get teased out. 00:06:04.816 --> 00:06:11.696 So there is this detection and this quality that emerges, this quality of clarity, 00:06:12.126 --> 00:06:14.876 and it's like we start to become more and more transparent to ourselves. 00:06:15.146 --> 00:06:19.036 And you can think of it as -- it's like the conscious mind is starting to seep 00:06:19.036 --> 00:06:21.786 down into the unconscious or the subconscious, 00:06:22.136 --> 00:06:26.716 these sort of subterranean levels were all the turbines are and all the machinery. 00:06:26.716 --> 00:06:30.906 It's like it can start to get down in there and like, you know, walk around on the floor 00:06:30.906 --> 00:06:33.896 of the factory and, you know, take a look around. 00:06:34.426 --> 00:06:40.986 So hopefully that metaphor won't be -- it will be helpful and not disturbing so let's try it.