[Transcript 00:59-01:10] So the interesting thing is that we're not trying to cultivate some kind of special awakeness. […] What's always there is this simple wide awake, wide open, boundless clarity, simplicity, brightness, and it's actually kind and loving as well, and it's always there, always there. And what happens is, we just have learned to focus on something else. So we're spending a lot of time, focusing on body sensations or sort of like, the idea of the body, I am my body. I am in the body, and we're focusing on that. Or even, that's probably a little too embodied and present for most people, these days. And so we're more focusing on you know, my Twitter feed and a bunch of ideas and uh, algorithms, for getting, you know, acing job interviews or something. You're just so into this virtual world in the mind, which is fine that is a powerful thing to use, it's a useful tool. But we're kind of glommed on to it, in a neurotic, fixated way. And you may have noticed when I said relax the fist of thought, let the core of your mind relax that it just kept doing that. Not for everyone. But for a lot of people we'll just keep grabbing. That's what I mean, it's a habit, of being focused on that. Like that's what's really going on, is that. This sort of mental experience. Again, nothing wrong with mental experience, but isn't it odd that you're totally glommed on to it? And one of the difficulties of being just stuck on it is like that is that you don't notice this other thing, the main thing, which is this tremendous clear open awake presence within which this experience of the mind is just this tiny virtuality. So, I'm sure all of us have had the experience of being like, um, you know, you're you're somewhere like Yellowstone National Park and you know, you or one of your friends is like stuck on their phone, like reading some social media. There's this great word in Hungarian and I'll pronounce it wrong because every word, I can't pronounce it, Hungarian, but um it's something like 'egérmozi', which means 'mouse theater'. So you're stuck on your mouse theater and here's this whole world happening, right? And it's like someone's just missing the entire experience because they're like, you know, stuck in mouse theater and that's just such an obvious version of this. But the non-obvious version is that the rest of us are doing the same damn thing, just in the mouse theater in your head. Right, like, just I'm stuck into whatever loops are going. Again, all of which is fine. It's just funny because you don't have to do that. That's just a choice and after a while it's almost more of a habit and maybe after a while, even more of like an addiction. But it's the only, that little thing of like I just prefer to watch the mouse theater in my head all day. That's the only thing, uh, at all, it's that simple keeping you from experiencing like, vast halls of freedom and love and presence, which are there immediately when you aren't focused on that. Immediately. It's there the whole time, it's just you're just not paying attention to it. And so, one of my main teachers used to say, you know, you've got this giant banquet being prepared for you. Every day, this gorgeous sumptuous banquet, and you just forget to eat it every single day. Because you like, don't notice that it's there. You know, it's just like the food is just on the table, dig in! And you're just like, I'm busy with mouse theater, you know, you're just not engaging. And you know, that would be kind of sad on some level, but it's so much worse than that because the virtual world is just basically just awful. I don't mean the internet but I mean, inside the thoughts. It's pretty much a terrible place to be. And it's tight and judgy and fixated on all kinds of pain and suffering. And yet we're choosing on purpose to connect with it continuously, continuously continuously continuously continuously, who knows why. Just because we aren't normally trained to not do that. And in fact, we are normally trained to do that. So, it's not just that it's like, hey, you're missing the banquet. It's like, and you're eating glass and barbed wire. On purpose. And so you might want to not do that. Maybe. And it's funny because if I if I invite people to not do that, they will fight and fight and fight to do it. And me too, you know, um, for a long time, but it's like there's this image. And somewhere I learned it somewhere in India, it's just a super intense image. But it's very compelling and that is, being stuck on that is like being a dog, this is a terrible image, I'm sorry it's kind of a horrible image. A dog that's eating broken glass and thinks it's so delicious because it tastes like blood. […] That's what this engagement with that is like. It's like, we think we need it. And that it's important, and it's like, no, it's just hurting you, you know. So I invite you to begin to extinguish that habit, extinguish that training, extinguish that super tense fist in the core of your head that you're doing all the time. And it doesn't again don't fight it because that's just another super tense fist. It's like you just keep relaxing that thing. Because if you're not making it tight on purpose all the time, it will relax. It will relax. Because naturally it's open, naturally it's present, naturally it's wide awake. So it's not even that hard. It's just, we have a long habit of not relaxing it. So you know if you've kept the muscle tense for a long time, sometimes it just wants to stay tense. And needs some very gentle, very kind, very compassionate, soothing kind of coaxing to open it back up. And that might even at first be a little painful, right? It's not used to range of motion anymore, so you've got to be really gentle about it. If you try to jam it open then it just hurts. And again, just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with thinking. That's a perfectly hobby. I mean, perfect obvious thing, right? That we need to do that, that that's very powerful, helpful, useful, as a tool that we use, but not as something that we're stuck inside. Imagine, you know, like your car is really useful to have but imagine if you then thought I am my car and you just never get out. And you imagine you're somehow, skin welded to the seat and you just can't get out. Now it's a prison and just makes you start to suffer. So this is an invitation to recognize that you're already free of that. You aren't stuck in it.
[Transcript 00:59-01:10]
So the interesting thing is that we're not trying to cultivate some kind of special awakeness. […] What's always there is this simple wide awake, wide open, boundless clarity, simplicity, brightness, and it's actually kind and loving as well, and it's always there, always there.
And what happens is, we just have learned to focus on something else. So we're spending a lot of time, focusing on body sensations or sort of like, the idea of the body, I am my body. I am in the body, and we're focusing on that.
Or even, that's probably a little too embodied and present for most people, these days. And so we're more focusing on you know, my Twitter feed and a bunch of ideas and uh, algorithms, for getting, you know, acing job interviews or something. You're just so into this virtual world in the mind, which is fine that is a powerful thing to use, it's a useful tool. But we're kind of glommed on to it, in a neurotic, fixated way. And you may have noticed when I said relax the fist of thought, let the core of your mind relax that it just kept doing that. Not for everyone. But for a lot of people we'll just keep grabbing. That's what I mean, it's a habit, of being focused on that. Like that's what's really going on, is that. This sort of mental experience. Again, nothing wrong with mental experience, but isn't it odd that you're totally glommed on to it? And one of the difficulties of being just stuck on it is like that is that you don't notice this other thing, the main thing, which is this tremendous clear open awake presence within which this experience of the mind is just this tiny virtuality. So, I'm sure all of us have had the experience of being like, um, you know, you're you're somewhere like Yellowstone National Park and you know, you or one of your friends is like stuck on their phone, like reading some social media. There's this great word in Hungarian and I'll pronounce it wrong because every word, I can't pronounce it, Hungarian, but um it's something like 'egérmozi', which means 'mouse theater'.
So you're stuck on your mouse theater and here's this whole world happening, right? And it's like someone's just missing the entire experience because they're like, you know, stuck in mouse theater and that's just such an obvious version of this. But the non-obvious version is that the rest of us are doing the same damn thing, just in the mouse theater in your head. Right, like, just I'm stuck into whatever loops are going. Again, all of which is fine. It's just funny because you don't have to do that. That's just a choice and after a while it's almost more of a habit and maybe after a while, even more of like an addiction.
But it's the only, that little thing of like I just prefer to watch the mouse theater in my head all day. That's the only thing, uh, at all, it's that simple keeping you from experiencing like, vast halls of freedom and love and presence, which are there immediately when you aren't focused on that.
Immediately. It's there the whole time, it's just you're just not paying attention to it. And so, one of my main teachers used to say, you know, you've got this giant banquet being prepared for you. Every day, this gorgeous sumptuous banquet, and you just forget to eat it every single day. Because you like, don't notice that it's there. You know, it's just like the food is just on the table, dig in! And you're just like, I'm busy with mouse theater, you know, you're just not engaging. And you know, that would be kind of sad on some level, but it's so much worse than that because the virtual world is just basically just awful. I don't mean the internet but I mean, inside the thoughts. It's pretty much a terrible place to be. And it's tight and judgy and fixated on all kinds of pain and suffering. And yet we're choosing on purpose to connect with it continuously, continuously continuously continuously continuously, who knows why.
Just because we aren't normally trained to not do that. And in fact, we are normally trained to do that. So, it's not just that it's like, hey, you're missing the banquet. It's like, and you're eating glass and barbed wire. On purpose. And so you might want to not do that. Maybe. And it's funny because if I if I invite people to not do that, they will fight and fight and fight to do it. And me too, you know, um, for a long time, but it's like there's this image. And somewhere I learned it somewhere in India, it's just a super intense image. But it's very compelling and that is, being stuck on that is like being a dog, this is a terrible image, I'm sorry it's kind of a horrible image. A dog that's eating broken glass and thinks it's so delicious because it tastes like blood.
[…]
That's what this engagement with that is like. It's like, we think we need it. And that it's important, and it's like, no, it's just hurting you, you know. So I invite you to begin to extinguish that habit, extinguish that training, extinguish that super tense fist in the core of your head that you're doing all the time. And it doesn't again don't fight it because that's just another super tense fist. It's like you just keep relaxing that thing. Because if you're not making it tight on purpose all the time, it will relax. It will relax. Because naturally it's open, naturally it's present, naturally it's wide awake.
So it's not even that hard. It's just, we have a long habit of not relaxing it. So you know if you've kept the muscle tense for a long time, sometimes it just wants to stay tense. And needs some very gentle, very kind, very compassionate, soothing kind of coaxing to open it back up. And that might even at first be a little painful, right? It's not used to range of motion anymore, so you've got to be really gentle about it. If you try to jam it open then it just hurts.
And again, just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with thinking. That's a perfectly hobby. I mean, perfect obvious thing, right? That we need to do that, that that's very powerful, helpful, useful, as a tool that we use, but not as something that we're stuck inside. Imagine, you know, like your car is really useful to have but imagine if you then thought I am my car and you just never get out. And you imagine you're somehow, skin welded to the seat and you just can't get out. Now it's a prison and just makes you start to suffer.
So this is an invitation to recognize that you're already free of that. You aren't stuck in it.
Hi
RRREEEEEEEEEAAAMMM 🧘
Hreem
@ That explains why I am so low on energy
What if your body is exhausted? I want to meditate but sometimes it turns into sleep.
Then sleep, and return to meditation afterwards
If you’re actually tired, then sleep.