Always thinking
 

Hi.

I'm just going to say the same things I always say, but in a different way. There's nothing new here.

The way I talk about meditation isn't special experiences. It's the truth just as you experience it right now. I understand everyone wants something special, but this meditation will not work that way because it is the cessation of want.

It is essentially a simple satisfaction with what's true, but we tend to find we generate quite a lot of tension and agitation. We don't want to double that aversion by regarding our agitations disfavourably. We just recognise, this is how I generate my own disatisfaction. No opinion. Simple fact.

This is an exploration for discovery. The truth just means you discover what really happens to be there (and what isn't there), and I think we get the sense from nature that allows a reasonable expectation that such discoveries will be... ummm... fulfilling.

What is directly perceptible is the truth as you experience it, and being present where 'this is what it's like' is how you know. It's very interesting to be, like, Let's see what happens next.

I like that Gem. Being present in your life as it IS rather than as you want it to be or as it should be. To simply accept and acknowledge what is. :smile:

Yes this is a huge lesson in not desiring anything but being with what is.

The most difficult part is often once you’ve had a lot of bells and whistles, profound experiences (as you perceive) when everything settles, it can as I learned, become a bit of a let down, when it’s integrated into less. It’s so easy to get trapped in wanting more of those kind of experiences.

I like the more spontaneous moments now. The unexpected ones that meet you.

Last night,I joined in with a group meditation and I was sitting outside in nature under the full moon in Tasmania and in the presence of all this, let myself be still and everything around me was calm and very quiet.

During the meditation, a great gust of wind swirled through me and the space I sat. I had my hands cupped in my lap. I felt something land in my hands. After the meditation I looked down and there in my hand was a dried gum leaf, perfectly cocooned..


(Most of my meditation group would signal this as something profound, interpreting it into something. For me it was allowing, being present with myself and that moment, without interpretation of what just was.)

Indeed, JustBe. Just last night, I was pleasantly surprised as deepening silence ushered into my right ear, sublime music of the spheres, to heart’s delight! Who can tell, how our soft whispers in the void choose to manifest?

I often find delight in simply watching things unfold. The way things happen in my life. It's always surprising, and often delightful. That both pleases and amazes me - makes me giggle actually. It's like a dance or a song. "I hear the song and sing along" It's so wonderful to feel myself in that flow. :hug:

Indeed..
Ones own private dance/song manifesting in delightful ways ..

I like the story about the gum leaf because it's not a particularly special experience, but nonetheless profound and memorable. It's just you don't return to meditation the next day and yearn that a leaf will fall in your hand again, more leaves than last time, and try to make that happen. Often for meditators, a deep experience will happen and the meditator starts trying to make it happen again, for it to be even more next time. I think we just can just take for granted that meditation will quieten down the mind and thus leave more space.

I you take your seat and just feel the air, you can discern, 'am I making it feel this way or is this just what it's like'. I'd say it is fairly obvious that it just feels a certain way and I don't make it feel that way. If there we were to climb a big mountain there are two ways of considering the climb. The first is willful - I will do what it takes to scale it. The second is willing - I'm willing to endure anything to get to the top. These are different attitudes, and in meditation, I believe the 'come what may' approach is key.

No one made that gum leave happen.

You know it's very predictable. We already know the person is going to say 'something like this' because they always say the same sorts of things. We come here already knowing. There is a tradition that you take off you shoes at the temple door. There's a lot of hogwash about a sign of respect and all that, but it really means don't bring the outside in. Leave it at the door.

I remember a guy that used to irritate me because he went about barefoot. Then he had nothing to take off at the door.

Irritated your sole? Haha

I remember a poem my brother wrote before he died about ‘the crossing’ ..

I can’t recall the exact wording but I just remember.. it was all about travelling light, offloading the baggage before you get to the other side. It won’t serve the next journey..symbolic to any which way you view this tale.