(soft piano music)
- With people, you know,
so I do a lot of stuff where
I've got 10 minutes, you know,
and someone who has no background at all
with any personal growth thing
is like, (rumbles)
"The world's falling apart, what can help?"
You know, and so people really appreciate
quick and dirty little practices,
which actually can open into something profound,
like the Buddhist teaching to Bahiya, you know,
in the seen let there be only the seen.
And so lately,
one thing I've found myself from time to time
just as a framing device,
deal with the bad, turn to the good, take in the good.
That's a structure.
Another structure that I think is helpful for people is,
let be, let go, let in,
where if the mind is like a garden,
we can witness it,
pull weeds, and plant flowers.
That's another framing device.
You may have heard that one in particular
from me in the past
if you've read anything from me.
Another one lately is just,
slow down,
breathe,
see the big picture.
Right?
So for me is very relevant
to people dealing with very practical issues.
And I also make a point,
quick side bar,
that's it's not either or.
In other words,
we can both deal with the challenges around us
and inside us,
deal with the bad for real,
and help other people,
protect other people,
and all the rest of that,
while also appreciating what is still working
inside ourselves and in other people,
and internalize that.
We can do that.
And also appreciating
that as we grow resources that are inside ourselves,
we become more able to deal with challenges.
So it's not framed as either or,
personal or political,
it's political and personal.
The two together.
As the political improves,
as conditions in the world improve,
that supports individual wellbeing.
And as individual wellbeing increases,
people become more resilient and
typically pro social.
Not always but (laughs)
typically they become kinder and more generous to others
when their own interior, you know, lifts.
Right?
So they go together.
So I say that.
And then of all that,
lately this thing about
see the big picture,
feel your body as a whole,
you know, just like you said
drop into the sense kathunk
as the whole, the gestalt crump,
with a little sense of self,
that is a fantastic practice.
And that has been really foregrounding for me
a lot recently in my own practice,
to go out into things as a whole.
And this is a teaching that others have offered,
and I don't, you know,
it's not original with me,
but boy have I come to appreciate its priority.
You know, to go into the sense of your body as a whole,
the room as a whole,
your mind as a whole,
the room as a whole,
lifting your gaze to the horizon.
Little detail,
when the gaze is closer to us,
we tend to be more egocentric,
going to that riff with Stephanie there
about self, not self,
you know, it's the unicorn,
and all the rest of that.
And understandably,
'cause when in the wild
as our ancestors lived and evolved,
if it was close,
it was a friend,
you know, it was a threat or an opportunity,
or maybe someone to mate with let's say,
or just be with,
and if it was farther away,
it was less immediately personally relevant.
So if you lift your gaze out to the horizon,
or above the horizon,
that reduces activity of egocentric perceptual framing.
It's less self referential,
and you can just watch it within a few breaths.
You lift your gaze out,
you look out a window,
or you just imagine the sky of mind,
or the bird's eye view,
or big picture,
(snaps fingers) you just notice really fast
less sense of self,
less suffering,
more sense of things as a whole,
more information coming in about the big picture,
and like you are saying there Mike, kathunk,
you can sometimes just feel that gestalt,
(whooshes breath) unification of mind.
You know, as Sean knows,
and maybe others as well,
one of the factors of the Dhyanas
in the Buddhist tradition of deep, wise concentration,
these non ordinary states of consciousness,
one of the factors of them traditionally,
is the sense of singleness of mind,
or unification of consciousness.
Which has the quality you were describing there Mike,
of kathunk,
things coming together.
And so it seems to me also that
as we train in the sense of things as a whole,
you know, the chest as a whole,
the body as a whole,
the room as a whole,
the universe as a whole, you know.
Look at some of those Hubble pictures.
- [Host] (chuckles) Yeah.
- You know, that can potentially foster and strengthen.
'Cause you stimulate neural circuitry,
you strengthen neural circuitry,
especially with repetition,
going to what Brian and I were talking about.
And so, as we develop again and again
that sense of the whole,
that might prime or develop that factor
of singleness of mind,
unification of consciousness,
which in turn could make these non ordinary,
profound,
illuminating,
liberating,
states of being
more available to us.
- [Host] Thank you Rick.