Most of the problems reside in your mind, so if you are able to become more present,
then you access a higher or deeper
dimension of consciousness and to become more present
you have to be able to step out of your mind without losing consciousness.
Well, what I say now, if your mind says it’s not going to work,
don't believe what your mind says, just try what I'm saying now.
So become more fully conscious of the present moment right now,
because that's all there ever is, your entire life is experienced
and unfolds in the present moment. So come into the present moment,
be aware of your breathing, feel the aliveness inside your body,
and if you don't know what I mean,
usually I advise people to close their eyes, hold their hand like this and ask themselves,
“without looking at my hand or moving my hand, how can I know whether my hand is still there?”
That question requires you to direct attention into your hand,
and then after a few seconds, you'll probably feel a little
bit of tingling or aliveness in your hand. That is the beginning of being able to feel
what I call the inner body, this is the energy field
that pervades every cell in the body. You can start with the hands,
then you feel your legs, your feet, your hands simultaneously,
and then you incorporate the totality of your body,
and so your attention is moved from your mind, you've taken consciousness into the body.
You're now inhabiting your body consciously. It's a very, very lovely feeling,
and you’ll notice that you're no longer thinking very much, you can't.
And all the problems that you have to a large extent
were created by dysfunctional thinking
and the emotions that accompany dysfunctional thinking.
Most of the problems reside in your mind, so if you are able to become more present,
then you access a higher or deeper dimension of consciousness.
And to become more present, you have to be able to step out of
your mind without losing consciousness. Become as present as you can,
also present of sense perceptions, it is very important.
Sense perceptions can also bring you into the present moment,
an expression you could use is, “come to your senses”,
in both meanings of the expression. Come to your senses, look around,
consciously take everything in without the labeling,
needing to label it mentally”. And then you're aware of your surroundings,
you're aware of your inner energy field, you’re in the present moment.
And in the present moment there's no problem,
there's an emergency sometimes, yes, then you have to act,
but if it's not an emergency, there is no problem. Then your ability to deal with your
so-called problems becomes much greater,
if you're able to access the power of your presence.
Then when you choose to deal with your problem say,
“OK, now apply focused thought, what can I do?” Then you return to presence.
So you are always going, thinking, learn what presence is,
it's there, it's the kingdom of heaven is at hand, it's right here, it's right here,
don't look for it elsewhere. A lot of the unhappiness in one's life,
the Buddha called it Dhokra suffering, he says every human suffers
unless they have awakened. And a lot of the suffering is
not due to your life circumstances, although most people think it is,
the larger part of your suffering is due to your mental commentary about your
life circumstances. Your mind is telling
you something that creates the unhappiness. Even you can test it out in a simple situation,
you're in line somewhere, you get irritated, it's taking too long, you're waiting,
you get very angry and irritated, then experiment,
“how would I experience this situation without adding any thought to it?”
“If I didn't add any thoughts to this moment?” But you were not unhappy because you had to wait,
you were unhappy because of the narrative in your mind.
So there are millions of people who carry very toxic narratives in their mind and
they call it my life. The message is,
wake up, wake up out of complete identification with your mind.
And so that's the ultimate purpose in life, is to awaken.