[Meditation bell]
So I like to share what I think is really the good news,
which is that awakening is the beginning
of the path.
Some people have this idea that it's somehow the end.
That's kind of -- I understand what they mean when they say that.
It's sort of, once you realized your essential nature,
there's a very big shift in perspective that happens.
But then life really begins right then.
In fact, each moment is a beginning.
Natural well-being is, every moment is a beginning, is new.
It isn't overlaid with the projections of our mind and our heart
and our body.
We're free of conclusions, anticipation,
And in that alive stillness, there's a connectedness that can actually even be seen or felt.
For many people. Not everyone.
People perceive this in many ways, actually.
And I'm sure as many of you have heard me share before--
but again, I think it's worth repeating-- is that
everybody's unfoldment is completely unique.
The essence of that unfoldment, the fuel that feeds the fire, is essentially
universal. This presence is universal.
But how it moves through a nervous system, how it
heals one and transforms one, is very unique to an individual.
Therefore the other good news is, you don't have to follow anybody.
In fact, you can't. It's not possible to follow someone else's unfoldment.
You can benefit from
what they learned, you can benefit from their aliveness,
if they're living in that presence, certainly.
But the real goal is to find out,
right now, every moment, whatever you
decide you want to find out-- how to let it unfold right now.
How to let that natural well-being permeate your life .
And, actually, guide you.
Into a place that's really more trusting,
Without knowing what the answer is.
Without gripping the steering wheel.
So it's really about how to live this life as well as possible, really.
Because we all, depending on our individual circumstances, have
a huge range of life challenges.
You know, some very difficult, overwhelmingly difficult.
And others really quite wonderful at times, wonderful and fulfilling.
Hopefully we have at least a mixed bag.
[Laughter]
Freedom is the high without the drugs.
But freedom is not an altered state.
Freedom is real happiness.
And when you discover it and you cultivate it,
it just grows and expands,
and gets more wonderful, actually. More loving.
You kind of get higher. Don't worry, you're getting it.
It's permeable. You can't not get it.
You don't get it up here. Maybe you do-- that's fine.
That's cool.
That's not important. This is, if you want to get in anywhere, it's here.
Drop down a couple floors to the heart.
And just check in there. Are you happy right now? Are you sad? Are you tired?
Do you want a hug? I didn't bring the bunny, but... [Laughter]
Give yourself, you know, some tenderness, ok?
And just trust that you're getting it. That this field here has a kind of ...
it's permeable. We can't not unfold into that which we really are.
Suffering is resisting that.
Brother David told me once that the actual literal definition of sin,
was to be out of grace,
to be disconnected. That's really what it was,
not some behavioral thing,
external thing. It was a deeper understanding.
So even if you're disconnected right now, even if you're feeling separate or isolated or in pain,
can you just meet what's happening
with some kindness and gentleness and acceptance? Just see what it's like to not struggle for a minute.
Take a break from struggling, if you can.
People often don't even know they're struggling. "I'm fine!"
[Laughter]
The good news is, it doesn't matter whether you're fine or not fine. You're still getting it.
Even if you don't think you're getting it, even if you don't believe you're getting it,
even if you don't feel it ....
How can you not be what you are?
I mean, that's, well basically, it's just plain illogical. [Laughter]
It doesn't even make sense. I'm a very simple guy, believe it or not.
Like my grandmother said, "Common sense." I love that word. She used to say, "It's common sense.
Have we lost common sense?" I think so.
Maybe that's what we need to call it: "Regaining common sense in the land of enlightenment--
the practical guide to freedom." Ok.
We're gonna rewrite the title. Let the publisher know.
So if you're aware of this openness I'm referring to, this presence,
or some kind of quality of just finding a kind of ease
today, go with that.
Follow your ease.
Follow your opening, your openness.
Welcome the opening. You may just notice all of the sudden, "Wow, something's expanding!"
Expand. Don't think, "I've got to think about that," or, "What is he saying?" -- forget that.
[Laughter] Go with the expansion. That's what it means
to get a calling. Did you ever hear that? "I had a calling."
You know, to find God.
That's what it means. Your natural opening is becoming conscious.
Just follow that. That's the real truth. That's the real teaching. It's within you.
And let it permeate every cell in your body.
Let it nourish and nurture all those parts of you that are sore and hungry.
Okay?
Because this presence is healing. And it may even produce a healing response in you while you're here today.
It can activate those things which have been unseen, unfelt, unexpressed.
So, you may get a little bit of cathartic movement.
And that's fine. That's very normal, natural in an environment that's a little more amplified with presence.
With energy like this is here.
So if you start to feel agitated or like you want to get out of here, that means something's moving within you.
Something's trying to open up.
Something's trying to become seen, felt, heard, released.
Healed, integrated. Let it!
That's why patience is so important.
The process, the organic process through this body, is not quick.
It's usually gradual. Because our nervous systems, our tissues, are organic living tissues.
It takes awhile for the nervous system to integrate more energy, more light,
more presence. So be grateful it's not too fast.
People want it like this, you know. [Snaps fingers]
That is so not what you want. There's alot of wreckage on that highway. [Laughter]
There is. I've been around a long time. I've seen it, first hand, close up.
No. Be grateful you're screwed up and not happy. [Laughter]
That's not what I meant. I was just kidding. [Laughter]
I was just being bad. [Hits his wrist] "Bad teacher.
Go back to your room!" [Laughter]
That's terrible. So if you feel like you're, "I'm just the slowest one and I'm never getting it."
"Everyone else is getting enlightened."
"Yeah, I go to these retreats, and there are so many people getting enlightened."
"It's really bugging me."
"Maybe I should take ayahuasca after all."
"Screw it. I wanna get high." [Laughter]
Oh, no. Be grateful it's not too quick.
It's gradual. It's organic.
It's ecological. It really is.
If you have this pressure, of saying, " Gee, I'd better get enlightened. Otherwise, I'm running out of time."
Or whatever. I hear that from people.
Or, "Ive only got so many years left."
"I've been sitting on my cushion for forty year or fifty years, and it's..." You know. [sighs]
Maybe it would be wonderful just to let go of this idea of time and getting something.
Wouldn't it be nice just to...
today, maybe that would be a goal, is to not care anymore.
"What are you talking about? You think we paid fifty bucks just to come and not care?"
Or sixty, or whatever it is? "You're kidding. I care a lot."
"It's insulting!" [Laughter]
Definitely the wrong teacher. [Laughter]
[From a participant:] "You're so funny today. You're always funny, but ..."
Jon: I'm sorry, it's lack of sleep! And then sugar. [Laughter]
It's a really great combination.
Ah. I'm just trying to lighten you up a little bit.
That's my big goal in life. Not take it seriously.
I used to be so serious about all this.
I was, you know, it makes me cry thinking about how serious I was.
Seriously!
That's funny! [Laughter]
Breaking my back and my knees on my cushion, you know. Not moving like a ramrod.
I had alot of really rigid beliefs about it.
That's okay. Those will all dissolve.
It's really nice to rest in nothing's happening.
Have you ever had a taste of that? It's a special kind of food. [sighs]
That's the food that nourishes very deeply.
I think when we were talking earlier about well-being, it's ...
I think part of the quality, part of what well-being is, is being nourished.
Feeling nourished and nurtured.
Kind of held by the loving heart of the universe or something.
The Divine Mother.
I remember when I was first becoming quite familiar with presence--
And I was-- in those days I was meditating alot.
It was my lifestyle, my profession.
I was a professional meditator.
As my grandmother said, "What kind of a living is the Zen center?" [Laughter]
You were right, Grandma. I should have gone into tech. [Laughter]
When I was getting used to presence,
I began-- I often felt like I was floating on my back.
When I was meditating-- just this amazing feeling of like, floating.
Have you ever felt that? Where you're just, like you just lean back and you're just floating in this weightless softness.
I think many people find their way here because they want to feel nourished and nurtured.
And have a sense of real .. full well being. You know? Unconditional well-being.
That isn't reliant upon all the ducks lining up.
They rarely do. And when they do, some of them act out a little bit.
It's hard to keep those ducks in a row.
But I think in Zen they call it "Way-seeking mind."
I think even the Buddha said,
the one thing it's okay to want is freedom.
I mean, it helps you stay on the path, so to speak. It keeps you going
in a way -- the promise of liberation.
And I think when you get a glimpse of the truth, or a taste of the truth--presence.
That is profoundly motivating to keep going.
I think it's a natural homing device of our own nature--
is to want to come back to home ground.
So in that sense, I think seeking is completely natural and very much a part of the process .
There's a whole other kind of thing that's called seeking
that I think is a kind of grasping,
and clutching, that actually can be in the way.
That's different. So I think you can make a distinction between a kind of
wanting that's not getting in the way, and one that is getting in the way.
I think anything-- my litmus test, on anything like that,
whether it's doing practices, or therapies, or whatever, is--
even how you're paying attention in this moment--
is how you're paying attention allowing opening, or allowing a kind of contraction?
And in my book, if it's allowing opening, its working.
And I think seeking, another word for that, in some sense, is a kind of longing.
I think people have a deep longing in their heart for freedom.
And many of us have been on the path a long time.
You know--in this life, maybe other lives-- who knows?
I think that longing is something that you can trust, be grateful for.
Because it's-- we know deeply that being realigned with our deep self is
very much a part of what being alive and being a human being is about.
Rather than some kind of-- having the perspective that
somehow, I'm gonna I'm gonna make it happen. That's the kind of seeking that will get you really attached.
And maybe even deluded, actually. You know?
"I'm gonna do it. I'm going to get enlightened."
That's okay for sometimes-- I guess, whatever it takes. Maybe it does take that. I don't know.
In the Eightfold Path, it wouldn't be under the listing of Right Effort. [Laughter]
Yeah. You know the Eightfold Path? It's good stuff-- if you understand it. [Laughter]
I'll give you a quick Buddhist lecture if you don't know, okay?
This is a real quick, scaled-down version.
Two minutes. Buddhism in two minutes.
Well, Buddha discovered that life is suffering, right?
And he said, there's a cause of suffering.
It's not wanting what you have, and wanting what you don't have.
Even getting what you want and then losing it. Those are all sources of suffering.
I added a few more things to that list, but...
And that there's an end to suffering, and it's the Eightfold Path.
Right Effort, Right Livlihood, blah blah. So that's it. That was less than two minutes. [Laughter]
Right Effort is what we've been talking about today.
It's about being fully present without interfering.
Not detached, but actually embracing without clutching.
So that you find the spacious awareness
that nourishes and nurtures the human condition,
and is the perspective of awareness itself.
That is, compassionate itself.
And that allows the human to heal, and that allows the light to shine.
And the heart to open.
[Meditation bell]