April 2nd, 2006
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A talk about impermanence.
Mentioned that pain comes when we try to hold on to things that can’t be held onto: relationships, jobs, hopes. In holding onto those ideas, we are not free to appreciate the true quality of being. We aren’t able to appreciate that everything is change. We try to create a ground where there isn’t one.
Because everything is change, because everything is impermanent, time becomes obvious. Of course we can work in time. Stillness isn’t as obvious. Understanding stillness will be the next evolutionary step for humans.
Mentioned the saying "what can be seen dies, and what can’t be seen is eternal." The eternal part is the quality of change that is underneath all forms, the energy of isness. What can be seen is all the forms: landscape, bodies, things – they all change, they all die. When we identify with "change" – or the energy underneath the forms – we identify with our own eternal being. Again, eternal isn’t an endless amount of time, it is the absence of time.
I talk about how stillness *is* motion, and a time based mind is stuck. This is the paradox of change. You would think a time based mind has motion and a still mind is stuck, but that isn’t the case.
A still person stays with the motion of change – the change within this moment. A stuck person stays with events in history. Identifying with the experience of change is what being still means. Getting stuck on events as they go by is living in time. Staying in this moment is the appreciation of "change" and staying in a time based mind is not moving with what is. That’s why we can say stillness is motion (or the appreciation of it), and time based minds are stuck (in past events and hopes of the future).
March 5th, 2006
This is an advanced talk. Many people may find this content weird, but I’m serious when I say that the world is your body. We’re trying to learn to look at the world differently. This is very literally a different way to look at the world. It’s a shift in consciousness.
Normal subject/object consciousness has ego and self boundaries involved with it. It’s important that we don’t look at these ideas from a place of self. We need to drop self to understand these ideas.
Subject and object aren’t separate. The act of listening, seeing, tasting, hearing, feeling can’t occur without both the subject and the object. That being the case, the actual act of sensation is the real content, and the parties involved are only ideas. The listening, as an example, *IS* the thing that’s going on. When we learn to dive into experience on that level we widen our perception of ourselves, and the world. Our experience is further out than we thought. We start to realize that we are larger than we thought.
Another point to understand is that we become, literally, whatever we focus on. When we see a sunset, we are the sunset. When we think a thought, we are that thought. When we hear a car horn, we are the car horn. The reason most of us don’t feel that way is because we are too busy bouncing from thought to experience to thought, etc. to realize any content deeply enough. This understanding is a new way of approaching things, but it allows for many freedoms.
What are the benefits of these ideas? An unchecked ego is the basis for all of our pain. This is another way, or facet, to understand dropping the ego. It’s another way to describe a new way of being. This will allow us to be filled with what is: sunsets, car horns, stillness, joy.
The practice is to realize that you are not a separate thing. You are an integral part of the greater whole. You are necessary to the process of life. Everything you hear, taste, smell, see, and feel shows you a wider self. That horn down the street is you. That breeze is you. You are vast. Realize it. Imagine, as a side benefit, how respectful we’ll be of the world once we realize it’s us.
Lastly, realizing that your body is the world quickly allows us to relate to the idea of “oneness of being” that all great philosophies speak of. This understanding is a way to realize that oneness.
Show music: La Bella Monterosa by Sahnas
January 29th, 2006
How can we “achieve” when stillness seems to oppose goals, the future, etc.?
Mentioned that many people were interested in this talk. That seems to be because we are much more interested in how the achieve things, rather than being interested in stillness. However, that misses the point. We need to learn stillness first.
Three things this talk tries to accomplish: Show that there can be stillness in motion. Discuss the seeming paradox of stillness vs. accomplishment. And I’m hoping to point out that bringing stillness to actions we perform allows for the best performance possible, in all things.
Discuss what stillness is. It is a mind free of time. It is a quiet mind. It is the expression of meditation in action.
Why are goals okay? Doesn’t that contradict with being “free of time?” Literally it does contradict. Having intention is a sane goal. That differs from having an obsessed mind, bent on achievement. Time exists on some levels, but not all levels. It is always this moment. However, the practical aspects of life remain.
What is excellence? Our exterior is a reflection of our interior. When we change internally, that change will begin to show itself in our achievements and outer life. Sports figures talk of “being in the zone” when referring to peak performance states. The zone is achieved when we pay attention to the process rather than the outcome of a situation. It is the focus on the moment fully that allows for our best performance. When we are “still” our entire brain and being can be put to work toward our goal. Simply put, we perform better at everything when we are present with what we are doing.
Discussed what being present feels like by telling a story about my plants. Mentioned ways to begin bringing stillness to achievement through watering those plants. Also discussed that stillness can be an attribute of anything we do, no matter how complex.
Stillness is the goal, so it better allow for goals. Achieving stillness in motion will be the beginning of a new way of being for you, and the world. As an immediate side bonus, our performance in all things will increase as we learn stillness in motion.
Referenced: Eckhart Tolle
