Transcript:
[00:00:00] Okay, so should we do a session?  
[00:00:05] Okay, so let's refresh a little bit about the methodology just so you remember.  
[00:00:10] And again, I'll guide the process, okay?  
[00:00:13] So you want to get a good comfortable posture where you're stable,  
[00:00:16] feeling kind of solid but not rigid.  
[00:00:19] You want to kind of have your eyes cast down 45 degrees to some extent.  
[00:00:23] We'll start with just taking three deep in-breaths into any over-tension or stress you have in your body.  
[00:00:35] We'll begin to balance the body and mind and then we'll move into just doing subtle in the body in its natural state.  
[00:00:46] Okay, and I'll guide through the methodology and we'll get into, maybe we'll do like a 20-minute session  
[00:00:52] and then we'll get into subtle in the speech a little bit as well.  
[00:00:55] Just some subtle in the speech in its natural state and tactile sensation in the abdomen.  
[00:01:02] Okay.  
[00:01:53] Okay.  
[00:01:54] When I called  
[00:02:02] when I called  
[00:02:03] Okay, so let's start.  
[00:03:03] So you can begin with three very slow, deep in-breaths into any overt tension or stress  
[00:03:22] you might have in your life.  
[00:03:29] Breathe in the relaxation rather, breathe out the tension.  
[00:04:23] So remembering to breathe naturally as you do when you sleep.  
[00:04:28] In the in-breath the abdomen expands, in the out-breath it contracts.  
[00:04:34] Begin the body scan.  
[00:04:39] Moving from the very top of your scalp, slightly systematically down the length of the body.  
[00:04:47] Everywhere the scan touches it brings relaxation.  
[00:04:54] The forehead becomes smooth, eyes are soft, mouth is relaxed in its natural position,  
[00:05:04] like a half upturned smile.  
[00:05:09] Jaw is relaxed.  
[00:05:12] Slowly down the length of the body.  
[00:05:39] The forehead is relaxed.  
[00:05:42] The mouth is relaxed.  
[00:05:45] The eyes are open.  
[00:05:48] The nose is open.  
[00:05:51] The mouth is open.  
[00:05:54] The eyes are open.  
[00:05:57] The mouth is open.  
[00:06:00] The nose is open.  
[00:06:03] The mouth is open.  
[00:06:36] The mouth is open.  
[00:06:39] The eyes are open.  
[00:06:42] The mouth is open.  
[00:06:45] The eyes are open.  
[00:06:48] The mouth is open.  
[00:06:51] The eyes are open.  
[00:06:54] The mouth is open.  
[00:06:57] Now with the body relaxed, move into balancing the mind.  
[00:07:03] Check the quality of your mind.  
[00:07:06] If it is fragmented and racing, breathe in relaxation.  
[00:07:11] If it is lax, sleepy, drowsy, breathe in awakeness.  
[00:07:19] Bring the mind to balance.  
[00:07:34] Now with the body relaxed, move into balancing the mind.  
[00:07:39] If it is fragmented and racing, breathe in relaxation.  
[00:07:43] If it is lax, sleepy, breathe in awakeness.  
[00:07:47] Bring the mind to balance.  
[00:07:50] If it is lax, sleepy, breathe in awakeness.  
[00:07:53] Now with the body relaxed, move into balancing the mind.  
[00:08:28] If it is lax, sleepy, breathe in awakeness.  
[00:08:33] Now with the body unbalanced, move into the first stage.
[00:08:59] So move behind this natural state.  
[00:09:04] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:09:21] You can feel your feet against the floor.  
[00:09:25] Air moving across the skin in your arms.  
[00:09:28] Feeling the respiration in your abdomen, throat, nose, and mouth.  
[00:09:55] Let your attention rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:10:08] Let your attention rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:10:38] Let your attention rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:11:08] Let your attention rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:11:38] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judgments, beliefs, listening, seeing, recognize that you've become distracted,  
[00:12:01] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:12:31] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:12:48] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:13:08] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:13:23] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:13:38] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:13:53] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:14:23] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:14:50] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:15:15] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:15:30] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:15:50] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:16:10] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:16:30] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:16:50] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:17:10] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:17:30] returning attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:17:50] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:18:10] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:18:30] If you've become caught up and identified in thinking, feeling, having opinions, judging, recognizing that you've become distracted,  
[00:18:50] Make sure no tension and stress have returned. If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:19:20] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:19:50] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:20:20] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:20:50] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:21:20] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:21:50] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.
[00:22:20] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:22:50] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:23:10] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:23:40] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:24:10] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:24:40] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:25:10] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:25:40] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:26:10] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:26:40] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:27:00] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:27:24] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:27:54] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:28:22] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:28:52] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:29:16] If your mind is having trouble settling, you may count the breath. Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:29:46] This is kind of a Buddhist point, right? You're just misperceiving. You don't understand who you are. You're not seeing it clearly.  
[00:29:55] As you start seeing it more clearly, you'll feel better. It's not some kind of magic. It's just really pretty straightforward.  
[00:30:08] So once you separate yourself from all that crazy activity in the mind, it stops. Eventually, it will stop being all that crazy activity.  
[00:30:18] Yeah, it calms down after a while. It's kind of like if, because the reason it's so fragmented and crazy is because I've been reinforcing that.  
[00:30:27] I've been giving it energy over and over and over and over again. And as William James said, the consummate original American psychologist, William James at Harvard in the 1890s, he was controversial—people didn't know what he was talking about.  
[00:30:44] And he said, belief and attention are the same fact. For the moment, what we attend to becomes reality. Belief and attention are the same fact. And for the moment, what we attend to becomes reality.  
[00:31:00] What you pay attention to becomes real. And so if you're constantly identified with and all cut up in all of this chaos, you are paying attention to it. To the extent that you are running from it and insisting it should not be there and trying to kill it and change it or just get away from it.  
[00:31:20] And whatever it is—loneliness, depression, helplessness, powerlessness—you are paying attention to it. And it gets bigger.  
[00:31:30] So if you can have mindful intention and place your attention on it, then that's probably where you're going to go.  
[00:31:36] Yeah, the difference would be just attending to the afflictive emotion. Just being present with it without needing to add or subtract anything. Just like looking, observing in a connected way actually has the function of letting that thing, that depression, that loneliness, that powerlessness, kind of do what it always will do if you get out of the way. It will rise and fall away.
[00:32:02] It's only like depression becomes chronic and long term and really intense and bigger and deeper because we're like this with it. We're grasping onto it. How are we grasping onto it? We hate it. We cannot tolerate it. We're running in the other direction.  
[00:32:18] And we're either doing that or we're totally head first in it. Just like caught up in it. Totally identified with it. Drowning in it. We believe it's who we are. Or we're headed in the other direction. I cannot do this. I cannot feel this. I refuse to do it.  
[00:32:37] Maybe I'll drink. Maybe I'll do a lot of drugs. I've got to get out of it somehow. Either way, you're like totally paying attention to it. You're reinforcing it. Whereas mindfulness is more just like attending to the depression. Instead of "I am depressed," you would be experiencing a depressed mood. And you would recognize that it's this one mood among many that you will experience that way.  
[00:33:02] But to be here, you have to be in the present moment, right?  
[00:33:05] Of course. What else?  
[00:33:07] Otherwise, you run away with it in the future and the past.  
[00:33:11] So it's the same way that you can watch your mind be all crazy and fragmented. You can watch your emotions do what they do and it allows for that change to happen.  
[00:33:21] I'll tell you, you're kind of getting out of the way, right?  
[00:33:23] So, I mean, it's like one of my teachers did this and it's a good way to exemplify.  
[00:33:29] I was very angry. I went to have an audience with him.  
[00:33:35] And he's like a very high lama, you know, so it's like a big deal to get to sit down with him kind of thing.  
[00:33:41] And so I was sitting with him and I was really pissed that day. I was just really pissed off.  
[00:33:46] And I couldn't shake it. I couldn't work with it. It was just like, I don't even remember what it was about.  
[00:33:54] So I was sitting there and I had this opportunity with this guy who's really kind of a realized personality.  
[00:34:00] And I realized I was wasting this opportunity, being all caught up in this afflictive stuff that was really distracting me from being present with him.  
[00:34:09] And that started to make me feel crappy about myself even more than I already did.  
[00:34:13] And I started spinning. And so I just like, I stopped and I said, you know, I'm really overwhelmed right now.  
[00:34:20] And I'm just kind of spinning and spiraling in anger and I don't know what to do about that.  
[00:34:24] And he said, okay, so he got up and he like took my hand and we walked. There was a door to the outside.  
[00:34:32] And we walked outside and he said, he points up and I said, yeah, what?  
[00:34:39] And the sky is there, right? And he goes, like project your anger into the sky.  
[00:34:46] He's like, just look into the sky and see how long you can stay angry.  
[00:34:51] I said, what the hell are you talking about? I wasn't trying to hear that mystical Buddhist crap, right?  
[00:34:58] I wanted a real solution, right? So he's like, just try it.  
[00:35:02] So I did. So it was the first time I ever did this. I looked up into the sky and it was impossible to be angry.  
[00:35:12] It didn't take long. It was maybe 10 seconds.  
[00:35:16] And why was that? Because anger is very myopic, right?  
[00:35:20] It needs to be very focused and claustrophobic and contained and to not see any other perspectives.  
[00:35:27] And it needs an object of blame in order to sustain itself.  
[00:35:31] And like when you're looking into that kind of spaciousness, it's just, it's impossible.  
[00:35:38] You can't do it. And he told me, he looked at me and he said, like, your mind is like the sky, right?  
[00:35:44] And I started to be able to connect to what he was talking about.  
[00:35:48] Is that the same like what I've heard for people that are depressed?  
[00:35:52] If they smile, if you have them smile, it's harder to be depressed.  
[00:35:57] Yeah, little tricks like that, physical tricks can work and can be useful.
[00:36:03] Yeah, same ballpark.  
[00:36:12] Okay, is this a, what time is it? 1:30?  
[00:36:16] No, 12? Okay.  
[00:36:19] So why don't we take a, let's just take a 10-minute break and then we'll come back.  
[00:36:24] Okay.