Just an Idea

Transcript

The titles of today’s talk: just an idea.

Sometimes we sit in meditation you know and these people who just beginning in meditation maybe they only manage to sit for 30 seconds or a minute before this idea surges in their head and it feels like a compulsion.

It feels very real and that idea is this “You must get up, it’s been a long time. Too long. You’ve been sitting here doing nothing and there is something you must do. You must do things! It doesn’t even matter what the things are you must do them.”

It’s a strong idea and as I said it feels like a compulsion, its not actually a compulsion but it feels like one in that moment.

The reality is that it is just an idea. As we get better in meditation we start to notice, actually when something passes through our head like that just like in the zen tradition they describe it as a cloud floating overhead.

We don’t feel the need to control it or touch it or push it away. I think the word is equanimity, we exercise equanimity. Even mindedness, steady mindedness.

Of course it’s not just those types of thoughts that pop up, all manner of ideas, these egoic ideas start to pop up and it’s like these thoughts that want to associate themselves with us.

Or we want to associate them with our core being is better said.

Again they’re just our ideas and as we get better at observing our ideas we notice that they are just ideas and they may even start to come apart before our very minds eyes or before our direct experience of these ideas.

We notice they have components and it’s interesting actually because we have this egoic idea of this thought that surges. And it’s something like “Oh I must be..” or it might even be something silly like “I must be a better meditator or I’m a better meditator than this person.”

I remember one silly idea that popped up to me once was like “Oh, now I’m such a good meditator maybe this woman that I had affection for would notice me.” And when I observed that thought I had to laugh because its so ridiculous, so divorced from reality.

But these are the kinds of ideas that come up in our minds but when we observe them…we don’t even have to analyze them, that’s not necessary.

All we need to do is observe them or analyze them and they start to come apart in our hands. It’s like when a little animal gets some fairy floss and he takes it to the river so he can wash it before he eats it.

And it just comes apart in his hands, just the act of observation.

We find these components in the egoic ideas and they’re actually things that are quite lovely.

We find there’s a component that’s like “I want to be loved, I want to be respected” and then there’s the component like the comparison that’s like “I want to be more respected by this person.”

You know, you never have to want what you already have. You never have to want what you already have.

You are loved. You are acknowledged, you are respected. You are loved, you are acknowledged, you are respected.

Thank you so much for listening, thank you for observing your thoughts and ideas and letting them collapse in your mind to find the elements in them to observe what is actually wonderful about these things that are actually demonized, shouting at it calling it an ego is just another aspect of loveliness.

Have a wonderful day, a blessed day, a magnificent day and I will talk to you soon.