Find Your Focus Day 5 | Vajradevi

foreign so i thought i'd start in reverse today with the uh adverts to start with uh just because often um i know there are a few of you today but just uh often people have to leave um after eight o'clock um quite a lot of goodbyes got to go to work so i thought i'd just drop in the adverts for the last time at the beginning about in the end so uh the retreat the retreat that's happening in person um i think a little bit online not the whole thing at istana buddhism and the big questions sounds fabulous excuse me and um yeah camping option which in this weather would be um very pleasant i think so yeah uh do consider that and there's the link there um if you if you you may not know this but if you click on um a link um usually it it opens itself behind the zoom meeting occasionally it's in front and you have to fiddle but usually it opens behind so that it's then available for you to um have after the meeting and the same with the the donna link nick if you wouldn't mind sticking that into and maybe stick it in at the end as well um yeah so it's so easy to forget these things or to to think oh i can't deal with the technology and and then the moment passes but if you if you click on the link and then it's open for you once the session has finished and then you can uh consider uh or find out more information about the retreat and also um yeah hopefully feel moved to to give to give sandhana to the project to um help its continuation so thank you for you know in anticipation for whatever you are able to give whatever you feel that you can offer okay so um exploring attention day five um drawing from amishia's book peak mind it um like a mind that's in top tip condition uh all the time which um she says is not really what she's saying um but i suppose it's a mind where certainly we are more present to our lives uh there are there's the attention systems are working better supported by mindfulness and uh one of the things that can um all that contributes to um the attention systems being either overloaded or or getting a bit stuck and blocked is thinking the uh yeah a lot of our experience um [Music] a lot of a lot of our experience becomes something that we think about the mind loves to think and nothing wrong with that it's absolutely essential but it can become overly dominant and cause us problems so i'm going to come at thoughts and thinking from several different angles uh drawing in um the perspective from dr zhao in her book and three different points so the first one is um yeah be quite familiar to to most of us the two different kinds of thinking and i was having a look at the veda vitaca suta that talks about two kinds of thinking for this is from the nikaya helpful and hum and helpful ways of thinking and uh this goes back i think uh how we discern that how we um recognize whether a way of thinking is helpful or unhelpful is through sampajanya through clearly knowing what's happening and that quality the juggala that amishi talks about so they're both concerned with recognizing values and goals is how we are thinking in line and what we're thinking about in line with our overall goals and values um our overall purpose and that might be you know in a quite specific way um you're doing a piece of work that really needs your attention perhaps you have a deadline and you find yourself um flicking around through different sort of social media pages um thinking about that so there's an action involved too so not such a brilliant example but maybe you find yourself thinking about the holiday that you're going to go on or something else so not wise attending uh the attention needs to be with the work with the project but instead you find it's with something else altogether so this term for um uh wise or unwise attention yaniso manisikara's wise attention and ah unwise attention another way that our attention is wise or unwise uh is is that distinction i've made several times between uh are we aware of what's happening or are we um involved with wrapped up in it identified with it identifying it as as me all about me so these these helpful and unhelpful ways of thinking um you can talk about them in a couple of different ways uh one is through um mind wandering which i'll i'll come on to that's what the mind does it wonders a lot uh but i wanted to just talk about a part of the brain that amishi refers to this is the default mode or default yes that's it so it's the part of the brain um what they noticed in research was that this is part of the brain that lights up when we're not doing a task particularly or even when we are doing a task but they would find this particular sort of part in the middle of the brain would light up and they would say to people what are you thinking about when that part of the brain is is you know what are you thinking about at this moment because they could see that their brain was lighting up and they would be oh i'm thinking about what i'm going to have for lunch i'm thinking about what i'm going to be doing tomorrow it was always when someone was thinking about self about themselves so i i find it quite amazing actually this is this part of the brain that lights up uh whenever selfing is happening um that whenever the thoughts are revolving around me or mine me and um those that um yeah i i sort of identify with as sort of belonging to me um and it's interesting that this this can happen during times of sort of um when there's not much we're not doing very much or um don't have a particular task but that they can also happen regularly um within the middle of a task perhaps an important task so so this is what the attention system this is why we want to use mindfulness and strengthen because um of this tendency of the mind to start thinking about me when there's quite a pressing need to be thinking about um my job or another person or a crucial situation or the road that i'm driving down yeah it is a good description of thinking um just to drop in there was a question around what was the name of the suitor it's that the veda victa suta um not going to ask nick to try and spell that it's not an easy one um uh betaka v-i-t-a-k-a d-veda um you might be able to catch this d v e d h a and then bitarka majimi majima nikaya 19 you can look it up the two kinds of thinking um yeah so we have this default mode network brilliant um and that's that's partly how we keep the sense of self going is through all this um thinking about me there's a really lovely book that i came across in the um late 80s i think by a woman called marion milner she published under the name of joanna field and her book is called a life of one's own [Music] i think it's a really lovely book and when i read it i thought she stumbled into mindfulness so it was originally published around 1934 and she is known as a pioneer of introspective journaling otherwise i would call what she does watching her mind she's watching her mind so she got curious about why she wasn't happier she was a psychologist she was very well educated um in quite comfortable circumstances and had very high ideals very altruistic woman really wanting to make a difference and she was very young at this point she was maybe in her mid-twenties um [Music] and she started watching her mind just to because she couldn't work out uh she wanted to see what was going on and she was shocked to see and she writes about um just how much she thought about herself uh her hairstyle her new dress whether so and so had noticed her or you know whether her boss likes her all this very self-referential stuff she would probably think of as quite normal but she was just quite shocked at how much her mind was doing it and how different it was to her outward goals and um ideals so it just didn't fit at all with who she thought she was so there's that sort of mind going on um they're more sort of thinking about self in a very sort of heavily conditioned way it's just very habitual where i've got quite a lot of light on my face i can't really do anything about marion milner or joanna field that was her pseudonym so come back to that sort of more sort of conditioned reactive minds where the conceptual mind dominates in a bit i think there's also mind wandering in the creative sense in and we can do this through letting the mind be free letting us have spaces and gaps and um letting the mind be undirected and roam a bit and i i actually tested this out during my preparation for these sessions i was thinking about a week ago and um so i just tested out sort of letting the mind wander without particularly going anyway not not even um trying to be aware but just um not giving the mind any other task and i had a in about five minutes i had an idea for this particular session um so it was like a little sort of creative um blip sort of riding to the surface just when it had enough space and i'd been feeling a bit stuck i've been feeling that i don't quite know where to go with this to do with this um albert einstein someone known for his his big brain and capacity for conceptual thoughts uh he apparently said um daydreaming is the mind's only pathway to new ideas daydreaming is the mind's only pathway to new ideas for creative breakthroughs uh insights new ways of understanding so sometimes i think you can substitute a very sort of open awareness but you basically you're allowing the mind to go where it wants and to make its own connections but not through trying to think something through it's not you're not thinking in a discursive conceptual way just allowing the mind allowing awareness to make connections so two kinds of thinking um the second point i want to make is around the storytelling mind um so amishi zhao talks about this as a simulation um so again creating these stories about me um constructing creating this sense of self through uh we have a lot of momentary experiences um there's a clinging for security in the mind out of this raw material we create stories we create sort of simulations and she defines simulation or the words she uses in relation to it are when imagined remembered hypotheticals or the conceptual mind in action and projecting onto someone else's experience not exactly sure what she means by that but i i think we do it all the time that we all so and so um we imagine what they are also feeling or what they're thinking um usually about us in some way so i want to quote um amishi jar from from the book because this simulation is what happens when we're in the default mode they're all sort of slightly different terms but pointing to the same experience mind wandering simulation story happening so she says um this is from page 10201 if you have the book she says without intervention we live our lives almost entirely in simulation mode we default to it almost automatically and we do it constantly effortlessly and often unwittingly it's very difficult for us not to simulate to elaborate uh to not generate which is exactly why we need to train um to be able to shift from that mode of simulation into a mindful mode which the mindful mode which is embodied without narrative it's non-judgmental and with no or low emotional reactivity so all those things and and they're connected with mindfulness that have come about they've noticed through their research and hopefully we know through our experience um that embodied without narrative non-judgmental and with no or low emotional reactivity she goes on to say we need to be able to shift out of simulation mode into a mindful one so that we can open our eyes and see what is actually around us rather than the virtual reality of our own making that's quite a way to describe what's um what's happening when uh the mind is just running around with its stories mostly out of our conscious awareness the virtual reality of our making [Music] and she says the the mindful mode this capacity is becoming more and more essential as our world becomes more and more unpredictable through pandemics through politics and other things and i would add certainly climate change here she says we cannot live in simulation mode through all this all these happenings in the world to be resilient and capable to preserve our attentional and cognitive powers we have to be able to access the mindful mode so she's not saying that we have to switch completely to the mindful mode that there's value in both there's a lot of value in the conceptual mode but it needs to be backed up by all the qualities that are more available to us in the mindful mode so what happens when are constantly in simulation mode um she has this idea uh that of of her of she equates our working memory with a whiteboard um which she says are and our working uh working memory is is crucial um in as a sort of holding space before things go into long-term memory either they get discarded or they they go into long-term memory but ideally you want the things that you want to remember and need to remember to go into a long-term memory so this is what we do when we're doing the mindfulness of breathing if you like we are constantly um making sure that by by coming back to the breath we're refreshing if you like that mental whiteboard that working memory we're keeping the breath in mind [Music] so constant activity or tasks overload our working memory they overload this this mental white board and you probably know it from the feeling of just feeling mentally full up um even after things that are you know are beneficial um i did a few hours just creative work uh on the computer yesterday but i was probably there for about three hours um and at the end of it their mind felt tired and it was very tempting to just carry it straight on to the next thing or to do something that i thought of as relaxing um [Music] i instead i did something else and i did i'll tell you about that in a couple of minutes um but maybe first to define what what we're talking about with activity and tasks because uh something like working on the computer is is a very obvious task uh but she defines things like you know playing around on our phones is also a task we're using those attentional systems we're not allowing them to rest uh when we're checking emails or we're checking our stats or online check my stats on my blog or something like that um even the task of meditating isn't completely resting those attentional systems so when the the whiteboard the working memory gets overloaded the consequences are are something like this our ability to focus and be present is affected um we make mistakes and errors so our judgment is impaired and we experience more emotional reactivity um also impairing our judgment and the last thing she says we don't remember our life because the working memory is unable to lay down those long-term memories when the whiteboard is overloaded sorry did i say working memory the long-term memory is unable to lay down when the working memory is is too full when it's overloaded so what helps uh what helps and obviously um practice does help but what she's particularly advocating uh in addition is what she calls task free time known to uh buddhists mainly as doing nothing really doing nothing maybe a cup of tea if you're sitting out in the garden but that's about it really and it's surprisingly hard to do for most of us it it's quite difficult and uh if you saw the interview with amila vadra when he was talking with maitreya bandu in the seminar he was talking about taking task free time and he said he can manage 12 minutes he took the same amount of time as amishi was talking about as the minimum that's been shown for mindfulness practice to be effective um especially when he could feel the mind was a bit tired a bit overloaded and not able to take anything more in um that's a a really big clue for us when you just feel like oh i can't i'm not really taking this person in anymore i'm not i'm reading but i'm not quite taking it in i'm having to reread um so it's a really big sign that they the the whiteboard the the working memory is is full it's chocker and some we need to sort of allow time for it to clear itself so i thought i'd been practicing this as well after i heard about um uh amal avadra doing it and as i said before i was working really hard yesterday and very tempting to then go okay i could go and lie on my bed for a few minutes but usually i would probably be looking at my phone or maybe i'd i'd read something and i just um this is about the third or fourth time i've done that in the last week just lying on the bed not not doing anything my gaze sort of going a bit out of the window there's not much to see there's a bit of sky there's a bit of wall there's a bit of roof um just just my eyes just going around the room sometimes closing my eyes and i was amazed how different i felt afterwards i don't think it's always going to be so dramatic but it's just it really felt a clear difference um more refreshed um even though the actual experience was a little bit boring and i was clockwise checking the time to see if the 10 minutes i'd allotted myself was up but the mind felt more present and more rested afterwards so really um i think uh uh i think worth persisting with it um and i think the way that that amishi has framed it has helped me to um [Music] be clearer why i'm doing it um yeah what what the what the value is understanding the value of it and that less overloading just just to remind you so then um with this sort of state of mind that i had after lying down just for 10 minutes i was then going on to meet a friend for lunch um and we were talking about you know various things that it was important to be able to be present and attend to what she was saying so yeah less prone to errors but the biggie i think is less prone to emotional reactivity when we're not so so full up so we're less likely to experience irritation or zoning out and another biggie on the in the long term mode and this is the the last thing i'll say before the practices is this being more present to our lives and remembering our lives and um comes up a couple of times in the both in the book i think in one of the the sessions with emil evadra here they they talk about this soldier um very sort of high-ranking soldier and his kids when he's with his family his kids describe things that happened when they were younger they were family events and he was there he was physically present he knew that and they the kids knew that but he could not remember uh what they were describing and it was it was quite distressing for him that and he realized through learning about um [Music] the the mind the brain and how it's working it what it wasn't uh that he couldn't remember it wasn't that he had forgotten it was that he had never laid down those long-term memories of those very lovely family events because he just was not present he wasn't there he was still thinking about work his mind was his attention was elsewhere i'm sure you can all think of times when um [Music] you know perhaps it's an event you've really looked forward to and uh when that when it comes down to it it's still um i find even with awareness it still takes work to get the mind to be present maybe during a concert or something mind goes off come back to what using mindfulness practice actually so coming opening up to the mind is elsewhere what else is happening being present to that and re-engaging allowing the mind to re-engage with with the music with being in a big concert hall wherever it is okay so um before we move on to the practices are there any um any thoughts any thoughts about thinking any comments or questions i just um put up the electronic hand if there's something [Music] okay i take it you're ready to meditate then oh paul there we go yeah yeah just um just you talking about this now makes me realize i i used to run a business and you know my children have grown up now they're in their 40s and i very much do concur with what you're saying that your mind can be so busy with your external life and the things that you're planning and you're doing and you know running a business and you just you look back and you sort of think well what do i remember about their childhood you know what specific events and not just sort of little glimpses but like when there's a sectional stuff going on for say half a day with your kids all day and you look back and you still think what did we do and you can't remember and you sort of think god you know that sort of disappointment that the way that the that sort of the mind you know the working mind takes over and you don't even realize and it's only as you're saying you look back and you thought thinking what happened then and so then the bits that you do remember become real gems yeah and um so i'm just saying that to younger people now i suppose is so do take notice of this because it's just you know you don't get it back you don't get it back yeah you can appreciate appreciation at the moment yeah yeah yeah yeah thank you thank you for that yeah yeah yeah and maybe just um just mention that figure again of the the 50 of the time that uh that we're mostly not present um obviously practice changes that and i i don't have any um i don't know how much research there is on uh giving statistics around that but i think that can be sort of a comfort um to um uh sorry i got distracted by the um the childhood um [Music] well that we we are doing we're decreasing that figure then more um practice especially sort of the mindfulness practice open mindfulness practice then we can increase our ability to to pay attention so um helen want to unmute yourself yeah yeah um i was just wondering about the difference between this untasked sitting and power napping because i find if i go into sitting i then go into power napping and just the differences yeah it's a good question and i don't know i um she doesn't really um doesn't really or from what i remember it's not talked about in the book um i i have a similar question myself because sometimes i find the same thing um yeah it might actually be longer than that it might be present for 10 minutes and then i'll i'll uh maybe drop off if i've got a bit more time what's your experience with with power napping in terms of how or how the mind feels or yeah does it feel refreshed and i find it very refreshing i've been paranapping my whole life for up to half an hour so yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i find it very i mean i i used to when i was working long hours not be able to get through a day unless i could power nap sometime during that day yeah yeah yeah i i don't know if it would have all the benefits but i'm sure that it would have some of them just because you the mind is is yeah is is not online it reached the point where i could almost physically feel it just going woof and then then i could wake up and get on with my day yeah great great thank you okay let me just look at the question that i think vicky put in the chat the risk of meditation becoming a task of some sort that gets in the way of forming long-term memory actually um yeah i don't know that she says much more in the book um what i've what i remember um sabootie saying and also a bit this is a bit my own experience sabuti says something like if we are always um directing the mind in practice it creates strain feeling of strain so what this does for me it points to the importance of just sitting tight practice and this is what he he says really says that yeah if if we're always um giving them if if we give the mind the task to be aware of the breath or to go through five stages of a matabada practice it is benefiting the mind there's no doubt about that but it's not resting the attentional systems and and that's what's being said here so undirected practice where you allow the mind to do to go where it's it wants to go but with a very very light awareness i think that's that's helpful and that is perhaps more helpful in this area of helping the whiteboard sort of clear clear itself so perhaps our practices are helpful in different ways because the the mindfulness of breathing and metabolic practice are helpful in training our attention they train the attention to um come back to the present to direct where we want the attention to go the undirected attention is perhaps is more helpful in this um well it's helpful in a different way and that we see what is happening when we're not directing the mind so we get to see the mind in its natural state and how the mind's body uh how that relationship or that interrelating is going on so it's more of a wisdom practice in that way and it has this the benefit of lessening that load on the um attentional system as long as the the um well the awareness is very very light very open so hopefully that that gives a bit more sense it's it's not that meditation is a bad thing that's definitely not what she's saying it's not what i'm saying but that we can do meditation in quite a task-oriented sort of way uh i've got i've got to um you know i've got to do it so we can we can just approach it in a way that's um more or less task oriented i suppose as well as the type of practice that we're doing hopefully that's clear okay so i'm going to do a couple of practices um but again just with a very slight pause in in the middle just to to change gear um so the first practice um we'll do is one of um labeling so labeling the types of thoughts that we have so we sort of ring fence them and uh i feel like we're protecting the mind from being lost in the contact um so i'll give you some examples of of labels before we start it's a very simple one um when the mind goes into the past find yourself thinking about the past are remembering so there's the the remembering something that's already happening happened or the mind might anticipate go into the future something that's going to be happening later today or later in the weekend so anticipating mind planning planning is also a great sort of featuring one [Music] repeating when we have thoughts the same thought again and again or thought about the same topic but in a very similar way sometimes i find this with um if i'm going on a journey then the mind will sort of keep coming back to different aspects of oh and then i've got to check i've got a short change here and yeah all sorts of detail planning the judging mind very very helpful to label the mind that is quite critical it's that critical voice in the mind that's judging how we're practicing practicing judging what we're thinking about uh judging someone else so judging thoughts really helpful um [Music] comparing wanting not wanting i'll i'll not say any more now but i might drop in a few um as we go and so we just use these labels very very lightly and they can sort of circumvent and just make it very clear that we know what the mind is thinking about but without going into the content and then we'll go into a practice that looks a little bit more than the nature of a thought in experience so drawing on our direct experience so if you'd like to set yourselves up for practice [Music] so letting the mind settle body and mind simply letting them be as they are and this is very restful for the mind not be trying to do anything in particular coming to some sort of doing noticing from a place of simply being present relaxed natural when we're looking at thoughts it's helpful to really let that settling in the body take place through the touch sensations perhaps through hearing as well thoughts are quite subtle [Music] subtle mental events and so it's helpful to be settled and grounded embodied so the body acts like an anchor or the mind as you settle and ground in the body you may well also notice thoughts in the mind don't go looking for them but when we allow the the attention to be quite broad and quite soft thoughts can be known and noticed you might just catch the tail end of a thought or on the other end the spectrum wake up into a moment of presence in the middle of a story in the middle of a simulation whichever it is or anything in between it's not a problem thoughts are not a problem simply learning to notice them in awareness notice the habits of the thinking mind thinking imagining repeating planning [Music] judging just let the label be very soft and light labeling's a short-term strategy just to help us get to know the processes of the mind so we're able to train the mind not to immediately dive into content and story foreign c labeling can also help us not take our thoughts so personally it's simply a moment of remembering in the mind or anticipating or judging conditioned habits of mind that can be recognized through being aware of thinking okay if you find that the mind is sort of snapping at thoughts jumping on them a little bit just really settle back in mind and body foreign and perhaps being aware of the quality of the awareness the quality of the mind that's noticing observing rest in that don't worry if you find that you've become aware of a thought just after you had the thought over time the mindfulness becomes more subtle to match the subtlety of the thought the object and they can be helpful especially if you find yourself getting caught or lost in thoughts very frequently helpful to go between noticing the mind and reconnecting and grounding in the body let go of thoughts for a few minutes settle in the body and at some point opening up to broader sphere of experience you might notice thoughts about practice you can label them practice thoughts or simply thinking c now while staying in your posture just allowing the mind to be task free for a couple of minutes not doing anything in particular in [Music] the practice is it even a practice at this point simply being [Music] let's see if it's possible now to just keep something of the quality of that task free mind well really gently noticing what's happening around thoughts you don't need to use any labels in this particular practice we're just going to be looking in a very open way at the nature of thoughts and thinking so you might notice how thoughts come with a variety of ah types of feeling and variety of energy with them some thoughts are quite loud and intentional a strong energy strong emotional feel and they're usually quite easy to recognize other thoughts are much lighter almost float through the mind and threads quite loosely connected and sometimes we can connect with a subtle inner narrative that feels like it's always going on we don't always have to try and make sense of a thought its conceptual meaning perhaps tuning into what a thought feels like in the mind i'm looking really gently out of the corner of the mind's eye like looking at a shy animal in the wild we can't look too directly too obviously and you might notice that a thought isn't just words or images in the mind there are other fragments of experience that form an inner language a sense of knowing different perceptions feelings some sort of inner direction or impulse in the mind being curious about a thought and allowing thinking thoughts to fall apart under a soft open curious attention being curious about how you know your thinking how you know that thinking is happening b so foreign so [Music] i'm taking your time to relax into task free space again you'll notice if there's some more awareness momentum from the practice that's naturally there task free space with your eyes open or closed and i'll drop a few words into that space from tiknot han he's talking about meditation mindfulness meditation our thoughts and feelings are like a river if we try to stop the flow of a river we will meet the resistance of the water it is best to flow with it and then we may be able to guide it in the ways we want it to go we must not attempt to halt it keep in mind that the river must flow and that we are going to follow it we can be aware of every little stream that joins it we can be aware of all the thoughts feelings and sensations that arise in us of their birth duration and disappearance do you see now the resistance begins to disappear the river of perceptions is still flowing but no longer in darkness it is now flowing in the sunlight of awareness to keep this sun always shining inside of us illuminating each rivulet each pebble each bend in the river is the practice of meditation [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] okay so we have about 10 minutes if anyone has uh anything i'd like to say maybe something that you noticed from the practice called your interest or a question comment when you're ready you can put up those electronic hands yes thanks for that firm patrick davey it's been a really nice week so thank you and one question i've got is um for the last of year or so on and off in meditation i've been getting an almost sort of unbearable feeling of physical tension that comes up when i meditate i'm trying different things to experiment with how to respond to that um but i wondered if you had any thoughts what sort of things have you tried maybe it's it's so good to start there so i've tried because sometimes it's accompanied with heat so i've tried to sort of meet it with cool calmness i've tried to go with the feeling of heat and tension just experience it fully um sometimes i've just got this real desire to just lie down sometimes i've just lied down and just fallen straight asleep um so yeah i've just been there was one time when i said i'm not afraid of you and then it's sort of really sort of melted away but when i've tried that again it hasn't had an effect so it's yeah and is it tension in in your body or in the yeah yeah yeah and in around the head as well no it's mostly sort of in the tool so sometimes my legs and feet yeah yeah yeah but it's very strong it's really strong so it's just how to sort of yeah be with that because it sort of makes me want to finish the practice because it's it is so strong yeah yeah yeah and and and that might be a a good strategy strategy actually just in a way to reassure uh yourself that actually you can leave whenever you want to you can and it might be a short-term um strategy but but that that you're not sort of building more tension through saying i have to be here for a certain length of time i have to actually at any point at any point you can um decide to go maybe you go for a walk or something that's um it's you can still be aware you can still take awareness into that but it's something that's moving and um i've also worked with a lot of tension over the years and actually well i found walking meditation really really useful and um for that but just yeah just it's perfectly um acceptable to sort of just carry that awareness through a different posture through walking or through standing or lying down but yeah that permission to to end the practice something that um in undirected practice that that we do a lot of is to watch how the mind is relating to what's happening so you don't this is a different point so you don't put um much attention on the tension if you like or on pain if there's physical pain what that can do if your the mind is directing its attention to the something that's that's uncomfortable we can miss the sense of the what's happening in the mind and often there'll be quite a lot of maybe worried or aversion some i don't not wanting this experience so if we can turn the attention to oh noticing oh that's that's part of it that's part that's part of the mind that's um not wanting what's that like what does that feel like um is it possible can i be with that uh that sense of resistance or not wanting um sometimes for me there's there's been other things like stoicism or resignation as part of their own goal okay you know it's not acceptance it's not really a willingness to be with it it's it's it's something else and it's helpful to identify all those things that are happening in the mind from um a quality of awareness that's not um of the same nature it's it's it's nature it's simply to to know to recognize to accept what's happening so i find personally that that can be um can be really helpful strategy it can also reveal um that that um i'm doing this in order that the tension goes away so that's something to watch because that will also be part of keeping it it going uh and like you said when you found something that that worked and then the next time it didn't work is because yeah we can also we can recognize those type of expectations in the mind and that sort of bargaining mind that yeah i'll i'll do this so that that will happen and this unpleasant experience will go away so um yeah some degree of acceptance that this is this is what's happening in experience um it's not wrong it's it's unpleasant it's it's come about through certain causes and conditions and in a way what we do when we look at the relationship to experience is that we're able to recognize some of those conditions that are are contributing some of the the mental attitudes that are contributing yeah there's a lot more i could say but i won't say any more but but that whole general area um which i have written about actually i think i've written about in my book um but yeah just how how we're relating to what's happening um is a very big one thank you very much okay jack hijata would you like to unmute speak okay um yes that was wonderful uh i know that i can deliberately shut my mind down [Music] you know just for a few minutes like when i'm just when i lie down on the sofa or something like that and i can just sort of stop my mind being active um going to silence just for a short time but it's quite sort of deliberate do you think that's useful or not i don't know does it does it take a lot of energy it's it's sounds like it might do but um yeah yeah what it was what's happening when you do that how do you do that or what do you um well it can be a relief actually you know particularly if something really difficult is going on um and i think you know i do tend to feel in a better mental space afterwards just for a short time yeah but i i just wondered i suppose if it was harmful or whatever i don't feel that it does actually but it's not like what you're talking about here is it no no but but that's why i'm curious about what what you actually how do you shut your mind down you know what what's happening and maybe you can't say maybe it's but it would be interesting to notice oh what what do i do here and um maybe for yourself your overall feeling is that it isn't that it that it's helpful but you can get curious about what what what's going on here what what am i actually doing um because there'll be some mental processes going on or the attention going somewhere um yeah so so getting curious about that and then maybe see for yourself are there some helpful elements in it or or not um because the language that you're using is quite strong um you shut the mind down yes but it might there might that doesn't sound particularly positive but it may be that the experience is so i don't want to sort of come in way in too quickly on uh the side of good or ill right right yeah but just be curious yeah yeah yeah i think your curiosity will really help yeah yeah what what does that mean to you in experience to that that's shutting the mind down and maybe there's another way of describing it once you once you're curious about the experience it may be that this that you can you describe it in a different sort of way thank you okay right well i think we're pretty much pretty much at the end um yeah very good to have been with you all through the week some of you dipping in and out and uh yeah the recordings are up there if um donna link again excellent and yeah so the recordings are up on youtube um if you have if you missed some earlier in the week and you want to to um check them out you can do that yeah also marion milner's book and there's a lot of other stuff from the nature of mind project but certainly i want to check out for myself um some of the different interviews and the different um weeks of masterclasses so so it's all up there all available resources to um help us so i'll leave you now i'm uh yeah it's been great actually i've enjoyed it despite the early mornings which are really not my not my choice maybe the next time we have master classes we could have them at six o'clock in the evening or something but anyway yeah uh have a good rest of your day and um yeah i'm sure i'll be meeting some of you before long okay yeah feel free to unmute goodbye too thanks you so much i

Channel: Adhisthana Triratna

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Id: AjxWRfmvTsc

Length: 87min 59sec (5279 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 08 2022