Impromptu #6 If you've got nothing to say ...

[Music] as a young man in my uh early social encounters i was always screwed up by not knowing what to say and felt a failure because i could somehow i i couldn't easily join in talk and it was a highly significant moment when in the school where i learned the practice of meditation in my twenties we were offered the advice when you don't know what to say don't say anything and i remember at a party um going through my usual embarrassment not really knowing what to say surrounded by people who seem to be able to pour out conversation without a second thought remembering this and sort of stepping back and with my back to the wall and just not saying anything and the newfound confidence that flowed into me and actually the evening went very well some people must have approached me i don't remember exactly but somehow i've never forgotten that and time and again i i notice when people come together like we've all come together we didn't know each other until a few hours ago we tend to sort of explode into talk and a lot of it is really fairly mechanical robotic just reaction and actions isn't it and quite a bit of it is throughout the food it's not really natural it's a bit sort of forced very often and i'd like to just give you the confidence or offer you my confidence that when you've nothing to say or you don't know what to say say nothing it's very comforting you know and often it's a great relief to those around you and as i've uh as i've gone through life of course this stopping talking um i won't put it as a as an emphatic stop talking this um realizing there's no need to talk that puts it in a gentler way doesn't it um has developed into it makes it easier to approach this whole great opening up of discovering the significance of stillness of quietness now obviously it's just sitting here now it's you hardly even need to indicate it's so obvious isn't it we're sitting in stillness and this stillness is the threshold to spirit and realization of the oneness that really embraces all our difference and is really why we've all come together we can even take a further step and call it the presence of god and our human situation is so simply that we've turned away from that and so we forget it we don't realize it and hence arise all the problems of the world so you see how this simple little action of not being so quite so eager to jump into talk is a very important first step in spiritual work i don't say stop talking but just don't talk unless you have to and when you don't need to talk just be it's okay not to you're not a failure not really other people may say why don't you say something like my elder sister used to get so irritated with me when i was just why can't you say that it'd be normal to say because i didn't have the confidence then that i do now now i can just smile at her but uh there you are i offer you that encouragement he's always been my big sister i'm still her little brother anyway just that's all i'm going to say to you today so now if you prompted something else then something might develop so uh conditioned are we to think that communication equals words you and i are looking at each other now aren't we what are our eyes doing what the whole body language of our face is doing the attention we're giving each other how do we talk to the trees or to our dog perhaps those of you who are drawn to a meeting like this are looking for something else let's that word communication what is it union communion union is the oneness isn't it that's what it's about communication it is sharing the oneness and and those that are not readily familiar with the instant oneness of of just being still in this uni all embracing oneness that we can refer to as stillness or presence and most people i'm afraid are not used to that they're not accustomed to it they're not brought up to it so they feeling that absence that loneliness that emptiness that uh something missing of course they fill it up with talk and of course because you say that thing and i say that someone else says that so you get different so you get division and the whole pandora's box of separation comes into existence well that is the world we live in and uh that's why those of us that choose to choose to follow that perhaps what we could call deeper instinct that draws us to quietness often find ourselves in variance with with our friends and family why can't you just be normal again as my big sister used to say to me because when you're young you don't have an answer you you just feel embarrassed and yet you're divided both ways well i'm afraid the uh this is the nature of spiritual work that we do feel divided until we reach the point where we are able to contain the whole world within oneness and come to peace we may need a whole lifetime of struggle of interior struggle it is a war a spiritual warfare with the world the world the flesh which is this and the devil the ego the me this separate me within oneself that wants to be somebody that wants to wants to make her an appearance wants to establish my separate importance my validity isn't as a separate person john butler in other words it's with nature where you don't have this this aggressive feedback and things are natural it's so much easier isn't it i was a farmer i know all about this how much easier it was to escape to the fields and my animals i still do like to go there we all ask that question my dear how do how do you overcome it i didn't i just suffered it i didn't know what to do and it was awful went on for years but then something changed in life i found i was i found a i was in my uh late 40s early 50s and a surprise surprise i found i was invited to go and do a course in at university as what they call the mature students and i got interested in that and i think i just forgot to be depressed so it sort of passed away but i just think but i never found an answer to it my poor mother she also suffered with depression for years and nothing could help her all the pills and things she took and then i remember one day her telling us i woke up and i was no longer depressed you know there's an old saying about the weather if you don't like the weather just wait a bit would you say would you say kind of reach the rock bottom or something just just hang on my dear hang on hang on to whatever you can hang on to whatever little things do mean anything to you it's it's uh it's not unusual i've got no clever answer i mean he's all right i can say well it's all part of this unreal ego haha but but when you're in it you're in this aren't you reassurance from a man who's also suffered you know there was another occasion when during my period of depression i uh i used to keep bees and i went to a you can probably guess i wasn't the sort of man i used to go to meetings but i was that desperate i did go to a beach eating a bee keepers sort of gathering and someone said to me quite out of the blue must have seen my glum face jesus loves you like no other and at that time i didn't really consider myself a jesus man but uh that was quite a statement to make out of the blue now whatever you may think about religion and whatever jesus may or may not mean to you it's worth bearing in mind i think there's another thing i remember that the depression taught me was that you can't rely on anybody it's no good looking demand for solutions i was a bit surprised myself that some time ago i think we made a video called the hidden blessings of depression i can see it looking back now at the time of course i couldn't that when nothing can help you you turn to but of course now i call it the present that which is solitude god help me where is god it's always here and now isn't it how can we be closer to god than here and now and this stillness expands doesn't it it becomes the everlasting arms the lovers knows no limit well it's all yes i it may well be very confusing well you see i'm learning just like you i'm just a little boy at school learning lessons every day and so hopefully our understanding develops all the time and what we wrote 20 years ago no longer we may not phrase it in quite the same way we would today but but um what gives me the cue to answering your question is the word contempt now then a few moments ago we we we were all just came together in that lovely presence didn't we the everlasting arms now in that there is not one glimmer of unkindness or rejection of anything the very word contempt is something that cannot that has no place there nothing unkind in truth exists and what is not loved and what is not accepted every hair of our heads as the saying goes warts and all both those warts on our bodies that we seek to hide which weren't there and even worse the warts in our mind the impurities of the mind you see what happens the sun rises and all darknesses flees doesn't the darkness flees away so there's all the shadows of this world all the rejection all the unpleasantness of this world this just disappears like this before the sun there's nothing but goodness now look the very room contains containing us all the space of this room is containing us the room doesn't say oh i don't want you in the house you're not a nice person i won't have you the deer kind room is holding us in its walls isn't it look outside is the is the spring morning accepts us totally so step by step by step we expand into the infinite and there's no question there no doubt oh yes the mortal flesh look we're all in various stages of decay some nearer the grave than others so what the worms must live mustn't they it's all okay the soil is out there receiving last year's life recycling it producing new growth is all going on so ah there's a passage in the bible isn't it mortality is swallowed up by immortality corruption by incorruption that's right it's all here and now you don't even have to believe it because it's just simple experience isn't it i better stop talking because i told you to stop talking but you see how talking it distracts us doesn't it to say the least because talking he almost immediately pulls in something that isn't actually present from somewhere else and so we we lose this sense this immediacy of presence although of course in the big picture all the chatter in the world is contained within within the greater peace at the later stage we may just begin to get a bit bored with my own voice and that's probably a sort of stage two why do you think people come to see me i keep saying to phil why do people come is it because i've learned to be quiet i have nothing to say i told you that if you didn't ask me questions i just sit and look at you phil's noseless when he starts the video if he doesn't ask me anything i i don't see anything i don't know what to say i'm a bit sort of shy i'm not really i'm not sure really because i tell you what it is martin because i don't know my dear because what it is through a lifetime of mistakes and getting it wrong i've come to trust less in myself me why should anybody come to see me and more i come to trust more in this presence and insofar as god help me this presence is available partly because i've learned to stop talking as much as to be quiet that's that's what people come for they don't come for john butler they come for that presence what do i do when i meditate dear i just sit there in total surrender there's absolutely nothing whatsoever from me look i just do that i let go any last remnants that i i'm aware of myself and just sort of melt into this absolute presence now then i've ventured to say that that's what people find attractive now then how do we clear the the uh the mind the head well you can't can you clear the clouds from the sky on a cloudy day who can clear the sky and yet if you go get in an airplane or a cloudy day what happens you go beyond them and look i'll give you a simple little demonstration which i you may have seen before but it's very effective why should anybody want to clear the mind there's nothing wrong with it jesse we get awfully screwed up with condemnation of the poor mind um here's the result of my mind my last six months notebook first thoughts here we are buried in the mind recognize it thinking writing notes what am i going to say tomorrow what did i say at the meeting this morning now that in meditation we simply do this it really is so simple but it's simple as pie to tell you how bad i've been practicing this all my life but even a little even if you can just recognize what i'm showing you and smile and return you recognize it don't you look can you stop your tummy gurgling or your digestion you can have a deep or your blood flowing around why should you it works perfectly well why why do you want to stop your mind what's wrong with your mind why do you want to get rid of the clouds all you've got to do is just this now this is what meditation does so all this violence people go trapped and torment themselves over their poor minds in a way trying to get rid of depression because you see you're struggling in here aren't we well in depression we don't know any better this is the and this really is the human condition that we just simply don't know any better so we spend our life trying to sort out the problems of this world don't we you know whether it's politics or or you know the environment or something like this we're trying to sort out this all the time oh and getting crossed with each other and upset all sorts of things spend a lifetime like this it's called raising consciousness and you mentioned prayer demetrius this is prayer and then what happens you come under higher authority in other words what we may call god into thy hands oh lord and you just let go relax in the sunshine ah that's better isn't it you when you say relax the mind you see you're working you're trying to work with the mind i'm trying to make more sense of my notes you see how i how do i relax my mind now you see it's much easier than that maybe this afternoon's tonight afternoon we'll go for a walk this off and i'll take you up the hill when we came out of the church this morning it was misty you couldn't see very well but very often we come out of the church and there's bakewell down there with everybody with their problems and we just because we're a few hundred feet up the hill you're above it aren't you you can look down you can smile at all these poor people still in bed in their dreams and you know dreading the coming day and then you go up the hill you get a bit further above and you don't relax the mind it's simply a matter of because you've been for a walk you've forgotten about it you just left it behind but do you okay when you're meditating do you kind of think about things like that like being up in the mountain or well you're coming on to the technique of meditation which i could talk about if you like but uh meditation is a very simple way of really you're not working so much with the mind you're look i tell you what you you're asking me a question aren't you and you're you're looking at me direct and i'm with you're interested in what i'm saying and we're listening to each other and in this moment you've forgotten you're depressed haven't you i like that phrase too forgetfulness is a mercy of god no dear oh no no no no no no that's another key principle of meditation you don't look for results but look when you go up there when you go up a hill i'll show you lots of lovely places where you can walk in county cork that's where you're from isn't it i bet there are and you just go out there you just feel better don't you you look at the sea and climb a rock or two it's just it's natural we are unnatural creatures that's our problem so really anything that takes us a step closer to nature it's helpful that's why i know some poor people who don't have much access to nature but even they find a pigeon or a tree in the park or something which which is usually comforting something in a window box yes funnily enough i remember when i was a young man learning to meditate i felt i wanted to work i wanted something to work out um full of energy you know you want if you want to have a sledgehammer to deal with the world but yes that coming to rest will certainly um what are the principle ways of describing meditation let go yes and that is of course it it relaxes the mind you're not so much doing it it just happens as a byproduct doesn't it the byproduct of turning your mind to giving it a focus an alternative focus which is really what meditation does because you're focusing on something other than depression or the problem then the problem just gets forgotten until you come back and pick it up again realization is a good word to realize because this brings it into reality doesn't it this spiritual presence which holds the whole world holds all of us in this room let's start with the room in faultless perfection where does that word come from how can i say such a word it isn't it true it's extraordinary it is just simple experience isn't it until we start questioning it well all right i'm an old man i've had a lifetime's practice practice practice practice makes perfect this is a another salutary lesson to realize that we are saved by grace there's very much that we can do to aid the practice i remember i used to have little notes all all around my house you know reminding me to try to be present listen and look feet on the ground bottom on the chair listen be still do your daily practice meditate twice a day without fail pause before meals every time you clean your teeth or go to the toilet use 101 little daily habits to trigger your memory work at it until these things are part of your mental apparatus so they'll come automatically to you um and and it's hard work to begin with but once you get these practices established you start off by remembering once a day maybe if you're lucky maybe next month you remember twice a day and eventually maybe you might remember quite often and all this then you constantly be sucked back out of it again and lost and and and when you practice memory will come more often because really all that the practice is is to open yourself and make yourself available and read read read good read the scriptures read a good conscious work anything that that helps turn your mind in this direction but above all in my experience the practice of meditation don't don't neglect it that's what's been the greatest help to me over the years don't talk too much there's a we can smile at them but but they're all they're all fundamental practices with good heart well there again i suppose phil's it's it's practice and we do start from different places um some people are more um results orientated um they've got perhaps a more linear approach to life i don't think that was ever particularly my aim i'm not sure really we're all different that's right meditation is traditionally guided here one to one yes beware of looking for results there's always more marion [Music] i must be careful i don't want to get sucked into offering recipes because we are different um there said to be three ways the way of of knowledge the way of action and the way of devotion and we although we've all got a sprinkling of all three we tend to be one one more than another um there's no virtue in being one or the other but it may just help to realize which one which predominates in you i think i was always as a young man i was once described as a total always thought that was my main motivation i was never very interested in in results or i remember when i first heard the word self-realization i thought it's the last thing i'm interested in i didn't like it at all i just wanted to love and be loved and i found that in meditation well of course it starts with women doesn't it but i through much failure in that field i had to find the completion i really longed for in spirit so follow my dear follow your heart follow what you love yes that's a good that's a good uh instruction follow your heart you see and if your heart is is in the knowledge and whatever in whatever field of endeavor your heart lies trust it and follow it you see it is heart isn't it it's it's what we call the heart i know it's confusing what we mean by the heart but it isn't really an intellectual knowledge is it it's a sort of an open receptivity somewhere that you can't quite define into which what we're talking about makes sense doesn't it it's recognized it isn't really senses it's because it's not you're sort of seeing with inner sight aren't you you're feeling with instinct or intuition or something and yet when it's operative it's obvious isn't it open-hearted i love that out him oh come to my heart lord jesus there's room in my heart for thee that somehow supersedes all this thinking doesn't it it's a wonderful way to meditate just come to my heart my god how wonderful thou art learn to burst into hymns in a moment how great then sings my soul [Music] [Laughter] oh they are indeed [Music] so you

Channel: Spiritual Unfoldment with John Butler

Views: 203,237

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Id: sPn60LSMdoc

Length: 41min 7sec (2467 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021