Are Preferences in Truth Seeking OK?

Live Meeting Transcript 03.07.2016
Speaker: Rohan
www.Rohan.Life

Preference isn’t a problem, unless there’s an attachment involved.

So, I prefer to have a roof over my head when I sleep as opposed to sleeping in the forest where it rains. There are things that can nibble on your toes, mosquitos. My preference is to have a roof and walls. The problem arises if I’m attached to that preference. So, it’s to be okay with sleeping in a forest if that’s what is presented. To be otherwise, I mean, to be repulsed by a forest, or to crave being back in the house when in a forest, this is suffering. It’s the problem, the obstacle.

So, if I had to sleep in the forest, my choice would be to be completely present, moment to moment with my environment, without resistance. Open to my experience in that moment. That may mean building a shelter to stop the rain wetting me which can make me cold and make the body sick. And do that with openness: exploring each moment as it arises, in silence.

It is the habit of the mind, to resist and wish we were somewhere else, wish this was better, that was better, it wasn’t raining, the mosquitos weren’t here, etcetera. That’s where we suffer. If we bring our attention into our hands, or sit in silence, we can put our attention on our heart. Or, if we’re skilled, we can put our attention in our hands and our heart, when we’re working and everything around us. We have that capacity to be in touch with everything around us and our hands, IF we stop our mind.

If we are thinking, then all our attention is within our mind. All our powers of observation and presence disappear. It’s like black magic. We are all magicians. We can make beauty disappear in a moment, any moment, if we choose to do so.

It is the opposite to what we think. We think we choose happiness and we go explore it and find it. No. It’s the opposite. We moment-to-moment choose to not be that; without thinking in our distracted ways. If we just stop, now, and just allow the mind to drop. Just drop it. Drop the thoughts. Put our attention into the body and feel the world, into the heart, feel. Silently.

As the thought arises, let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Then, you can hear what’s around you. You can feel what’s around you. Suddenly, in every moment, a lot more is going on, yet nothing is going on.

The dance of life. The dance of emptiness. As thoughts come, let them go. You may have found yourself thinking for a couple of minutes, and then you notice, just let it go, it doesn’t matter.

Be gentle.

And within this space, of letting go, or let go, preferences start to become less powerful.

They lose their grip. From this space, you might prefer to be inside. But outside is okay too. The wonder of the forest is there. And even if that’s not all about the forest, and if it’s an unattractive space, it’s okay, because we’re silent, we’re beautiful, we’re empty. What’s occurring is just occurring. Our body will instinctively look after itself. It’s been doing this all our lives. I have never deliberately got my heart to beat, and my breath to breathe in and out, my wounds to heal.

That’s all just happening, and that’s beautiful too, just let go.

Let the thoughts go.