Mark Ovland: Morning Instructions - Letting Go of the Content of Experience

Good morning everybody. We'll begin where we left off last night and just a reminder of this theme, idea. We're talking about our addiction really to the stuff of experience, to the drama, to the never-ceasing unfoldment of inner and outer phenomenon, phenomena, arising and ceasing. So much so that it can feel and certainly actually when we begin step by step to free ourselves a little bit from that can feel a little bit like a spell that we've been under. That's the funny thing with ducca. We can try and define and explain what ducca is. Often the best felt sense is when we're free from it from some sort of ducca that, oh, I didn't realize this, x, y, z, was actually ducca. But now that I'm free from it, but usually most of us, almost all the time, are under this spell and all of the internal weather patterns, everything that's stirring up in the mind, in the heart, feels so captivating whether we like it or not, it draws us in, not to mention also the so-called external world and everything that we see and feel and sense. Without thinking about it, it's almost like it doesn't, no other option appears to us. It doesn't feel like there's another option. We become identified with all of this stuff of experience, or at least the stuff that seems to be happening here in this field. We become fused, as Soha said. I was in London last month and went to the IMAX to watch Odyssey. For those of you unfamiliar with cinemas on the British Isles, IMAX I think is the biggest. It's a very large screen. And because I was quite late in getting a ticket, the only seat was right in the front row. So I just, like this, fused with experience. There was no space for anything else, anywhere in the periphery. I was right there with Odysseus and crew. And it can feel like that just with our normal lives in meditation. It's just like, yeah, we're in that, we're in it. There is no other option. This is life. And sometimes it's lovely. And sometimes it feels like, actually, we're just kind of in a whirlpool of all of these swirling conditions and we're just trying to fend off some, get closer to others. And it's just this constant stream, unpleasant, neutral and trying to kind of arrange it in a way that feels okay. And I don't think we need to repeat that, that can be pretty exhausting. This attempt to kind of control life or to bend it to our will. All of these conditions, so many of which outside of our control, outside of our influence. And yes, there are conditions we can gently influence and that changes the unfolding in some way. Particularly how we relate. But last night, speaking to this other option, I mean just to kind of make it a binary, it's not quite like that, where all of this stuff of experience isn't given as much weight, isn't given as much importance or significance. We don't place everything that we want to be and feel. We don't give it over to the stuff of experience. Which isn't a closing down or a kind of just resigned acceptance or a tolerance of what goes on. It's a real open-heartedness. The heart remains open, it remains receptive, soft, engaged. And it just doesn't matter so much what happens. So we interfere less, we try and control less. We just open to this flow of life, this dance of life, this theatre of life. Not needing anything particular. And I mentioned how certain phrases that were used in the meditation so far have been gently encouraging the mind to let go and step back. The things like, you know, just letting the happening happen. Seeing the flow of experience, the transience, all just helps us step back a little bit. And now we'll try this other option for those that would like to. Which I mentioned at the end of the talk, which is to lean more into the apparent kind of container. So rather than being so drawn in and captivated and obsessed with the things, the content of experience, it's like, ah, what's all of this happening within? Or what does it appear to be happening within? Can I lean into that? And that might be, I think in the practice now, I'll mostly refer to maybe the silence that holds everything and the stillness. But if it's actually maybe a sense of space that for you right now feels actually more accessible and more like, yeah, that's what's holding things, or awareness, then feel free to swap in and out whichever words feel appropriate. The idea is just, yeah, can I lean into what I can feel is kind of behind and through and holding all of this stuff? And resting back into that. So I'm not actually going to say more than that. I wanted to devote the main chunk of this session to the guided practice so we can get a real feel for it. And again, as I said the other day, remembering the different ways to engage with guided meditations. And you could engage with this just as a kind of journey. You don't really think about it, enjoy whatever might open up. Or there might be part of your attention awareness that wants to remember what's going on in case it's helpful so you can repeat it later on in the day or do it for yourself. So are you ready? Right from the beginning orienting to this sense of kindness. Kindness in practice for practice. Practice as kindness. We'll begin straight off by opening out the awareness to the hearing, the listening sense. All these sounds just letting them come into awareness, be held in awareness. Not separating out into the ones we like, the ones we don't. Just letting all sounds belong. Is it possible to open to a sense of the totality of sound, the whole soundscape as one unified field? Meaning not so much attending to this sound and then that sound and then that sound. Opening wide, all directions, two sounds. And including a sense that these sounds are just happening. You're not needing to make them happen. They appear, they disappear. All by themselves. Just opening to this ever-shifting changing landscape of sound. Nothing to get involved with. Just sounds happening. And how would it be to add into the field of awareness the sense of the body, the life of the body and the shifting textures and sensations. Can they also be seen to appear and disappear by themselves? The landscape of the body. Ever moving, changing. It's happening by itself. No need to interfere, to control space for everything just to be as it is, as it is arising in this moment. Not pushing anything away. Whatever thoughts are arising. Can they be seen too? Just happening, just happening by themselves. No need to get involved. Whatever mood or emotions are passing through. Allowing space for this flow of experience. The self isn't needed. It's stepping back. Allowing the happening to happen. And sensitizing to the background. The backdrop, the ground of all this activity. What's there? Silence. Tuning the ear and the heart. The silence between sounds. Bringing what was background into the foreground. Gently opening to the silence, receiving the silence. Aware of the stillness. It's like a shift of focus blurring out the content of experience. Leaning more into the stillness, the silence, the background. And there'd be a sense of all of this movement of life just rising out of silence, just out of stillness, disappearing back into the silence. A sense that this stillness, this silence is unperturbed, unshaken by what happens within it. Unaffected, unhooking from all of this movement. The coming and going. All these happenings. Let it belong to the stillness. Belong to the silence. The sense of the stillness, the silence being ever present. Permeating the sounds, permeating the sensations of the body. The movement even as part of the stillness. Letting everything rest back into the stillness. Into the silence. Let the mind rest in stillness. Aware of but unconcerned with the movements, the arising and passing away. No matter what is arising in experience, letting it belong to the stillness. No need to get involved. Experience like a lava lump. Shapes appearing, reconfiguring, disappearing, melting back. Rising from stillness, disappearing back into stillness. The heart open, open to life. Receptive to stillness. Allowing of the flow of experience. That was good of it to last right to the final sentence of the meditation. So hopefully that gives a sense of the possibility. Like with any of these kind of ways of looking and different modes of attending. It can take a while to kind of find the groove with it. Particularly when we're so used to something else. Used to focusing on stuff. To be able to just sink back into the however you want to see it. The stillness, the silence, the space, the awareness. We can bring this if you like into movement. And maybe even kind of a practical example. You can all do this if you wish. Just letting the hand, the arm move in whichever way. Usually it's like we'd be focusing on the movement of the hand. Maybe how that feels. How would it be to invert to the attention and be aware of the space in which the hand's moving in. I'm still aware of the hand moving. I see that, I sense that. That's not what I'm leaning into. So similar with whatever, whether it's walking or some other movement. How would it be to let the container so to speak be my ground. Be where I'm resting attention. All of this is still happening. I'm doing the walking. But it's the space or the stillness or the silence that's foreground. I'm kind of switching foreground and background. It is the sense of all of that happening and somehow being suffused by the stillness, the silence. Not totally separate from. If I'm breathing, again often we're aware of the movement of the breath. What about those points of stillness at the beginning and end of the in-breath and out-breath? It can feel like that's just a point of stillness. What if that stillness was actually to envelop the whole thing? That's what I'm aware of. I'm aware of stillness as I'm breathing. The movement is just part of that stillness. It's just happening in that stillness. But the stillness is always there enveloping behind through and that's what I'm leaning into as the breath happens. So we're a little bit kind of early to finish. There was a note that was left to me that maybe I could just respond to briefly now because it's on theme. There was another note which was unsigned to all of us about working with what feel like deep-seated patterns that can be triggered by inner child stuff. We're just trapped in this and how do we bring this practice to those? I'm not sure who left that note but if you want to come to the Q and R at midday then I can maybe offer a response to that then. But this question that came was about how to apply this, what was in the note said absolute equanimity to situations that have a clear negative impact and the two examples that were given were losing a limb in an accident or getting a puncture cycling to work. How do we bring this equanimity to that? For me this is really what I wanted to draw out last night, this sense of this is a radically different perspective that we can step into. That's very wide, really wide, really kind of accommodating of all conditions, all life that is less identified with experience. Even with the body, even the body can be seen as just happening. And with this wide perspective and this less identification there's also a very clear knowing, there's wisdom in this that knows where happiness and well-being arise from, the kind of reliable kind. We know something about where that comes from and where it doesn't. In a sense even as radical or kind of big as it sounds that happiness doesn't exist in the arm. It's like I lose an arm in an accident. That can be completely okay. It's not the thing that matters most. Who knows what gifts open up from different life that I don't know, none of us know. But these things that feel like they are the most important, I can't imagine losing. Maybe it could be completely okay. Maybe there's a possibility of a wide holding where the sense of resource and enoughness, it's placed in a different dimension. It's not about any of this. The question was asking about absolute equanimity. I'm going to that extreme. I'm not talking about what might be possible right now or tomorrow. But this is what can be possible. Totally different relationship to life and the body and what happens. And obviously similar with the cycling. There's no use having equanimity about a puncture. If I'm at the same time fretting about what my boss is going to say or missing a meeting with a client or whatever it is. It holds the whole thing. It knows that I might be late. It might be uncomfortable conversation with my boss. Maybe I lose my job. Even losing a job can be okay. There's room for all of that to happen. And then life does something else and it happens in a different way. We're talking about very different relationship to all of it. Just the last thing with that, it's not that we don't care what happens in life. That we just surrender ourselves to some random unfolding. We roll the dice in the morning. Yeah, whatever. I'll do what the dice tell me. It can be a fun experiment. But we don't need to do that. Of course we want certain things to happen. We face ourselves in a certain direction. Of course. And of course we want to keep the job. But it's about what are we prioritising? And is that the most important thing? And does it have to be? Or can it be important? Absolutely. But it's a bigger holding. And so it's important and it's held so lightly. Because I know that the unfolding of life isn't down to me. There are so many conditions at play. I influence some of them. Who knows what happens? Can it be held lightly? So both. Both and. Okay. So I'll be here at midday if anyone has any questions they'd like a response to. There's group two I think meeting at 11.15. Just a reminder of that. And yeah, enjoy if you wish. Resting, resting back into the container, into the stillness. Thank you. Thank you for listening. To learn how you can support the teachers and Dharma Seed, please visit dharmaseed.org. Donate.