So it's kind of funny that we're talking about the electronic buzz with recording here when I think sometimes buzz can also mean, excellent kind of hyperactivity. So, to become to be peaceful. So if a person sitting in meditation and they are worried about the rain, what are they going to wear with the rain, how they can be safe in the rain? Isn't it going to be dangerous this rainstorm that's happening, they have to go out in the rain and, and there's all this agitation and preoccupation and maybe fear and tightness, contraction, around thinking about the rain. And so maybe that's easy enough to imagine something like that, or another concern. But it turns out that not only is it not raining, there was no rain on the forecast. The skies are clear. And, you know, and so all that concern about the rain, and I'm going to be safe in the rain and how I'm gonna manage in the rain. You know, it had no real world reference point that had no I didn't, it was kind of a imagination that it was raining out there. And so the agitation is sitting in meditation, thinking about the rain was all self caused was all in this little universe of inside our skull, and here and here. And now, and, and we were contributing, we were creating a little rainstorm in our own minds. And in doing so, we were creating kind of a lack of safety for ourselves, we're kind of in some subtle way, perhaps harming ourselves or agitating ourselves. And in that kind of thought experiment, it's kind of like maybe easy to understand how much our own inner life can make it a certain kind of unsafety a certain kind of stress, that is not really necessary. But we add to the situation. If it's possible, if we know that we added to the situation, notably adding it to our minds, then perhaps, and we know that just the imagination is not really necessary, it's not really a real thing. Maybe it's easy to let go have it, maybe it's easy to turn back into the, you know, some calm place within to look for calm to look for a peaceful place, come back to breathing as we breathe, to let go and settle back into a calm place. So maybe that's easy to understand that that thought experiment. But what if it is really raining out there? What if it's a big storm outdoors, and we have to go out? Those same kind of thoughts might be there? How do I be safe in the rain? And what do I do? And how do I find my way? But now it can be justified, that we're thinking that way? Because it's really addressing a real world issue. And the question is the agitation that we feel, are we now contributing to it? Are we the creators of it? When there's really rain out there? Do we attribute our agitation to the rain? Do we justify it because of there really is an issue that we have to address? And so of course, we should be agitated? Or do we ever be able to see it there too, even when it's a real world issue? There too. We are contributing the agitation. We're caught up in the ideas and thoughts and, and the stress of that that form of thinking is in some subtle way, creating a lack of safety for ourselves, it's harming ourselves with stress. We're preoccupied in such a way that we don't really pay attention to the bigger picture maybe of ourselves sitting here and and what we're we're not safe for our place of calmness and peace within
and whether we're going to be safe when we go out in the rain. That's one issue. But whether our peace inside us is safe. That's a different issue. And What if they Inner peace is really important? Maybe Is it maybe more important thing, getting wet in the rain is more important than getting agitated while we meditate for something that's not happening here, and now, while we're meditating. So this way of this thought exercise them offering is meant to point out that even when we have a real world issue we're concerned with, when we're preoccupied with it, we are in some kind of maybe mild way, becoming less safe for ourselves, we are a little bit harming ourselves. And there's a trade off there, between whatever benefits we get about, you know, thinking about the issue, thinking about what should I wear? And how should I go, and what kind of umbrella should I get about the rainstorm? You know, and the benefits that comes from that kind of thinking, there's a trade off with what's lost in terms of being connected to a deeper wellsprings of peace of calm settledness. And if we evaluate the situation that way, maybe then it's easier to realize that there's no purpose right now there's no value, or there in sacrificing the calm and the peace. Or it's not really, to my greater benefit, to lose touch with my common peace. Maybe the calm, peaceful place is a place of integrity is a place of feeling more connected to oneself more whole, the place of our intelligence or creativity or compassion. It's a place where there's a wellspring of, you know, a sense of freedom in life. So there's a ways in which our agitation, agitated mind, eclipses something precious within the agitated mind limits us in some way. If we able to settle back into a place of peace, a calmness, there's a sense of unlimited to this, that can be their unboundedness there can be a sense of, of being connected to ourselves in a deeper way. And, and not only is a place of calmness and peace safe, it turns out that the way that we think the way that we respond to the world understand the world, from that place that calmed, that's calm and peaceful, tends to create more worldly, safe safety for us than if we respond to the world and agitated way. If the mind is jumping around and agitated, and then we act that way, in the world, we don't see situations very well we don't see ourselves very well. And we don't tap into our deeper understandings we have and, and, and also the deeper values that we have, we lose touch with our core values. So there's a calmness in Buddhism and safety there's one word kamma K h e ma, that sometimes translated as safety or security and sometimes translated as peace or calm and, and the fact that one word encompasses both points out that these these two are not so separate from each other. That if we can, that the place of calm or peace within there's something about safety to be found in there. And how do we make that how do we contribute to the safety of our calmness inner well being peacefulness? How do we not add layers of limitations layers of agitation, preoccupation, so we lose touch with that. And how do we tap into the way that the calmness and peacefulness helps us to be safe in the world. So I'm certainly capable, if I'm agitated, to
to be concerned about staying dry outside when it's raining. And and so I'm in a hurry or it's agitated and so I just grab the first coat I can get so I could stay dry. Stay try to stay a little bit dry, and walk right by the umbrella that's by the door by the door as I leave and not notice it. So but if I had been calm and settled and kind of gone about leaving the house in a kind of relaxed way, of course, I would have seen the umbrella. And the umbrella might have made me drier in a nice way than the particular coat that I chose to take. So these are simple ideas and meta kind of analogies for what I'm trying to say. What I encourage you to do is to really think about this and reflect on yourself, you can probably come up with better examples in your life of how this works, how the sacrifice the the downside, of being agitated and preoccupied, might be helpful for you to build them are motivated to feel your way back into the place where things are calm and peaceful. And what I'd like to suggest is that maybe that calm place within is not so inaccessible. May maybe if you if you kind of take the time to look for it in a physical way. Where is there physical calm, physical peace within? Is it in your chest? Or your belly is in your hands? Is it in your feet? Where do you and it's a relative relative to how agitated you might be? Where's the place of greatest calm in your body? And that might be the toehold into the world in a world of safety in a world of calm. And once you have a toehold there, maybe then you can breathe with it, settle with it, relax around it. value it and little bit protected. This still quiet, peaceful place within is well worth protecting. And the primary person to protect it from his from yourself from the surface mind that is agitated and anxious and, and caught up in his preoccupations. Your concerns might be very valuable, so valuable, that maybe it's better to stay calm, so that you could address them well. And if they're not real, if there's no rainstorm, then all the better to have not sacrificed your calm for an agitated mind. So you might want to consider how calmness helps you to be safe. Thank you for this morning and I look forward to tomorrow.
