Everybody's coming in. Let's do open up your video and wave hello. Hi, everybody. Nice to be back. Andrew and I were off playing golf in Pebble Beach. You don't have to feel sorry for us this is what it looked like there. Oh, not too bad. Not too shabby. And I was forest bathing in Michigan. Yes, that's right, was how are the forests tell everybody what you did.
I walk through the woods many woods, and it was beautiful. It's really beautiful. I went to visit torch lake in Michigan, in northern Michigan very woodsy and gorgeous and I did a lot of forest bait.
Wonder wonderful. We have two more chapters. Tonight, and then two we have four chapters total left in the book, and we're going to do two tonight, and two next week and that's the end of this class, Boo Boo. Oh, boo boo boo. So, the two chapters we have this time are called one thing at a time that deals with multitasking and mindfulness in action. And then one of my favorites which is called waking up, which covers a lot of pretty, pretty deep stuff so we'll spend some time on that. And then the last class we have two shorter chapters and we'll do some wrap up and have a little extra time for for questions. So what I'd like to do to start, before we start the reading is let's just all calm down and take a few Winnie the Pooh breaths, I'll hit a little Gong here.
Let's do seven because that's as high as you can count. With each breath. You get a little more settled a little more calm, a little more open.
There we go. one thing at a time.
We miss the experience of the present when we get ahead of ourselves and worry about the future. We hurry through what we're doing to get to what's next. We think we can multitask, but we can't, we can only do one thing at a time. Since we lose focus. Each time we switch tasks, it is better to finish one before starting the next
as he made his way to rabbits house. Who thought about him in a rhyming sort of way.
Rabbit scurries to and fro, always has a place to go. If that place were here and now. It just might suit his furrowed brow.
Turning the corner, who saw rabbits head sticking out looking this way and that. Here we have rabbit head sticking out looking. I didn't think you were coming, said rabbit. It was getting past lunchtime. It's good you finally got here, lots of plans, you know, places to go, things to do, so come in, come in Ready for a little something. Yes, thank you for squeezing through the door into rabbits house. Rabbit scurried around putting things out for lunch and offering Pooja chair. What have you been up to poo aimless wandering. What's that,
It's taking a walk in the woods, going nowhere in particular,
how do you know when you've gotten there.
There isn't any there to get to wherever you go you find yourself there, which is always here,
then what's the point. There isn't any. The point is not to have a point. I give up. Oh good. That's exactly the point. Well then, what are you doing well you're aimless wandering rabid couldn't imagine just doing one thing at a time. In fact, just then he was pouring milk with one hand while spreading honey on bread with the other. So yeah, I have some things we're gonna do here. So he was pouring milk with one hand and there's his, his glass of milk, and then he, he has a little honey bear actually that, so he can, he can spread honey on, there's his bread, so he can spread some honey on his bread so we're gonna get that ready because they're having lunch, you know, so there's one, two, who always likes this and then sometimes he says, I'll have the Breton honey but you can hold the bread if you don't mind. Now where were we, oh rabbit couldn't imagine just doing one thing at a time. In fact, he just then he was pouring milk with one hand. Spread it while spreading honey on bread with the other.
It's really not about doing, it's more about being, you might find it relaxing. I know I do.
Well, I don't know about relaxing but I'm willing to try it. Now how will I know if I'm doing it right.
There isn't any right and it's not about trying,
getting a bit complicated. At that moment, who's telling me made a little rumble and that gave him an idea, who had lunch with rabbit before, and he knew that he never sat down to eat, he would stop for a moment to take a bite of carrot and then hustle and bustle around, picking up rearranging, or making preparations for what he was going to be doing next.
What if you stopped for a bit, and catch your breath. Then we'll sit here and just eat.
Isn't that a waste of time just eating when I can be getting other things done as well.
Let's pay attention to what we experienced as we eat our lunch. It takes a bit of practice to move slowly and notice as much as you can. Being the clever rabbit that you are, I'm sure you'll catch on in no time. Now start very slowly and say allow what you're noticing, moment by moment, moment by moment.
I'm reaching out my pause and picking up the bread. It feels a little crumbly and a drop of honey is running over the edge. Now I'm bringing it to my mouth and taking a little nibble. The bread is chilly. And the honey is sweet. Now I'm setting the bread down, and finishing chewing. I'm reaching to the side, and taking the cup in both paws. I have my book here so I'm only going to use one paw and lifting to my mouth and drinking one sip. And another sip. Now I'm licking my lips and setting the cup down.
Well done. Now let's continue that way without the talking.
And the aid and mindful silence until they were done, after they were finished, rabbit remark. Well poo. That was something of a surprise. Possibly the best lunch I've ever had. It may be that before now, I never really tasted what I ate, because I was always doing something else at the same time, or thinking about what I was going to do next,
excellent observation, just the kind of clever rabbit like you would make,
and who thought of a one thing at a time rhyme.
Rabbit gets in quite astute always has so much to do. If he did things one by one, he would have a lot more fun, and maybe even get more done.
Thank you pool. I feel like I can do what I need to do in a less hurried way. I believe I'll enjoy things more and they could even turn out better.
This is from savor mindful eating mindful life by tick not Han. If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully. If I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert. I will be equally in capable of enjoying my desert with the fork in my hand, I will be thinking about what to do next, and the texture and the flavor of the desert, together with the pleasure of eating it will be lost. I will always be dragged into the future, never able to live in the present moment.
Before I read the rest. Nancy and I wrote another book together called the best diet book ever. The Zen of losing weight, and had basically this story of eating mindfully in it. But there's one technique that goes along with this that I wanted to share with everybody. Um, we talked in the past about sense perceptions and how we experienced sense perceptions one at a time. Well, if your sense perception is about your muscles and your fork, and what your and your thoughts about what you're going to do next, taste goes to the background. So what's really helpful to do is to take a bite, and then set your utensil or the food down on the plate. Lean back, and just eat just savor the taste. Now that does two things one, you get more taste, you get more taste satisfaction. And you, it's been shown that taste satisfaction has almost as much to do with feeling satisfied and complete at a meal as volume, you know, if you're eating something you wish tasted a little better. It's almost as if, well maybe the next bite will be better. And maybe the next bite will be better. And you can eat and eat and eat and eat for a long time, but if you have something that tastes really good and you have a bite and set it down and just really enjoy it. Two or three bites, and you are like, wow, that, that's enough. I'm going to save this, I'm going to save this for next time. A friend of mine I got these very very nice little desserts, and I would. They were like a chocolate tart, something like, you know, really, really nice. And I would eat about a third of it, like, two bites, and put it, put it back in the refrigerator, he said, You got to be kidding. How could you not inhale that thing. And I actually had three desserts from it because I ate it so slowly and it was such good quality that two bites was sufficient. So it's an interesting practice. The other thing it does is it slows you down. You chew the food better, which gets more saliva so it improves your digestion, it slows everything down and we actually have a lag time when we eat between what our volume is in our stomach, and how full we feel we are in our brain. So by eating more slowly. The brain catches up faster and we stop sooner. And that's really the recipe the three S's for losing weight, smaller portions, eat more slowly and stop sooner. All right, so enough for, for, for dining. In this day and age, multitasking is the norm. It's rare that we are only doing one thing at a time. Television emails and social networking, we feel like we have to keep up with all of them while we're working playing and eating. However, multitasking isn't actually possible. In the same way that we can only focus on one sense perception at a time, we can really only focus on one task at a time,
who helped rabbit discover that if your mind is elsewhere while you eat, you aren't able to appreciate the flavor of the food. When you eat. Just eat. Take the time to notice the taste, temperature and texture of each bite. When you eat mindfully, it's much more satisfying. Even if you are doing one thing at a time. You might drift off into thinking about what's next. You can be so concerned with how things will turn out in the end that you miss the experience of the journey. When you recognize that you're getting ahead of yourself. Gently returned to appreciate your experience in the here and now. So this is really mindfulness in action. And it's the same thing that happens while we're sitting, and our mind drifts off into a daydream. This is a little harder to pick up because it's content related, Or it's at least life related and we think that we better think about that stuff to plan ahead, but in fact it's really just a daydream. And we don't have to rush to the future. So mindfulness also means experiencing the present moment, without self conscious judgment. Being mindful provides the opportunity to recognize your patterns, and to discover things about yourself that you may not have noticed before. If what you discover about yourself is either disappointing or encouraging establish the intention to pay more attention to what you do, say and think, throughout the day. So you will have less to regret and more to feel good about. So time is an interesting concept. I want to make a couple of remarks about time. First, I have to please indulge me I have to share a joke, that's one of my teachers favorite jokes. And I'll tell it in the first person because it's fun to tell it this way. So I was, I was driving out in the country. One day I was driving by a farm and I saw out, just off the road, standing under a big tree was a farmer, holding a pig in his arms and waving it back and forth, overcome by curiosity I pulled in, and I walked over and I said I'm sorry to intrude but I couldn't help but notice what's, what are you doing with the pig in your arms like that he said, Oh, that's okay. What I'm doing is I'm helping this year pig see to catch apples, so she doesn't have to eat them off the ground. To catch apples as they fall off the tree so she doesn't have to eat them off the ground. I thought for a minute, I said, Isn't that a waste of time. He looked at me and he said, What's time to a pig. So that's one of my favorites and whenever we're talking about wasting time, we say, What's time to a pig. Now the other thing that I wanted to talk about was this, this notion that about multitasking. And what this, what studies have shown is that what happens is, when we interrupt what we're doing, we lose some efficiency. And if we're trying to do two things at once, we're not really doing two things at once we're going back and forth very fast. Between them, but each time we go back and forth we lose that efficiency so even if you're doing two things, instead of getting 50% efficiency on each, you only get 40% And the more you do the lower your efficiency gets so you actually lose efficiency by not doing one thing at a time.
Okay, we have one little questions is, do you have a book about gaining weight. I don't that that is an interesting thing that some people have that that issue. And that's a, that has to do with you your metabolism and I would definitely talk to a health professional about that.
Okay, so let's continue on. Chapter 14 waking up
in the mindfulness tradition, waking up is a metaphor for wisdom. The clear perception of things as they are. Just as we dream while asleep at night, we often get lost during the course of our day and dreamlike thoughts, oblivious to what's really happening through mindfulness, we can wake up to being truly present to the vividness of our experience in the here and now.
It was getting late in the afternoon, who decided it might be time to head for home. He said goodbye to rabbit and started off through the woods, who felt happy that he'd been able to help rabbit relax a bit, and smile that the thought that their friends would appreciate it too, who hadn't gotten very far before the nice full lunch eat eaten made him sleepy. He had just come upon a little babbling brook with a weeping willow beside it. The sound of the stream was soothing and he noticed an inviting spot on the sophomores. Under the shade of the tree. Just the spots are a little nap. Cousin that looked like a nice spot for an applicant that looks so comfy. Upon laying down and getting comfortable, who used his breathing to settle in with each out breath he let himself feel heavier and more relaxed, as if sinking into the bed of moss, and before Punahou it. He was fast asleep. He giggled softly as he dreamed that piglet was tickling his tummy. When he awoke, who realized that the willow branches, reaching down toward the forest floor, waving to and fro in the breeze, had been tickling him now. I was hoping Andrew could chime in on the effect of external stimuli on dreaming, because that's what he does. The everything with dreams, and he wasn't able to but I, I did a little research, and there were some studies. And one of the things I wanted to share was the impact of sensory stimuli on dreams, because it happens we have them, especially as we're about to wake up. Somehow we merge, what's going on outside into our dream so they they converge, really nicely. You know, you're lying there, you're sleeping and you're going through your dream, and it's a long elaborate dream and near the end, you're passing a fire station, and the bells are ringing from the fire station, and you, and the sirens are going off, And then you wake up and realize it was your alarm clock. So, although we're asleep, we're still picking up stuff, auditory, physical and visual. A lot of the lucid dreaming masks that they make have little flashing lights that you're supposed to train yourself to recognize when a lights flashing in your dream, you go oh, that's the signal that I'm dreaming, and you become lucid in your dream, so the impact of those sensory stimuli on Dream suggests that the creation of dreams. This I found interesting, the creation of dreams occurs in the body, as well as the mind. And it points to the role of the body, in all of our conscious experience. So I thought that was interesting to contemplate. Now poof falls back asleep. He fell back to sleep and started joining me again. This time he was a poor be living in a big Honeycomb, surrounded by the delightful scent of delicious honey. He took a big lick. How scrumptious. When to woke up the next time a curious question came to mind. He wondered, which is it
was I a bear dreaming that I was a bee, or online now be dreaming that I am a bear.
Well, needless to say pondering a question like that can make even a bear very little brain have some very deep thoughts. So I wanted to share a little bit. You may recognize something about that story but the who and the dreaming he was a bee, and it goes back to trongsa. I'll take in how you spell that.
Think this is it a Taoist teacher who had this contemplation, but he jumped he was a butterfly. And he woke up, and it's a question of what is reality. Because when I was dreaming I was a butterfly, I really thought I was a butterfly. And now I really think I'm trongsa. So was I trongsa dreaming that I was a butterfly then, or am I now a butterfly dreaming that I'm trongsa. So who of course, wasn't dreaming of butterflies he was dreaming about bees and honey. So now that's gave rise to some deeper thoughts.
I suppose life is very much like a dream. I remember things that happened, like my visits with Piglet and rabbit, but they are gone right now, as if they were a dream. And sometimes I drift into thoughts that become a daydream. I missed what's going on, as if I were asleep until I wake up to the here and now.
That's an interesting section of approves thoughts for, there, there are two parts to that that we should take a look at. One is our experiences are dreamlike and, and we say, okay, so a dream, is something that happened in our minds, but wasn't actually happening in reality, Because we can say well, you know, I like in sleep studies, they're filming someone, and they never leave that bed, but in their dreams, they go lots of places. But in our lives, we go lots of places. And when we think back about them, we're remembering them in our minds, we're not actually there in those places. So when we think about yesterday. Yesterday's very much like a dream because it's not happening right now. It's in our, it's a memory in our minds. And where else can dreams come from but memories, and any sense perceptions that were picking up through our sleep, as we just discussed. Now, it's interesting if we follow that logic a little bit. So, we said yesterday, it was like, what we experienced, like a dream. An hour ago. What we experienced, we're not experiencing it now, So any memory of that it's like a dream. A minute ago. It's like a dream. A second ago, is like a dream. And what we're whatever we're experiencing takes time, no matter how small, to get from our perceptions, and our, and even our thoughts into our consciousness. So, each moment that we're experiencing it, it's slightly separated from reality, so called reality. And there have been experiments. In this regard, in the field of physics. And it points to our at our, what we experience continuously every experience is actually dreamlike, and in the Buddhist tradition in the dream, yoga tradition. And I know Andrew has talked about this in his class. There's the dream of this life. And then there's the double dream that we're asleep of Bower sleeping, dreaming about the dream. That's it, that's a lot packed into six lines there. Okay, opposed thoughts, he's very is very deep, condense thoughts for a bear of very little brain, so it must not be happening in his brain, who sat up and watch the brook flowing along, he thought.
Life is like a stream to. There are places where it slows and it's clear all the way to the bottom. When it's rushing along in a hurry. It's waiting cloudy and you can't see through. In the same way when my mind is busy. It's all muddled. But when my mind is calm and peaceful. I can see clearly.
Just then, a poem decided it was ready to appear and poo named it is waking up home
life is like the dream, and also like a stream, often thoughts are in a hurry, cloudy mind so full of worry. Waking now and simply here, peaceful mind is called and clear.
So that's really the essence of, and I talked about this in our meditation class last night, the essence of Mahamudra, meditation, the highest meditation of one of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. And it is the essence of it is those two things calm and clear, tranquility and insight. So all of the meditations for this deepest understanding of the true nature of mind and reality is calm and clear, that first we need to pacify. First we need to calm the turbulence, like Whitewater, so that it is clear and we can see through to the bottom, and that's when insight appears into the true nature of mind and reality. Resting in quiet reflection and insight came to boo. You see, calm down. And that allowed room for the insect to arise. He realized that everything is always changing. Summer ripens into autumn, winter melts into spring. Just like the seasons, everything changes. As time passes, the caterpillar has to disappear for the butterfly to emerge. Apple Blossom flowers have to fall for apples to grow.
What's more, everything depends on everything else. All my friends and I wouldn't be the same without the wood that we live in, and it wouldn't be the same without us. We have our homes, our food, our water and everything we enjoy all around us. Excuse me. We need to appreciate even the parts that are a bit of a bother. I'm not a big fan of beads when they sting. But if they didn't have stingers birds would eat them, and I wouldn't have any honey.
So, These are two very essential concepts. First one is impermanence, everything changes. Nothing stays the same summer to autumn, winter to spring, and, and the importance of impermanence, is that one thing has to stop being for the next thing to arise. There's a story, an ancient story in the Buddhist tradition where a father and a daughter. Go to the Buddha, because they, they're having an argument about impermanence, and the Buddhists in the father says, I don't like impermanence, I think it's bad, because it means I'm going to die at some point, and my daughter will grow up and be a woman and I won't have my beautiful little daughter to take care of, to take care of and play with anymore. And the daughter says, well, but I think it's good, because if it weren't if there weren't if there weren't impermanence, I'd stay a little kid all the time. And I'd never be able to grow up and enjoy my whole life. And the Buddha said, she's right. That, that we have to embrace impermanence and understand that that's the rhythm of life. And that, that one thing passing away or stepping aside, allows the next to emerge. And in the same way we look at it for ourselves, that there's an opportunity to wake up every single moment that we can let go of our lesser selves and become greater selves, in the next moment. Otherwise, we'd be frozen, as we are. So in permanence. It's also a message that if we think that we have lots of time. Then, impermanence is a message that means not so much. You're not gonna be here forever, you better get on with it. But if we think, oh my gosh, I'll never get there, impermanence is that at every moment there's an opportunity to wake up. So it's right there in front of you. So it's both. The second part is interdependence, that we don't exist as separate individual entities, completely independent of everything else, who we are and what we are depends on all of the causes and conditions that give to give rise to who we have become in this very moment. But in each moment, how we manifest that is interdependent with who we're talking to who we're engaging with what our experience in the environment is. I'm different when I'm talking to the little green light on my computer that I'm imagining is going out there to all of you. And that would be different than if we were actually in the same room at the same time, and I would be a different person. If I were just sitting alone and talking with my sister. And she and I would be different people are different people when we're off visiting with our mother. So, who we're with, and what we're doing, changes who we are, actually we can say no we're weird, we're acting different in that. But if we look really really deeply, we are different. We're never just one fixed person, everything about us changes throughout those situations. So with these deep, deep thoughts. Some words gathered themselves into a seeing clearly palm.
Everything changes that doubtless is true, and nothing is separate from me or from you, the natural magic we find in the wood reflects our true nature, that's basically good know. This is from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you, nature without check with original energy. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars.
We feel at peace communing with nature. There's an innate interconnection among all living things in their environment.
Trees are our partners in breathing. Our lungs inhale oxygen, and exhale carbon dioxide trees absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. We have a calm presence when we immerse ourselves in awareness of our sense perceptions, which are always here and now being attuned to our moment to moment experience creates the clarity and openness necessary for insights to emerge. We have the possibility of interesting fresh ideas coming to us only when we free ourselves from thoughts of stressful situations, worries and to do lists, seeing ourselves as part of nature makes things manageable, seeing ourselves as separate battling with in competition with or needing to conquer nature makes things ultimately unmanageable, not imposing our framework of likes and dislikes on the world, we discover natural harmony. It doesn't mean everyone is singing the same single note. Harmony means all the voices blend together into something more than the sum of each individual one. That's why in the Zen tradition they don't say it's all one. They say everything is not to. When you are in harmony. The world reveals its secrets. You can see the cycle of life. Sun showers bring rainbows caterpillars become butterflies baby birds leaves the nest. One season gives way to the next, and so it goes. How your senses change, choose a place to stand or sit for a while. Stay there for several minutes, moving as little as possible. Open your eyes wide and see the big picture, as if you're looking at a landscape, without moving your eyes to look around. How does the scene in front of you change. Open your ears to listen to, to listen for sounds from all directions. What can you hear, what can you feel in your skin. What can you smell. How do things change while you're there. Resting your mind in this way for a period of time, not trying to figure anything out. Be open to whatever arises, permanent instinctive sense of deep understanding insights can bubble up. You may want to record any meaningful ideas that emerge. If possible return to the same place at different times of the day and during different seasons. Looking listening smelling and feeling, just notice the changes.
That was a lot and a couple of chapters. And you, if you've done the meditation practices we've done you'll notice a similarity to that last thing of you, of letting your mind wander through your sense perceptions. But this is a little bit different. This is not the open awareness or environmental mindfulness of just noticing without a lot of labeling. This is actually more insight or analytical meditation and looking for and noticing how things change how things move, how things change in our own body, while we're there, watching, listening, feeling, smelling, tasting, and thinking, because our mind is continually changing as well. So thank you again for your kind attention. And if you have questions you, how do we do that Andy. Um, if you have questions or comments. Now you can either type them in the chat, or if you want to come on. You could also type that in the chat, let me know and I can give you the audio, or you can raise your hand. Use the reaction staff to raise your hand. And we can bring you on that way.
This is our waiting meditation. While people contemplate.
Rest In reflecting on Winnie the Pooh.
Oh. Hi, Barry. You are so funny. Nancy, how do you go first. Um, I didn't, I do.
Really, I can't think of an of a time where I actually dreamed of Winnie the Pooh, but I had a situation where I was writing a poo story, and I couldn't come up with an ending. And I was in a yoga class, and it was time for Shavasana. And I'm lying there, and all of a sudden, the ending to the story just popped into my head. And I, I just got it, clear, clear Isabel
shavasana is the corpse pose in yoga where you just line your back and essentially do meditation,
right after a full on yoga class and they're the ending, I knew how to end the story. And so with that. Was that a dream.
Well it's all a dream, right. We would say that's an insight bubbling up appearing out of because of the calm in your own mind. There is some in some of the research that people can set an intention to try to solve a problem, and that it happens in a dream. I have. I had a similar experience which my wife reminds me of quite often that and that that the rabbit poem came to me. Not, not quite in the dream, but in the instant that I woke up. The, the one that, that we read in the in the book, but I haven't dreamed of Winnie the Pooh, as a character. But I've dreamed, talking about the book with people. And I think I may have dreamed giving a talk about the book with people,
Vicki, who uses his heart, brain. That's right. You know, it's really important to understand, heart and mind in the eastern wisdom tradition you know we in the West we have them as two separate things. But in the eastern wisdom tradition. In fact, when they talk about, if they say that there's a relationship with your body, speech in mind, they go body here speech here and mind here. So thoughts are more connected with our body and wisdom is more connected with our heart. Also, think it's Japanese Kokoro is used both as, and the Sanskrit word cheetah is is translated both as heart, and as as mind, but its mind in a bigger sense, big mind rather than thinking mind so much deep there's another person others comment how to stay mindful while cooking and eating when your family always disturbs you. Calling away your attention from the process. That's a really really good one. Okay. So, to stay mindful while cooking. That's important, or you can burn yourself. You can ruin the food. It's really easy to, you know I can. I don't, I don't have kids that none that have found me anyway. But I didn't raise kids, but I did help take care of some friends kids one time, and I was cooking them dinner, and they, the two boys got into a fight, and I was so busy breaking it up, that I ruined the dinner that it, it, it burned. So it's really important to be mindful while you're cooking and of your family disturbs you, you, this is where boundaries come in. And I want to ask Nancy to comment on this too cuz she has much more personal experience, but to me that's where boundaries come in and you say, Okay, hang on, I need to get to this stage in the cooking process and then I can come and relate with you. Now when it comes to the eating. That's where it's really helpful to set your utensils down and temporarily ignore. Well, if somebody asks you a question. Just finish the eating, put your hand up, you know and say, give me a second, and lean back into, take a breath and say, Now what was the question again. Now if it's just a whole lot of chaos, let that be your environment but within that tune your attention into the bite that you're eating, and do the best you can. The, the, the energy and the spinning around that everybody's doing will try to suck you in. Like, like a vortex, it's spinning around and it sucks you in. Try to be as aware as you can, of when you're choosing to participate. And when you're choosing to sit out. Nan, what are your thoughts on that.
Um, I think, I think what you said is, is really good, and I think I have worked out away from myself to tune out what's going on around me. Or else I just scream for my husband to deal with it.
What about cooking. What about cooking
so okay so what's interesting for me is thinking that I can multitask while I'm cooking. And it is always a disaster. But Joseph, I want you to tell, I want you to tell our favorite grandma, a full story about her sponge cake baking.
Do you mean about the best sponge cake ever. Yes, yes. Okay, so are we both loved our grandmother. She was the best. And she made great cakes and different things like that, there's one recipe she has called sponge cake. And she made the cake, and we ate it we go this is better than the usual. This is really really good. And it turns out, and I don't remember how we figured this out, But I think that she discovered this later. She had started to lose her memory. And she put in the butter into the recipe and got distracted, and then put the butter in again. So, sponge cake with double the amount of money in the recipe and it was the bass was so good. So, sometimes distraction can turn out well. Not every time but sometimes. And then she was out of butter, So there you go. That's how we knew. Yeah. Grandma's breakfast the next morning. Yeah, all gone well gone. Where'd that letter go, What is your tuning out. Um, I,
what is my tuning out I just, I just am very, very, I just focused in laser focus on what I'm doing in the trying to be mindful in the moment.
And that's what I was thinking that it's really more of a tuning in, and everything else, sides and goes to the background. And that's what happens when we deal with our own sense perceptions when we tune into one, the others go to the background. And so when we tune into what we're doing the distractions can fade into the background. But it, and we could talk about it as absorption that we're fully absorbed in the moment of what we're doing, which is great. That's a moment of enlightenment. Someone wrote and listening to music while we cook. That's Anita Do you want to come on and say a little bit more about what you mean by that. I see a neat is. Are you being very stellar is that your picture. Oh, there you go, she was being very still. Can you unmute. Yeah, hi.
I understand that perfectly, and I am the one who's complaining because nobody writes about how to gain weight.
I understand. Okay, let's do those two pieces first listening to do.
Okay go listen to music, it's sometimes it's wonderful to be a woman, and have this music to like, and you do things, and, but I think I feel that I am aware of the two things, it's a part it's like a one thing. Okay, and listening to music or.
Yes, it feels that way. But if you were to take a microscope, a meditative microscope to your, the mind of your sense perceptions, you would see that it's going back and forth. But it's going back and forth very subtly and quickly so that it seems like they're happening at the same time, like the frames have a moving picture you, there are gaps between the frames but when they're moving, they, they blend together.
That example you gave us yesterday with wonderful, I found it, hit me up. It's
really what's happening with your music that there, the music and the cooking and the music and the cooking are just interwoven. They're not one, they're not happening at the same time, but they're inter woven, like, like two different color threads that when you look at it from a distance, it looks, you know, it looks pink, but it's red thread white thread red said White for like my hair. When it was, Now it's white, but when it was gray. I did not have any gray hairs. Because I, they would come out and they either be black, or they'd be white. So that I never, I've never seen a gray hair. But the Black Ones kept getting replaced by more and more of the white ones,
but I do enjoy this mixture of doing something and listening to music, it is a it is an eating thing as you say, it's a fabric.
Yes, it's a fabric, it does set a rhythm which is lovely. It definitely sets a rhythm, so no problem there, and, and also it, if, if it's cooking and music. That's too and it's hard for thoughts to find room in that fabric. Now, about gaining weight. As I said, it's better to talk to a health professional, and don't just eat a lot of peanut butter cups and candy and, and things like that, it has to, you know, it has to be a good balanced nutrition, and it's really good to talk to a nutritionist and see what your system is doing that you have difficulty gaining weight, because there may be something else besides just eating that you can do.
I don't eat. I don't eat junk food. That's what happened. I could eat junk food.
No, no, that's not good. Wait, that's not good. Wait, That's what I'm saying Go, go to a nutritionist and there's two things one, what is it about my system. That doesn't make me able to gain weight, even when I'm eating. You know it might, it might not be junk food, it might be brown rice and vegetables, and a very nice sauce and a protein, soy, fish, chicken meat, whatever, I don't know what your habits are. But all of those, the balance of carbohydrates, vegetables, proteins, all the different elements that contain all good nutrition. That's something you have to talk with your health professional about. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I love Park bathing, but almost always there a sudden visit for question, sudden unpleasant noises popping up like the roaring of a plane passing in the sky or the sudden barking of a dog, and the brain the amygdala. Yeah, the stress part, I guess, reaction I can't do anything about my bodily chemical reactions. You know, that's an interesting one. The, it's the suddenness I had that a woman moved in next door to me with a very big dog that I heard, I got no indication when I opened the door but when I took from the garage into the yard, but when I stepped in rubber. Yeah and it would it sense. The juices are flowing. And those are very, very challenging situations. Now there's a difference between startling. Which, because it's startling is unpleasant. And just a sound of a plane passing or, you know, a car driving by. So let's separate those out. Unpleasant sounds have to, we we label them, and choose to decide whether they're pleasant or unpleasant. The sudden sounds, there's nothing that you can do about. So the only thing you can do is say, okay. Don't think of your mindfulness as being disrupted rather think of you have a new object of attention in your mindfulness, because before your mindfulness was about the sound of the babbling brook, or the breeze in the trees, or just the feel of the air on your skin. And then suddenly there's the sound and the juices and in your juices are flowing. Okay, so the sound is probably already gone. What you do is you turn your attention to. Where am I feeling this stress, what's happening in my body. How is my body reacting. Now I want to put a different spin on for you. Okay. Because pleasant and unpleasant are judgment calls. You see, If you didn't have that reaction. You probably wouldn't be alive, because something might happen, that you don't get startled by and pay attention to, like the sound of a car coming around the corner and you just keep walking across the street, kaboom, you're gone. Okay. And we are hardwired to have these reactions because in prehistoric times. The one that didn't have that reaction, and start to run. When they heard when in start to run, they got caught, and out of the gene pool. The one that had the reaction. They got away. Because in those times, known, neither one of them could out run a panther. But the Panthers stopped when they caught the slow one.
So the faster one got away. So that's what we are hardwired to have that reaction and, and to be ready to you know like, like a, like a rabbit, you know, the years are they're listening for the sounds are ready to run. So, we're set up for that. So instead, when you have that reaction go, Ah, I'm a survivor. That's, that's survival. That's my survival reaction. Oh, okay, boy. Wow, that's intense and feel the flesh of the, of the heat in your skin and your ears, and feel the pounding of your heart and go. that heart works. Oh that's a good heart. And you see you can change that whole, that whole thing. The pleasant, unpleasant sounds I think, I don't know if I told the story in this in this group, but I was in a situation where someone was making a very irritating sound, and it was bugging the heck out of me, and I was trying to think what to do about this terrible irritating sound, and then the person did something really really nice for me. And when I heard the sound I went, Oh there's my friend. and and it was not an unpleasant sound anymore. You know, I'm so, so it, we have to understand and have a sense of humor and say, Ah, yeah, okay, there's a plane, there's my judgment about planes. And I'm not saying it's a wrong judgment. You know, planes go over my apartment all the time and my porches, covered with soot. I'm not too happy about that. At the same time. I've got a flight in New York, and I wouldn't be too happy about taking a covered wagon. So maybe make those, those disappointments your object. You're welcome, you know, and if you have any further question you're welcome to come on and talk about it. Okay, there's a chat comment from Tim, I could read it says, These concepts are deep well presented in a simple way, this whole story is kind of dreamlike, I think this book will really plant good seeds. A good seed thoughts for kids and for us, and provide a way to discuss them thanks for doing this. Thank you, Tim, you are very welcome and thank you for that comment that makes us feel great. Yeah, thank you. Well gang. I think that's good, let's, let's conclude, I want to I want to read, or want to poos aspirations for Kant kindness. And then, and then we'll, we'll aspire to share whatever benefit came from our study and practice with others. So, this is. May all and every one of us have happiness. May all in every one of us, be free from suffering. They all in every one of us have peace and calm. May all in every one of us give and receive love. It's on page 25 You want to look for it. And to conclude our site that this, and you can recite after me or put it in your own words, whoever you'd like made the practice and study we've just done be of benefit to others, as well as ourselves. And as you know you can add generosity to that by saying, May the May, the practice and study we've just done. Be of even more benefit to others than ourselves. So thank you. and we'll see you at the various venues that we have here have the hangout and the meditation, and definitely next Tuesday for our final class. Hey, thanks so much Jen and yeah, mute everybody unmute, we can all say goodbye. Like the flight.
Thanks everybody, wonderful to be with all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, bye bye. I'm gonna finish my bread and butter dinner. Yay,
Dinner, dinner.
One bite at a time away. Good night. Night, night.