Okay, cool. Here we go. Cool. Hey everybody, I'm Joe's gonna be on in just a second. Let's, let's do our everybody has their turn the camera on and everybody has to do this totally geeky Hello, our little kind of group, group hug here. That's great. Everybody, so I want to say something joke. I just have one little thing to say and then I'll turn it over to my friend Joe. Joe is doing this little thing for us out of the goodness of his heart he and Nancy He's not asking for anything. He's really being extraordinarily generous, if it happens to speak to you and again, no pressure whatsoever. And he's gonna put in in the chat column, away you can make like a little teaching gift for him. We're off next week, and then Joe told me he's going to finish I think June 15 And so if that resonates with you and you feel inclined to make like an offering to Him more than welcome to do it, if it doesn't speak to you, do not worry about it at all, but he's being so generous and sweet I thought I would throw a little pitch in on his behalf. And outside of that I've been given on this thing, I think the book is just absolutely delight, and he should be out here in just a second and in the meantime, I'm Andy do you have any jokes you can share with us. Now I don't come equipped with jokes, unfortunately, no I should have learned from last time I should be more prepared now. It's all perfect timing. Awesome, hey welcome Joe. Okay, I turn, I turn it over to the maestro. I like to disappear, at least from the camera
a little bit more, get a better view. There we go. There we go. Okay, so we're rocking today and Andrew also. I hope he's sticking around because he asked me to talk a little bit about a big golf tournament that happened. Finished. On Sunday, yeah, magic, and it was Phil Mickelson who set the record for winning a major championship. There are four major championships, a year, like in tennis, and he is the oldest man to ever win a major championship might be man or woman, I'm not sure, but I think so, over any he's over 50 He's almost 51, and he was different than, and I've seen him in a lot of tournaments over the years, and he was different this time because he stood behind the ball for much for a little bit longer and visualized his shot you could you could really see him closing his eyes visualizing what the shot was going to do. You saw him working with his breathing, and they talked, that the announcers had interviewed him and he talked about doing meditation. And he had just started because he felt like he was as almost a strong physically as when he was much younger, but he was not as strong mentally, and he one, two, is the major championship lead the whole lead every round, and it was a very very impressive showing so wanted to share that story. And now we are on to a walk in the woods. We have a couple of quick. A couple of comments and one at least one question that came in. The I'm holding in my hand. A copy that was sent to me by the editor, and this is the fifth printing, they've done six printings and we're getting ready to do a seventh so that's very exciting for us, some other interesting things that have happened. Friends of mine run a Montessori school, did I talk about that last time. I think I might have the Montessori School in Vancouver, and I'm going to be teaching that on Thursday night reading to the three four and five year olds. So we talked about that a little bit last time I think the, the idea was really to connect them, and their parents with reading. The other interesting thing that happened I just got back from Denver I was visiting my wife who is struggling with her late father's estate he died a few months ago and she's dealing with that. And on the plane to Denver. I was. They asked for volunteers to move because this family was coming on. So, this other guy and I moved our seats to one row back in one row over, and, and they sat down and this beautiful little girl, about a year and a half, maybe two years old and her mother's lap. And these big brown eyes and we just locked eyes and we put I played peekaboo games with her, and I saw the mother takeout, a little mini iPad, when the little girl was already touching the buttons and seeing the little kid seeing the little animals on their hook. Well, I had a copy of the book with me, so I took it out and said, oh look at that. And the little girl went Oh, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, you know, so we handed the book over and she looked at it, lost interest pretty quickly and then we got off the plane, I didn't, I didn't mention that I had written it with my sister. But on the way off the plane. She said, wasn't it nice of that man to show you the Winnie the Pooh book, and I said, the actually my sister and I wrote that, and her husband, who hadn't said anything said, I thought I recognize that I went What, wait what he said, I'm a professor at City College of Los Angeles, in the children's and I teach children's literature and we were looking at this for our curriculum review.
So I was like, You gotta be kidding and I looked him up and so I offered to do a reading for their whatever class they have for teacher, you know they're training teachers and children's literature so that was a mind blower, that was, that was a real beauty on on that one. So, got a nice comment, also from Peter. Peter Rosner, I don't know if Peters on yet. And he, oh there's Peter, there he is. Peter, thank you for the offer too. He just bought his copies of the book, and offered to narrate it. Except, which is wonderful, except I already did it for you, for Disney, and it's on Audible and all the other books that was part of our contract for doing the book. And they decided that, you know, so I had to do all the animal voices. Anyway, my sister can't be here today. She is in the woods, she's taking a walk in the woods, literally, with my brother and his family in Upper Michigan. So I am on for the reading for today so please bear with me. Now, I believe we, we let last left PU. When he and Piglet were doing some forest phasing. There is there is there forest breathing, we actually had a question about that. Which, so I thought, you know, let's change change your pace I'm going to answer this question, because it's about last week said, enjoy. I am really enjoying Winnie and his adventures. Last week you talked about being mindful, with an illustration. It's not always possible to be outside. Can you explain mindfulness within illustration, how can I do that, when he was also doing a lot of Earth practice lying down in the forest, you know, there areas on the earth, are there any mindfulness practices for connecting with the earth inside. Okay so number one, I don't remember saying, being mindful within illustration, does anybody else remember mindful was an illustration. I think that I, I might have said, we can be mindful and here's an illustration. But I really don't, it, I don't know who wrote this, Andy, do you know who wrote the question, if they're on. Yeah, I think it came from Eris. If you're on and you want to unmute. As Andrew often says our format today is emergent. So I see Eris, X just put up your hand if you want to come on with the audio. Or you can type in the chat. Okay, so, yes, you can always do, you can always connect with the earth because understand that when we talk about Earth, we're not necessarily talking about the planet. We're talking about the sense of solidity, the ancient elements. We didn't have the periodic table of the elements with hundreds of elements, the elements were, earth, water, wind, fire and space in the Asian astrology sometimes they include wood and metal, but they're, they're kind of basic elements. In this case, Earth is that sense of solidity stability groundedness, hi Eris. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. So, so the whatever sense of solidity you have in fact,
we include that in our being. We are part Earth, that's the solid part of us. We are water that's the liquid part of us. We are wind, that's our breath, and occasionally gas, and, and we're fire that's our temperature. And then we're the space is essentially our consciousness our mind. I want to digress a little bit but if you think of those elements. When I often think of the old westerns, when people are dying they talk about those elements dissolving into each other, and the person is dying, you know, and they, they've just been shot and their buddy had, he says, he says, lift me up because they feel like they're sinking their earth element is dissolving. Lift me up and then he goes, I'm thirsty, and the water element is dissolving. And he says I'm cold, but it's hot, you know it's a hot day but I'm cold, and they put a blanket over him and that's the fire element dissolving and then. And that's the Wyndham element dissolving and then space mind departs. So that's some, that's the way that, in the, in the Bardo that the elements dissolve into each other so that's a digression, sorry about that. The Earth part is anything solid. So, if you lie on the floor, and let your weight sink in, let it be supported Trump remember share my teacher said, sometimes we sit, as if we're perching, you know, it's almost as if as if someone could pull the chair out from under us and we wouldn't fall, because we're not letting ourselves sink in. Let yourself be supported. Let yourself be supported by the Earth, feel your weight and feel your weight. Almost like sink within you to, to be heavier against the floor that you're lying on. And when you feel that you really start to feel the points of contact with the floor. you start to feel the weight and you start to feel your own weight. So you can really be be that, not trying to hold yourself up but just let go into the solidity of the floor, it would be rather startling if the floor then collapsed but most of the time it doesn't, you'll probably be okay. So so so you can trust it. You know, for the most part, for the most part, and, and, and that's what, And that's how you can practice that lying down, and visualize that you're in the forest, visualize and, and when I say visualize, imagine, use your imagination. You can hear the sounds. And if it's helpful, go on YouTube and there's about a gazillion forest sound YouTubes that you can, you can put on there. You can have a babbling brook running by like, like, like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet found as they as they walk through the woods. So, so you can enhance it that way but you can do it with your own mind, and our minds are amazingly powerful that way. It reminds me of a Mark Twain story about Tom Sawyer. Hang on one second. Speaking of wind,
turning the fan off. So, So, Tom Sawyer is asleep on a hot Missouri night hot and muggy Missouri night, and the room is just so claustrophobic, and he's just, he said he just can't breathe, and Tom being as lazy as he was doesn't get out of bed to open the window he just reaches down picks up his shoe and throws it at the window, and there's a crash at tinkling of glass, and he feels this, the beautiful cool Zephyr of air, the night breeze coming in, he goes off, so much better. And he goes to sleep. And when he wakes up in the morning, he looks over and sees that his booth had hit a glass vase and broken it and the window was still, still shot. So it was all his imagination but our imagination is very very powerful that way. So use your imagination to connect with the earth, and do the mindfulness practice. Is that helpful. Yeah that's it helpful, thank you. No, I'm not sure what you meant by mindful within illustration. Good. Tell me what I said.
Um, I can't remember that you were talking about being mindful in the woods, and that you are outside. And this when he was poor was doing that they would piglet. And then you said like, you know, if you're not able to do it, then you could do it also within illustration, if it's not possible, over there.
Hmm, that's interesting. Okay, so what I probably meant meant was, your imagination. And, and, and you can do, do it that way and that's something that's involved in Buddhist practice, especially Reggiana practice, you imagine a whole world, a mandola with all sorts of different elements so that's part of the training of your mind and in Tibetan it's a word that's pronounced Sol. It sounds like to Sal, but when you see it in Tibetan that if they transliterated into English, there's an R A silent R in front of it. It's a very interesting language. So but so is the facility and capacity of mind that it's a well it means a well trained mind, and it has the same quality, there's the mind of a gymnast, of a body of a gymnast. It's a mind with balance agility quickness, flexibility, stamina, all of these different qualities, whatever you can think of that a gymnast has. That's the qualities of mind that you have, through mindfulness training and visualization practice. So, it will also help you in working with your dreams because the visualization. If you can make it very very vivid, it, it really is dreamlike in that way. Okay, I hope that's helpful. Thank you. Now, now I'm itching to read your so let's, let's go to taming your mind, perfect transition Thank you, there's an overactive thinking mind is common, a common obstacle to mindfulness. Rather than struggling, makes the cascade of thoughts, the object of your attention, watching the twists and turns, they take. Gradually they will seem more calm and manageable, like whitewater rapids, slowing and merging into a gently flowing river. And this is something that Andrew has talked about in the meditation classes and I have as well. It's one of the definitions of reverse meditation. And that is that instead of letting thoughts go and turning your attention away from them, your turn, you make them the object of your mindfulness. And you watch as they appear. Dwell for as long as they do and then disappear, and make them the object of your attention. I, I teach a meditation class I think I might have done in the last class, I say, you know, now watch for the next thought that appears, and everybody goes, and nothing, nothing shows when our minds are so much like irritating kids in school, you know that if the if you want them to leave you alone, the more you want them to leave you alone, the more they bug you. And that's what your thinking mind does. The more you wanted to leave you alone, the more bugs, and then you say, Okay, go ahead, think, let me see what you got nothing. No, no interests. Now, now, if they're not going to get a rise out of you, they're bored. Okay we continue on, suddenly out of nowhere, there was allowed. Hello, a boisterous Tigger broke poor and piglets peaceful concentration, Piglet lost his balance and fell into the flowers. He stood up covered in petals and pollen sneezing and shaking with fright, feeling completely unsettled he complained Tigger, why did you bounce me. I didn't said Tigger, I just bounced by to say hello. Well, said piglet. Somehow I got bounced out of what Poon I were doing what were you doing as Tigger.
Go ahead poo offered piglet not certain that he could answer in a way Tigger could understand. Put begin. It's more like what we were not doing Tiggers are very good at not doing, they just choose not to not do Tigger announced, who continued. Well, first we were using our breathing to get grounded takers are very good at that taker said interrupting again. And using our senses to just notice the natural magic of the wood around us who concluded, just noticing is what takers do best figure at it. The beg pardon said Piglet, but I don't really see how you could be grounded and bouncing at the same time, and, and how is it that you were just noticing if you didn't notice that you were bouncing into me. Unfortunately, you happen to be in the way while I was just noticing something else figure answered. Hmm, said poof, hopefully, you might find that taking a few minutes to get truly grounded will let you feel the earth more, and that could make you even better at bouncing Tiggers like to be better. And if you're thinking about where you just bounced, or where you're going to bounce, who pointed out, you don't notice where you're bouncing now. That's why you bounced into piglet. Then who suggested, sit here with us for a bit. As you breathe, just notice what you're feeling. Tigger sat down and took one breath, then two and I feel like bouncing, he exclaimed. Well, of course you do, said poo. But that doesn't mean you have to, it doesn't. It's more like you're bouncing inside without moving outside who explains, you can just notice your thoughts and feelings bouncing around without them making you move that way you are in charge of bouncing instead of bouncing being in charge of you. Yes, that's good. Eggers like it best when they can bounce inside when they want to and bounce outside when they want to agree Tigger. So when you're around Piglet, you can just bounce inside and save your outside bouncing for when you play with room said Pooh Tigger sat next to Pooh and Piglet by the flowers for a few minutes. that was inside bouncing, he proclaimed. And I think I heard roo calling me. So now it's time to bounce outside with him. Thank you poop. Be seeing you Piglet and a much happier Tigger bounced through the woods. Piglets said you were very kind to Tigger, but I really prefer the peace and quiet before he arrived, and after he left who replied, Piglet. You did well, learning to accept yourself for who you are. It's also good to try to accept Tigger for who he is. He may be a bit scary to you, but he isn't trying to be, and wanting both his friends to be happy, whose thoughts gathered themselves into accepting others poem takers bouncing can be scary. And of course, it makes you wary. He really didn't bounce at you, bouncing is just what Tiggers do remember Tigger is never trying to send a little piglet flying. Now he's promised to take more care, as he goes bouncing everywhere. So that's the story with Piglet, with, with Tigger. And so the idea here is that when our thoughts are tumultuous, again, make them the object of our meditation and bounce inside. Okay, this is in story. a student respectfully requested instruction from Zen master. My mind is very difficult to control. He explained when I want some thoughts to go they stay. When I want others to stay, they go, how can I control my mind.
The master replied, the mind is like a high spirited wild horse. If you try to control it by locking it up, it will be agitated and restless. Take a bigger view of control within the big meadow of awareness, let the wild horse of your mind run here and there with nothing to struggle against it will eventually settle down on its own. Now that Zen story was told in Zen Mind beginner's mind by Suzuki Roshi as give your cow, a large spacious meadow, and I adapted it for Zen golf, a chapter, can you put a cat in a box. If you have a box in a small room, and you try to put the cat in, It's gonna fight you tooth and claw. But if you just put the cat in the room, it's gonna sniff around, look around and eventually crawl into the box and rest there. You may sometimes feel that your thoughts are bouncing wildly to and fro, taking your attention with them. It's common for beginners and anyone to feel like they can't do mindfulness practice because their minds are too busy. They say things such as I tried to, but I couldn't sit still felt antsy needed to move every second, couldn't stop thinking, couldn't pay attention to my breath for more than a second, than I was often thoughts. One reason it's hard to sit still, is that we are so used to moving. We feel antsy because our minds are used to being active. When we're bored all the itches and aches, provide distracting entertainment. And if you think about it, you sit and meditate, and suddenly you can feel, why, why is my color a little bit off my neck here and closer there. And if you were watching an interesting movie on TV or you were hiking through the woods or something, you wouldn't feel those subtle things. It's just, there's no entertainment, and our mind cranks it up. In fact, back in the sick 1960s and 70s. They did sensory deprivation experiments where you were put in a saltwater tank you couldn't feel gravity. It was body temperature, you couldn't feel it warm or cold, they put have ping pong balls over your eyes, it was, it was no sensory input from outside, and people whose nated they generated their own sensory input so we generate generate our own entertainment, because we're so used to being entertained. Sometimes I'll continue. Sometimes people say I tried sitting practice, and I felt like it made my mind even busier full of thoughts. It's not that you're having more thoughts, you're just more aware of how one follows another in quick succession. And that they do so most of the time. Now you might think, Oh yeah, well this is modern society that our mind, you know that we, it seems like our minds busier when we sit, this is in 1000 year old meditation manual, and it says, when you start practicing, and you start becoming more aware of your thoughts you will think you have more of them, you don't, you're just becoming more aware of them. This is important, mindfulness practice is not about stopping thoughts, trying to stop thinking only invites more thoughts, instead as thoughts arise you simply let them come up and go by. Now they're inviting them to stay in are trying to get rid of them noticing them is enough. There's no need for analyzing or judging. And this is something that I've talked about before. A friend of mine had this great metaphor, said, Aren't your thoughts go by like a parade. And you can just watch the parade. It's when you find yourself in the parade that you realize you've gotten hooked and taken away by them. At that moment, you're already out. At that moment, you don't have to get out of the parade, you're already out you woke up from that daydream. The only thing you have to remember at that point is what you were doing before you got caught up in the thoughts, which is what was your object of attention of your mindfulness.
With this perspective, thoughts and feelings lose their power, watching them come and go, and seeing them dissolve as easily as they arose. You have a choice about what you pay attention to, and what you disregard. By simply observing your thoughts and feelings. You can choose how to respond. Rather than impulsively react. Instead of being swept away by the waves of thoughts and feelings. You can ride their energy. And this is a teaching that Trumper Amber Shea gave to the budget region to gave it to me. And that was what do you do when there's so many thoughts well one of the things is you watch them popping up in your mind, like mushrooms popping up in a meadow, and the other is be aware of whether your mind is taking the shape of the thoughts. In other words, if you are so absorbed by the thoughts that your mind is filled with the thought. Your mind has taken the shape of the thought, then there's no room for perspective. So it's important to say okay I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts. That gives you that space in between that gives you the leverage to work with them in relating to others. Now we get to that last part of the story where Tigger has already bounced off and Piglet said he didn't. He liked a better one Tigger wasn't there, relating to others, the path is acceptance and not taking things personally. Most people are bouncing along. So, so focused on where they want to end up, that they don't watch where they're going, or see who's in the way, emotional reactions are much the same. People get so worked up about how they are feeling that they often take it out on whomever they run into. And it and the person who gets run into literally feels like they got run into, and often feels like they got run over. It's more about them than it is about you, but you may happen to be in the way like being run over by a runaway car with no one behind the wheel. That reminds me of a story about a man who lived by a river, and had a little rowboat, that he liked to take out an anchor in the middle of the river, and watch the current go by and appreciate nature. One day, he was sitting in his boat and he looked up at the bend in the river and coming coming around the bend down the river was a much bigger boat. And he said, Isn't it nice that someone else is out enjoying the river. On this beautiful evening. And then, the boat is coming toward him, in the middle of the river and he said, Well surely he'll see that I'm already here and he'll steer to one side or the other. But the boat just kept coming at him and now he started getting irritated and said, What are you doing, I was here first and he starts yelling and waving and saying, you go to one side you do I'm not moving I was here first, and, and he's jumping up and down and screaming and then crash. The big boat hits his little boat, and he's thrown overboard and holding onto a piece of his boat and he looks up, it was an empty boat. And that's, people who are getting carried away and swept away by their emotions are like Empty Boats and you just happen to be in the middle of the stream that they are careening down. So that was taming your mind. Let's go to the next chapter which is more curious than afraid. Rather than denying or trying to get rid of our fears, we can turn toward them, seeing our fears for what they are, we can learn to go beyond them. That is true fearlessness. So this is kind of on the same theme, that not being afraid of our thoughts but just looking at them, and knowing that we have them but we are not identifying with them. We can do the same with our fears.
After Tigger left who had an idea. Let's go visit, he or, he suggested, and we can take a different path to get there. Why would we do that when we already know the way as Piglet, a bit concerned, we might discover something new, and it's your book but we might get lost, Piglet cautioned or we might not who replied, Piglet thought for a moment, there is that. And we can decide to be more curious than afraid offered to now poo did not want to say it, but he thought that if they took a different route to yours house, they might run into some bees, and where there are bees they're sure to be honey. It wasn't a poo was exactly looking for honey, but he certainly wouldn't mind if he happened to just notice some along the way. Piglet thought about what it meant to be more curious than afraid, you know poo. Now that you mentioned it, I was quite brave when it came to wandering aimlessly. I do like surprises. As long as they're not the frightening kind. So I suppose I could do with a little curiosity and adventure. As long as we don't get too adventurous. And what we find isn't too curious, and off they went along the path, Piglet heard a rustling in the bushes, and his imagination took over. Oh, do you hear. He said in a trembling voice. I think what we're hearing like the fear center. Terrible bhusal piglet wanting to be fearless for poop, but Woozles or another matter entirely. Why don't we wait and listen and see what comes out, who suggested, which piglet was more than willing to do a poster directly in front of him. The two friends were surprised to hear a soft whimpering coming from the bushes. It was not a very Reuzel ish sort of sound. This made piglet less afraid. As he drew closer he was surprised to see a reddish brown snout with a black button nose poking out under a bush. Then he saw two little eyes, and two little ears, and two little pause. It was a baby fox
piglet was about as to what they should do with it when he remembered poos caring kindness. Today I'll be the best friend I can be to everyone I see. Then piglet added including the baby fox and me. Piglet decided that in order to be kind. He in pool should return baby fox to its home looking along the ground, Piglet found the nearly hidden opening to the foxes den. It was not that close but not that far from the very bush where they'd heard the rustling and whimpering afterward piglet began to feel a reddish glow, which ran from his nose, all the way up to the tips of his ears. It warmed him on the inside and outside. Why poo, said piglet. I think I'm feeling the very feeling that comes from being both fearless, and kind. So that's the story of more curious than afraid. This is from a Pema children's book No time to lose. The trick is not getting caught in hope and fear. Instead, just go forward with curiosity.
I don't know if people know, I want to tell the story also that Tenma includes one of her books about a Native American named Ichi. And people have may have heard this story, but he was discovered in the early 1900s by an anthropologist during that went to this remote area, and he'd been hiding there. The last seemingly the last member of his tribe, not to have been so called civilized by the white man. Well, he was invited to come in and coaxed to, to come and spend some time with this anthropologist and he started to learn his language and started teaching English and said do you want to come to with me to San Francisco and he agreed. And they got to the train station, and as the train pulled up the anthropologist looked around and he she was nowhere to be found. And then he saw him peeking out from behind a column, well away from the tracks, and he said you know what's going on, and he said, well, the train, the trains here come with us and he motioned for him to come and a little cautiously, he came along and got onto the train with the anthropologist, and he asked him, Why did you go that way and he said, Well, are we, I was taught when I was little that those, those iron monsters driving through the countryside bellowing smoke. Were eating people. And the anthropologist said, and you got on, you got into one of those with just my little gesture to come along. How could you do that, he said, Well, I was taught since I was very young to be more curious than afraid. And that's where the title of that chapter comes from. I hope I I did tell this story. Well, training and fearlessness. The first step to going beyond fear is acknowledging it, we can recognize our fears and learn to respond rather than react to them, mindfulness practice includes directing our awareness toward what we fear within the space of inquisitive awareness, we gain insight into what's behind our fears and can take a more courageous attitude toward our experiences. As the old saying goes, life is like a turtle. You never get anywhere if you don't stick your neck out intensify and release. Once you've recognized your fears and put them in perspective, you still need to undo, you still still need to undo their physical effects. Even after calming your mind, your body may still be unsettled. We've all felt that we get upset about something and we're praying we're vibrating physically intensify the feeling for several seconds making your muscles tighter and tighter than suddenly release them. You can do this exercise on one area of your body at a time, head and neck, shoulders and arms, hips and legs, upper torso deep belly whatever it is, or upper half, whatever, whatever works for you. Afterward, take a little time to breathe fully and settle yourself completely. You can also do this with your mind. And that is if you're feeling uptight. What you do is increase the uptightness feel uptight about feeling uptight, then feel uptight about feeling uptight about feeling uptight and intensify it all and then suddenly just let it go. And at that moment, you can actually open up the way we do for environmental awareness or open awareness, and just let your mind be open, open, open, open, open, further and further and further and further. So tightening tightening tightening tightening more and more self conscious, then let go and go out, out. And then just rest. When you conquer your own fears. You have a greater capacity to extend kindness to others and encourage them to be more fearless as well.
So that was poo teaching Tigger, to be a little more tamed teaching piglet could be a little braver. And now we're going to see or a lot of people, ears, a lot of people's favorite. Probably a little projection. After 12 Believe in yourself. If we've made it a habit to get down on ourselves. After a while feeling bad starts to feel familiar, and even comfortable. Wrapping ourselves in a cocoon of complaint and depression may give us a sense of security, but it cuts us off from fully experiencing life, it's also challenging for anyone to get through to us, and cheer us up. However, the possibility is always there for friends who care.
Remember it tell you this was the first question that I ever asked children for share my teacher. Just gonna make a note here.
There we go. Okay, having left the baby fox said he's done a far more fearless Piglet and prouder Pooh, Enjoy the new route to Iraq's house. They went through a meadow with brightly colored wild flowers that waved in the breeze. A new fragrant smell greeted them every step of the way. They marched on into the forest where they showed the pine needles crunching beneath their feet from branch high above came the cause and cackles of two gossiping crows. They followed a narrow path that zigzag down a hillside. After pushing through some sad scraggly looking bushes, they came upon Isla munching thistles. Hello, er, said Pooh and Piglet. Hello poo, and little piglet. What brings you here must be some mistake. No, poor explained, we decided it was a good day to visit you. Well, that's very nice of you to say now that you're here, but I'm sure this isn't where you wanted to end up must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Sorry for the disappointment but that's just the way of it sometimes. No, said Piglet, We really did come to see you, you're. Well, there you have it. I'm always wrong. We're here to cheer you up. Piglet offered. That's a very kind thought, but not very realistic, your objective. I'm always wrong, and things always turn out for the worst. Maybe because you believe that said poop. It's more likely to happen. I know, it always does. So why wouldn't I believe it. He or pointed out, but if you're always wrong. What if you're wrong about that, as poo. Hmm, used your makes my head swear I'm a bit but I guess that means that I could be right about something. Well that would be different. Yes it would cheered piglet. But of course even if things did work out for me. I still wouldn't be of much use to anyone else lamented, your. What if we could prove to you otherwise. Who asked you can try said your I wish you luck. Well let's start right there, who began, you're always wishing everyone good luck. You want the best for your friends and feel sorry when they're disappointed. Piglet thought for a moment and then joined in, you always appreciate the nice things we do for you, and you always say thank you, and you're welcome. You're very generous about sharing your thistles too. And you always ask after Kanga Andrew. Hmm, said you're thoughtfully. You have a point there. Maybe I'm not so hopeless after all. Thank you for cheering me up. Some rhyming words came to poos mind and fashion themselves into a cheering up home for your Piglet and I were feeling sad, that our friend, er felt so bad. We went to visit and to say, he really need not stay that way. We told him he could change his song of always being in the room, you care about your friends, it's clear. So in our hearts we hold you dear, and hope you'll feel a bit of cheer. A poem, just for me. Query. Er, well you're certainly needn't have, but it is much appreciated. Now that you did. Very kind of you poo. Piglet felt good about helping he or to see things in a new way, and about spending time with the more cheerful, he or, so he decided to stay and keep him company, who was also quite pleased about their kindness making a difference, but his tummy was now a bit rumbly again. So, hoping that rabbit might offer him a little something, as he did more often than not, who headed off for his usual mid day visit. There's Pooh and Piglet in your.
So let's talk a little bit about believing in ourselves. This is, I have two quotes to start this gray matter section. One is from Mark Twain is a favorite of mine. My life has been a series of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. And this is from Sharon Salzberg his real happiness at work, the ability to rest comfortably in the present moment, regardless of its imperfections, is the foundation of all true happiness. If you're so used to feeling bad, you might forget how to feel good that presents a challenge to overcoming negativity, and to changing habits and perspectives. The familiar, even if painful is hard to let go of, When you don't know how to be some other way. That's why it's good to start with small steps. So, I want to interject here this first question that I ever asked Trump or MCA. I was the first seminar, I ever went to Christmas of 1971 gray here. And we were taught meditation, and we were taught, amazing understanding of psychology east west psychology, the whole thing. and and how meditation fit into the whole thing, suffering the cause of suffering the Four Noble Truths. It was great. And after one of the later talks, I raised my hand I said okay, I buy it. I mean, I, I'm with you. I get what you're saying, if we need to meditate and develop mindfulness to clarify all this, if that's the case, and we do believe you, which most of us here do. Why don't we then take every spare moments that we have and medicate. And his answer as close as I can recollect it was because we prefer the familiarity of pain to the possibility of happiness, kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. We prefer the familiar, even if painful to the unknown, the possibility of happiness. Nobody wants to swing through the jungle on their vine and let go before they have hold of the next vine, so it's hard to put ourselves in that No, no, I think it's officially called no person's land now. It used to be called no man's land. But now it's called no person's land. So, the other element of this is an interesting one, and that is that was also talked about in this seminar, it was the seminar on the six realms of being. And that is that we begin to have a style, our own style of imprisonment. And as and I think that was a chapter in Mytho freedom or but in the palm of your hand, I'm not sure I can't remember which but styles of imprisonment and that is that we, the most important thing for human beings, it seems, is identity, we need, we have a need to know who we are. If you see some of those old movies where the person has amnesia and can't remember their own name and can't remember who they are and this the beads of sweat start coming down, it's a very very uncomfortable feeling to not know who you are. We also identify with our occupation. When you go to a party, somebody that people say, so what do you do. They don't say, so what are you like. You say somebody say, so what are you like you'd go. What do you mean what am I like I'm, I'm like this, and it feels very awkward. What do you say what do you do, oh, well I teach this or I work at that or this is my job. When we say, it's almost like who are you, it's what I do. And, and it gets people in trouble. Because if our occupation is lost. We're unemployed, and we don't know who we are. I want to share one thing that just popped into my mind about this, this difference between who we are and what we do. And this was really beautiful, it was
Bill Russell, who, one of the greatest basketball players ever. Yes, he identify I identified him by what he did, but he was also an activist and a fantastic human being kind, giving, gentle, thoughtful, sense of humor, all these great qualities. He also happened to be nearly seven feet tall and one of the best basketball players ever. And people who don't recognize him. Say, are you. He's really tall. Are you a basketball player, he says no. He said really you're not said no. I play basketball. I am a man. I'm not a basketball player, playing basketball is what I do, it's not what I am. And that was that blew me away. So we have this identity and we, you can. It's an interesting thing to look at because you have to look somewhat subtly. Okay, so what is it that I do that I identify with as an occupation. Well, in terms of relationships. Here's an example, in terms of relationships. Let's say it's a guy who is always is always searching for the perfect woman. Miss right I'm, that's my job is searching for Miss right. And he would meet people and get meet a woman and get in a new start of a relationship with them, with, with her I'm sorry, and, and somehow sabotage it or make it go bad. And why would you sabotage works, a great relationship, because he knew how to look for a relationship, but he didn't know how to be in a relationship. And he and when he's in a relationship. He lost his job, his job, his occupation was looking for a miss. Right. Well, if he found her. He's out of work. He doesn't know. He doesn't know. He doesn't have a job anymore, And he doesn't know how to be someone else, which is the guy in a relationship rather than the guy looking for relationship, so he sabotages it, and of course as about. Turns out I guess she wasn't in this right back to looking. And now, painful as it may be he still has his occupation. Over the searcher, and he still has identity of the one who's looking. It's a very sad story, but that's a lot of what we do. If we're an anger, and these are the different realms as well if we're an angry person. We're not an angry person we just have developed a habit of getting angry at things. And now that starts to feel familiar. And we don't know it, too, if we're in a situation, and something's not making us angry, We don't know how to be in that situation. So we look for things to make us angry, or we kind of stir things up in a way that's going to make us angry, and that way we perpetuate that essentially a hell realm of anger and blame everybody else, because that's part of that mode, and that's what we know, I know how to blame. I know how to be angry. Do I know how to be accepting and not blaming. Do I know how to take the blame. I don't know how to do that. That's what's scary. So that's that question. The getting hooked on a particular style of being that gets us stuck. And, and we need to take a step out and that's where mindfulness comes in to see to get perspective, it's like, it's like to, to look at a great painting you can't be one inch away from it you have to step back and get a perspective.
Working with mindfulness to overcome negative attitudes and believe in yourself is a journey, not a quick fix. It is simple but not easy. In the process, it's important that you not reject or throw away qualities of your personality, even ones you think you don't like instead find a way to use them to open up to a bigger world. And the, the idea of making friends with yourself in Pali it's called in metta, some of the traditions in Sanskrit my tree, but it's loving kindness, which starts with accepting oneself, so that one can encounter the world without the armor. Like your, some people don't really know how to be anything but negative, they assume the worst, and have a why it won't work. Come back for every suggestion. They are certain that nothing will make any difference. So what's the point in trying. No, no, there's another mechanism there that happens sometimes. And that is, well, if I expect the worst then I'll never be disappointed. So I'll expect the worst. And then when something good happens I'll be pleasantly surprised. And if something bad happens, me I won't be disappointed. I'll say oh yeah I knew that was gonna happen, I knew that wouldn't work. The problem is, then we get hooked into that mentality, and we start looking for ways that things won't work rather than looking for the possibilities that they will. They reminds me of something from Yogi Berra, somebody asked him about a, what do you think of this restaurant. And he said, Oh, nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded. Okay, if all you hear from someone, are complaints about how unworkable things are, you start to feel that getting through to them is impossible. So that now we're going to talk a little bit about, we're going to read a little bit about how you work with people who are kind of stuck that way it's the starting point is to reflect on what you are sensing, as you're listening to them. If you are really connected with the other person you will be tuned into what they're feeling. Ask yourself, What am I experiencing right now, the answer will probably be an attitude of hopelessness that there's nothing that will make any difference. And that's your connection to them. You can say other things seem kind of hopeless. As soon as you say that, they'll start to feel like you hear them, and you get where they're coming from, and that's where the opening is. So, Trump remember Shea talked about this. He'll he said this cryptic thing, when some when a crazy person walks into the room you're crazy. Now, we had lots of different interpretations, this is when he was developing the mytreat project for people who had more than ordinary psycho psychological turbulence or difficulty difficulties. And so the idea is to just sit and wait, and feel what's coming up and use that and I've talked about this as people are like tuning forks, you know, if you, if you have two tuning forks and you hit one against something hard and it vibrates and you hold it up near the other one, it will start to vibrate. And so if you don't have to actually whack it it will start to vibrate and make sound. We are like tuning forks we pick up other people's vibes. That's why we call it that, we pick up other people's vibrations, and we start to vibrate with that same energy or frequency. So if you don't have an attachment to things coming out a particular way, you don't have your version of what that person needs to be like. That's important because we we project an overlay our version of, you know, if only you did this, you'd be happy. Well that's not probably not true, that's true for you but you're laying your trip on them. Instead, tune into them without expectation, without preconception of how they should be, and you'll start to pick up their butt vibrations. You can do that, even with somebody who's seems pretty out there. If you don't see it as out there, you can tune into their world. And as long as you're tuned into their world, not yours.
Their world, not mine. That's, that's the motto for understanding people. Their world, not mine. Once you do that, then you can start to get it, you can get what they're going through and tune into it. Maybe just a little glimpse. Probably just a little glimpse, but if you have that and you can say back to them. Feels like feels really stuck. Because you're stuck, you can't figure out what to say to them, say that, say, the whole thing feels really stuck, hmm, and they go, Yeah, that's right and then things open up between you, within a company reading within that shared space of openness, you can express care for them, and a belief in their basic goodness as a person and in their hearts, they all know that if someone cares about them, it means they're worthy of receiving care of receiving love. They can acknowledge that it's possible to believe in themselves and be more confident about their lives. Now, a caution on this. There's a slogan of the low junk slogans, don't expect, don't expect plaudits don't expect applause. Don't expect that they're going to say, oh you get me. That's so great. In fact, the fact that you've pierced their armor a little bit may make them overreact. And they say you don't get me you don't know what's going on. Well, that's a defense mechanism. In fact, it's probably an indicator that you did get through a little bit. And, and, but they will most unlikely, it will be most unlikely that they'll admit they'll say, You know what, I get it you do care about me and I'm worthy of receiving care and receiving love. That is so hard to say. That is so hard to get to. They may feel it but but if you can crack that armor, and the tiniest ray of sunshine can get into that dark place, where they're feeling, not worthy of love. They're feeling not worthy of receiving care. It calls it into question, which is uncomfortable for them. That's why they'll have a defensive reaction. But after, after you're gone, it will make a difference. The crack won't close completely. So I want to encourage you that way. Okay. So that was chapter 1312 And we'll, we'll get to one thing at a time and multitasking next time. So we're gonna do one thing at a time here. Now, I think there are probably some questions, I haven't even looked at the chat, let me pull it up here. And I don't know what life hacker is.
And thank you for your nice comments, we have Peter has a joke for us. Did you sign the book for that family. That's a good question. I signed the book for that family. He had the book. And I talked to him for a moment and they were in such a hurry to catch their next flight, that we didn't do it but I am going to get in touch with them, because I'm going to follow up with them, and definitely will bring them a book, I couldn't give them that one because I was bringing it for someone that I was going to see in Denver. But that's very, that's very thoughtful. If I'd had an extra I definitely would have done that. Is that how Phil Mickelson one is, is what how I get Yeah, is the mindfulness and visualization. Is that how he won. He won by taking less strokes to play four rounds of golf than anybody else, that's, that's how we want now. How did he do that. Was he has tremendous skills around the greens. And this course. The greens are very hard to stay on so he had a, he had an advantage over everybody in that regard, but mainly he kept his composure through the whole thing, and did not change his rhythm, did not change his demeanor and kept visualizing and breathing, and it was very very evident that he was doing that and it was different than I've ever seen him before. Yes. With regard to imagining the shot and visualizing, you know, I think he had an idea of the shot, but he didn't spend the same amount of time, as he did this tournament of really visualizing and holding that image. And it is amazing what your body can respond to when you hold that image. Okay, let's, Let's unmute Peter I want to hear the joke.
Peter, you're unmuted joke is as
follows a joke is actually designed for you to feel, thinking, the question is, Why did the golfer bring along an extra pair of socks.
In case he got a hole in one. Oh, there you go. I'm sorry. I only know, 40 to 50,000 Golf jokes. Yeah, I should have no. Anyways, thank you. Thank you. That is a classic. That's a classic is a classic. All right, so any other, any other questions do we have hands raised. Andrew did you have a question or comment.
No, I just want to say how much I appreciate your impersonation of your, it's just like it's just, it's one of my favorite words it's so Lagu Breus right, it's just perfect. So, Yeah,
I find myself going between Walter Cronkite, and John Wayne,
yeah there you go, there you go that's perfect.
Somewhere in between there. Now, because you brought that up. Okay, so it's easy to do Piglet, that's a squeaky voice, You know, and, but I wanted to get something distinctive for who and in the cartoons and the Disney cartoons. Sterling Holloway, has this very hoarse voice, and he's an actor you can look him up Sterling Holloway does the voice of poo in these things, so I needed to get a distinctive voice. Now, one of my favorite comedians is Jim Gaffigan. You can look them up on YouTube, he's very, he's very, very funny and observational comedian you know and he's rather heavy and makes jokes about his weight and his food and his complexion and, you know, says he spontaneously compulsively gets out in the sun, it's very fair skin. But one of the things he does in his routine is at certain point he interrupts his monologue and pretends he's some, a woman in the audience, critiquing him, you know like he'll say a joke, and it'll say the joke, and he knows it was kind of in bad taste, and then and then and then he'll go. I don't think that was very funny. And, and, you know, he'll say well I like cake so much and I have cake for dinner. In fact, I like cake so much I have I have pancakes for breakfast cake for breakfast, what more could you want, and, and then he goes, is that all he talks about his cake. So, I, that's the voice I chose for Poe, though, the whispering, come. Jim Gaffigan commentary. So those are the ideas that I, that I did for, for all of the different voices. It's fun having Nancy on you know she can, then we go back and forth. And actually, when they say something together they can say it together. But Disney wanted to economize so I was the only one reading for the, for the audio book. So yes, that's your end, do we not know yours. Right, well why don't we go, it was it's like the restaurant joke. Why don't we go here oh we probably won't get in, you know, what are we do this now that probably won't work out. It's, it's, it's enervating. And, and so what we can look for and look in all of these characters is, what is it, when am I being Tigger, and I can't sit still, When am I being Piglet and feeling afraid of my own shadow. When am I being you're just expecting the worst. And so, so they're really archetypal archetypal characters. And one of the, one of the things in the piglets always afraid of Tiggers if you look at the actual animals are the original animals. I'm going to, I'm going to find them for you. Hang on a second. I'm going to find the original animals, and show you why piglet was so afraid of Tigger, can I share the screen here, Andy. I think so, yeah, here we go. Yeah you can. Okay. That's how, That's how small piglet is that's piglet. And so Tigger came along and in the stories, the original Winnie the Pooh stories Tigger was a later arrival. It was a new stuffed animal that appeared. And so, a man was made up the story of Tiggers relationship with piglet. In that way, that he was all scared of him. Not that he would eat him, but that he would bounce into him and knock him over.
So. Well, that was lovely. Oh my gosh it's 625 to 720 year time, in, in Colorado and all the ships at sea, wherever you wherever you are. Thank you so much for your kind attention. I love doing this with all of you. And Andrew and I are going away. Next week, and we're going to a magical land called Pebble Beach. It's in Carmel, near Carmel by the sea, it near Monterey, just south of San Francisco. And we are going to, we're going to compete in a tournament. And the wonderful thing about it is when you do something well, it counts and when you don't it doesn't count. And it's our it's a great kind of tournament that way. We're going to meet a lot of interesting people, including 20 Senior pros who are playing for a purse, so it's pretty exciting. It's it's real, real keep score golf. And so our goal will be to stay as present as we can. And to stay as cheerful as we can, and committed to our process or visualization or breathing, our rhythm and tempo and balance and all of those things. And then, and, and have the best time we possibly can, and, and if we do that, if we can be more cheerful than anybody else there and more committed than anybody else there and visualize better than anybody else there. We're gonna bring trophies back. All right, thank you so much, everybody. We'll see you, and no meditation class next Monday either right
oh Kelly Kelly's gonna take it. Oh, good, okay after talk about the either Bob Billy.
Billy, you're on. Have fun. Yeah, we'll meet you. Okay, bye everybody. Hey, we have to do a quick little. We have to unmute everybody. Yeah. And Daddy I'm going to call you after the class. Oh, okay, as well as ourselves. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Have a good time. Bye. Bye. Bye.
