Let’s just close our eyes for a few minutes. We’re all here for the same reason. We’re all here because no experience in the world has ever completely satisfied us, and we have realized that no experience in the world, however pleasant or deep, is ever going to completely satisfy us, as it’s eventually going to end. That’s the definition of an experience, something that begins and ends. What we’re all looking for is something that doesn’t begin and never ends. Whether you know it or not, this is what you’re looking for. This is what everyone is looking for – reality, the truth. In my experience, this was the way I realized eternity. Immortality, in the absolute sense, has nothing to do with the body, but everything to do with the body because it is only through the body that you realize that you are not this body.
For the next seven days we’re going to go deeply into this body – your body. This is the reason we have a body. Without a body we could not realize this.
The practice that I used and still use is extremely simple. It doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s basic Zen Buddhist practice – which is simply coming back to the breath in the abdomen; seeing the movement away from here, from now, and bringing the attention back to the rise and fall of the abdomen with the breath. It’s going straight to the source, straight to the source of your fear of being here. There is a deep fear of being here, of really being here, because when you’re really here – completely here – what you realize is death, and this doesn’t mean death of the body. Once you realize that, ‘I am not this body’, the fear goes. The fear of death of the body goes. The fear of everything goes because every fear stems from this basic fear. Much of this fear is stored in the body. Sitting still, feeling the sensations in the body is a way of facing your fear. This is a very intense thing to do; sitting for seven days facing your fear. There will be times when you’ll want to be anywhere else but here. And other times when this will be enough. Just being here will be everything.
Everything you expect is not really what you want because expectations are all of the past. You can’t expect the unknown, which is where you really want to be, in the complete unknown. So, each time you have an expectation of how things should be, let it go. And every thought is an expectation.
Every thought is of the past. You can’t have an unknown thought. You can’t have a thought of the future. So look more at where your body is right now. It’s here. Keep it as simple as possible. Each time you see the movement away from where you are, bring your attention back to the abdomen, back to the breath in the abdomen. You know you don’t need to be thinking about anything right now. But the habit of thinking is so strong that you just can’t break it immediately. You need to practice it again and again and again. It’s breaking that movement. Not stopping thought, but breaking that movement. It doesn’t matter what the subject of the thoughts are. There are no good thoughts and bad thoughts. Thoughts are thoughts. They’re not your enemy. Nothing is your enemy. Your mind is not your enemy. Your ego is not your enemy.
So sit and watch.
Keep your body as still as possible because that will make the movement inside clearer.