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You Are Already Sober 😉

April 18, 2017
7:22 am

Daily Motivation 228

At the teachings on Saturday Rinpoche was talking about ‘clarity’ of mind. That we have two minds in fact; the ‘ordinary’ mind where we are affected by external circumstances, habits and people, and ‘true’ mind when we have seen through the illusion of life and understand our true nature.

Now I’ve been listening to this teaching for decades; all the way through my yoga training since 2000 and then from 2005 when I discovered Buddhism. ‘Ultimate and Relative Reality’ was a five day teaching from the Dalai Lama I went to in 2008, and to be honest it went way over my head. It’s not a concept we are taught about in the west; we are ONLY told about the relative life; that there is nothing other than what we see with our eyes; no connection between what is happening with our bodies and our thoughts; that thoughts become our destiny or that we are, in fact, in total control of every aspect of our lives.

So it takes time for this information to sink in
We have to listen and SLOWLY absorb it, ‘reflect’ as was talked about a couple of days ago
We cannot become new information until we fully understand and then believe it
Meditation gives us this time to reflect on what ultimate and relative realities mean to us.

Rinpoche gave a lovely analogy for this:
He said that our ‘true’ mind is like the sun; always present even though we may not be able to see it (especially in Britain he joked to much laughter), and the ‘ordinary’ mind is the clouds. Problems pass, cravings pass, illness passes, relationships come and go, just like the weather in constant movement yet the sun remains whether that is on the other side of the earth while we are in darkness or hiding behind the clouds.

Your innate state is sobriety
Balance
Good health

Just think about the following words:
EASE and DIS-EASE
COMFORTABLE and UN-COMFORTABLE

The balanced state comes first
Is what is natural
So we are MEANT to be sober
Sobriety is the sun behind the cloud of craving
And when we see this
Through the veil of mara
We can become free

Freedom is coming home
Seeing through the relative (struggle) to the ultimate (freedom)
And once we realise that the sun is always there, we don’t have to worry so much about its return; there’s no stress,

“The sun’s gone behind a cloud! OMG! The world is going to end!”

Likewise,

“This trigger is overwhelming! I am never going to get through it!”

You will of course
Maybe the first couple of times you resist the temptation it will be a challenge
But you will survive
You have heard so many success stories and quantum superheroes finding freedom
You KNOW it’s possible
You KNOW it is your future
You KNOW it is your truth
You wouldn’t be reading this if not

So in meditation today look within and connect with the ‘true’ nature of your mind, for meditation is the fast track to living from it. Connect with your sobriety; that part of you that does not want to drink/drug/over eat. And notice that the more you live from this place the more difficult it becomes to harm yourself with that which destroys you….