Q1-19981216-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-shining_the_light_of_death_on_life_part_3-43035 Leandra Tejedor

Talk: 19981216-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-shining_the_light_of_death_on_life_part_3-43035 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 00:55:12 Display_question: Do you have any suggestions for how to work with the mind distracted by sounds? Keyword_search: sounds, thoughts, breath, peace, meditate, calm, vipassana, planning, worrying, psychologizing, child, walking, emotions, body, wake up, beginning again, choiceless awareness Question_content: Questioner: I've done a lot of the well, for the past year, I've worked a lot on focusing on the breath and just staying with that. At times it's been fantastic. Larry: What does fantastic mean? Questioner: Real peace. Just there's a smile on my face, while I meditate, and it’s not a… I'm real happy. It's just a very calm, and this is right kind of thing, I guess… Larry: I understand. Questioner: I've tried to now go forward into the vipassana, and use my breath, and then kind of hear the chirp chirp, and the siren go, and things like that. And it seems that I hear chirp chirp, and I'm gone. I'm back to, I'm with the bird and that's all I hear. And all of a sudden now, and I have to do this at work, and I have to what about that? And all the pain in my knee, and I'm gone. It takes me sometimes the rest of the meditation to realize whoops, I forgot it was just chirp, chirp. And I'm wondering if you have any suggestions on how to help with that. Larry: I wish I had a little pill that I could give you, but I don't. That's how it unfolds, and it's different for each person. But one good way of working with it; let's say you start out in a given sitting, with your breathing. And you've already you know, it's not a myth for you. You've tasted some of the joy, and peace, that can come from just simple in, and out breath. Practice consciously, and then you feel you've calmed down. Then loosen your grip on the breath and sit and be open to whatever is there. And you do that, and before you know it, you're lost, caught up in planning, worrying, psychologizing, all that. As soon as you wake up, in other words, as soon as you become aware, that you're unaware, because in those moments, you're not meditating. You're just thinking. It's not a tragedy or it's not a criminal offense. You wake up, and you just start again. Our practice is falling down, getting up, falling down. Break_line: Some years ago, I saw a friend of mine’s child, learning how to walk, and if only we could be that way, it would be so much easier. The child falls down, gets up, falls down, gets up, falls down, gets up. But not sort of like, what a jerk I am for falling down. The other kids, they're running a marathon by now, and here my… none of that, they just fall down. You get up, you fall down, you get up, you fall down, smile on the kid's face. We were all like that, I think, from what I was told. But us no, because our big fat ego gets in the way, and oh, so what you can do is, you can look, pick it up again. Break_line: In other words, don't make it into a problem. As soon as you wake up from chirp chirp, whether it's ten minutes, or ten years, you know, you just start again. Okay, but if you feel it's pretty strong, just practically speaking, go back to the breath, for a few breaths. Fine tune your attention again. Sometimes all you need is, two or three breaths in, out. Just like tuning a musical instrument. Just like in, out, in, out. And then once again, open it up. But little by little, you'll learn how to listen to sound. Another thing, listen to thought. Thoughts are just thoughts, sounds. How to experience strong emotions. How to experience the body, in all the different ways it is. Another thing you can do, which is sort of, walking right into the problem is, intentionally since…. is it sound that particularly did you get caught up in or? Not necessarily. Questioner: I think that yeah, it's probably sound. Larry: Because for some people, that's the easiest thing. Everyone's different. Okay. So, when you calm down, don't make it free choiceless awareness, whatever is there. Spend some time where you actually put sound on the agendas, what you attend to. Do you see what I'm getting? And if you go to anything other than sound, come back to sound. Learn how to that sound is just sound. And then little by little, you'll see that it's really not, doesn't have to be a problem. It's just chirp chirp. Yeah. End_time: 00:59:29