Q2-19980617-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-shining_the_light_of_death_on_life_part_2-43034 Leandra Tejedor

Talk: 19980617-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-shining_the_light_of_death_on_life_part_2-43034 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 01:14:15 Display_question: Can you speak about the 5 reflections? Keyword_search: reflections, mind, metta, lovingkindness, calm, concentrated, aging, Paul Newman, prostrate, breath, retreat, discomfort, death Question_content: Questioner: Just was wondering if you could speak a little bit more specifically about the reflection part, of any of this. Larry: Yes, good. Questioner: Just how to do it. Larry: Yes. Let me tell you how I use these reflections. They have quite a few different applications. One is a reflection is, you take it up, and you just turn it over in your mind, let's say, kind of take it inside. You kind of present it to the mind, as a teaching. Questioner: Like know I will get sick. Larry: Yeah, but let's say when you do metta- lovingkindness, let's say when you say, may I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I be free from suffering. And to begin with, it can be mechanical, and some people have a hard time with it. But then at a certain point, you really hear what you're saying. You hear that you're wishing yourself well. You hear that you…may I be happy, it starts to become enlivened. So here what you're doing is, you're taking these words, which are pointing to something, and if the mind is very calm and concentrated, you can take it inside. Break_line: I'm subject to aging. There's, no exemptions for this one. And then sometimes that might bring things up which you would then practice with, you'd be aware of. Oh my God, it is true. So, the idea becomes more alive to you. It starts to sink deeper, and deeper, and deeper. But quite honestly, that hasn't been the main value for me. These have just been themes. What I'm going to emphasize is, what you might call naturalistic observation. They're putting certain items on the agenda, like signs saying, hey, have you noticed that you're getting older? Break_line: And so, they're obvious when you see it, in other people. You see, I was... Paul Newman, I guess, was in a film, where he played an older person, not played, and he had a prostate problem, and through women who were his generation, and they saw it, and they were humorous about it, but how upset they got. It was sort of like; how could he have prostate? He's our pin up boy. But he does. They were meditators. And so that produced something in them like, why am I so anxious? Because Paul Newman plays the part of somebody with a prostate problem. It's because I'm Paul Newman. You see what I mean? Or you wake up in the morning, and your knees are stiff, and suddenly the thought comes, boy, I'm not getting any younger. Oh, boy. And then the mind takes off, and starts embroidering, and proliferating, and building. It's a whole scenario. But you have arthritis, and you're what? Questioner: You could panic Larry: Yeah. And so, in short, life is the teacher. There are teachings wherever you look. There are people walking down the street like this. Then there are little children crawling along the floor. It's sort of, to deeply reflect. Questioner: Both in practice, and… Larry: Oh, yeah. But for me, what's been much more rich is, not taking it up as a formal word. You can key it to the breath, if you like. It can be very helpful. From time to time, to take it up, and to reflect on it. But life keeps giving us examples, stores that shut down, that were there for... I might have mentioned it last week, last time that you've been shopping at, buying books at for years, and suddenly it's not there. And there's a different kind of… a dish that gets chipped. You suddenly notice it. Well, what does that have to do with all this? It's all the same. This was my wonderful crockery I bought. This is imported from the moon, or wherever you got it from, and there it is, chipped, you know, like, yeah, and we're chipped too, you know. So that dish is teaching you. Break_line: So, the point is, they're teachings. A leaf falls from a tree, it's not to walk around obsessed with, but the teachings are everywhere. They're just no students. So that's part of it. And personally, I find what invigorates the practice very much, when we examine our own life, in this way, then it's firsthand, and we also understand our friends, and everyone else who's going through this, the parents, and children, and so forth. And the phrases are a helpful catalyst to do that. Break_line: But there are other… for example, illness. When you're sitting on a retreat, and you just finished one right? And did you have a lot of pain in the body? Did you have any discomfort, or pain, in the body, during the retreat? Okay, you're practicing for the time when the time comes to die. Now, if we called it that, no one would come to a retreat. Let's put it more positively, it's a bonus. Not only are you learning how to get comfortable with discomfort, which is a tremendous asset in life, but should the time come, it doesn't mean you necessarily will be in pain when you die, but often it is so, that you will have already had practices of how to… Break_line: And that's what I meant. It's the same practice, only the challenge may be greater, because the scenery is different, and it's literally death. So, these, in a sense, are agenda items. They keep reminding you about something that we don't seem to want to give much attention to. Yeah. End_time: 01:20:07