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Talk: 20081106-Larry_Rosenberg-CIMC-king_pasenadi_goes_on_a_diet_part_3_also_self_knowing_a_quiet_passion_37-6515 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 01:10:28 Display_question: How can I improve the quality of my life while not getting caught in planning, and the future? Keyword_search: worry, past, future, planning, momentum, mind, Dharma, Jewish, American, Vimala Thakar, Indian, culture, Buddha, craving, attachment, high school teacher, liberation, transformation, clear seeing Question_content: Questioner: Let’s see…as you're…as I was sitting here tonight, really enjoying this talk, I was sorta… Larry: Then I failed, if you enjoyed it. Questioner: You say these great, penetrating insights that I really enjoy, I can't even remember them all. Larry: You see how penetrating they are. Questioner: So, right when the question-and-answer period began, you said something about, if I can remember exactly, something about how we… let me say this. I was sitting here thinking, boy, I'm so inspired. This is so great. I'm going to go home, and I'm going to eat better, and I'm going to exercise, and so forth, and so on, get in a little better shape, take care of my body, get to know my body, and all these kinds of things. And then you were saying, at the beginning of the Q and A session, we worry about the past, and we make all these plans for ourselves, for the future. And then you just sort of pierce this balloon, that I was building up in my head, of all these things, I was going to become… Larry: What would happen as you had this beautiful body of Atlas? What would happen? Questioner: It's not bad. It was more of taking care of myself. I’m not…. Larry: Well, that sounds sensible. Questioner: But no, but, I guess that my question is, or if you could just comment on the thing that you said, about we make these plans for ourselves, for the future. I found both true, and my own experience with fitness, or eating right, is a lot of false starts, and yet I felt like I was getting some momentum sitting here. I was inspired. And then when you said that, it sort of burst that momentum. Not in a bad way, but can you talk about what builds momentum? Larry: Yeah, but help me understand. Go a little bit deeper. What burst there? Questioner: I guess I felt like, oh, look at what my mind's doing. I became aware that my mind was making plans for myself. I'm actually sitting in this room, listening to you talk. I'm not at home stretching, whatever I was thinking I was going to do. And so, I actually became aware of the operation of my mind. Larry: Okay. Questioner: Planning. And, but then I felt like, oh, it sort of, almost like deflated a little bit, in terms of what I felt like was some chance to go home, and actually do that. I don't know… Larry: I'm not completely clear, but I'll do the best. If I'm any more muddled, then let's see what comes out of this blah. First off, there is a role for planning, and the future. It's not like I practice Dharma, man. There's no future. I have no past. Well, where are you from? Where'd you go to school? No, we don't do that. It's establishing a new relationship to memory, which can be friendly, but you’re not…you don't give it this overwhelming authority, or confuse it with who you are. It's a memory. The event is over, never to be repeated again. And it doesn't mean that it doesn’t…it can have value. For example, I distorted it for a while against certain, like, Jewish identity, because I grew up in an immigrant community, and am I American, or am I Jewish? Am I Jewish, or am I American? Every…each day it was like a tennis match. I was battered. It took me years. Finally, I had one teacher, Vimala Thakar, an Indian woman. And she said you don't have to be at war with your heritage, with your roots. It's a fact, you were born into that culture, and it can give you great strength. It's just that there is more to it than that. And if you meditate, you realize you go beyond being Jewish, or anything else you think you are. Who do you think you are? Just kidding. All right. Questioner: You put me on the spot. Larry: What? Questioner: You put me on the spot. Larry: Okay, you don't have to answer to me. It's the answer to yourself. Questioner: It’s who I am going to be. Larry: Yeah, exactly. Okay, the Buddha spoke a lot about your question. And in very eloquent, and important terms, craving, and attachment, is seen as the root, of suffering. And so, he listed three main kinds of craving. One craving is for nice sounds, nice tastes, nice sights, nice smells, in other words, sensual delight. A nice touch. Nothing wrong with that. Okay. The second form of craving, not as obvious to us, is the craving to become. In other words, where somehow, whoever we are, wherever we are, with whoever we're living with, whatever house, we have someplace better to get to. And that is me. The me, is constantly trying to enhance the story of me, and my life, starring me. Okay, and so we may… now, that doesn't mean that you're just static. Excuse me. That doesn't mean that you're static, because you can work hard, and that leads somewhere. It's just that the focus is, on the function, of the doing. Let's take work. There's a difference between the function of carrying out your job, and then all the stories the mind makes out up, about yourself. The status, the identity. That's where the suffering comes in. What is your work? Do you mind? I'm very nosy. Questioner: I’m a high school teacher. Larry: Okay. You're a high school teacher, a noble occupation. No problem there, unless your mind starts… well, if I was a college teacher, my parents would be happier. You don't see what I'm getting. Questioner: Do you know them? Larry: Okay, so the function of teaching is beautiful. There's no problems. Or the function of being a carpenter, or whatever any of you do, but because the mind is unexamined, it creeps in there. And what do I have to do, to become principal? We're back to you again. And if you're doing things that, you don't like to…. now, you might become principal. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just the journey towards becoming something else, while you are just a teacher, could be a lot of suffering, on the way. And then you get there, and then you say, this isn't what I thought it would be. And then I'll become something else. And it keeps going like that. Do you see what I'm getting at? Break_line: So, craving to become, even in meditation, it's very subtle. The mind will get very, very silent, and people will come into interviews, and say, what's next? In other words, the assumption being, wow, if it's this subtle, then where is this leading? What's next? And I'm saying, you just killed it, because now you want to get an even better mind state, than this one. Do you see? Sometimes you hear things like; no gaining idea. In other words, you don't do this, in order to get that. So that sounds like maybe that's fatalism. No liberation is factual. But you don't get it by keeping your mind obsessed with getting free. Now and then, to remind yourself, boy, I'm really suffering unnecessarily. It might be helpful when you get slack in certain ways, but the power, and all the transformation, the fruit, the flowering that is possible, comes out of the clear seeing, and understanding, of what's happening, here and now, here and now. Life is just here, now, here, now. Break_line: So, you can plan. I had a plan to be here tonight. That's not where the suffering comes in. It's when we mistake, because the mind makes up imaginings about the future, nightmarish ones, or wonderful ones, and then it prefers that, to what's actually happening, right here, right now. Now, if the dietary stuff inspired you to do, I don't know what, then that would be useful if it gets you to do it. But if you just roll around in, that's just fantasizing, you already know how to do that. Am I making any sense? Questioner: Yes Larry: Good. End_time: 01:18:25
