Inquiry as a Natural Checking to See (Silent Retreat) - 18th Oct. 2015

The next thought is very, very powerful. When I first heard it—I heard it quite some time ago—which is what brought me to you. There was an image on Facebook, and I said, 'Who was this person who said this whole thing?' Oh yes, 'When you were not a slave to the mind.' That post kind of brought me to you. At that time, it was a nice idea, interesting, but I'm gradually seeing the potency of it apart from daily life and also in any kind of meditation practice: to integrate that idea of 'don't believe the next thought.' Is this God pretending to be a person? So I just share and cross-check with you whether these are it, or you have something to add to it, or whether you have some more instruction that you can share which is helpful in practice and brings the reflections to life.

I'm very happy to hear you because it's clear to me that you have been listening very well. But why doesn't he say that these are instructions for meditation? These pointings, like I keep saying, these pointings are there. It is because it is very easy for us to pick up the meditator perspective, the meditator identity, the practitioner identity, and these pointings are more direct than that. And yet, if the feeling is there that 'I must practice something,' then these pointings are meant for that as well.

So for some, it might be that you hear those three basic questions. The first one is: 'How am I to be aware of my suffering?' and the pointing is 'Don't believe your next thought.' And then this is heard. For some of you, it can be heard like this: that this is beautiful instruction for me to follow formally. And for some of you, it might feel like it is just pointing to our most natural state in day-to-day life. So the potency of it, as you start playing with it, becomes very clear. It is only sometimes the simplicity of it makes it seem a little bit elusive. It seems like this cannot be the great one—one of the great pointings: 'Don't believe the next thought.' It sounds like a bumper sticker. But actually, just in this, you will find that suffering, identity, ego, all of these very quickly start sounding like alien concepts just by not believing the next thought.

Also, what happens is that there's a part two to this pointing, which is that most of my thoughts I am able to let go of now without giving them belief. There are certain sticky ones which it seems like belief goes to too fast, or it just happens on its own. It doesn't seem like I am giving it belief; it seems like belief is automatically presented to these. So the second part of this pointing is that those which are recurring, sticky conditioning, strong identity—then those thoughts we pull into the inquiry. So the thought could be 'I am not free yet.' We pull this thought into the inquiry and say, 'Who is this I who is not free?' And we inquire and inquire and inquire till the point when this thought comes, 'I am not free yet,' it becomes trivial. It becomes laughable. It loses all its juice. So in this way, there is no one who can go through these two parts of the pointing and still survive with their suffering. This is not possible.

Then the second question is: 'What about consciousness, or God, or Atma?' It seems like I am free from suffering, but how do I discover this? I am in this for God; how can I find God? And the way that we define God is this consciousness, the presence 'I am.' And it was clear to me that in looking for being from personal experience, direct experience, it is clear that when we go looking for being, it can seem very confusing. Therefore, I prepared the question in this way. I said: 'Can I stop being now?' Can you stop being now? And when asked in this way, it becomes very clear: No, being is here. It cannot be stopped. Presence is here. I am present. I am. So very quickly, by inverting the question, we come to the point very directly: I am. And for many, this discovery of being is enough. In fact, there are many paths that just stop here. This is the end. In many traditions, we just come to this point.