Talk Takeaways
Part of the miracle of true beauty is that you are not separate from it when you see and experience it.
We see our mind's explanations of what is taking place. As such, we do not see the whole.
Each center belongs to yet another center. Whatever the center is of the moment, it cannot be personal. But for us presently, everything is taken personally.
The reaction that comes in response to being thrown off-center attempts to re-center itself.
The false center within us is the sense of self that is produced by resistance to unwanted moments. Resistance separates us from the moment, and is the antithesis of being centered.
As the mind imagines the new center that it needs to find in order to restore order, it sets up the next sense of self, the next set of conditions, that will inevitably be disturbed by the movement of life.
If you do not possess your own attention in the moment, then by deafult the center of your life is the sense of self that is created as it thinks about the world that it sees.
When we are suffering, the familiar, mechanical response is to think about why we are suffering, and then attempt to resolve the suffering through some sort of escape plan. Something within us does not want to experience the content of itself.
Opposites are mutually dependent. No opposite has a life of its own. Opposites cannot exist without each other. There can be no "self" without something that is "not-self."
The instant of the creation of a sense of self is also the creation of its opposite that it both opposes and depends upon.
The very imagining of a center -- the imagining of what is supposed to be happening, of where we should be -- creates the tension of needing to control anything that threatens that center.
What is there before this nature that only knows itself through identification with one side of an opposite? What is there before the divided nature... is the awareness of it.
What is unfolding is not just an event. It is "you" that is unfolding and being revealed.
Psychological time is created by who you do not want to be imagining who you are going to become. The true journey is not a journey of becoming; it is a journey of revelation.
The true center of all things is a holy place that already exists within us, and it is aware of everything that moves through it.
You can't hope that something won't happen again without fearfully imagining that it will happen.
Become aware of the real center of the moment. The real center is not to try to change or control your experience. The real center is awareness that you are not separate from your experience. The awareness that sees the opposites at once is the center. Watch the movement. Don't establish a place in the movement.
Awareness can never be made the captive of anything. Don't let your mind tell you what you need to do in order to get back to the center.