Two Words (That Change Everything}

Offer a simple but powerful spiritual practice.

·        The practice is silently adding two words to the end of every sentence that you think or speak.

Here are the two words: "for now"

·        The practice is to silently whisper the words "for now" at the end of each sentence

·        Throughout the day notice what you're feeling then add "for now":

I'm sad (for now) I'm tired (for now) I'm happy (for now)

·        Let's look at impact of that--if difficult experiences = less suffering /less resistance

·        Resistance creates illusion that emotion will never go away

o   Often I hear: "I'm afraid to fully feel sadness -or my anger-- for fear that it will never end"

·        Knowing that an experience is temporary makes it easier to accept & to relax into it

But what about pleasant emotions?

"How Are you?" I'm happy (for now) I'm peaceful (for now)

·        "For now" recognizes experience as temporary.  Less grasping/ suffering when pleasant experience ends.

 ·        The very fact that pleasant experiences are temporary can make them more precious: eg my children visiting/ do not want them to leave, but--what if…

o   6 months to live program--"knowing that I'm going to die gives my life a new meaning"

William Blake

He who binds himself to joy

Does the winged life destroy

But he who kisses joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sunrise

 He who binds himself to a joy= clinging to joy

Does the winged life destroy= destroys awareness of impermanence

Eternity's sunrise= recognizing impermanence means every moment is a new beginning

Every moment is fresh & alive when you live in eternity's sunrise

Let's go a bit deeper-- It's one thing to say that I feel happy for now,

Or to say I feel sad for now

But it's more challenging to say "I am Robert Brumet --for now

I can believe a thought/ emotion /sensation is impermanent--

But challenging to believe-- I am impermanent.

Look up the word "self" in dictionary: self =  a noun (person, place or thing) All of which are relatively permanent

·        But if you pay close attention to sense of "I or self"--you see that it exists at times and then it disappears at times

A powerful practice is to simply observe the rising and falling of self.

·        So, In this very moment-- what is your sense of self?)

·        What if I announced that you were doing the Dharma Talk next week?

·        Would that change your sense of self?

 Jack Kornfield tells story-- he was sitting in small temple in Thai forest with his sangha and his teacher Ajahn Chah --ready to listen to the evening Dharma talk.

But the Ajahn announced that he would not be giving the Dharma talk that evening---instead he announced that tonight's Dharma talk  would be given by "the foreigner"--he pointed toward Jack and said, "the one with the big ears".

After that gracious introduction - Jack said he bumbled his way through a Dharma talk --spoken in the local Thai- Dialect --which he barely knew

The next morning Ajahn Chah approached Jack & asked him how he was doing. Jack burst into tears and shared that he felt inadequate and he considered leaving. Ajahn Chah listened with great compassion and helped Jack explore the beliefs and emotions that were arising--anger, shame, fear, sadness --his sense of self had been crushed

But eventually Jack saw that it was one of the most liberating experiences of his life. He no longer carried around a sense of self that he felt he needed to protect or hide behind.

Rumi:

Try not to resist the changes that come your way.

Instead, let your life be lived through you.

And do not worry that your life is turning upside down.

How do you know that the side you cling to

 is better than the one yet to come?” This is freedom.