Practical Advice for Remaining Present and Still

At the very least, set aside 15 minutes once a day to check your Tinder. Even if everything is crucial, there is something more crucial that is the reason you are in this place. And here are a few more useful hints to help you focus more intently while you're here and avoid getting sidetracked. Increase the depth of your focus on being or attentiveness. simply useful. Please refrain from turning on the TV in your room. I didn't put in secret cameras to watch over you. Second, keep your interactions with your devices to a minimum. If you can't completely stop using your devices, and I realise that you might not survive if you do, at least set aside once a day for 15 minutes to check whatever comes in: texts, emails, Facebook, Snapchat, Tinder. They're all very important, but there's a thing more important, and that's why you're here. So let's see, I recommend that you commit to yourself that you won't go there until it is required. And by that I mean, it's okay if you periodically use it to take pictures, but you should also avoid interacting with anything nearby. only by visualising how it might seem in a smartphone snap. Say, "Okay, I'll fully experience this lovely thing when I get home and look at my photos," and then continue. In the interim, I'm more intrigued in shooting this picture since Homo Touristicus, a species that split off from Homo sapiens and now exists as a branch species, is often walking around with any camera. Every day you see them arriving on buses. The Homo Touristicus typically returns home in the evening, leaving you here on your own. At this point, you might have noticed that the outside has grown very quiet. And here, the days are extraordinarily long. If you're from a more southern region, you might find it strange that it's still daylight at 10:30 and that the sky is still lit. It suddenly becomes still here. So you can simply become conscious of the surrounding calm while you stroll around the lake or wherever you are. Naturally, when you become conscious of the silence all around you, you also quiet down. Additionally, being still indicates that you are not thinking at all or very little. And it indicates that you are informed. It indicates your presence. It indicates that you are experiencing life from a deep I. Use the natural beauty that is all around you to live deeply. For example, if you're out for a walk during the day and it's a long weekend or a Canadian holiday, there will be more tourists than usual or Homo tourists. And if you find that a large number of tourists bothering you, just practise the lovely spiritual discipline of accepting the present as it is. And at that time, you stop moving as well, without the need for stillness from others. You accept everything about this moment, even the tourists. I'm unsure of how the species of tourists will evolve in the future. They interviewed a few farmers and farm labourers in Thailand, close to a Buddhist monastery and just outside of Bangkok. They would feed the monks, as is the custom in Buddhism, which is rooted in the south Theravada school. Every morning, the monks arrive with their begging bowls. They only stand there until the locals arrive and distribute food. They are reliant. When asked why they don't work for a living in the West, they would respond that it is done on purpose and has wisdom behind it. The monks are positioned there holding begging bowls. Then the poor individuals who don't have enough come and put some food, some rice, or anything else in the begging bowls, leaving the monks to stand. They don't express gratitude because providing food for the monks is a privilege for you. That is a part of the custom. Why do you donate your food to the monks when you have so little yourself, the Westerners asked the agricultural workers during their interview. They then started conversing with one another, saying things like, "Well, we want an improved incarnation next time so we are accumulating merit." Therefore, when we return, we are born healthier. What do you want to reincarnate as in your next life, the Westerner continued. They then began to converse among themselves. We finally concluded that we wanted to return as tourists. They exit their buses after observing these individuals. They're dressed nicely. And other people are so affluent that they have a lot of money since their bodies are quite large. They are free to consume as much as they want. That's fantastic, then. They then carry out a variety of actions. It's wonderful that they appear to engage in sexual activity constantly. So wouldn't it be wonderful if I spent my entire future lifetime travelling? They are unaware that it would be a terrible nightmare. Oh yes, alcoholic beverages are yet another useful item. There isn't anything specifically forbidden here; the only advice is to avoid getting drunk as much as you can. It signifies booze if English is not your first language. Try to limit your consumption of alcoholic beverages. You may, however, take a glass of wine if you find it impossible to enjoy a meal without one. If you are truly already fully involved in the presence and deeply anchored in the presence if you would not even want to drink too much, one glass of wine won't interfere with the growing presence in you, but two could, and three will. And you most definitely wouldn't get wasted. Therefore, I advise doing as little as possible; better yet, do nothing at all. But you won't face criticism if you do have a glass of wine because everyone here is spiritually developed. I don't belong to the group of spiritual instructors who employ quite atypical methods of instruction. I'm aware of two or three people that did that. To see if they can remain aware when intoxicated, they give their pupils as much alcohol as they desire and instruct them to "drink, drink up." a highly dubious practice. However, I won't do that in front of you. One or two, I believe, are now feeling guilty. So far, we've covered external distractions like television, technology, alcoholic beverages, and other intoxicants. I would suggest avoiding it, at the very least here, and never doing so even when you are not present. As you are presumably aware, I've already said that I gave it a few tries. I have to do it because I get inquiries about it. If I haven't tried it, I can't say; it wasn't all that fantastic. I prefer to be conscious of my regular condition. It was a little bit repressive, but I can see how someone whose mind is torturing them every day may find relief in smoking. Fortunately, we have something better. We are not losing our ability to think. We are moving beyond thought. That represents the subsequent stage in human progress. Because you are freed from your mind in the dimension that is transcendent to thought, you no longer need to sink below thinking when you rise and when you rise above thinking. Another practice is, of course, embracing the present moment as it is on a daily and minute-by-moment basis. The ego itself can be quickly and powerfully transcended in this fashion, which means you should quit grumbling to yourself or others. I hope I'm not generating it by talking about it, but if there is something that has to be rectified, obviously you go to the reception or you call if suddenly there is water coming through the ceiling. You are lying on the mattress getting soaked as water pours from the roof and into it. You cannot say, "Accept what is, stay in bed, and don't whine." So, that's not the custom, but it does imply that when you do finally pick up the phone and let them know what happened, you won't do so in a negative way by lamenting how awful this company is. How on earth can you let me experience something like this? This is horrible. That boosts one's ego. No, simply describe what is and what we can do to address it. You give up the idea that you're wet in the meantime. It is as it is.