The Power of Openness

...Right? Be aware of that.

So when you're doing it,

when you're not conscious about it,

what you're doing is you're grasping it.

Your deep insides are saying,
"I hate this."

Very quietly, but "I hate."

But if you're conscious of it,
in that moment,

you look at a famous person,

you look at them from a place
of openness.

You have to look at the image,

because the image is where you're storing
that information and emotion.

You look, but you're trying to look
from a different place

You're reprogramming it
you're restructuring it.

You are healing the relationship.

So if you look with that openness
to that same image,

At some point that image will
have different meaning for you.

It will not carry the same meaning.

If you look at it in your own body,

if you look at it in your health,
probably the same thing

You know, wherever the cells are in
your body

producing a kind of disease,
like a cancerous cell,

if you look at that, if you're being
aware of that in your body

aware of yourself, the whole aspect of
yourself,

it will begin to give different
information to the rest of your body.

And therefore, that information
helps begin to restructure

your biological conditions.

It is what we believe, how to understand it's going to happen to the body.

Reproduction of cells, like cancerous
cells, the same principle.

That's how the cancerous cell knows how
to reproduce the cancerous cell.

It will do wonderful thing if it
forgets one day.

And it's producing some new cell.

Probably that's what happens
if the deep pattern of identity

it shifts something inside you

It shifts what it brings in the body.

So the principle here is

the power of openness and awareness
is able to change things

in our body, able to change the way
we identify ourselves,

it's able to change the way we relate
to the world,

it's able to change everything.

That's why it's called vision, it's able to
cut those things.

So that's a bit of explanation.

Any questions?

I'm happy to see that many European
people are staying up really late.

They are participating with us.

So any questions?

Do you think that in openness, there's a
possibility to maintain curiosity?

Curiosity? Yeah, and there is some degree
of curiosity in ourselves.

And there's also curiosity on some
survival level, you know

I'm curious to know what I need, and
so on.

Curiosity has a lot of playfulness,

and you cannot have playfulness

if you're not open to it.

What we use, what we say,
we are serious.

That's what happens in a relationship,
when people are very serious

in a relationship, that is the beginning
of divorce.

[laughs]

They are curious about each other? Yes.
Too curious about each other.

They are not that curious, they are very
open to each other,

that doesn't mean
loyalty and things like that.

There's some sort of sense of openness

and that brings a lot of playfulness.

I was in a place in a country
where people are usually serious,

and I was making a little joke, saying,

"How are you going to be a little more
playful here?"

So how are you going to be a little
more playful? Of course,

first thing, you kind of have to go
inside yourself, wherever this

seriousness is stuck. You have to go
to that place inside and loosen that up.

You have to feel some confidence.

I think that confidence is clearly a key
to be playful.

So if you're confident that you can be a
bit more playful, if you're playful you

can have humor, and you can have
curiosity in a good way.

If whatever you're curious about is
not showing up, you're curious

why it's not showing up!

Rather than feeling pain that it's not
showing up.

You're open to every direction.

So yes, I don't think openness prevents
anything.

Openness makes life richer not poorer.

Openness is the source of knowledge, more
than the knowledge we conceptually know.

There was a study in Netherlands about these

executive people making big
decisions about a big company.

The research was based on, did they make a
better decision when they're taught alot?

Or did they make a better decision when
they didn't think much?

The conclusion was, they made a much
better decision when

they didn't think much.

So of course, people who think a lot,

they believe we have to think.

we have to think to not to think.

But, some sense of these practices call
for a direct path.

Direct path means you don't have
to think about it.

You can just be aware of it.

Any other questions?

We have a group of people in Brazil
who we've met with before,

they're asking, "Please, what do you mean
by the essence of sky?"

[laughs]

[he repeats the question.]

First, when I say essence, the sense
or meaning of essence is "the truth"

the truth of the sky, the truth of the
phenomena, the truth of the mind.

So in some sense, the essence of sky I
mean, the truth of the sky.

So what is the truth of the sky?

It's that boundlessness. When I'm gazing
the sky and I'm aware

of that boundlessness, because the sky
is boundless.

When I'm aware of that, it's something
deep.

Psychologically it does something to me
inside.

I feel that boundlessness.

But when I'm looking at the sky I have
to be aware that that's what I'm feeling.

That's what I'm seeing, that's what I'm
experiencing, that's what I'm aware of.

Very often people will not be aware
of it.

I gave one example where people were
doing a sky gazing practice in New Mexico.

Everybody was having this wonderful
experience!

But one guy was getting really agitated
about it. He looked around,

and it seemed like everyone seems
like they were having a good time.

He's wondering why they're having a good
time and he's looking up at the empty sky

And he said, "What am I supposed to see?"

[laughs]

Well, he's not seeing the essence of the
sky.

He's not seeing the boundlessness of
the sky.

He's expecting some stuff to show up
right in front of him,

what he would desire.

So that's what I mean.

I saw a cartoon in New York Times
one time,

there was this wall street person,
and he's in Tibet with all the

hiking shoes and all those things, and
really getting up in the mountain.

And on top of the mountain he sees
a clear vision of himself;

Not with the hiking shoes. He sees
himself with the suit and tie

and breathless with this pure vision.

So, no matter where you go, you might
see your impure visions

you're not even able to see what you're
seeing.

You're only seeing what you're wanting
to see.

Yeah.

[asking question] This is somewhat
related.

Kelly is in Vietnam right now, and she's
watching the broadcast.

She says, "Here in Vietnam I'm more
lonely than I was even in the dark retreat

Everything truly appears to be illusion.

How can I keep myself connected when
there are so few supports?"

It seems like she's in a place where she's
lacking support.

Sure. Well, you know,

the opportunity for you to be
completely open to the

lonely person in you.

So that basically means what we were
saying earlier when we said,

"It really hurts me. I really feel lonely,
I really feel lonely."

And probably that sense of loneliness,
probably everybody feels it.

At some times we have to go so
far away to feel it really strong.

So when you feel it really strong,
you have the opportunity to

to know that.

And to know that will be fully open
to that

and when you're fully open to that,
it will go away.

When it goes away, the voice saying,
"I'm lonely," and the energy

bringing a sense of loneliness, and the
one who's thinking, "I'm far away,"

or "I'm thinking maybe to move away,"

Out of all those voices and cards and the
way you relate to yourself,

all those somehow are like a cloud.

The way you let them go away is by being
fully aware and connect.

Connect with them, so it's like a loving
mother sending this love to this

napping child. So radiate the love and
attention with your open awareness

to that lonely experience in yourself.

That awareness, when you open to that,
it will help.

It will dissolve. And when it dissolves,

you come to a place where you don't
feel that loneliness.

So you need to become familiar with that
place where you don't feel familiar.

The question is, how do you get to that
place where you can feel

"it's okay." So that's what I was saying
earlier that pain body.

The principle is the same.

And we all, right now with the internet,
you're not lonely, you know?

Everybody's together. Yes?

[questioner:] Could you comment on the
role of medical diagnosis

when one experiences certain aches
and pains? Does seeking that

diagnostic action from a Western medical
practitioner, is that a way of

staying attached to the story of the pain
rather than being with it

and allowing it to disappear?

Well I think that....

Well, I think in the West, all the doctors
are trained to tell some sense of truth.

So people say, "Okay you only have five
months to live," or something like that.

So if somebody has 5 months to live,
do they really need to know that?

I mean, how important is it for a doctor
to tell you you have 5 months to live?

From my point of view, I don't think it's
that important.

If you have some suggestion about what
you can do to do something,

so somehow the way people...

bring this kind of energy, there's a sense
of harshness. Maybe not a lack of

compassion, but maybe it feels like
a lack of compassion and attention

because there's so much time pressure
of so many patients he needs to see

So, the point is, when somebody labels
themselves as something,

or "now I am this," I think it's terrible
for sure.

So how you don't do that? Again,
You have to try to be open.

If you're not identifying with being
something else,

why do you have to identify with being
sick?

You're sick maybe, but you don't have to
identify with that.

You know, last moment of breath for a woman,

you can live with full sense of joy,
no matter how sick you are

or how much pain you have, that awareness,
that joy, that openness,

it doesn't take away. But again, the point
is how we can feel confidence

to know that is the case. To even attempt
to try,

that have glimpse of experience.

It's true, and people do have those trusts
in themselves to not be influenced

by those labels. For sure it's a challenge

The question is practice.

Angel from Paris, Texas is asking,
"Can we access emptiness through

the experience of the boundless space?"

Well, I mean, the word emptiness in
Buddhism is used a lot.

And sometimes in the West I think that
people... When we were in the

monastery growing up for 15-30 years,

we were studying about emptiness,
we never felt emptiness was something

wrong, that there's something wrong with
emptiness, but here,

when we use the word emptiness, it's
like, "Oh.." So it doesn't look so good.

[laughs]

So, in a way the word emptiness, the word
emptiness and fulness no differences.

Because in order to be full, it has to be
empty. If it is not empty, then it

cannot be full of the right things.

So, we were talking about finishing our
5 day retreat,

And one of the things we were talking,
is that there's a concept in tradition

the great perfection tradition,
that means that everything

is spontaneously perfected. It basically
means that everything is perfected

in us. So for example, that means joy,
it's not going to hinder itself

in light and quality.

Let's go down to one simple quality like
joy and happiness that we all know

about it, right? So, joy, is it perfected
in us?

Yes. The only way you're going to
truly experience your true joy -

true joy means joy of being -

is to experience yourself clear from who
you are NOT.

Probably right now, the way you feel
who you are is occupying

so much of space, that it's not
allowing you to feel who you are.

Therefore, probably you don't have
so much of joy,

or joy of that being. But you maybe do
have some joy of becoming, having,

of being something which is not
necessarily who you are, but it's being

better than who you think you can be.

It's still in your mind. Or, "I'm better
because I just finished a project!"

So finishing a project is better than
someone who hasn't finished the project.

Right? So, I'm happy.

Today is a Friday afternoon so I'm happy,
so Monday I will be sad.

So, all those conditions you create
to yourself are simply a condition.

Through that you can have little joys, but
true sense of joy is joy of being.

So what do you need to have joy of being?

You don't need to have anything to have
a joy of being, you simply must be aware.

If you simply look this very moment,
close your eyes, feel the stillness

in your body, draw attention inward, do
you feel the joy?

Of course you feel the joy!

It's there.

Especially when you're open to it.
The power of openness.

When you're open to yourself, you
feel that openness in you.

In that openness, everything is perfected.
That means joy is perfected

Can you be aware? Yes, if you're trying
to be aware, it's there.

That means it's perfected there.
Is that joy equally valuable then

to possessing a new car? Far better.

I guarantee far better.

Do you trust that? For sure we will
not trust that much.

[laughs] I want to have that joy but also
want the joy of a new car!

But at some point you need to have
confidence enough to know that it's truly

better. This is better than the car.

That confidence you got to have one day.
One day, we have to look for

that confidence. When that
confidence comes, it's life changing.

So basically the question about emptiness,
it's basically a fulness.

It's a perfection that's spontaneously
perfected.

What kind of perfected? All the qualities
of perfection like joy.

In order to feel that joy, one has to feel
that empty or clear or open

otherwise that joy of being is hard
to feel.

For example, in that space, talking
about the loneliness.

In that space, if you're open to it
and look inside there,

you feel one important quality. You feel
connectedness.

Because you are connected to that essence
of mind, to that openness in yourself.

You are connected to yourself.

When you feel that connection to yourself,
you feel that connectedness.

When you feel that, you don't feel
very lonely.

But when you don't feel connectedness
yourself, you're seeking a connection

from elsewhere that's not inside yourself.

Therefore, elsewhere means all the
familiar places when you're out in

the country where you don't know people,
then you feel disconnected.

You'll feel very lonely.

Loneliness is a magic experience, same as
connectedness.

You can be middle of the family,
you can live with somebody,

but for a lifetime you'll feel
disconnected!

Or you could be alone and connected
with everybody!

The way you look, the way you experience
the world

has nothing to do with your
circumstances so much.

That's the beauty. The true realization
has nothing to do with the

circumstances. I think that's beautiful
news. Very good news.

Has nothing to do with anybody,
therefore you have a chance.

If we have to fix the world to make you
happy, forget about it.

[laughs]

If every family member has to agree with
you for you to be happy, forget about it.

First, probably, it's never possible that
every family member will agree with you.

Second, if it's possible, the day they
will agree with you,

you'll disagree with them.

[laughs]

Yeah.

[questioner:] I just wanted to share
what Susan in Vietnam said.

She says, "Thank you. I do feel connected
now. My life and meditation is very rich.

I guess I'm just missing you all.
Thank you."

And then, later, as you were talking,
she says, "Perfect medicine this morning!

This is so great! Love to all."

And then, just to mention, in Monterrey,
Mexico, there are 12 people in the cafe

there I believe. I don't know if this is a
little off point, but often what they ask

is "where can we get further information
about walking meditation?"

But anyways, I just wanted you to know
that they are there.

Thank you. I think we've finished, so
thank you.