True Safety Inside
November 17, 2015
Close your eyes and try to find a comfortable way of breathing.
You’re creating a safe place inside that’s not so subject to the events outside.
Right now it’s getting really cold outside—by our standards: I’m sure that by other people’s standards, this is not all that cold. But still after we’ve been through one-hundred-degree weather, a sudden change like this really hits the body.
You need a safe place inside that’s not subject to heat or cold or any of the other ups and downs of the world outside.
This is what we’re trying to find as we meditate: a place inside that’s our place, a place where we have some control over the thermostat, some control over the level of comfort.
It’s not totally under our control. When you try to exert total control, you become a total control freak. But at least you’re trying to make things so that they’re really easeful inside as much as you can.
The mind needs a place where it can stay like this so that it’s coming from a position of strength. Otherwise, if it’s feeling threatened by events outside, it’s going to lash out and do unskillful things. But if it’s got its safe place, then there’s no need to lash, there’s no need for fear: You’ve got something that’s secure inside.
That’s what we’re aiming for. The concentration is a step there and it gives you some relative security in the meantime. But remember that: that where true safety lies is inside.
We’re born into this world, but what is it? We’ve got this body that’s got all these needs. And there are all these things outside that can snuff out life very quickly. So we manage to find our way and survive to some extent, to be safe to some extent, but it’s never going to be absolute, and you have to live with that fact.
Which means you have to turn inside to find any real security, any true well-being.
So try to focus in here, keep this sense of well-being going. Once you’ve got it, keep it going as you go through the day. Don’t throw it out just because other events come up or other things startle you or other things catch your interest. This is your secure place.
As I said yesterday, when you’re juggling all the balls of your life, you’ve got to have a solid place to stand. Okay, this is the place to stand. Then you become a better juggler—until the point where you don’t have to juggle things anymore.
But make sure that this place is solid and everything else follows from that.