Whatever you can possibly
notice—in your body, in your mind, in the world—
 
has only one place to appear:
in your conscious experience.
Now I'm not saying this is all just a
dream.
But as a neurological matter, it is very much like a dream. It is a dream
that is constrained
by inputs from the external world.
And the dreams we call 'dreams' at night
are dreams that are not constrained
by the external world
—that's why you seem to be able to get
away with everything—
but Your Mind Is All You Have.
It's all you've ever had.
It's all you have to offer other people.
And this might sound callous to say when there may be many other
aspects of your life that seem
in need of being addressed.
When you're trying to, struggling to find a career or you're sick.
But it's still true.
If you're perpetually angry and depressed,
and confused, and unloving
it doesn't matter how much success you
have or who is in your life—you're not
going to enjoy any of it.
I suspect you could all make a list of
things you want to accomplish—the things that really need to be changed
about your life.
What is the significance
of everything on that list?
Wach thing on that list seems to promise that if you could only do it
you would have
reason to just be happy in the present
moment.
We are all trying to find a path
back to the present moment
and good enough reason to just be happy
here.
And the practice of meditation I just showed you
—often called mindfulness meditation—
is just a trick for doing that.
It's a trick for setting aside your to-do list
—if only for a few moments—
and actually
locate a feeling of fulfillment in the present.
