The Well-Being That Is Already Here
El bienestar que ya está aquí
An invitation to notice where you place your sense of peace in the future and to explore the possibility that well-being is already present now.
The Well-Being That Is Already Here
Seeing where you project satisfaction
What is your deep dissatisfaction?
Where do you project it?
What's going to resolve it?
Is it relationship?
Is it work?
To look at that.
For example, for me one of the things was relationship, another one was work.
It's very normal.
But a core thing was work.
If only this resolved in this way,
then I would find a certain well-being and peace.
My situation at work is absolutely the same.
Nothing really changed.
My work situation has changed throughout my whole life.
Before, I was convinced that the restlessness and dissatisfaction I felt was going to be resolved if that situation at work became how I wanted it to be,
how I thought it should be.
But before I was working to make that situation better, the work situation.
Now I'm working to make that situation, the work situation, better.
Absolutely no change.
And so in that sense, it's how they say:
before enlightenment, carry water.
Nothing really changes,
and one still can do what one wants to do,
but you see where it is that you are looking for that satisfaction.
Contemplating the deeper pattern
There's a dissatisfaction, something's missing.
And we project satisfaction; we think we will find it somewhere, and it's always going to be in the future.
Contemplate what is your habitual place.
And if it's all over the place, if you're always searching for it in many different things and it's very disorganized,
then go deeper and try to find more of a deeper pattern of how you project it onto the future.
Not for you to then pursue that,
but to see the deeper pattern of projecting.
Projecting. I mean, "I will find this."
It's almost the sense of "I will finally be at peace and rest and happy and okay, and everything will be well once I..." or "once life..."
I make it, or it happens, or God does this.
Some form of a story or a narrative that puts it in a situation,
in a form of relationship,
in a form of work and money and income,
in some form.
If you tell me how it is for you, we can get into the details.
But it's mostly for you to see:
okay, this is where I'm always projecting.
Noticing when it's activated
And then notice that whenever it's activated in you,
come closer to the dissatisfaction.
You can keep pursuing that, and that's what you've always done.
That's what we have always done.
And it's this habit.
The dissatisfaction is saying, "You will find peace and rest and well-being in the future if you do this and that."
That's that voice.
And it feels like it's your best thing, your most honorable thing.
It feels like, "This is me doing the most honorable thing that I can do."
But one thing is being responsible, and another is, "This is where I will find peace."
And it's projected.
So if you can see that, if you don't see that mechanism, that's what I would suggest for you: to see it more and more and more clearly.
First, the more clearly you can see how you're constantly putting well-being in the immediate or long-term future.
Creating distance from the mechanism
And then if you see that when it's activated,
that requires a distancing to say,
"Oh, there it goes again.
Oh, there it goes again."
And so you separate from that,
and there's an observation of that narrative, of that mechanism.
And that's a first step.
And then you can see what's energizing it.
There's dissatisfaction, right?
So what does that feel like?
In creating that distancing,
we're basically saying:
okay, dissatisfaction, you're telling me to do this so that I don't feel you anymore.
And that's the voice of fear and pain,
or the way we relate to fear and pain.
Not avoiding, but being with
But no, I'm not going to listen to you.
I'm still going to be responsible and do what I have to do and what I want to do,
but not to avoid you.
I'm going to do what I have to do and what I want to do and be responsible,
but not to avoid you.
Not projecting that I'm going to get rid of you.
I'm going to be with you while I do that.
And that's a very different way of functioning.
We could be doing the same action. That's why chopping wood, carrying water.
We can be doing it as, "Once I chop the wood and once I get the water in the house and it's all done, then I will be okay."
Or I can do it because I need water in the house and I need to chop wood,
and there's a certain well-being in the process,
because I'm no longer trying to finish the job and find the well-being in the future and projecting it there.
I'm talking about two very different forms.
And there is this transition.
You can't just suddenly find the well-being. There's a transition,
and that transition is getting closer to the dissatisfaction.
The Buddha calls it dukkha, which is translated as dissatisfaction.
And so it's the essence of suffering.
The second step is to be with that
and not instantly run away from it.
That's where it's a process of being present, being present, being present,
and sensing, feeling into all of that.
I simplify it with fear and pain.
You could also call it suffering. You could call it dissatisfaction. Something's missing.
Different ways to look at it.
What if well-being is already here?
So the pointer is: contemplate the possibility
that the well-being you're looking for is present already.
That's kind of like the antidote to the virus
of the addiction to projecting onto the future.
Because "if I do that, then I will feel better" is 100% a belief mechanism.
And so I'm giving you, in a sense, another belief as an antidote.
But I'm proposing it as a hypothesis, or trust it; it depends on what works for you.
If you're very rational and scientific, use it as a hypothesis.
If you're more devotional and that way of being works for you,
trust in the message.
Trust in something that is the beauty of: in the present moment, your well-being is possible.
There can be a coming to that from a place of just complete trust.
Whichever way, explore.
Going the other direction.
Instead of the habit of looking for it there, looking for it there, looking for it there,
what if it's already here?
Touching fear and pain
That will put you through the trials and tribulations. Fear and pain, fear and pain.
But what if, in this fear and pain, well-being is present?
Feeling the fear and the pain.
Feeling the fear and the pain.
What if?
So it's a pointer: any time the mind points to over there,
you go, "What if it's not there, it's here?"
And then what I offer is trust that it takes a period of time and a process to discover the truth of that.
After you sit with fear and pain, sit with fear and pain, sit with fear and pain,
when fear and pain is no longer something that's too hot to touch.
Because when it's too hot to touch (too much fear, too much pain),
then I'm going to choose, "I'll find it over there, the solution, well-being."
So at first we need to learn to touch fear and pain,
to a point where it's no longer tempting us to escape.
The shift
Once that happens, there's a shift.
Because now it's so much tastier to be present, even if there's fear and pain.
The flavor of that is so much better than looking for well-being in mental projections.
It will start to shift because it'll just feel better.
The chasing of mental projections will feel so uncomfortable,
and within the fear and the pain there's going to be something else other than the fear and pain
that is just so much more valuable.
And at some point the fear and the pain will dissipate.
Fear and pain comes and goes.
But there's a transition where fear and pain is just the guardians at the gate,
from where it really happens:
that we can no longer choose something that's not the present moment.
It becomes almost not a choice,
because there is no such thing as not the present moment.
It's hard to describe.
But the present moment reality of being starts to have this flavor that is really subtle,
yet so much tastier than the mental contraction and looking for the well-being.