Today I want to discuss evolution.  There are many ways to think about evolving:

• Individual evolution, societal evolution, human evolution
• Evolutions like Homo Erectus to Homo Sapien, etc.
• Agricultural age, to Industrial Age, to Information age
• An individual growing through identification with self to identification with society
• etc.
  

A good definition of evolution is this:  A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.

What is the type of evolution I'm talking about today?  Making a habit of coming back to our breath is only the beginning of the deep shift I'm referring to. The evolution would be the significant shift in the capacity of the average human to express and hold onto the state of mind that lives outside of time. Humans would need to learn to be the expression of presence and stillness.  We don't need to stay in that space all the time, but we need to learn about it and make it a larger part of our lives.

Stillness is more significant than just a way to deal with problems.  It can have an amazing impact both on the individual, and also society.

We have made massive technological changes. Those can all be thought of as external. We've learned to bend the world to our wishes to a certain extent. Learning our own minds, learning about time and how we relate to this moment would be an internal evolution. The external changes and progress can and will continue, maybe even faster than it has to date.

Fostering stillness is where the mind needs to go.   All of our problems arise out of attachment to concepts that come from being unaware.  We need to understand that practicing stillness is a bigger deal than just dealing with our own simple problems.  It is actually dealing with all problems.  So it is important work that we're doing.

The world I see involves all these evolutions (each one would be an evolution in it's own right)

• Much less need to express ourselves violently
• Higher desire to appreciate and create art and live creatively
• People become more physically healthy, because our joys won't come as much from physically detrimental substances (smoking, drinking, drugging, eating poorly). Our joys will come from deep connections to being.
• Corporations will learn to be much more sustainable and fair (both ecologically and to people)
• Countries will come from a world view instead of a nationalistic view - lessening wars, learning to cooperate, etc.
• People will base their lives and goals more on finding and sharing meaning, rather then gratifying self (what Maslow thought was the more rare expression of mans purpose)
• We'll have more technological advances as well because much of technology is creative
• etc.
  

Again, making a habit of coming back to our breath is only the beginning of the deep shift I'm referring to. The evolution would need to be the significant shift in the capacity of the average human to express and hold onto the state of mind that lives outside of time.  Stillness is more significant than just a way to deal with problems.  It can have an amazing impact both on the individual, and also society.

In this show I promise not to be too deep. Today I spend a few moments fostering presence with you. I open with a couple of conscious breaths, then onto examples of, and reasons for, bringing your focus back to your breath. I end mentioning that in regard to any learning, we deeply need to apply what we learn. Learning alone isn't enough. Without application, it's just spin.

Fostering presence will be the next evolution of man. Join in that evolution by bringing your attention back to your breath.

In this talk I describe why we seem to be stuck in time, and what an enlightened mind might look like.

If we have the fundamental understanding that there is only this moment; meaning we cannot leave it to go elsewhere, or more specifically that time is a construct of thought, we can start to understand that we need to relate differently to this moment.

None of us would argue that time doesn't exist. It just may not exist as we think it does. We can't go to the future, and we can't go to the past. There is change, but we are always here. The inner desire for a better future is where our unhappiness comes from. We need to learn to stay.

Any expression of enlightenment is an expression of timelessness. There is no wanting for the future. No struggle, or need for anything more than what is. Any expression of enlightenment also is an expression of abundance. Most of us walk around feeling as though we need: We want that car, that spouse, that job, more money, etc. But every expression of enlightenment comes from a place of not want, not need.

If we can learn to drop time when we see our own dissatisfaction arising we will grow immensely.

These two expressions, timelessness and abundance, are related. To learn about dropping time is to learn about dropping wants.

The freedom from time, and want is learnable. We can practice it. That practice doesn't have to be hard. Just learn to bring it back to your breath.

On the level of self and accomplishment, as we learn how our mind works, we can begin to use tools to achieve change and betterment in our lives. We can learn to focus better, make more money, lose weight, eat better, etc. Not only that, we can use the same tools to further our meditation and connection to being. There are many facets to living an optimal life.

We do want to be careful that we don't get too attached to that betterment. Self and ego are attached to these wants, so we need to watch how we apply the tools I'll be talking about today. But the tools are very useful nonetheless.

Today's show will be a brief overview of the power of Intention Setting, Hypnosis, Neural Linguistic Programming, Hemi Sync, Goal Setting and Positive Thinking. All of these "technologies" affect our opinions and beliefs, and hence our perception of the world.

In this talk I want to discuss what might be our biggest challenge. To find a state of stillness, and remain productive in the world. How do we accomplish, while remaining present.

Why are most of us unable to hold on to stillness? Many of us can find stillness, but why isn't it easier to just stay there? This talk assumes that you know what I mean when I say stillness. Some call it big mind, or a state of presence.

I did a talk before called Stillness in Motion. While this talk is similar, it will differ in the level we're talking about. Stillness in motion was a talk about the feeling of holding stillness while we do things.

I've heard Ken Wilber say things like you can't be in a non-dual state and in a state of duality at the same time. I'd be interested to speak with him about that because I have a deep sense of being still, or in a non-dual state while still seeing and being aware of, and able to function in the world full of duality.

This talk will discuss, and point out that we definitely still have the desire to accomplish and do things. We may drop the attachment to that desire, but we still discern.

At the base of our being is a function of judgement. This judgement leads to most of our discomfort. It puts us on the treadmill of time. Judgement says this situation isn't as I would like it to be, so let's change it. It leads to inner becoming. I'm not enough, etc. Many spiritual teachings seem to imply that this is a bad thing. But it's important that we don't vilify this idea. We need this function to survive. It's the same impulse that tells us we're in danger. It also allows for us to better the world.

We don't lose the ability to judge when we're still. I usually begin to describe this judgement as "discerning" to show that there is a difference. It isn't a lost, deeply judgemental, place that we come from, but we can tell what our preference would be. We do chose to walk, and eat, and talk, etc.

Many stereotypical representations of meditation imply that the meditator is unable to discern when in a deep meditative state. That's just not accurate. I mentioned before the Burning Monk, who had gasoline (or some flammable liquid) poured over him and lit. Then there was a picture taken of him not moving. While his experience of that might have been different than yours or mine, he still was aware that he was burning. The amazing thing is not some otherworldly state of mind he found, but rather the choice to stay. The discipline to stay.

The trick is going to be to learn to remain still while we judge and think. Can we remain aware while we judge? We need to learn to watch our judgements. The subtle distinction is this: A frustrated meditator learns about a pleasurable state of mind and then catches themselves thinking and discredits all the stillness they achieved. Whereas, a centered meditator finds himself or herself in a thinking state and watches it, thereby remaining centered.

In this world, we have things to accomplish. There is work to be done. In every moment we look at the world and have opinions about how it could be better, things we need, things we want to have, or do, or give. None of that is wrong. It's really important that we allow for that. There is such a thing as growth. There is betterment.

So is stillness in conflict with betterment? Doesn't stillness imply that we're done? While it is an appreciative state, we can be aware of movement, and the need for change while holding on to stillness. Stillness is a state of awareness. One that is realized and awake to the truth of a situation. If there is betterment to be done, do it, but try to remain aware.

Our innate ability and need to create and judge is what's impairing our ability to remain still. And that's a wonderful thing. The work we're here to do is to marry the two. We're here to blend the duality. We can engage in both experiences, and do our best to remain aware of where we are and what we're doing.