27) Dear God, Help Me See What's Real & True - Meditate Now
Audio Version - Guided Meditation
Written Transcript of the Guided Meditation
Well, welcome.
Here we are, another episode of "Meditate Now." I'm always intrigued by this title and whenever I point to or talk about the subject of "Dear God, Help Me See What's Real and True." And I guess as a disclaimer, the "Dear God" part is just a pointer.
You can do with that whatever feels good, dear life, dear whatever.
A Life-changing Transition
I find this topic fascinating because when I look at my experience throughout my life, there's this what's called a transition.
A transition from "Dear God, help me get what I want” to "Dear God, help me see what's real and true."
I think a lot of people have experienced this as well. We noticed that as we travel what might be called a spiritual path, we become less obsessed with what we think we want. And we recognize that if anything, there's confusion, a misunderstanding, there's a desire or longing for peace and trust.
It's interesting too, because, in my experience, I recognize how the mind always thinks it knows what will resolve the situation. It's kind of like in a relationship conflict, very commonly, the mind can think, "if only this other person did what I wanted them to do, then there wouldn't be conflict." So we can also think that "if only life would do what I want life to do, then I could relax, then I could be at peace, then I can feel how I want to feel."
This, of course, is a great struggle in our human experience as we try to dance with what seems like an external world. We are convinced that that place within us that we crave is somehow dictated by getting what we want or dictated by how the pieces are arranged on the surface.
So often, we run around trying to put things in the order that we think is the order, and we say, "if only it was that way, then I could relax.”
An Illusion That Something Is Missing
Comically, throughout my experience of being human, there's such a— what do we want to call that?— An illusion.
Where you think if you get what you want, that will fix it, then you get what you want, and then it's good for about five minutes, and then you got to find something else that you want, or we can have so much agitation or angst feeling like what we want is missing.
In the pain of that, we feel like that pain is there because of that something that's missing. So we project outwardly that there's something out there that we want somehow has the solution, it has the key.
This is often the relationship dynamic in whatever relationship you might have with that dynamic of God or whatever you want to call it. Where sometimes we feel that, that something is there to help us get what we want, it's somehow our servant. We can approach relationships that way and you can see how disastrous that is.
Like if you get in a relationship with another human being and you think that they are there so that you can feel a certain way by how they are, then there's this dynamic of "I'll love you if... if only you would be this way, if only you would be that way, if only you gave me what I want then, I could be at peace.” And that just goes nowhere as we've all experienced in some way or another.
See The Truth Of Things
So with this topic, "Dear God, help me see what's real and true," I invite us to recognize that along the spiritual journey, what we recognize is that— let's call it our salvation— is through seeing life and ourselves and others more clearly.
It's through seeing the truth of things. So often if we get real honest about our conflict in our drama, what we find is this resistance to what we think is happening. But when we get still and we kind of return to a meditative space, we start to realize that all the things that we are afraid of, they're not actually happening.
Furthermore, the things that are happening, we are giving meaning to those things that they don't really mean and so we're not seeing clearly. This points back to what's been said since the beginning of time, which is... be still and know.
Be still and connect with the reality that's here and now, the life that actually is, and create some space behind the imagination that thinks this is happening and thinks that's happening and is afraid of this, that, and the other, but come home and see what's real.
So our time together in this meditation is to just take a moment and ask for that guidance while also importantly, releasing what it is that we think is missing, which is also what we think we want.
The Beauty of Not Getting What You Want
This is often an understandable difficulty where we can become so convinced that what we want is the answer.
If that's the case, I just invite you to look at your own direct experience and see all those times when you really thought you knew what you wanted only to find out it wasn't what you thought it was or it wasn't really what you wanted, or that it didn't work out and you were totally fine.
In so many cases, not getting what you want is the best thing for you. What this really points to, at least for me, is I don't really know what I want. Sometimes I want this or that, sometimes I get it and I don't, and it all really doesn't seem to matter.
It doesn't have nearly the importance that the mind can put on it. So in that we're just going to gently step behind all that noise in the mind and see if we can connect with an openness in ourselves that's willing to release the mind's confusions and then also open ourselves up to a greater guidance kind of trusting that there's some sort of connection that we do have with life that is 100% in support of the truth of what we are and we at times can just get stubborn and confused.
So we can surrender that a little bit.
All right, let's dive into it.
Start of Guided Meditation
It’s Okay To Admit That We Don’t Know
In this meditative space, you can enter in the most natural and comfortable way possible for you.
You can have your eyes open, your eyes closed. You can be sitting, you can be standing, you can be taking a walk in nature.
The real point of this time together is to just be present.
We can notice that the mind wants to go in a thousand different directions, but we're just going to take some deep breaths. And from your heart, just invite yourself into right now, invite yourself to come home.
Let's just spend some moments and breathe here together.
In our moments of agitation, pain, and fear, it's a curious thing to recognize how chaotic the mind can be. Looking and looking, hoping and hoping, which we know can become quite exhausting.
In this meditation, we're going to try a whole new approach. Rather than seeking and strategizing, trying to figure out a way of getting what we want in the future, we're just going to come home to this moment and be with the heart of the matter.
It's important that we extend to ourselves permission. It's like seeing the mind’s noise and saying, "I hear you thank you, but I'm just going to be present for a few minutes."
In this space, this openness, maybe we can just really admit that we don't really know. We don't know what the best thing is. We don't know what we really want. Maybe we don't even know what's best for tomorrow.
And maybe the more we can admit the truth of these things, we can breathe into this moment and recognize a space that becomes more and more open.
Dear God, Help Me See What's Real and True
Wherever you find yourself, wherever you are, I invite you to connect with life. What I mean by that is life is happening here and now, at this moment.
Life is what breathes your breath in and out.
Be present with your breath.
See that the mind just wants to go into imagination. It wants to go into the unreal, trying to solve imaginary problems, but we're just going to come back to life.
Let's just breathe into that openness, inviting more of it.
Whatever the confusion might be, maybe it's not understanding why you feel what you feel. Maybe it's a fear about which direction to go.
Whatever it is, let's offer up a very soft and gentle prayer that simply says, "Dear God, help me see what's real and true."
Maybe we can confess a heart that's just simply exhausted from running around trying to get what we want, being afraid of losing what we thought we got.
Maybe we can just take a break and be open to seeing life ourselves and others more clearly. To see all without our fearful filter. To come out of hiding and meet life as it really is. Just in that, just in coming home and being more and more present, you start to see a little bit more of what is real and true.
Doesn't mean it gives you what you want, but you start to see that at this moment, right now… you're okay.
Sure, maybe scared, maybe sad, maybe frustrated, maybe anxious. Even in all of that, here you are right now, and you're whole and you're complete.
There is wellness here. Maybe we can become more open to seeing it.
Let's just breathe into this open space.
Maybe offer up a bit of gratitude that says, "thank you for just this, just this. Dear God, help me see what's real and true.”
Thanks for meditating with me today. That was a short one but feels good.
