We live in an incredibly busy world. The pace of life is often frantic, our minds are always busy, and we're always doing something.
Živimo v zelo aktivnem svetu. Življenjski tempo je pogosto zelo hiter, naš um je vedno aktiven in ves čas nekaj počnemo.
So with that in mind, I'd like you just to take a moment to think, when did you last take any time to do nothing? Just 10 minutes, undisturbed? And when I say nothing, I do mean nothing. So that's no emailing, texting, no Internet, no TV, no chatting, no eating, no reading. Not even sitting there reminiscing about the past or planning for the future. Simply doing nothing. I see a lot of very blank faces.
Torej, s tem v mislih bi želel, da si vzamete trenutek in pomislite kdaj ste si nazadnje vzeli čas, da bi počeli nič? Samo 10 minut v miru. In ko pravim nič, tudi mislim nič. Nič pošiljanja elektronske pošte, SMS-sov, nič interneta, nič TV, nič klepetanja, nič branja, prav tako nič razmišljanja o preteklosti ali načrtovanja prihodnosti. Preprosto početi nič. Vidim precej breizraznih obrazov. (Smeh)
(Laughter)
Predvidevam, da se boste morali vrniti daleč nazaj.
You probably have to go a long way back.
In to je zelo nenavadno, kajne?
And this is an extraordinary thing, right? We're talking about our mind. The mind, our most valuable and precious resource, through which we experience every single moment of our life. The mind that we rely upon to be happy, content, emotionally stable as individuals, and at the same time, to be kind and thoughtful and considerate in our relationships with others. This is the same mind that we depend upon to be focused, creative, spontaneous, and to perform at our very best in everything that we do. And yet, we don't take any time out to look after it. In fact, we spend more time looking after our cars, our clothes and our hair than we -- okay, maybe not our hair,
Govorimo o našem umu. Um, naše najbolj vredno in dragoceno sredstvo, skozi katerega doživimo prav vsak trenutek našega življenja. Um, na katerega se zanesemo, da bomo kot posamezniki srečni, zadovoljni, čustveno trdni in istočasno prijazni, uvidevni in pozorni v naših odnosih z drugimi. To je tisti um, na katerega se zanašamo, da bomo osredotočeni, kreativni, spontani in da bomo, v vsem kar počnemo, delovali najbolje. In vendar si ne vzamemo nič časa, da bi poskrbeli zanj. Pravzaprav porabimo več časa za skrb za naše avtomobile, naša oblačila in naše lase, kot ga -- no ja, mogoče ne za naše lase, toda saj veste kaj mislim.
(Laughter)
but you see where I'm going.
Rezultat je seveda, da smo pod pritiskom.
The result, of course, is that we get stressed. You know, the mind whizzes away like a washing machine going round and round, lots of difficult, confusing emotions, and we don't really know how to deal with that. And the sad fact is that we are so distracted that we're no longer present in the world in which we live. We miss out on the things that are most important to us, and the crazy thing is that everybody just assumes, that's the way life is, so we've just kind of got to get on with it. That's really not how it has to be.
Veste, um se vrti kot pralni stroj, okrog in okrog, veliko težav, zapletenih čustev, in ne vemo natančno, kako naj se s tem spoprimemo. In žalostno dejstvo je, da smo tako raztreseni, da nismo več navzoči v svetu, v katerem živimo. Zamujamo stvari, ki so za nas najpomembnejše in najbolj noro je, da vsi kar domnevamo, ah, takšno je pač življenje, moramo ga pač tako sprejeti. Pa v resnici ni potrebno, da je tako.
So I was about 11 when I went along to my first meditation class. And trust me, it had all the stereotypes that you can imagine, the sitting cross-legged on the floor, the incense, the herbal tea, the vegetarians, the whole deal, but my mom was going and I was intrigued, so I went along with her. I'd also seen a few kung fu movies, and secretly I kind of thought I might be able to learn how to fly, but I was very young at the time. Now as I was there, I guess, like a lot of people, I assumed that it was just an aspirin for the mind. You get stressed, you do some meditation. I hadn't really thought that it could be sort of preventative in nature, until I was about 20, when a number of things happened in my life in quite quick succession, really serious things which just flipped my life upside down and all of a sudden I was inundated with thoughts, inundated with difficult emotions that I didn't know how to cope with. Every time I sort of pushed one down, another one would pop back up again. It was a really very stressful time.
Torej, bil sem star kakšnih 11 let, ko sem šel zraven na moj prvi tečaj meditacije. In verjemite mi, imel je vse stereotipe, ki si jih lahko predstavljate - sedenje s prekrižanimi nogami na tleh, kadilo, zeliščni čaj, vegetarijanci, cel paket. Toda moja mama je hodila tja in zanimalo me je, zato sem šel z njo. Videl sem tudi nekaj kung fu filmov in na skrivaj sem nekako mislil, da se bom lahko naučil leteti. Ampak, takrat sem bil zelo mlad. Ko sem bil tam, sem kot najbrž veliko ljudi, domneval, da je to kot aspirin za um. Ko si pod pritiskom, malo meditiraš. Nisem razmišljal, da bi bilo to lahko po naravi preventivno, dokler nisem bil star okoli 20 let. Takrat se je v mojem življenju, v kratkem času, zgodilo kar precej stvari, zares resnih stvari, ki so moje življenje obrnile na glavo. In naenkrat sem bil preplavljen z mislimi, preplavljen s težkimi čustvi, s katerimi se nisem znal soočiti. Vsakič ko sem eno nekako potisni, se je nekako spet pojavila druga. Res je bil zelo stresno obdobje.
I guess we all deal with stress in different ways. Some people will bury themselves in work, grateful for the distraction. Others will turn to their friends, their family, looking for support. Some people hit the bottle, start taking medication. My own way of dealing with it was to become a monk. So I quit my degree, I headed off to the Himalayas, I became a monk, and I started studying meditation.
Verjetno se vsak od nas drugače sooča s stresom. Nekateri ljudje se zakopljejo v delo, hvaležni, da jim odvrne pozornost. Drugi se obrnejo na svoje prijatelje, svojo družino in v tem poiščejo podporo. Nekateri začnejo piti, jemati zdravila. Jaz pa sem se soočil tako, da sem postal menih. Torej, prekinil sem študij in se odpravil proti Himalaji. Postal sem menih in začel proučevati meditacijo.
People often ask me what I learned from that time. Well, obviously it changed things. Let's face it, becoming a celibate monk is going to change a number of things. But it was more than that. It taught me -- it gave me a greater appreciation, an understanding for the present moment. By that I mean not being lost in thought, not being distracted, not being overwhelmed by difficult emotions, but instead learning how to be in the here and now, how to be mindful, how to be present.
Ljudje me pogosto sprašujejo kaj sem se takrat naučil. No, očitno so se stvari precej spremenile. Postati spolno vzdržen menih, gotovo spremeni veliko stvari. Toda bilo je več kot to. Naučilo me je -- dalo mi je večjo hvaležnost, razumevanje sedanjega trenutka. S tem mislim, da nismo izgubljeni v misli, nismo raztreseni, nismo prevzeti s težkimi čustvi, ampak se namesto tega učimo, kako biti tu in zdaj, kako biti čuječni, kako biti navzoči.
I think the present moment is so underrated. It sounds so ordinary, and yet we spend so little time in the present moment that it's anything but ordinary. There was a research paper that came out of Harvard, just recently, that said on average, our minds are lost in thought almost 47 percent of the time. 47 percent. At the same time, this sort of constant mind-wandering is also a direct cause of unhappiness. Now we're not here for that long anyway, but to spend almost half of our life lost in thought and potentially quite unhappy, I don't know, it just kind of seems tragic, actually, especially when there's something we can do about it, when there's a positive, practical, achievable, scientifically proven technique which allows our mind to be more healthy, to be more mindful and less distracted.
Menim, da je sedanji trenutek zelo podcenjen. Zveni tako vsakdanje, in vendar tako malo časa preživimo v sedanjem trenutku, da je vse prej kot vsakdanje. Na Harvardu so pred kratkim objavili raziskavo, ki je pokazala, da je naš um v povprečju izgubljen v mislih 47 % časa. Sedeminštirideset odstotkov. Istočasno pa je to, stalno beganje uma, neposreden vzrok za nesrečnost. Že tako nismo dolgo časa tukaj, da pa poleg tega preživimo skoraj pol našega življenja izgubljeni v mislih in morebiti precej nesrečni, ne vem, to je pravzaprav kar nekako tragično. Še posebej, ker lahko nekaj naredimo, ker obstaja pozitivna, praktična, dosegljiva, znanstveno dokazana tehnika, ki našemu umu omogoča, da je bolj zdrav, da je bolj čuječ in manj raztresen.
And the beauty of it is that even though it need only take about 10 minutes a day, it impacts our entire life. But we need to know how to do it. We need an exercise. We need a framework to learn how to be more mindful. That's essentially what meditation is. It's familiarizing ourselves with the present moment. But we also need to know how to approach it in the right way to get the best from it. And that's what these are for, in case you've been wondering, because most people assume that meditation is all about stopping thoughts, getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind, but actually it's quite different from that. It's more about stepping back, sort of seeing the thought clearly, witnessing it coming and going, emotions coming and going without judgment, but with a relaxed, focused mind.
In najlepše je, da kljub temu, da potrebujemo samo kakšnih 10 minut na dan, vpliva na naše celotno življenje. Toda moramo vedeti, kako to izvesti. Potrebujemo vajo. Potrebujemo okvir, da se naučimo kako biti bolj čuječni. To je v bistvu meditacija. Spoznavati se s sedanjim trenutkom. Moramo pa tudi vedeti, kako se tega lotiti na pravi način, da dobimo najboljše rezultate. In zato imam tole, če še se spraševali o tem. Večina ljudi domneva, da z meditacijo zaustavimo misli, se svobodimo čustev, nekako nadzorujemo um, toda v resnici je precej drugače. Gre bolj za to, da stopimo korak nazaj, misel vidimo bolj jasno, smo priča temu kako prihaja in odhaja, čustva prihajajo in odhajajo, brez obsojanja, s sproščenim in osredotočenim umom.
So for example, right now, if I focus too much on the balls, then there's no way I can relax and talk to you at the same time. Equally, if I relax too much talking to you, there's no way I can focus on the balls. I'm going to drop them. Now in life, and in meditation, there'll be times when the focus becomes a little bit too intense, and life starts to feel a bit like this. It's a very uncomfortable way to live life, when you get this tight and stressed. At other times, we might take our foot off the gas a little bit too much, and things just become a sort of little bit like this. Of course in meditation --
Torej na primer, če se zdaj preveč osredotočim na žogice, ni mogoče, da sem sproščen in vam istočasno predavam. In enako, če se preveč sprostim, ko predavam, ni mogoče, da se osredotočim na žogice. Spustil jih bom. Tako v življenju, kot v meditaciji se zgodi, da osredotočenje postane nekoliko preveč intenzivno in življenje postane nekako takšno. Zelo neprijetno je živeti življenje, ko smo tako napeti in pod pritiskom. Drugič spet lahko malo preveč umaknemo nogo s plina in stvari postanejo nekako takšne. Seveda med meditacijo - (Smrčanje) -
(Snores)
bomo zaspali.
we're going to end up falling asleep. So we're looking for a balance, a focused relaxation where we can allow thoughts to come and go without all the usual involvement.
Iščemo torej ravnotežje, osredotočeno sproščenost, ko mislim dovolimo, da pridejo in gredo brez običajne vpletenosti.
Now, what usually happens when we're learning to be mindful is that we get distracted by a thought. Let's say this is an anxious thought. Everything's going fine, and we see the anxious thought. "Oh, I didn't realize I was worried about that." You go back to it, repeat it. "Oh, I am worried. I really am worried. Wow, there's so much anxiety." And before we know it, right, we're anxious about feeling anxious.
Ko se učimo biti čuječni, nas ponavadi zmoti misel. Recimo, da gre za zaskrbljujočo misel. Vse gre torej krasno in naenkrat zagledamo zaskrbljujočo misel in pomislimo: "Oh, nisem vedel, da me to skrbi." Vrnemo se k njej in jo ponovimo. "Oh, zaskrbljen sem. Oh, resnično sem zaskrbljen. Vau, tukaj je toliko zaskrbljenosti." In, preden se zavemo, nas skrbi zaradi zaskrbljenosti.
(Laughter)
You know, this is crazy. We do this all the time, even on an everyday level. If you think about the last time you had a wobbly tooth. You know it's wobbly, and you know that it hurts. But what do you do every 20, 30 seconds?
Veste, to je noro. To počnemo ves čas, vsak dan. Če se spomnite, ne vem, kdaj se vam je zadnjič majal zob. Veste, da se maje in veste da boli. Toda kaj naredite vsake 20, 30 sekund?
(Mumbling)
(Mrmranje) Res boli. In tako še utrdimo zaplet.
It does hurt. And we reinforce the storyline, right? And we just keep telling ourselves, and we do it all the time. And it's only in learning to watch the mind in this way that we can start to let go of those storylines and patterns of mind. But when you sit down and you watch the mind in this way, you might see many different patterns. You might find a mind that's really restless and -- the whole time. Don't be surprised if you feel a bit agitated in your body when you sit down to do nothing and your mind feels like that. You might find a mind that's very dull and boring, and it's just, almost mechanical, it just seems it's as if you're getting up, going to work, eat, sleep, get up, work. Or it might just be that one little nagging thought that just goes round and round your mind.
In še kar naprej si to govorimo in to počnemo ves čas. In samo, če se naučimo opazovati svoj um na tak način, lahko začnemo opuščati te zaplete in vzorce uma. Toda, ko sedemo in začnemo opazovati um na tak način, bomo lahko videli različne vzorce. Lahko ugotovimo, da je um resnično nemiren in -- ves čas. Ne bodite presenečeni, če boste čutili vzemirjenost v telesu, ko boste sedli z namenom, da ne bi počeli nič in vaš um občutite tako. Lahko ugotovite, da je um zelo pust in dolgočasen in skoraj mehaničen. Izgleda kot da vstanete, greste na delo, jeste, spite, vstanete, delo. Ali pa se ena nadležna misel vrti okrog in okrog v vašem umu.
Well, whatever it is, meditation offers the opportunity, the potential to step back and to get a different perspective, to see that things aren't always as they appear. We can't change every little thing that happens to us in life, but we can change the way that we experience it. That's the potential of meditation, of mindfulness. You don't have to burn any incense, and you definitely don't have to sit on the floor. All you need to do is to take 10 minutes out a day to step back, to familiarize yourself with the present moment so that you get to experience a greater sense of focus, calm and clarity in your life.
Karkoli že je, meditacija ponuja priložnost, možnost, da stopimo korak nazaj in pogledamo z drugega zornega kota ter vidimo, da stvari niso vedno takšne kot izgledajo. Ne moremo spremeniti vsake najmanjše stvari, ki se zgodi v našem življenju, lahko pa spremenimo kako jo bomo doživeli. To je potencial meditacije, čuječnosti. Ni potrebno, da prižigate kadilo in nikakor ni potrebno, da sedite na tleh. Vse kar je potrebno je, da si vzamete 10 minut časa na dan, da stopite korak nazaj, da se spoznate s sedanjim trenutkom, in da tako občutite večji pomen osredotočenja, miru in jasnosti v vašem življenju.
Thank you very much.
Najlepša hvala. (Ploskanje)
(Applause)