Can you clear muddy water by stirring it? Alan Watts said muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, and that is the whole of this one.

I am learning Cornish and the history and I want more and more of it, so where is the line between interest and consuming? Controlling a little less makes everything easier. We already have what we need. I am enough, I have enough, I am at peace with myself and nature. Notice how fast you can go from consuming to that.

One thing to try: Leave one thing alone today that you would normally poke at. Watch it settle by itself.

In this episode

• (0:01) Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone
• (2:45) Changing it to virtual hugs, because I barely drink coffee
• (4:37) Learning Cornish, and wanting more and more of it
• (6:30) Being here now, without consuming or pushing back
• (8:48) Controlling a little less makes things so much easier
• (11:09) All my tapes in colour order, and my CDs numbered
• (13:17) I am enough. I have enough. I am at peace

With gratitude to

Lucy, Carol, Dawn, Sarah and Senga.

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.

• Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
• Steven's courses, podcasts and links: stevenwebb.uk

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

One of my favourite quotes of all time, Alan Watts.

So on today's podcast, we're talking about embracing nature's wisdom, overcoming stress, anxiety, and

consuming less.

One of those things that I'm trying to learn to do, and I think the world as a whole needs

to do that.

However, before we get there the last like two weeks, I've been working really hard on sorting out my website,

sorting out the stillness in the Storms website, the Inner Peace Meditations website, and bringing them all together. So

all of my podcasts all of my things are more easily accessible, and I had to update the link in

every single one of my podcasts And I often think that I'm not delivering, I'm not doing a very good

job, and I miss weeks and things like that. And I think I'm doing a terrible, terrible job. And I

was going through them last night and I've done 92 of them, and I was going through and thinking Hey,

some of these aren't bad actually, some of these are pretty good.

And just going through the titles and things like that. Boy, it took the, I was listening to one of

my favourite albums and I went through the whole album, which is a brilliant album, by the way. I'll put

the album title in the show notes. One of my favourite all-time albums It really is, it's one of those

albums that you just return to again and again and again. And I put on the album and it took

the whole album for me to just go and copy and paste I was really hating the job at the

beginning, but by the end I was loving doing it. It's one of those things that you just don't want

to do and I thought, I'll tell you what, I'll be really productive and I'll just do 10 each day

for the next 10 days or so. But I got into it after about doing 40. I was like, I'm

really not liking this. And then 50 it's like okay, I'll keep going 60, I'll keep going. And by the

end I was like, this is really giving me some clarity. And it made me, it was almost like I

needed to see what I had achieved. And I think how often do we really go back and look at

what we've achieved? I might do a podcast on that well That'd be a good idea, but I want to

say thank you to many of you that have bought me a coffee, although I've changed it slightly always changing

things. Us humans are always doing that, aren't we? So I've changed it to virtual hugs. I don't really drink

a lot of coffee, so it didn't make sense to me. Buy me a coffee, buy me a coffee and

treat me to a coffee. So I've virtual hugs. So I want to say thank you to Lucy and Carol,

and Dawn, Sarah sanga jinn and someone, someone, and v all

of you for treating me to a virtual hug. You guys, massive big hug. I

hope you can feed it. I'm like squeezing you tight right now. You can feel my arms around you. Thank

you guys. It really makes a difference. My podcast has just gone to another level, so it does cost a

lot more now to host it and all that, but that's good news. That's wonderful news because more and more

people are listening to it More and more people are getting benefits from it. And I get emails, people that

I really make sense and I'm not sure I make sense in my head, but I'm just getting my thoughts

out there and if it makes sense to you. Brilliant. That's awesome. So. I've sorted the website, so

I've told you about that. I've told you about my virtual hugs. I'm just going through some of my show

notes a minute, and now I'm going to get on with today's podcast. It's about consuming less and just

learning from nature really. So let's go through today's podcast. So

in our modern world, consumption is often seen as a necessity. We consume food, we consume

material, goods, information, even nature. We're consuming. And I'm I'm finding my

time now, literally when I'm reading and Youtube and I'm just like, I want it all I want more and

more and more. I want to learn more. I'm learning to speak Cornish at the moment. I'm learning. The Cornish

history, and I just want more and more of it. But where do we strike a balance? Am I becoming

more stressful because I'm trying to get more and more? and but this constant cycle of consumption, it brings about

so much stress and anxiety. And as the philosopher Alan watts once said, muddy water is best cleared by leaving

it alone. So too is our lives. Sometimes they become a little clearer. They become a little more peaceful

when we reduce the noise and just reducing that constant consumption. And

I love this analogy of the muddy water. The simple fact, you imagine a great big pond and you imagine

we're just throwing stuff in it all the time. How about we just let it settle what we know now,

the knowledge that we know, the wisdom of god the food that's in our belly. Everything and all just just

for a moment, just go, that's enough.

What if we have everything in this moment? What if it's just enough

What A wonderful thought.

And beneath the surface of this hectic consumption, below all our stresses and anxieties and fears,

there lies a deeper truth, a more profound, peaceful reality, often referred to in

Buddhism as buddha Nature This is our true self. And unclouded by worldly

distractions and illusions. It's a sense of being just enough just as we are

just in this moment.

Oh, what a relief

doesn't it just like, oh, I don't have to do anything. I can just be now here. I don't have

to consume anything. I don't have to push back on anything. Oh, you just want to take a deep breath

and just let it all out, don't you? That's just that huge sigh of relief. You

know, nature provides us with countless examples of living in harmony without need to constant consumption.

It's an ageless wisdom that we often forget.

You know, just look at the parable of the Chinese farmer. That's one of my favourite ones. I'm just going

to have to look it up a minute because I kind of know it, but I kind of often forget

it. The Chinese farmer, this is a famous Zen story often recounted. and a Chinese farmer had a horse

that ran away. And when his neighbours learned of it, they came to the farmer saying Such bad luck. The

farmer replied, maybe the next day the horse returned with three wild horses. How wonderful the neighbours explained.

Maybe the farmer replied the following day. The farmer's son tried to ride one of the

wild horses. He was thrown off and he broke his leg. The neighbours, once again came, came to offer their

sympathy for the farmer's. Misfortune maybe answered the farmer. A day after the military

officials came to the village and draft the young men into the army, seeing that the son's leg has been

broken, they passed him by. Neighbours congratulated the farmer and on his good luck this time. But the farmer

said maybe, and the lesson here is, you know, you don't know what is in store.

You know, I don't know whether breaking my neck was a good or a bad thing. I don't know whether,

you know stuck in that traffic jam is a good or a bad thing. It might save me from an

accident. It might make me late for my appointment. Who knows? And I think when we have a slightly more

balanced view on it, it's just like, oh, we can just relax a little stop rigidly trying to

control everything. Does

that make any sense? Just

just that controlling a little bit less makes things just so much easier. I have a genuine

belief that we do have everything inside of us that we need. Was it Marcus Aurelius? Very little is

needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself in a way of thinking in your way of

thinking. Very

little is needed to make people happy. It's all within yourself. Okay. I butchered that. You know what I mean

now this perspective coupled with consuming less leads to a simpler, more peaceful life. You

know, just another then story The empty cup and teaches the same lesson. We must empty ourselves of

preconceived notions and. And the story goes. A university professor went to visit a Zen Master

while the Zen Master quietly served his tea. The professor talked about zen. The master poured the visitor's cup to

the brim and then kept pouring. The professor watched him overflow in the cup until he could no longer restrain

himself, and he looks up and goes, the cup is full. No more will go in to professor blurted, you

are like this cup. The master replied, how can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.

And it's just a really good illustration of we, we go around with such a full cup, such a full

mind, such a full everything we need and we're just trying to consume more. I was watching the Tv program

last night on tv, and they went into this house and they emptied the house and they put it into

this huge hanger and they put it all in item order and colour order. Ah, it's an OCD person's dream.

This is, I love seeing it all laid out like this I just want my house laid out like that.

I don't want to put it back in the house. I just want all my socks laid out in colour

and size that's a dream for me. I'm learning to not battle that because not all my carers and not

everybody I have look after me has the same ocd as me, so I'm learning to let that go. It's

taking a long time, but yeah, I, when I grew up, I used to have all my tapes in colour

order. I used to have all my Cds numbered in colored order, which was great till I bought a new

one and I had to take all the little stickers off and put them all in there. And yeah, if

you look at my house now, you would think, I don't have ocd but I think we all do. We

like order, don't we? Because order makes us feel comfortable

makes us feel that we're in control of things if we have some kind of order. And I think this

is where we like to, we choose what to consume, we choose what to put in the cup, but very

often we're at the point now where, Society's filling our cup for us. Society's bombarding us with everything. You must

learn this. You must consume this, you must try this, you must have this. And it's just I'm doing the

same again. I'm filling your cup again with my thoughts and my beliefs. And you know what you need to

do? You need to empty more. You need to do this. Oh, the irony.

The irony is not lost on me, and I hope it's not lost on you. Just, yeah. Turn off his

podcast and just be, but the problem is we won't, we don't do it you know

the the best thing is like meditation practices. Just taking out a little moment here and there. You

know, let's do a little meditation practice right now. I just warn you, if you're driving along in the car

and all that, do it, but don't close your eyes or anything like that and just, just take a breather.

Let's connect with the buddha nature to

feel a sense of being enough.

And as you breathe in, just settle your mind when I say settle your mind. I mean, allow your mind

to settle.

And as you breathe out, let go of anything you need to consume, any

stress or anxiety, and you could repeat the mantra in your head. I am enough. I

have enough I

am at peace with myself and nature. And see how quickly we can go from consuming to I am enough.

I have enough. I

am at peace with myself and nature.

What a wonderful calmness. And we could do that anywhere. We could do at any time. Just keep your eyes

open if you're doing something that needs your attention. I'm not suggesting that, you know, you go into a meditation

state, and that's a really important point actually, because we often see meditation as you know, chilling out, finding a

nice quiet area where you won't be disturbed. That's not real Meditation. Real meditation is when you're amongst people, when,

when you've got negative people around you, when the world is going to pots, how can you stay in that

meditative state at that point? How can you stay just above the true self? And

this is the point just above. If you are the true self, nothing's gonna phase you,

but you want to be just above just where the compassion and the wisdom is. Where the material wisdom of

the self starts to form an ego, but before the ego starts to consume more and want more,

and have that ego egoicness about it. Before that, you want to stay at that point where you're

just a wise self. We've all seen that zen master sat at the end of the bar when there's a

big bar fight going on, and they're probably not Zen masters. They're they're part of the movies, aren't they? They're

told to act like this, but you've got that wise wisdom at the end of the bar and he's out

drinking and everybody else is fighting. And right at the end he just stands up, gives the barman a tip,

and walks out. You want to be that calm person. Didn't get involved. He had enough. He

enjoyed his drink. So

yeah, that's today's podcast. Just, you know, enough's enough. Stop consuming for a moment. Stop doing,

just take a breather. Just have this moment.

And I started this podcast by telling you all the stuff I've been doing because we feel like we've got

to get somewhere. My mind's just reminding me you've got your new seat. It arrived today. It's been three months

in the making. They lost it once. It come from Germany got to get that put on at the weekend

got to do this doesn't the mind just, okay. I know. Thank you for the reminder. I've got

this, so I'm going to leave you with the thought. You know, you are enough. You have enough.

Then fine, we're going to consume more. But just in each given moment, just take a step

back and enjoy what we have in each moment. And the more we do that, the more we go back

to that moment, the more you'll find the happiness that you're searching for, the joy, the genuine nourishment, the

genuine fulfillment that you'll find is already there. It's already right here. You cannot want to be

happy and be happy. The fact that you go, I want to be happy means you're already unhappy. You've already

missed the mark. You cannot have two ways. We already are in a state of happiness.

We're already in a state of enough. We already have everything in this moment. And

just take a deep breath on that thought. You know, this is a pretty deep journey. You know, if you've

come along in this podcast with me a little bit, exploring the idea of reducing consumption to find

our true selves,

that'll help us to overcome stress and anxiety, and

you can always head over to Inner Peace Meditations my other podcast

that'll help you to reduce some of the stress and anxiety,

always plugging. Always more always is. That's why. That's what life is, isn't it?

It's a real difficult thing, but I'm going to leave you with Zen Master banki not sure

if I pronounced that right. Abiding with the unperturbed mind is the same as the peace and bliss of the

Buddhas.

Let's all strive to live with this unperturbed mind consuming less, embracing our own buddha

nature

Thank you for joining me today, and thank you for the virtual hugs. You guys are absolutely awesome. Hope you

can feel some my love for you and love for all of you. I hope you apply some of these

insights and I hope you find some stillness. That's all we need to do. Find those little bits and moments

of stillness. Remember, you are enough,

And in there there's a deep wisdom waiting to be embraced. Until next time you can head over

to. thankyousteven.com to download the five simple practices and join my Inner Peace newsletter that I'm

organizing myself to actually start sending every week rather than about every three weeks. Take care. Love you

guys bye