RockneCAST

Your Next 24 Hours (#262, 29 Oct. 2024)

Overview

In this episode of the Rocknecast, Rockne Cole explores the concept of utilizing the next 24 hours as a gift through the lens of mindfulness and the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and his book The Heart of Buddha's Teaching. He discusses the importance of Right Diligence, living in the present, and the significance of identity in shaping habits through the work of James Clear and his book Atomic Habits.

The conversation emphasizes the need to cultivate happiness and purpose in life, encouraging listeners to reflect on their actions and choices to align with their desired identity.

Chapters

00:00 - The Gift of 24 Hours

06:12 - Mindfulness and Right Diligence

12:03 - Identity and Habits

18:01 - Living with Purpose

Duration:: 21m
Broadcast on:: 29 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hey guys, I've got a question for you. What are you going to do with the gift of the next 24 hours? What are you going to do to make sure that you can live out your purpose and not waste this gift of the next 24 hours that you have in this wonderful thing called life? Guys, for this episode of the Rock Me cast, we're going to discuss the next 24 hours. We're going to do it through the lens of Tikna Han's book, The Heart of Buddhist Teaching, and his concept of right diligence. So, we're going to cover right diligence. We're going to cover what it means to be in flow, and we're going to integrate the work of James Clear in time your actions with your identity, so you can be the type of person that you actually want to come. Guys, I was not even going to do a podcast this morning, but this chapter was so good. I just have to share with you, Tikna Han is such a good writer that each sentence of this book, Heart of Buddhist Teaching, is it's like as good as the Bible, even though it's not intended that way. It's really more of a practice manual to live an abundant purpose-driven and happy life through the practice of mindfulness. And I hope I can convey that in such a way in which you receive the jewels of what I'm trying to give to you. So I'm reading Tikna Han this morning, and he talks about this gift of life, and it's his chapter on right diligence. In class, as you remember, right diligence are all the various right actions that you can take to live out the noble eightfold path. As you recall, the essence of mindfulness is, one, we all suffer. We all have things that we struggle with. The Buddha requires us to look into the depths of one of the roots of our suffering. If we're having trouble breathing, do we have a daily smoking habit? Are we smoking and to ask yourselves and interrogate yourselves with a variety of questions as to why you're doing the things that you're doing? And then once you understand the why you get into the stop doing it, become a different person. But doesn't just stop there. And this is kind of what you're always thinking about is suffering. But it's not only that, because once you address the suffering, that's the first part. Then it's to use this beautiful thing that we have life and to make sure that we use it and to live in the present and think about, yes, the value of the next 24 hours that you have. If you're listening to this, most likely, you have 24 hours in front of you and hopefully a lot more than that. But if you're on your deathbed, you've got a little time. You're at least listening to the Rachne cast. But you do. You have this gift of 24 hours. So why am I so obsessed with time? Because if you think about it, time is our greatest asset. It is the ultimate gift. It is the gift of life that we all experience. And here Tic describes what time is. He said, time truly does fly like an arrow. If we do not live deeply, we waste our life and to live deeply requires awareness of the present moment. Remember the symbol for mindfulness. The top part of the symbol is now. And the bottom part of the symbol means mind or heart. Doesn't it just kind of blow you away? Now mind heart. Now live with your mind and your heart. Dude, that's so cool. My last episode on the mind heart, it kind of bombed. But I think it's really cool. So I'm going to be talking about this and share this gift of knowledge and I encourage you to buy this book, Tic Na Han. So why did I want to share this with you? Well, I've got this passage of what he calls a, a gaita, just kind of like a morning prayer. So you can say this kind of like morning prayer when you wake up and check this out. Waking up this morning, I smile, 24 brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look to all beings with eyes of compassion. And he said to kind of cite this, it's kind of a mindset piece where we set our energy and our intention and our mind for the day. Then he says reciting this path can give us the energy to live the day well, to soak it up. And here's why I just had to do this podcast today because he says the 24 hours that you have, that you have, are a treasure chest of jewels that you have. That's what Chick writes. If we waste these hours, we waste our life because really all life is, is a series of 24 hours. And if you think about all the different people that go through life and don't savor up these hours, but these hours, in order to fully utilize them, they need to be in flow. And here's where Tick talks about the practice of mindful living should be joyful and pleasant. And you should feel at ease, you should be in a state where you can do things effortlessly. And here he quotes the Buddha, in which they talk about the power of maintaining your health, and he calls it the way the Buddha said, and this is a direct quote from the Buddha. And it says this, "The practice of the way is the same. Maintain your health, be joyful, do not force yourself to do things that you cannot do." That's the end of that quote. And then basically what Tick says is, is that the right diligence lies in the middle way between the extremes of austerity and sensual indulgence. I absolutely love this. Now, what this does not mean, in my view, this does not necessarily mean that we should just kind of retreat and do a totally easy life and just sit on our ass and do nothing. No, the purpose, the life essence, the thing that animates you has to be in service to other people. So my day job is a layer, and that means I'm working hard. I am serving people. I'm advising them through treacherous waters. That can be very difficult, that can be very time-consuming, that can be very taxing. And I know I'm going to do it for the rest of my life because it gives my life purpose. And I've found an area of law that I can do so joyfully, effortlessly, and love in it. Every moment, I would do it practically for free, including tasks that I previously thought were kind of pain in the ass, but with the right mindset, you can actually savor it and that comes through maintaining your health. You have to be able to maintain your health. And two, in terms of your identity as someone who serves other people, you have to do things effortlessly. That doesn't mean it always has to be easy, but at its core, if you're not doing something joyfully and at ease, that's a sign that you're not doing the right thing. You're not in the right area. I know there are various parts in my practice where I was not able to serve joyfully and with ease. And that's because I wasn't good at pruning and focusing on the types of cases that I was most designed for. You can't ask. So it was a recent play of Chicago Bears where they played the Washington commanders and the coach put in an offensive lineman to do a running backs task. And it was awkward, and it was not well done, and it was a disaster. Well, what was he doing? He was asking a fox to act like a hedgehog or a wildebeest to act like a deer or a grizzly bear to act like a mouse to not do what they were actually put on this earth to do. The purpose of the grizzly bear is to kick some fucking ass. The purpose of the lion is to dominate the prairie. The purpose of the deer is to be food for the other predators and prance around and look cute. So they're doing the essence of what they're put on this earth to do. And animals know this. Animals know that their desire is to live and to experience life. And so they do the things that they're good at. And that's the key. And when you find the thing that you're good at, at its start, it's effortless. And when you have the desire to do it, it's like a video game that you love. You push yourself higher and higher and higher. So it's those challenges and mastery that gives yourself identity. And ticks talks a lot about the practice. You know, I think that the founders of our country made a mistake. They say life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Pursuit is the wrong word. It should be life, liberty, and the practice of happiness. Happiness is a skill that needs to be cultivated of the mind just in the same way that exercise is a skill, that's something you have to repeatedly do. Just as the way that doing this podcast is a skill and thing that I need to repeatedly do. Why is the essence of mindfulness? It's a practice. It is not something where you read the book and you'll be like, Oh my God, this just life is easy. And I just can sit on my ass and do nothing. No, it's a practice. It's a process. And you get this through the practice of mindfulness, being awareness of what you can do with this next 24 hours, which tick describes as a jewel, a jewel that has been given to you, the jewel of the next 24 hours. And here's what he says, the practice of mindful living should be joyful and pleasant. And he, and he uses the breath to feel and to identify and to confirm this. If you breathe in and feel joy and peace, that is right diligence. If you're stressed, if you're anxious, if you're miserable, these are signals to readjust and to look at the roots of the stress, the anxiety and the unpleasant feelings that you're feeling. You know, I've really gotten to myself where I hardly drink any alcohol at all. I'm not totally smearing it off, because you know, when you're out of the fight, you want an IPA, I'm not totally writing it off. But I've just really come when I think about mindfulness, in terms of its true cost, the cost is so gigantic. I got up at 4.30 this morning, I can guarantee you that had I had a bottle of wine last night, like I used to do every night, I would not be here with you talking. I would be kind of in a stress sleep, not really sleeping that well, not really resting that well, because of mindfulness, I know that if I do that, it costs so much. It is an emotional credit card. It works in the moment, but its cost is exponentially higher than the thing that you get in that moment. And you get that through stopping and paying attention to your thoughts. Meditation is not stopping thinking, I wish people wouldn't think that. Meditation is stopping and paying attention to the thoughts that you are having, because if you don't have thoughts, you are not living. So the only way you cannot have thoughts is to actually die. Now once you get into some of the deep states, you can let all of these kind of feelings, emotions, sensations that you feel like you get greater control over them, that is true. But then here he actually kind of has a takeaway, and this is how good this book is. He said, "See what brings you joy and happiness of a sustained kind. So pick a career, a purpose, a pursuit that allows you to serve with joy, that allows you to be an unending spring of service, because ultimately where mindfulness can become self-centered is where it's only in service of yourself." That is not mindfulness. Mindfulness is paying attention so that you can be healthy, that you can use this next 24 hours to be in service to other people. And here I'm going to close with this jewel of the 24 hours in terms of my favorite habit Buddha, James Clear, and he's so good. He's another writer that when you read him, there's a reason why he sold gazillions and gazillions of books. I don't know if he sold a gazillion, maybe like a trillium, I guess it sold a trillium or even a billion, but he has sold like a million copies. So he's a legit author and he's so good. So with this next 24 hours, I've got to kind of send off for you, and this is directly from James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits. Here's what he says is, "You have the power to change beliefs about yourself. Your identity is not set in stone." And here's what I love about this. You have a choice in every moment you can choose the identity you want to reinforce today with the habits you choose today, and that is the next 24 hours. And then he talks about the deep purpose of the book. I love this. Building better habits isn't about littering your day with life hacks. It's not about flossing one tooth each night or taking a cold shower each morning or wearing the same outfit even every day. It's not about achieving external measures of success, like earning more money, losing weight or reducing stress. Here he says, "Habits can help you achieve all of these things, but fundamentally, they are not about having something. They are about becoming someone. Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person that you wish to be. They're the channel through which you develop the deepest beliefs about yourself. Quite literally, you become your habits. Isn't that good? Isn't that like, "Is your mind blown? Is your mind blown by the power of James Clear?" He is kind of like this habits Buddha. He kind of like integrates stoicism with Buddhism with all these really good studies related to that. I think I'm going to be giving a presentation a couple of weeks on wellness at a legal conference. I hope people can take away. My goal is that I can translate something for them that they'll be able to use, take away, and improve their mind being, their purpose, their mindfulness, their health, their wellness through this concept of identity. Because a lot of people want to ask, and they want to lose weight. Well, the question is, is one of the actions that someone would fit? You want to be a fit person? Well, what does a fit person do? Well, a fit person probably doesn't get blitzed every night. Fits person pride doesn't have a lot of potato chips. What kind of, kind of acts as a fit person probably walks quite a bit. I probably work out at least once a day. What are the actions that would be the type of person that would be a fit person? One of the reasons why I've tried to do a regular routine podcast is because I always have this kind of thing rattling around in my head, which is what does a podcaster do? Well, a podcaster produces podcasts, and so each one of these podcasts is a vote for the person that I want to become a podcaster, podcaster, and lawyer. Those are the two identities that I have professionally that I want to advance. So I hope you take this next 24 hours and consider each hour as a jewel. What are the actions that you're going to take today who that will reinforce the identity of who you want to become? Does it mean be the type of person that goes on a daily walk to be a fit person, to be a person that kind of recognizes the things that other people do from you, whether it's a spouse, a daughter, a mother, a grandfather, whether it's a type of a person that can express gratitude, which anyone can do, or the type of person who can wake up like tech and say, I smile. I have 24 hours today now with my mind heart to identify who I want to become. Guys, that's it for this episode of the recipe cast. I do got to get to work because I also want to become a successful lawyer and a successful lawyers are diligent people that practice and prepare and work diligently on behalf of their clients. So I hope you found this particular episode good. If you did share it with your friends, do buy the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Let them know that the recipe cast is spreading the word. Also do buy Heart of Buddhist Teaching by Ticna Han, and you can not only listen from the rocking cast, the work of Tic, you can experience it for yourself. Now this podcast is not going to devolve only into a Ticna Han podcast. We will continue to do all sorts of history, wellness, spirituality, all those things that you can enhance your mind, body and spirit and be the best version of you. I hope you're able to do that for the next 24 hours, but until next time, you and I see each other on the rocking cast.