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June 3, 2022
Guided Meditation for Advanced Practitioners: The Body and Mind are Guests in Awareness
This guided meditation presupposes that we can get to the direct path to Awareness and that we are seasoned meditators. However, to help a seeker, a short introduction is given before the meditation begins.
I hope you enjoyed practicing this guided meditation and if you are interested in listening to more episodes about Non-Duality, about the wisdom of the Mystics and a deep-dive into the Bhagavad Gita , please follow/subscribe to this Podcast.
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New episodes will be available every Sunday.
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Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.149
We go to the background of Awareness.
00:00:03.448 --> 00:00:26.099
So what I want us to do with our own efforts for a moment for a few minutes is to go back to that Awareness by our own self, by our own efforts, the more we can do that as we begin the meditation, the stronger the energy becomes when we do meditate.
00:00:26.969 --> 00:00:38.268
So if we can remind ourselves of the processes, the methods that we learned in the previous weeks of going back to that Pure Awareness in the background.
00:00:38.539 --> 00:00:56.435
So remember this Awareness has been there watching you has been the same 'you' five minutes ago, five hours ago, or five months ago, five years ago, or when you were a five-year-old, that Awareness has been the same and it's not changed at all.
00:00:56.606 --> 00:00:59.832
So go back to that or use the analogy of the screen.
00:01:00.353 --> 00:01:06.668
For example, you have a TV screen, no matter what is colored on the TV screen.
00:01:06.668 --> 00:01:18.674
What images appear on the TV screen, the TV screen, when the TV is turned off and the screen is blank, it does not associate itself with the film.
00:01:18.674 --> 00:01:29.295
It never does associate itself with the film or the movie or the TV program, whether it's a horror movie, whether it's a romantic movie or a comedy, the screen remains as it is.
00:01:30.269 --> 00:01:52.147
If we can go back to that Awareness, that Formless, Boundless, Imageless Energy for few minutes, I know that some people are probably new to this, that's why I've done a bit of a commentary in the beginning, but if we can go back to that Awareness sink into that Awareness and then we'll see where the meditation takes us.
00:01:52.912 --> 00:01:53.272
Okay.
00:01:53.272 --> 00:02:23.396
So for a few minutes with your own effort, go to that Formless Awareness, that Boundless Awareness, that Imageless Awareness, that Shapeless Awareness that's in the background currently, but with your effort, you're going to bring this to the forefront and you'd be experiencing Yourself as that Formless Awareness as It is.
00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:26.823
As it truly is your own existence.
00:02:27.362 --> 00:02:27.812
Okay.
00:02:27.932 --> 00:02:29.449
So if we can start that.
00:02:45.747 --> 00:02:49.616
Remember if your mind creates thoughts that's okay.
00:02:49.723 --> 00:02:52.881
Just be aware of the thought, don't entertain it.
00:02:53.420 --> 00:02:54.711
Don't exercise it.
00:02:55.100 --> 00:02:56.390
Don't empower it.
00:02:57.441 --> 00:02:59.211
Just let it float by.
00:02:59.334 --> 00:03:01.943
Just watch it and it will dissolve by itself.
00:03:01.973 --> 00:03:08.546
So any thought, image, perception of the senses, anything, let it just pass by.
00:03:08.667 --> 00:03:09.687
Don't entertain it.
00:03:09.903 --> 00:03:10.324
Okay.
00:03:28.942 --> 00:03:32.782
Just a reminder, keep your breathing as natural as possible.
00:03:33.472 --> 00:03:36.711
There's no need to do deep breaths or anything like that.
00:03:36.711 --> 00:03:44.371
Just breathe as you normally will because our focus in the beginning is on the Awareness, not on our breath.
00:05:59.084 --> 00:06:17.223
As you dissolve your apparent existence of this body and mind, and you come to the realization more and more that you are this Formless Awareness.
00:06:22.237 --> 00:06:24.346
Now, why do I call it Formless?
00:06:25.836 --> 00:06:31.910
Is because it has no name and it has no roop.
00:06:32.189 --> 00:06:34.720
It has no image.
00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:41.535
No body at all.
00:06:43.834 --> 00:07:02.848
And the body, not just in terms of the physical form, but it's Formless because it is not thought, it is not emotion of any kind, happy or sad, pain or pleasure.
00:07:10.386 --> 00:07:15.077
It's not any of our sense projections.
00:07:16.357 --> 00:07:31.843
So it's not what we see, not what we hear, not what we feel, not what we smell and so on.
00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:54.173
This Awareness itself, if you notice, it's colorless.
00:07:56.221 --> 00:07:58.442
It has no color at all.
00:07:59.565 --> 00:08:16.863
However, when we were in this relative world, when we're functioning in the world, as we should do this Awareness only appears to be colored in experience.
00:08:18.704 --> 00:08:22.154
But actually Awareness remains colorless.
00:08:31.485 --> 00:08:33.674
This is our true identity.
00:08:38.269 --> 00:08:47.667
This is our true internal home The body, the mind and its ego.
00:08:48.897 --> 00:08:51.567
These are all guests in Awareness.
00:08:54.595 --> 00:09:03.418
You allowed them to stay for as long as they want in terms of your identification to them.
00:09:08.113 --> 00:09:37.437
Otherwise, as we know, the body is subject to the laws of nature, but Awareness doesn't belong to nature, doesn't belong to the sense projections doesn't belong to the ego and its identification with all naam and roop, or name and form.
00:09:51.547 --> 00:09:53.653
Awareness remains as it is.
00:09:56.226 --> 00:10:17.423
As a silent presence in the midst of all experience, it's even that silent presence that appears to be meditating.
00:10:24.105 --> 00:10:38.111
But because you have been able to differentiate, you'll be able to see that it is the mind that is meditating, but Awareness is simply Being.
00:11:03.205 --> 00:11:07.544
Even if you can hear the sounds from outside.
00:11:07.967 --> 00:11:17.148
The room that you're in, or if you're in the garden, Awareness remains the same.
00:11:23.142 --> 00:11:35.365
If you have your eyes open and your eyes are seeing everything, the 10,000 things, as they say in the Dao Te Ching.
00:11:38.636 --> 00:11:41.980
Still Awareness remains the same.
00:12:26.182 --> 00:12:50.234
The monks that belong to the christian tradition, those that deeply inquired into this Awareness, they referred to this silence, this presence of silence as the presence of God.
00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:32.952
And in Vedanta they've used the mahavakya from the Chandogya Upanishad for us to realize its closeness, which is Tat Tvam Asi - You Are That.
00:14:43.472 --> 00:14:52.683
In the Kashmir Shaivism tradition, they refer to Awareness as Being Everything.
00:14:58.984 --> 00:15:36.176
That everything is Shiva So here we get rid of the apparent duality, that Awareness is separate to its contents, or to what he appears to show it's inherent nature is the same.
00:15:47.546 --> 00:15:51.720
This Awareness doesn't belong to just human beings.
00:15:54.466 --> 00:16:05.837
But it's present in everything Whether it is an animate object or inaminate.
00:16:18.937 --> 00:16:30.429
Sometimes we struggle on a daily basis to remain in Awareness because we see Awareness and the ego as two separate things.
00:16:34.163 --> 00:16:51.952
But if we are able to keep ourselves grounded in the Awareness that may be in the background of our mind, whenever our ego identifies with anything, we're able to bring it back to Awareness.
00:16:53.618 --> 00:16:59.038
So, therefore we identify less with the ego and more with Awareness.
00:17:00.538 --> 00:17:15.958
And as we continue to practice this throughout the week, in the times, in your happy, and in the times when there may be great stress, you can go back to that Awareness.
00:17:18.188 --> 00:17:35.367
You can go back to being aware of being aware at any time, you don't have to get caught up in the entanglement of experience.
00:17:44.272 --> 00:17:50.916
Or identifying that you are the experience for example, I am happy.
00:17:51.547 --> 00:17:52.477
I am sad.
00:17:56.186 --> 00:17:58.359
I am content.
00:18:01.059 --> 00:18:02.349
I am not content..
00:18:06.326 --> 00:18:07.256
I am hungry.
00:18:07.311 --> 00:18:08.338
I am thirsty.
00:18:08.624 --> 00:18:18.499
Allow yourself to be thirsty and drink a glass of water, but go back to the 'I am'.
00:18:21.005 --> 00:18:24.005
The 'I am' that is aware that you are thirsty.
00:18:25.474 --> 00:18:27.505
That is the Formless Awareness.
00:18:40.835 --> 00:18:47.882
This 'I am' can never be escaped.
00:18:50.028 --> 00:18:59.188
It's just that, because we identify with the ego, and it's whatever it identifies with, we bypass that Awareness.
00:19:01.528 --> 00:19:09.015
But It's with us 24-7, 365 days in a year.
00:19:10.535 --> 00:19:16.192
And it will be there at the time that we leave this earth.
00:19:18.777 --> 00:19:19.676
It will remain.
00:19:22.945 --> 00:19:33.549
And as we shed the body, we hope that we can remain in that pure Awareness.
00:19:39.207 --> 00:19:42.099
It's not that you merge into that Awareness.
00:19:42.765 --> 00:19:45.599
You cannot merge into something you already are.
00:20:51.578 --> 00:21:19.294
This Awareness, that is Formless Shapeless, Boundless, Infinite It's inherently peaceful, inherently blissful, inherently happy, inherently content.
00:21:24.182 --> 00:21:25.872
Inherently at ease.
00:21:28.298 --> 00:21:30.548
Inherently still.
00:21:42.863 --> 00:21:44.573
Inherently changeless.
00:22:11.906 --> 00:22:14.017
Inherently joyful.
00:22:19.701 --> 00:22:21.836
You do not need to become these things.
00:22:22.645 --> 00:22:31.440
These are the natural byproducts of being in Awareness, of resting in Awareness.
00:23:44.902 --> 00:24:32.034
It's inherently silent and whenever we want to experience this, because we have lost touch with who we really are because we have drawn ourselves into experience and identified with experience, then all we need to do is remind ourselves to be aware of being aware.
00:24:39.448 --> 00:24:45.436
Or to just be as you are to be as the 'I am'.
00:25:44.623 --> 00:25:49.782
The ego may try to name Awareness and try to objectify it in some way.
00:25:51.426 --> 00:25:55.136
Remind yourself of the powerful words of Lao Tzu.
00:25:59.178 --> 00:26:02.516
The Dao that can be named is not the Dao.
00:26:03.553 --> 00:26:07.326
So the Awareness that can be named is not Awareness.
00:27:21.332 --> 00:27:35.480
This Formless Awareness is what is referred to as the natural state.
00:27:41.445 --> 00:27:47.781
Or in Zen they say, it's the original face.
00:27:52.372 --> 00:28:02.201
When all masks are taken off of naam and roop, of name and form, we're left with this everlasting ever present.
00:28:04.416 --> 00:28:05.166
Awareness.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.149
We go to the background of Awareness.
00:00:03.448 --> 00:00:26.099
So what I want us to do with our own efforts for a moment for a few minutes is to go back to that Awareness by our own self, by our own efforts, the more we can do that as we begin the meditation, the stronger the energy becomes when we do meditate.
00:00:26.969 --> 00:00:38.268
So if we can remind ourselves of the processes, the methods that we learned in the previous weeks of going back to that Pure Awareness in the background.
00:00:38.539 --> 00:00:56.435
So remember this Awareness has been there watching you has been the same 'you' five minutes ago, five hours ago, or five months ago, five years ago, or when you were a five-year-old, that Awareness has been the same and it's not changed at all.
00:00:56.606 --> 00:00:59.832
So go back to that or use the analogy of the screen.
00:01:00.353 --> 00:01:06.668
For example, you have a TV screen, no matter what is colored on the TV screen.
00:01:06.668 --> 00:01:18.674
What images appear on the TV screen, the TV screen, when the TV is turned off and the screen is blank, it does not associate itself with the film.
00:01:18.674 --> 00:01:29.295
It never does associate itself with the film or the movie or the TV program, whether it's a horror movie, whether it's a romantic movie or a comedy, the screen remains as it is.
00:01:30.269 --> 00:01:52.147
If we can go back to that Awareness, that Formless, Boundless, Imageless Energy for few minutes, I know that some people are probably new to this, that's why I've done a bit of a commentary in the beginning, but if we can go back to that Awareness sink into that Awareness and then we'll see where the meditation takes us.
00:01:52.912 --> 00:01:53.272
Okay.
00:01:53.272 --> 00:02:23.396
So for a few minutes with your own effort, go to that Formless Awareness, that Boundless Awareness, that Imageless Awareness, that Shapeless Awareness that's in the background currently, but with your effort, you're going to bring this to the forefront and you'd be experiencing Yourself as that Formless Awareness as It is.
00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:26.823
As it truly is your own existence.
00:02:27.362 --> 00:02:27.812
Okay.
00:02:27.932 --> 00:02:29.449
So if we can start that.
00:02:45.747 --> 00:02:49.616
Remember if your mind creates thoughts that's okay.
00:02:49.723 --> 00:02:52.881
Just be aware of the thought, don't entertain it.
00:02:53.420 --> 00:02:54.711
Don't exercise it.
00:02:55.100 --> 00:02:56.390
Don't empower it.
00:02:57.441 --> 00:02:59.211
Just let it float by.
00:02:59.334 --> 00:03:01.943
Just watch it and it will dissolve by itself.
00:03:01.973 --> 00:03:08.546
So any thought, image, perception of the senses, anything, let it just pass by.
00:03:08.667 --> 00:03:09.687
Don't entertain it.
00:03:09.903 --> 00:03:10.324
Okay.
00:03:28.942 --> 00:03:32.782
Just a reminder, keep your breathing as natural as possible.
00:03:33.472 --> 00:03:36.711
There's no need to do deep breaths or anything like that.
00:03:36.711 --> 00:03:44.371
Just breathe as you normally will because our focus in the beginning is on the Awareness, not on our breath.
00:05:59.084 --> 00:06:17.223
As you dissolve your apparent existence of this body and mind, and you come to the realization more and more that you are this Formless Awareness.
00:06:22.237 --> 00:06:24.346
Now, why do I call it Formless?
00:06:25.836 --> 00:06:31.910
Is because it has no name and it has no roop.
00:06:32.189 --> 00:06:34.720
It has no image.
00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:41.535
No body at all.
00:06:43.834 --> 00:07:02.848
And the body, not just in terms of the physical form, but it's Formless because it is not thought, it is not emotion of any kind, happy or sad, pain or pleasure.
00:07:10.386 --> 00:07:15.077
It's not any of our sense projections.
00:07:16.357 --> 00:07:31.843
So it's not what we see, not what we hear, not what we feel, not what we smell and so on.
00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:54.173
This Awareness itself, if you notice, it's colorless.
00:07:56.221 --> 00:07:58.442
It has no color at all.
00:07:59.565 --> 00:08:16.863
However, when we were in this relative world, when we're functioning in the world, as we should do this Awareness only appears to be colored in experience.
00:08:18.704 --> 00:08:22.154
But actually Awareness remains colorless.
00:08:31.485 --> 00:08:33.674
This is our true identity.
00:08:38.269 --> 00:08:47.667
This is our true internal home The body, the mind and its ego.
00:08:48.897 --> 00:08:51.567
These are all guests in Awareness.
00:08:54.595 --> 00:09:03.418
You allowed them to stay for as long as they want in terms of your identification to them.
00:09:08.113 --> 00:09:37.437
Otherwise, as we know, the body is subject to the laws of nature, but Awareness doesn't belong to nature, doesn't belong to the sense projections doesn't belong to the ego and its identification with all naam and roop, or name and form.
00:09:51.547 --> 00:09:53.653
Awareness remains as it is.
00:09:56.226 --> 00:10:17.423
As a silent presence in the midst of all experience, it's even that silent presence that appears to be meditating.
00:10:24.105 --> 00:10:38.111
But because you have been able to differentiate, you'll be able to see that it is the mind that is meditating, but Awareness is simply Being.
00:11:03.205 --> 00:11:07.544
Even if you can hear the sounds from outside.
00:11:07.967 --> 00:11:17.148
The room that you're in, or if you're in the garden, Awareness remains the same.
00:11:23.142 --> 00:11:35.365
If you have your eyes open and your eyes are seeing everything, the 10,000 things, as they say in the Dao Te Ching.
00:11:38.636 --> 00:11:41.980
Still Awareness remains the same.
00:12:26.182 --> 00:12:50.234
The monks that belong to the christian tradition, those that deeply inquired into this Awareness, they referred to this silence, this presence of silence as the presence of God.
00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:32.952
And in Vedanta they've used the mahavakya from the Chandogya Upanishad for us to realize its closeness, which is Tat Tvam Asi - You Are That.
00:14:43.472 --> 00:14:52.683
In the Kashmir Shaivism tradition, they refer to Awareness as Being Everything.
00:14:58.984 --> 00:15:36.176
That everything is Shiva So here we get rid of the apparent duality, that Awareness is separate to its contents, or to what he appears to show it's inherent nature is the same.
00:15:47.546 --> 00:15:51.720
This Awareness doesn't belong to just human beings.
00:15:54.466 --> 00:16:05.837
But it's present in everything Whether it is an animate object or inaminate.
00:16:18.937 --> 00:16:30.429
Sometimes we struggle on a daily basis to remain in Awareness because we see Awareness and the ego as two separate things.
00:16:34.163 --> 00:16:51.952
But if we are able to keep ourselves grounded in the Awareness that may be in the background of our mind, whenever our ego identifies with anything, we're able to bring it back to Awareness.
00:16:53.618 --> 00:16:59.038
So, therefore we identify less with the ego and more with Awareness.
00:17:00.538 --> 00:17:15.958
And as we continue to practice this throughout the week, in the times, in your happy, and in the times when there may be great stress, you can go back to that Awareness.
00:17:18.188 --> 00:17:35.367
You can go back to being aware of being aware at any time, you don't have to get caught up in the entanglement of experience.
00:17:44.272 --> 00:17:50.916
Or identifying that you are the experience for example, I am happy.
00:17:51.547 --> 00:17:52.477
I am sad.
00:17:56.186 --> 00:17:58.359
I am content.
00:18:01.059 --> 00:18:02.349
I am not content..
00:18:06.326 --> 00:18:07.256
I am hungry.
00:18:07.311 --> 00:18:08.338
I am thirsty.
00:18:08.624 --> 00:18:18.499
Allow yourself to be thirsty and drink a glass of water, but go back to the 'I am'.
00:18:21.005 --> 00:18:24.005
The 'I am' that is aware that you are thirsty.
00:18:25.474 --> 00:18:27.505
That is the Formless Awareness.
00:18:40.835 --> 00:18:47.882
This 'I am' can never be escaped.
00:18:50.028 --> 00:18:59.188
It's just that, because we identify with the ego, and it's whatever it identifies with, we bypass that Awareness.
00:19:01.528 --> 00:19:09.015
But It's with us 24-7, 365 days in a year.
00:19:10.535 --> 00:19:16.192
And it will be there at the time that we leave this earth.
00:19:18.777 --> 00:19:19.676
It will remain.
00:19:22.945 --> 00:19:33.549
And as we shed the body, we hope that we can remain in that pure Awareness.
00:19:39.207 --> 00:19:42.099
It's not that you merge into that Awareness.
00:19:42.765 --> 00:19:45.599
You cannot merge into something you already are.
00:20:51.578 --> 00:21:19.294
This Awareness, that is Formless Shapeless, Boundless, Infinite It's inherently peaceful, inherently blissful, inherently happy, inherently content.
00:21:24.182 --> 00:21:25.872
Inherently at ease.
00:21:28.298 --> 00:21:30.548
Inherently still.
00:21:42.863 --> 00:21:44.573
Inherently changeless.
00:22:11.906 --> 00:22:14.017
Inherently joyful.
00:22:19.701 --> 00:22:21.836
You do not need to become these things.
00:22:22.645 --> 00:22:31.440
These are the natural byproducts of being in Awareness, of resting in Awareness.
00:23:44.902 --> 00:24:32.034
It's inherently silent and whenever we want to experience this, because we have lost touch with who we really are because we have drawn ourselves into experience and identified with experience, then all we need to do is remind ourselves to be aware of being aware.
00:24:39.448 --> 00:24:45.436
Or to just be as you are to be as the 'I am'.
00:25:44.623 --> 00:25:49.782
The ego may try to name Awareness and try to objectify it in some way.
00:25:51.426 --> 00:25:55.136
Remind yourself of the powerful words of Lao Tzu.
00:25:59.178 --> 00:26:02.516
The Dao that can be named is not the Dao.
00:26:03.553 --> 00:26:07.326
So the Awareness that can be named is not Awareness.
00:27:21.332 --> 00:27:35.480
This Formless Awareness is what is referred to as the natural state.
00:27:41.445 --> 00:27:47.781
Or in Zen they say, it's the original face.
00:27:52.372 --> 00:28:02.201
When all masks are taken off of naam and roop, of name and form, we're left with this everlasting ever present.
00:28:04.416 --> 00:28:05.166
Awareness.
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