True Nature In Meditation - Episode 7

Hello,

My name is Michelle.

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Nature of Meditation podcast.

This episode is exploring my experience and understanding of true nature.

In silent meditation practice,

But also in life in general,

True nature is every moment and always present,

So it's always accessible to you.

So let's start with our usual three-minute silent meditation practice to begin to arrive a little more fully into our present moment experience.

I will be silent now for three minutes and try my best to become more present and aware.

And you're invited to take your seat in a place where you won't be disturbed and begin coming into your sense perception.

And again,

Coming into your stillness,

Coming into your silence.

Back in the present moment,

A little bit more present than hopefully prior to meditation.

Perhaps more aware of your breathing and your state of being at this moment today.

So how do I teach the experience of true nature?

So recently on a retreat at a Zen monastery,

I spoke to a friend who's a Dharma teacher about this,

And he suggested I use my own present lived experience to keep it real.

And I thought that was a reasonable suggestion.

There's nothing special about true nature.

We don't need the hype of any religion or system of thought or belief to experience true nature.

So I'll start with a personal note about the creation of this episode.

And it was written in different places and in different states of being.

Partly written,

The notes for this episode were partly written whilst I was sitting on an airplane up in the sky above the clouds in magical moments of clarity and brightness.

With the sun shining directly at me.

So the sun itself is the symbol of one's true,

True nature.

In depth psychology and transpersonal and analytical psychology,

All the psychological traditions that include the soul and spirituality.

We can include humanistic psychology in all of these psychological,

Western psychological traditions.

The symbol of the sun is used as the symbol of the true self,

Self with a capital S to differentiate it from the ego,

The small self.

So partly written in enlightened moments in the sunshine.

And also partly written on my sick bed,

Suffering from back pain and unable to stand or walk.

And I suppose due to relentless travelling in my recent weeks,

Some of my most creative writings for this episode were lost as I struggled to find the energy and time to produce this episode.

But on a more positive note,

Because I have studied the ego,

The self and true nature many times in my long career in the mental health field.

I never had any worries,

Concerns or anxieties about producing this episode.

And I was always content to trust that it would create itself naturally in each unique moment,

Regardless of external or internal conditions.

So my knowledge was not lacking,

But my energy and my time were very sparse.

And so if you use your sense perception carefully now,

You may be able to sense what state of being I'm in right now as I'm recording.

And you may be able to get a sense of the type of energy that I'm using and transmitting whilst recording.

And you may notice it's a different tone and pace of voice and a different energy to previous episodes.

And it simply reflects this moment in time,

My experience,

My lived experience in this moment of time.

So I hope that's enough about me.

And I hope it lends some honesty and sincerity to this episode.

So let's turn now to the theory of true nature.

And true nature is referred to in Buddhism as Buddha nature,

Buddha meaning awakened.

So the central tenet of awakening to true nature that I have already mentioned right at the very beginning in my welcome to this episode.

The central tenet is that we are already and always in our true nature.

But because of our conditioning and selfing,

Constantly occupied with creating an ego identity for ourself,

Because of this constant selfing process that goes on in our heart and mind,

Our true nature is thwarted,

Obscured and concealed.

And we're often not in touch with it or we're not simply being in our true nature.

Although,

As I've said,

The central tenet is that it's always present,

But thwarted by our conditioning and obscured by our ignorance and other mental defilements.

So the quality of our true nature is that it is always present,

Unchanging,

Absolute,

Radiant and spacious.

Like the sun,

Our true nature is always here,

Forever shining,

Despite being obscured by the changing weather of our delusional mind.

So the sun and the clouds is the key analogy often used to illustrate true nature,

Likened to the sun obscured by the clouds.

The clouds represent our thoughts,

Emotions,

Perceptions,

Desires,

Fueled by external causes and conditions.

And they are transient and impermanent,

Like the passing weather.

The sun itself represents our true nature,

Our inherent wisdom,

Clarity and potential for enlightenment.

And it's always present,

Even when obscured by the clouds.

The sky represents the vastness of our awareness,

Which is untouched by the weather and by the clouds.

So the practice of meditation is compassionately letting go of our identifications and afflictions,

To help us clear the clouds and allow our inherent true nature to shine through.

So this analogy of the sun and the clouds highlights that we all possess the potential for enlightenment.

We are all always true nature.

And through meditation we can remove the obstacles that obscure this potential and we can realize our true nature.

So I thought I would add a little about true nature from a Western psychological perspective.

So for example,

In analytical psychology,

The first half of life is seen as focused on forming a healthy ego,

Establishing a sense of personal identity.

Through learning social rules,

Cultural norms,

Navigating social expectations and adapting to the external social and cultural conditions.

So it's completely natural for the ego to need to understand itself within its culture and society.

And it's busy doing this in the first half of life,

Creating an identity for itself.

In the second half of life,

It's natural that a letting go of the ego's grip on identity naturally occurs and leads to a deeper,

More profound understanding of one's true nature.

So there is a turning inward and seeking of deeper meaning and purpose that goes with confronting unacknowledged aspects of oneself.

And in integrating these unconscious,

Unwanted parts of oneself into one's conscious awareness,

A process of becoming whole and moving beyond the limitations of the individual ego.

So our beliefs,

Ideas,

Fantasies,

Wishes and hopes of oneself create a sense of self referred to in Western psychology as the ego or I.

And we tend to fixate on this sense of oneself.

But this hinders the expression of our true nature.

We tend to get attached to notions of me,

I and mine.

And we mistake our thoughts,

Beliefs,

Feelings,

Hopes and fears about ourself as who we really are.

But we are not our thoughts,

Feelings,

Hopes,

Fears and desires.

We are much more than those.

So my question for this episode is,

Who are you?

And I don't mean your gender,

Age,

Ability,

Ethnicity,

Nationality,

Or your religion or politics.

I don't mean your family situation,

Your relationships or relatives.

And I don't mean your profession or what you do for a living.

I don't mean your occupation.

I don't mean your hopes and dreams or your fears and insecurities or the things that you have or would like to have.

And I'm not asking who you think you are or what you want to be or imagine yourself to be or become or what you believe yourself to be.

So when I ask who are you,

I'm asking what you experience in the moments when you are not caught in your thoughts,

Feelings,

Desires,

Fears,

Anxieties.

Hopes and dreams.

In the moments when you're not caught in the story of yourself,

Of your life and your death.

I'm asking what you experience in moments of freedom.

If we experience true nature and we all experience it at times,

Even if it's just glimpses.

When we experience our true nature,

We experience interbeing because it's impossible for any being to exist separately from others.

For example,

A flower is made of non-flower elements including the clouds,

Rain,

Sunshine,

The seed,

The earth,

The water,

The moonlight,

The starlight,

The wind.

The snow,

The dew,

The frost.

So the flower has to interbe with everything else in nature.

So nothing has a separate self and that is why true nature is interbeing.

Likewise,

Form is made of non-form elements.

There has to be an idea and a thought before there is a form that is constructed and created.

And thoughts and ideas are non-form elements.

The body is made of non-body elements.

For example,

The air that we breathe is a non-form element that sustains our physical body.

Our body is mainly water,

Which is a non-body element.

Our perception is made of non-perception elements.

Ideas are not a perception element.

And in this way we don't get caught in the delusion of a separate self because the self is made of non-self elements.

By self,

I mean True Self with a capital S,

Meaning true nature.

So true nature is inherent within every human being,

Within every being,

Every sentient being.

And it's not a separate entity,

But it is the very nature of reality itself.

Like reality,

True nature is inherently awakened.

And meditation is a practice of uncovering the inherent true nature.

Not striving to achieve anything.

Simply awakening to what's already there.

Already there,

Although obscured by delusions of a separate self.

Obscured by the constant,

Incessant selfing activity that disrupts our peace of mind.

So meditation aims to uncover and realise one's true nature.

And it requires transcending one's self-identifications,

Self-attachments and habit energies.

Formed through our constant thinking,

Feeling,

Perceiving,

Desiring.

So to practice meditation is to become aware of the selfing process.

The ego narrative going on in one's mind and heart.

The story of one's past,

Present and future.

Ticking away in one's mind and letting go of it to reveal one's true nature.

So compassionately,

Non-judgmentally,

Allowing one's thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations to freely come and go.

Without needing to worry about our selfing process.

Without needing to make it wrong or feel guilty about it.

So let's slowly draw to the close of this episode with silent meditation practice.

Simply experiencing how you are now in this present moment.

As best you can for a few moments,

Being aware of your moment-to-moment experience in your field of awareness,

In your sky.

Noticing any clouds of thoughts,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Sensations.

And paradoxically,

Being aware of your clouds creates the space between the clouds.

Creates the space for true nature to shine through your clouds.

And it's not only awareness that is crucial in meditation practice.

Compassion is also crucial.

Compassion for oneself.

Compassion to allow oneself to relax.

To allow oneself to be non-judgmental.

To allow oneself to be in peace.

For a few moments,

Regardless of whatever clouds,

Positive or negative,

May be present.

So the true nature is always there.

Above,

Behind,

Beneath,

Beyond,

Around the clouds.

And the clouds themselves are made of true nature.

So there is no place in the cosmos and the universe where there is not true nature.

So let's see if we can abide in silence and stillness and illumination for a few moments.

Illuminated by our true nature.

So I'll be silent now for,

Let's say,

Five minutes.

Say seven minutes.

And I'm going to simply observe the clouds of my experience without any resistance,

Avoidance.

Allowing myself to abide in whatever's present.

Relaxed but awake.

Not becoming so relaxed that I am no longer aware of my present moment experience.

Relaxed only to allow moment-to-moment awareness.

Not relaxed for relaxation's sake,

But relaxed for the sake of awareness and presence.

Okay,

So that was a five-minute silent meditation practice.

And I'm feeling more awakened now.

Less attached to the production of this episode.

Beginning to let go of this episode.

Feeling more awake and more free.

More aware of my moment-to-moment experience.

And an awareness that itself reduces the intensity of our mental formations.

So that we can experience the clarity and luminosity of our true nature.

So closing this episode.

I hope you found some of this teaching insightful in some way.

Thank you for listening.

So the thought has just come to me now in this moment.

Perhaps teaching the theme of stillness in the next episode.

And of course the theme of silence following that.

Because I find what with the tremendous amount of religious,

Buddhist and Christian theory that surrounds meditation,

Silence and stillness are easily lost.

In the deluge of meditation theory.

In the deluge of meditation technique.

In the deluge of meditation method.

Okay,

So a wonderful gift to receive my next themes at the end of this episode.

So go well and happy,

Especially in difficult situations.

And I look forward to meeting you again in next podcast.

Bye for now.