Nonduality points to singularity beyond division,
Beyond opposites,
Beyond qualities.
Hi,
I'm Bassem.
Thank you for joining me.
We'll close our eyes and I'll guide us into this non-dual reality that abides within as the reality of what we are.
You notice I called it reality as opposed to experience because the non-dual cannot be experienced.
You cannot experience non-duality.
What you can experience is a dimension of polarity,
Dimension of opposites.
You can experience cold because you know heat.
You can experience high because you know low.
So this is what we mean by duality,
That which has an opposite.
I try to appreciate the idea of non-duality,
That which does not have opposites.
It's not an experience,
But it is a reality.
It's a reality that encompasses all other realities.
It's a reality within which experience has its own distinctive flavor.
The title for this live and the series that we'll be doing over the next couple of weeks,
Guided Non-Dual Meditation,
From Intellect to Clarity.
The idea here is that intellect is different than clarity.
Our society,
Our world favors the intellect.
It favors the mental way of registering reality.
Everything we know about ourself and about the world,
We can say,
Comes through a mental conception.
Everything you have ever known about the world,
Your experience of the world,
And of yourself,
For the most part,
Has been mental.
And usually we think that that's all there is to experience,
That that's all there is to reality.
What you think,
What you interpret.
You look at a red car on the street,
And immediately you think it's fast.
You see nature,
And you think of peace.
So that's the way the mind works,
By association.
The mind always compares,
Perceives through patterns.
But is there a way of experiencing,
Of perceiving,
That does not involve association?
That doesn't involve comparison?
Is there a way of meeting yourself without comparison?
Not through the registry of mind and its association,
But directly.
If you are a businessman or a businesswoman,
And you had been doing business with a supplier,
You might ask,
Is there a way of dealing with my supplier without the middleman,
Without having to pay this extra cost?
Is there a way of dealing with the world without the middleman of mine?
It's usually considered impossible.
We usually think all there is to experience is the mind.
And yet,
The most beautiful things that we know exist outside the dimension of this mental registry.
Love,
Joy,
Intimacy.
The reason these experiences are so compelling is because the mind has been momentarily transcended.
You've momentarily stepped outside the dimension of association,
Comparing one thing with another.
And that's what duality points to.
It points to that reality that is deeper than the mind,
Behind the mind.
If you go deeper,
You arrive into the reality that is thought-free,
Spacious awareness.
From intellect to clarity.
From intellect as a way of dealing with your supplier,
Your experience,
To awareness,
Direct perception.
Clarity beyond the intellect.
The mind agitates.
You have gotten promoted,
Or whatever the case may be,
And you interpret that according to your mind program.
It becomes what you think it is.
Truth becomes subjective.
We are pointing to a way of experiencing that does not include the middleman.
So you could do business directly with reality.
Feel the sunshine on your skin directly without the middleman.
That's where the sustenance is.
That's where sunshine becomes medicine.
Everything is seen as it is.
I'm looking at the screen.
I'm sensing my belly,
And I invite you to begin to sense into your belly.
This is my belly's transmission to you.
But I might decide in this moment to go down to my feet and sense my feet touching the floor and begin to speak from that sensation.
Allow my feet to converse,
Share its own flavor of the non-dual reality.
Usually the human's attention,
Since early childhood,
Is focused at the point of the intellect,
In the head.
But what's to stop me,
As a human,
From deciding to speak from the centermost point of my physical form?
My belly.
And that's why certain Chinese disciplines,
Tai Chi,
They focus at the belly button.
Feel it.
Out of the mind and into the body.
You want to weigh out of suffering?
Weigh out of poverty?
Issues with love?
With health?
Come down with me to your belly.
Feel.
The sense dimension,
Where the solutions and resolutions to all my problems in this world exist,
Bypassing the intellect.
Problems are manufactured by the mind.
Programs.
Interpretations.
My problems are different than yours.
Because my interpretations are different.
All living problems,
Poverty,
Scarcity,
Lack of compassion,
All are manufactured by the middle man.
To step out of this manufactured suffering,
Connect with something more substantial.
The body.
The problem is replaced by the substantial sense reality of that which exists now.
Plenty.
Abundance is everywhere.
But I never see it,
Because I'm looking through the plane of light.
I'm prioritizing the sense dimension,
And I could stay there in the vibration.
You might go to the area of your nostrils,
Where your breathing experience occurs.
Use that as a focal point to cultivate your awareness.
Centered at the area of your nostrils,
Close your eyes.
We're going to begin cultivating true meditation.
Not imagination.
Not mind meditation.
Let your body be at peace.
Let your breathing be free.
Let the exhale fall,
And let the inhale rise.
Don't control your breathing.
Don't try to deepen it.
Don't try to do anything clever with it.
Just let your body breathe you.
Your job is to simply watch,
And to keep coming back to the area of your nostrils.
And when the middle man takes you away to a clever idea,
To an interpretation,
To a judgment,
Just come back to the sense dimension,
From mind to breath.
Let your nose breathe you.
Follow it as it travels up,
And then watch it go down.
And as you are being breathed,
Notice your body entering a point of relaxation,
Which simply means letting go of tension.
We are leaving the world and entering the inner life.
We're leaving the mind and entering the sense dimension.
Destination?
Awareness.
The non-dual reality.
The point where all opposites meet within you.
The inhale may be very shallow.
Don't judge it.
Don't think it should be deeper.
There may even be a pause between the inhale and the exhale.
Don't change that.
Don't change anything.
We're cultivating awareness.
The non-dual reality of all experience.
When you notice the middle man thinking for you,
Associations telling you what is happening,
Recognize your breath will guide you to heaven.
Before you open your eyes,
Let yourself know how grateful you are for showing up to your practice,
For your inner work.
Simply tell yourself a word of gratitude.
Your gratitude could be as simple as thank you.
I appreciate it.
Your journey has begun.
From mind to clarity,
To presence,
To awareness,
From trouble to peace,
From duality to non-duality.
Let your eyes open.
Notice that even as your eyes open,
Your attention is still somewhat centered at the area of your nostrils.
Learning to step out of the mind as a default experience.
A whole other world awaits us.
Nicole asks,
I do Shikantaza,
Which is Japanese Zen that literally translates to just sitting,
But I meditate.
How does non-duality differ?
Ultimately,
All true meditations are exactly the same.
They guide from mind to no mind,
From the external to internal.
They may have different techniques.
Some will use the breath,
Some will use inquiry,
Mantra,
So on.
Essentially,
All meditation is from outside where troubles and tribulations exist,
Fluctuations,
Duality,
Opposite,
To inside singularity,
Peace.
That's the spiritual journey in a nutshell.
What is not meditation,
However,
Is mind practices like imagination,
Visualization.
All of these are called meditation,
But they use the mind.
By definition,
Meditation is the way of cultivating awareness.
We start with the mind,
Then move beyond the mind.
Our insights are part of no mind,
In-sight,
Direct perception.
Sight from within as opposed to external seeing characterized by polarity.
Mental so-called insights and non-dual insights are very different.
One is experienced through the faculty of thinking,
The programs,
And the other is direct.
Pure,
Unadulterated knowing,
Presence,
Being mindful of awareness.
But also,
A practice does not evolve.
A practice dissolves.
All there is,
Is sitting.
All experience is mental.
We're going beyond experience,
That which is prior to experience.
That's it from me.
I wish you well.
Take care.
Bye-bye for now.
You
