I'm Elliot Dasher,
Welcoming you to Meditation and Beyond and our topic today,
Effortless Meditation.
The phrase effortless meditation may sound to you like an oxymoron or a clever marketing tease,
But it's neither.
This immediate reaction arises from the experience of many beginners when they approach meditation as a process of subduing the mind,
Controlling the mind.
That certainly feels like an effort.
Meditation is customarily taught as a relaxation technique,
A remedy for anxiety,
Stress,
The overactive mind,
Insomnia,
And a host of other mental disturbances of modern day life.
Learning meditation usually begins with a technique,
A method,
And related instructions applied with considerable practice and effort toward the aim of subduing the overactive mind.
Such techniques might include repetition of a phrase,
Observing the breath,
Guided imagery,
Mantra repetition,
Or the mindful training of attention and concentration.
Each of these approaches and others may temporarily calm the mind and even allow for certain valuable insights.
But these transient results require dependence on a method to subdue the mind,
Often generating an unending mental struggle,
Leading to frustration and a sense,
I can't do this,
And often just giving up.
The positive effect of a calming the day-to-day mind lasts as long as the technique is actively utilized.
However,
It's difficult to sustain or integrate these results into daily life.
And most importantly,
Methods and techniques do not allow for the cultivation and revelation of our inner self with its natural and stable stillness,
Wisdom,
Clarity,
And freedom.
Why are these prevalent methods so limited?
It's because we approach mental activity as if it was a problem,
Something to fix,
Stop,
Control,
Or remedy.
And that only makes the active mind more active,
As the ego self-charges with increasing effort to control what is normal,
The natural rising and falling mental activity in the human mind.
While occupied by this approach,
We fail to discover the simplest and most effective approach,
One that is actually natural and effortless.
Now why is this possible?
It's possible because our inner self,
In contrast to the ordinary mind,
Is naturally,
Already,
And always still and present.
That does not mean the mind ceases to generate mental activity.
But as long as we remain in a natural witnessing awareness,
Mental movements will come and go as they do without creating disturbance.
We don't and can't stop the mind from generating mental and sensory activity.
But we can relate to mental activity as an aware witness rather than as an involved drama maker.
If we live from our deeper self,
Mental activity is an accepted expression of consciousness that need not constantly grab our attention.
Further,
With meditation is that we don't have to learn in observing awareness,
Create,
Or imagine.
That natural meditation is already and always within us.
It is our foundational self,
Our pure awareness.
It's our essential nature.
In truth,
It's who we are.
The personal self,
Which has no capacity for stable inner peace,
Is a mere mental construction composed of our learned experiences,
Multiple identities,
And fixed perspectives.
It can have moments of relative calm but not sustained serenity.
To experience our natural self,
We follow what the ancients called the via negativa.
There is nothing we have to do except let go of the belief in and attachment to who we are not,
The strung together collection of our life experiences,
What we call our personal self.
That is where some wisdom,
Intention,
And effort are useful.
Not in an effort to control the mind,
Because that's not possible,
But in letting go of the belief that we are this personal self.
Softening and letting go does not require effort.
It's natural,
Merely understanding and practice.
That is why effortless meditation is both possible and the true core of meditation.
Let go.
Do nothing.
Let go.
Then experience your true inner self that reveals the self by itself,
When the mind is instilled through natural presence.
It is then we will find what we seek.
We will find our true home,
Not in external activities or pleasures,
But rather at the center of our being.
This is not to negate our involvement in worldly activities,
But merely suggests that the only true and stable cause and source of serenity,
Ease,
And wisdom is our natural inner self.
For many years I've taught different approaches to meditation,
Where I finally landed is the simplest,
Most effortless,
And yet most profound approach.
Let's recall,
Meditation has two aims.
The first and most common in the West is the enhancement or upgrading of the quality of our day-to-day human life.
The second is to reveal,
Experience,
And live in the natural self that lies beyond our limited and constructive personal identity.
Here we experience the rich perfume of our true nature,
A peace that surpasses understanding,
Pure mental clarity,
Happiness without a reason,
A wise natural intelligence,
Selfless presence,
And freedom from the known.
Effortless meditation begins with directly re-experiencing our natural self rather than employing methods that seek to quiet the mind.
We start at the end.
We start by dropping right into the direct experience of an unconditioned and undifferentiated awareness,
Our true self,
The essence of meditation.
This approach will give us two for one.
As we increasingly live in our true self,
Its qualities will simultaneously pervade and transform our day-to-day life.
Please,
I ask you to believe that meditation is not difficult.
The unexamined ordinary life is what's difficult.
Meditation is the natural experience of who we truly are and how the world actually exists.
That simple presence is always effortlessly available.
We stop,
Do nothing,
And merely experience simple presence.
Now join me in a natural and effortless meditation.
Find a comfortable position.
Close your eyes if that's most comfortable.
We begin with taking what we call natural sighs.
Sighs are deep breaths that are taken once or twice a cycle,
A minute.
We don't really recognize these,
But they're built into ventilators.
So we take a deep breath like a sigh.
We let it out effortlessly.
We rest in the stillness with the cessation of breath that naturally takes place for a number of moments after this expiration.
In this stillness there is found the quietness,
The awareness,
The openness,
And the natural calm that is part of our natural self.
So we find that physiologically by stopping the breath naturally at the end of expiration,
Maybe extending it a bit.
And in that breath hold or breath cessation,
There cannot be any mental activity.
That's the physiological basis of that.
It's the neural default mode in the brain,
Which is the restlessness center,
Which gets deactivated with these breathing processes.
They're natural and effortless,
As I said,
Because all you need to do is just do it.
Deep breath in.
Blow it out.
Rest in the cessation of breath for a few moments.
Deep breath in.
Blow it out.
Rest in the cessation of breath and experience the simple ease,
Peace,
And serenity of the natural state.
And you can remember that experience in the next in-breath,
Out-breath.
Experience the deep away with the next cessation of breath.
So again it's deep breath in,
Out.
Hold comfortably.
Rest.
Experience and repeat again.
So this is a preliminary technique or approach.
It's quite natural and effortless.
Distill the coarse noise of the mind.
So please do this the next minute or two.
I'll be back with a few words,
But do it at your own pace,
Not mine,
Because it'll be different for you.
You may extend the hold of the breath,
The breath cessation,
To a comfortable level so that you can experience more of that stillness.
A very natural way to quiet the mind without any effort,
Just following the simple instructions.
You can do this during the day for a few minutes,
But you can drop into that stillness,
Even with your eyes open during a meeting or other activity.
If your meditation gets a bit too noisy and you lose control over it,
You can use this process.
It's natural breathing.
Deep breath in.
Blow it out.
And hold.
You can use this for as long as you would like as a preparation in the beginning of your meditation.
We're going to stop now so we can move into the body of the meditation.
So go to a normal breathing pattern,
But we want to keep it slow and harmonious,
Quiet,
Natural breathing.
This will simulate this slow,
Harmonious breathing associated with the practice we just did and help to suppress the rest of the senses of the brain.
So just quiet,
Normal breathing.
We want to come into the here and now.
We're going to drop into that spontaneously available,
Simple presence,
Simple awareness.
It may be thoughts,
Feelings,
Mental images,
Sensory experience.
That's natural.
The key point here is to allow them to come and go on their own without struggling with them,
Without preferring they be there or not,
Without attaching to them,
Without trying to push them away.
Just let the appearances of the mind,
The normal mind activity,
Just occur.
All you need to do is let it be and remain in the present moment in the continuity of a simple,
Unconditioned,
Undifferentiated,
Pure presence beingness.
So drop into that natural state.
No effort is required.
It's already there.
Here,
Now,
Aware.
Allow mental movements to come and go on their own without touching them.
Have a Teflon,
Simple,
Open,
Expansive awareness.
That is the natural essence of our consciousness of our mind.
That is our foundational essence,
That simple awareness that just observes,
Doesn't grasp,
Doesn't struggle.
Just here,
Now,
Present,
Aware.
There's connection here.
There's well-being.
There's serenity.
There's wholeness.
This is meditation,
A simple awareness.
No technique,
No method.
Just dropping into your own natural state without effort,
Without striving,
Without expectation,
Without goals,
Without aims,
No seeker,
Nothing to do,
No one to plea,
No place to go.
Just presence.
A simple,
Natural meditation opens you to the vast expanse of the mind,
To oneness,
To wholeness,
To serenity,
To a deep wisdom,
To selflessness,
To a freedom from the known.
All is the natural perfume of just resting in your natural self,
And that's meditation.
Meditation is a simple awareness.
A simple awareness is meditation.
Seek nothing,
Just be.
When there's mental activity,
Just let it come and go.
All mental activity is perishable.
It'll come and go on its own.
And what will remain is that peaceful center of your being.
It's unchanging,
Always there,
Always available,
Always the center of your being.
So rest in that peacefulness,
That essence,
That presence,
That beingness.
When this natural self becomes the center of our being,
The foundation of our daily life,
Replacing our ego structure,
Then all that occurs in daily life occurs upon and lands upon a place of stillness,
Awareness,
And presence.
And that is the transformation of our life into one of peace,
Wisdom,
And clarity.
I'm going to leave you now,
But you can remain in this meditation as long as you wish,
Repeated regularly,
And drop into it during the day.
For more resources,
You can go to my website,
Www.
Eliadasher.
Org.
Thank you for meditating with me today.
