The Nativity Of Your Unending Soul - Your Own Virgin Birth

Good morning,

Good afternoon.

I just wanted to hop on here spontaneously to do a short meditation that I called the Nativity of Your Soul.

The person of Jesus and the whole story of his life,

His remarkable beginning,

Has stirred the imagination and the hearts of many for a very long time.

But like all true spiritual stories that have a deeper dimension to them.

And so,

I wanted to invite you into an exploration of this deeper dimension.

A dimension that isn't out there,

That's in here,

And can only be approached through this practice of meditation or self-inquiry,

Which is kind of a contemplation as well.

So please just close your eyes now.

First be completely immersed in the actual meditation itself.

As your eyes are closed,

First thing you can do is simply slow down your breathing,

Make it deeper,

And let your attention very naturally begin to turn inward.

And as it turns inward,

The very first thing it will do,

As it lets go of the visual,

It will begin to start to feel your body.

Attention will begin to wander around the body and the feelings.

This is an important and significant part of meditation for it draws attention out of the realm of image and really mind,

And into the realm of feeling,

Into the realm of sensing.

A very different dimension of experience.

And so just settle into the feeling of the body.

And as you do,

Notice that the mental activity will persist for a while.

Thinking about what has to be done later,

What's happened already today.

All sorts of thoughts can come up and seek your attention as you are endeavoring to bring your attention masterfully to remain focused on that which you're choosing to focus on.

And in this moment,

It's simply the feeling,

The various sensations running through the body.

And notice that those sensations don't really have any words.

The words came later.

The mental activity,

The concepts,

The descriptions,

Even the judgments and the meaning attached to sensation all came later.

They're in the realm of like a small child,

Pure undifferentiated experience,

No conceptualization whatsoever,

Just the raw experience of being that which every child experiences.

And notice that as you're doing that,

As your attention is there,

See if you can't recognize that there's something deeper,

Another dimension that is intimately aware of those sensations,

Aware that they're flowing,

Aware of their character,

Their shape,

Their color,

Their contour.

They're moving.

The sensations are coming and going.

They grow in intensity or diminish in intensity.

They move through the body as the attention wanders around.

But the seeing of them,

The experiencing of them is very stable.

It's very unmoving.

We rarely notice this.

And notice that while the sensations are happening,

Almost as if it's kind of a special 3D screen,

That they're being watched by you,

Not someone else,

But by you.

It's you who is not changing.

This you,

We might be able to refer to as the soul,

That unchanging sense of being.

Did it have an activity?

Was it born?

We assume it was,

But see if you can just check in with that quiet background that is experiencing sensation.

Was it born?

The Christian mystic,

Meister Eckhart,

A controversial monk who lived the end of the 13th,

Beginning of the 14th century,

Was a very popular figure,

Which kept him from getting,

Being accused of heresy,

Which he was.

Just edited,

But he referred to this inner space of the ground of being.

And that this ground of being was both God and the soul.

Quite heretical at the time,

But that the soul,

Your soul,

This which is aware right now of the sensations,

The sound of my voice,

The feeling of your body,

That soul and God were made of exactly the same thing.

There was in fact no distinction or differentiation between the two.

Radical,

Radical.

When you experience a mythical event,

The story of a mythical event like a virgin birth,

Something that is of course an impossible thing to take place historically,

That's the point.

The impossible is always a pointer to something beyond our regular way of thinking and conceptualizing.

It points to this,

The timeless soul,

The soul that is one with God and the soul that is God,

The timeless word,

The word that was with God and that was God.

This mystery of the single substance,

The transcendent self from which everything emerged,

Including God,

The idea of God.

So what then is the nativity,

The birthplace of your soul?

Well,

It isn't a birth at all.

It's a revelation,

A realization.

The savior of individuals and of the world is a realization of the timeless,

Which this unusual birth,

This physiologically impossible birth points to.

This Christ consciousness,

The messianic consciousness,

The consciousness that delivers us from all of the suffering that we have experienced never had a beginning.

It couldn't.

As if there was a beginning,

There would have to be an end.

There'd be a time when it wasn't.

What is,

Would have had to have been at one point is not.

To take this in as your personal savior is to recognize that this Christ consciousness,

This virgin birth,

This ground of being is your being.

Buddha referred to this as the personal realization of Buddha knowledge that would save all beings from suffering.

Now,

As I'm speaking,

This is a bit of a contemplation.

I want you to be,

Remain aware of the simple fact of being aware.

My words,

Your reactions to my words,

Both emotionally and mentally,

Concepts that could come up,

And any sensations that you're experiencing could not be experienced if you weren't here first.

Just notice that before any experience,

Any concept,

Any idea,

Any sensation,

Any emotion,

Any judgment,

Any memory,

Any desire,

Any aspiration,

You were here.

Who are you then?

Who are you if this ground of being,

The soul,

Your soul,

And the ground of being of God were the same ground?

Who would you be?

Eliminating any thought of who you are because you're prior to thought.

Just be,

Just pure being.

This is the nativity of your soul,

The realization of its timeless dimension.

It doesn't have a beginning.

The body's had a beginning,

Just like every sensation has a beginning and an end.

Every thought,

Every emotion,

Every experience has a beginning and an end.

But the experiencer,

That which must be there for there to be any experience at all,

Does it have a beginning or an end?

Or is it the timeless witness of all beginnings and all ends?

This is the question,

This is the essence of self-inquiry.

Who am I?

If I'm not my thoughts,

Not my emotions,

Not my sensations,

No concept at all,

What remains?

Who am I?

In the mythic language of scriptures,

That question is answered by a scene in which a child,

Both human and divine,

Both God and man,

Is born in a remarkable way.

This star,

The star of Bethlehem,

And the word Bethlehem derives from Bethel,

Which simply means the place,

The presence of God,

That ground of being.

And wise men,

Then and now,

Still seek this place that that star is leading to.

And that star being your own innate desire to know who you are,

Which leads not to some place,

Some manger in the Middle East,

But here into the center of you,

Into the most remote place of all,

Your own heart.

This is a meditation or a contemplation to ponder.

For years,

Decades,

Lifetimes,

The notion of being just a physical form or a finite soul somehow stuck in this body,

This temporarily functioning thing,

Has been an unquestioned,

Unscrutinized assumption.

But the birth of the Christ child is the questioning of that assumption.

What is my real origin?

Where did I really come from?

Did I come from anywhere at all?

Or have I always been?

And if I have always been,

Then this body is a temporary costume I put on.

Everybody in every lifetime has been a temporary costume.

Who then am I who's been putting on costumes and taking them off for millennium?

This is the questions I invite you to ponder as we celebrate this remarkable revelation,

This remarkable heralding of angels and singing and trumpets.

What is it to be discovered here in your own personal inner intimate nativity,

The manger in you?

Just take a moment and just once again,

Just notice the whole range of experience that you're having throughout thought,

Emotion,

And sensation,

And that quiet,

Motionless,

Silent background that is aware of all of that and from where you are watching and listening.

And then take a deep breath in and out.

And take a deep breath,

Move your body a little bit.

And when you're ready,

You can open your eyes.

I love just kind of sitting after a meditation to let it all settle in.

Thank you all for joining me.

Thank you all for giving me your attention.

I wish you all a very,

Very happy holiday season,

Unfilled with wisdom and compassion,

And commit your life to ending suffering for yourself and all beings.

It's the highest calling there is.

Till next time.

Thank you.

Thank you.