Thank you for being here in this space,
This presence.
So I just returned from visiting my best friend and godson in Florida,
And as I was returning home,
I was flying and I was seated next to the window,
Which is my favorite place to be.
And at one point I looked out and there was a beautiful,
Vast,
Open sky,
Which seemed endless.
And I watched as the clouds moved through.
There was some light and wispy ones.
There were some thick and dark ones.
But the sky itself remained untouched,
Unaffected.
It wasn't trying to hold on to the beautiful clouds.
It wasn't trying to push away the dark and heavy ones.
It just simply allowed it all.
Each form just arising and dissolving in its own open expanse.
And I was reminded,
This is what we are.
And I know we've all heard the metaphor of the open sky so many times,
But it's true.
And lately I've been watching how much the mind still likes to believe that it's in charge.
How it tries to figure everything out with thought,
As if thinking is where safety is found.
But more and more,
I've seen how powerless that movement is,
And how peaceful everything becomes the moment that I catch it.
And I just let everything be exactly as it is.
The miracle of surrender is not a doing.
It's not the surrendering to circumstances,
Not to the body's sensations or the mind's stories,
Not to the past or to what might come.
True surrender is the dissolving of the one who resists,
Who grasps,
Who believes it must manage life and figure it all out.
It's the recognition that the separate self,
The one imagined to be apart from source,
Has never been real.
And in that seeing,
There's rest.
Just a gentle return to the peace that we've always been.
So what if we didn't need to figure anything out to try to heal,
To try to fix?
What if nothing needed to be different?
What if any darkness coming up didn't need to be fixed,
Or even understood?
Why am I thinking this way?
Why am I behaving this way?
When we recognize ourselves as awareness,
As pure presence,
There's nothing to change.
Only a gentle noticing,
A noticing of what is always here.
So for the next 25 minutes or so,
We're going to rest as that.
Not trying to get somewhere,
But just gently exploring the space that we've never left.
So you can just gently let the eyes close.
And if the body wishes to adjust,
Let it do so.
There's nothing to get right here.
We're just noticing what's already here.
There may be sensations or thoughts arising.
You may sense the breath moving.
Just let everything appear exactly as it is.
Without commentary.
Without naming.
Or fixing.
Or changing.
Notice how the mind might want to follow a sensation.
Or label it.
And just simply let it be.
Allow it to be.
Allow everything to be as it is.
But notice.
Notice what is aware of it.
What knows this moment.
You may notice emotions.
Or a memory.
And we're not here to get rid of them.
Or hold on to them.
We're just noticing the space in which they appear.
And that space is what you are.
The moment that you stop identifying with the sensations.
Or the thoughts.
And emotions.
It's seen.
It arises in you.
But it's not you.
It's you.
You.
The truth of who you are.
Remain untouched.
Just letting all things be as they are.
The wanting.
The resistance.
Just allowing the entire movement of the mind.
To be held.
Held in the quiet expanse.
Of what you are.
The sensations and thoughts.
That may be arising within you.
As clouds in the sky.
And no cloud can harm the sky.
No story can harm the presence that you are.
So just be what you are.
And as we bring this meditation to a close.
Let us not move from this presence.
But remain grounded.
In what has never moved.
And remember that anything that disturbs your peace.
Isn't a problem to solve.
It's a doorway.
A bell.
Bringing you awake.
So we can remember again and again.
And return to this quiet knowing.
This unchanging stillness.
This vast emptiness.
This vast open presence.
That is impersonal.
And it's what you are.
If you had your eyes closed.
I invite you to gently open them.
I invite you to open them.
Coming back to this space.
Coming back to the room.
But knowing that awareness.
Pure presence.
Is still here.
With our eyes open.
Looking around the room.
Thank you for being here with me today.
Thank you for joining me in remembering the truth of who we are.
Namaste.
