Resting As Awareness

09:29

09:29

Resting As Awareness

by Michael Kane

Rated

3

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

19

In this talk, Resting as Awareness, we explore together the direct experience of the unconditioned state of awareness—a space beyond striving, judgment, and identity. Drawing from non-dual Buddhist practices, the talk explores how resting in this open, ever-present awareness can support deep healing, presence, and freedom.

Awareness Non Dualism Meditation Emotional Acceptance Presence Healing Freedom Judgment Nonjudgmental Observation Spacious Awareness Judgment Awareness

Meet your Teacher

Ormond Beach, FL, USA

Meet your Teacher

Ormond Beach, FL, USA

Transcript

Anytime we're doing something, We're creating a lot of. . . We're going somewhere, Right? So we're not really doing anything other than just resting as awareness. And what that gives us the capacity to do, Just resting as awareness itself, Is it gives us the capacity, The more that we can just settle the body and the mind and really rest as this awareness, Which is our sort of primordial true self before thoughts and sounds and body. It is just awareness. And what that does for us, It gives us the capacity and the opportunity to, Instead of being really stuck and lost in thoughts and emotions and all of the energy and things that are happening in the body, It gives us a chance to sort of just have this very spacious, Boundless awareness that allows everything to just move through so that we can start to really see what's really happening instead of being lost in what's happening, Right? So there's a bit of a difference there, Right? We spend a lot of our day sort of spinning around and being really lost in reactions and the mind, Really living in this 10% of our body and not even really being here completely. So this practice of natural meditation, Or process we like to call it, Is really just a sitting and resting as awareness and allowing everything, Not excluding anything, To arise just as it does naturally. Sounds, Sensations in the body, Even thoughts rising and passing away. The only real doing, And if there is a doing, I wouldn't even call it a doing, But there's just an awareness for us of preferencing and judging. So this is where we sort of get lost a lot and we start judging things, Judging ourselves about how we're doing, What we're doing, What's arising, I like this, I don't like this, This is right, This is wrong, This is good, This is bad. So you can just feel how much resistance that creates in the body and in the mind, Right? Just constantly, And the more that we do that, Of course, The more judging and preferencing, Preferencing being the same sense. Again, I really like this, I prefer it, I don't like that. As I've said in here before, I like this, I want it to stay, I don't want it to change, I don't like that, I want it to change, I want it to go away. So both of those are forms of resistance, That's a preference, Really. So we're not creating more judgment when that arises, Because it will arise in everyone in here, At least once, If not a thousand times during a sit, Because we're really starting to notice what the mind is doing, Really the nature of the mind and all of the thoughts and things that are going on. A feeling arises in the body, We go, Oh, That feels nice, I like that, I'm going to hang on to that. Or a feeling arises in the body and we say, Oh, I really don't like that, Let me see how I can get rid of that or push it away or push it down. And both of those create a resistance. I like it, I want to hold on to it, I don't like it, I want to push it away. It's really the same thing, It's just different. It looks different, But in the end, If you feel into grasping or aversion, Both really a form of resistance. So in the end, What we're really doing, Even that word doing creates something, But what we're learning without even doing, Without even learning, Is that every time that we can sit and allow things to be as they are and just notice when judgment arises and passes, Really being the sky in a sense and allowing these clouds to just move through, Clouds, Experiences, Thoughts, Emotions, Sounds, You name it, That's the clouds. Instead of being lost in the clouds, We're just watching them rise up and change and move on, Even if it's a storm cloud. And sometimes we will get caught in the storm cloud. We'll be completely caught in a storm of anger or some other emotion that's very fiery and heavy. In that moment that we notice that we're caught in it, We can just allow it to be, And that gives us the opportunity to then become a little more boundless again, A little more spacious, To allow that storm, Just as we would look on the beach and you see the big storm coming through. It's the same sort of thing. We're just allowing that to be as big as it wants to be, But without being really caught in it. Even judgment, Judgment can feel that way as well. So what's happening as this, Even if you only have moments of being able to allow yourself to rest as awareness, Even if it's only a moment, Maybe it's a moment today, Five moments tomorrow, It grows naturally. It's not something that you do or you try to gain. It just happens as you surrender in that way. So in the end, It's all about learning to be comfortable in this moment and in this body. What else is it about? It's about learning to be comfortable in this moment. Because when we enter, When we're really here, Present, We're here with whatever is arising. What we're calling good and bad and pleasant and unpleasant all rise up in this moment when we're being authentic, When we're being truly here. And we know when we're not, We'll fade off into a story or a dream or lost in the mind and restlessness. And then we'll have a moment that we come back and we'll just feel it. So we're learning to be comfortable in this body with all of the energy and the emotions and the restlessness. Because the more that we can do that, The more that we can start to settle. Because we rest, All of a sudden we notice that there's resistance. There's some resistance in the body. So we open to the resistance. What happens to resistance when we pay attention to it, We bring awareness to it? Most of the time it dissolves. Because now we're not pushing it down, We're not trying to run away from something. We're actually welcoming it. We're not excluding it. So then all of a sudden, Resistance. And then there's this process of I feel resistance, I pay attention, It dissolves. And it's not even that we're doing that. It's just a natural allowing, A natural surrender. So that every moment of our life, And especially the sitting practice, Which I hope that everyone is spending some time each day doing, At least 30 minutes. What a wonderful 30 minutes to just allow yourself to be authentic and fully present. Or at least giving yourself the opportunity to allow things to sort of unfold a bit. Because that's what we're doing. We're unfolding and learning to be, Again, Comfortable. Comfortable. If one is comfortable in this moment, In this body, It's pretty much it, Right? What else is there? If you're comfortable, Then when the next thing rises up, Maybe you become resistant again. You can just feel that. Okay, Let me just let it be. You just allow that to be. And each time that happens, Our space of comfort, In a sense, Of naturalness or allowing grows until we're more comfortable with more of ourselves and more comfortable with more of this moment, And we're living more fully in each moment that we can do that. So I offer that to you to see what happens if we can just allow it all to be as it is. Okay?