Embracing Meditation: Presence, Fear, And Transformation

What is meditation?

Let's explore it together in a meditative way.

Sounds great.

What is meditation?

This question itself brings a quality of meditation.

When we ask a question with all our hearts,

With all our minds,

With our full being,

Anything which brings us to the depths of our life,

Which reconnects to our essential nature,

The essence,

That is meditation for me.

So,

Meditation is a state of being.

Being present with whatever is happening here and now.

Whatever is arising within the mind,

Within the body,

The sensations,

Or anything which is happening outside,

The sounds,

The breeze,

The nature.

The bugs,

The fly,

The spider.

Yes,

Absolutely.

If I connect with watching the spider,

Or maybe the spider is being curious,

It's watching us as well.

So,

Meditation is not an exclusive thing.

It doesn't exclude anything.

It's being in a wide,

Limitless space of existence,

Of being.

Many times people have this idea that meditation has a technique,

A particular method.

Only when you sit,

Repeat some mantras,

Or focus on something.

That is a very limited definition of meditation.

Tell me about that.

I try that many,

Many times.

I try many other kinds of methods.

For instance,

Box breathing,

And all that,

That really requires my attention.

But the more that I put attention to it,

The more that I don't think I can focus.

For instance,

Vajrasana meditation.

I was there for 10 days,

Observing noble silence.

Really,

Yes,

It does bring,

For me,

In a sense that for not hearing others' noise,

Other interactions,

Or not seeing each other eye-to-eyes,

It helps.

However,

Somehow you just know that it's not it.

Yes,

Absolutely.

Actually,

This is like creating so many conditions to be in meditation.

This is an artificial setting,

What you described.

In different places,

Centers,

They create this strict,

Imposed kind of discipline,

And one has to follow it just without questioning it,

Conform to it,

Imitate it.

I feel it is very limiting.

It may bring some benefit.

Of course,

It can be a part of an experiment,

Which you want to do.

Of course,

One can try different things,

Experiment,

But every such practice has its limits.

So,

Real meditation does not depend on conditions,

On putting so many boundaries.

It is like we are limiting life in a frame,

And meditation is freedom.

Oh my goodness,

Thank you.

Thank you.

Freedom.

Would you say,

For me,

I love just sitting there and looking out to,

Here is such a beautiful estate property,

So open,

The sky,

The forest,

And the feel.

Just being in that state,

Kind of like daydreaming,

Meditation,

Is that meditation?

Yeah,

See,

Immersion in nature.

Yeah.

Nature outside and also inside.

So,

It is all nature.

It feels so free.

You know,

It feels so relaxed.

That is why,

Even at home,

I like to watch,

You know,

Just stare out in like blank,

You know,

Like sky or just in blank space.

I feel so soothing.

What is meditation?

It is important not to define meditation.

Not to put a word to it.

In an absolute way,

Because mind wants to categorize it,

Define it,

But meditation is something deeply unknown.

Life itself is unknown.

Yeah.

The beauty of life is in this spirit,

In this space of the unknown.

To be that space,

You are that space,

When there is a presence,

To whatever is.

So,

Meditation is something unknown and it is better not to say even that,

Oh,

I am meditating or I know meditation because whenever the I comes,

The ego mind comes,

That is the limiting factor.

But,

Again,

In this space of meditation,

One can watch the arising of the ego mind and dissolving the ego mind in this deep silence of presence.

So,

There is no condition,

That's why I am saying,

Even if fear is arising or any strong emotion is arising,

You let it arise.

Don't fight with it.

Don't resist it.

Give it a space for flowering and dissolving.

So,

Then you are not saying,

Oh,

In meditation I should be only experiencing some blissful state or some kind of extraordinary state.

These are all projections of the mind.

Then,

We are having a goal in meditation and in meditation there is no goal.

Right.

You know,

I think I shared with you and also,

You know,

Mukesh experienced it a couple of nights ago.

I was really afraid.

Like,

You know,

There is a lot of fear in me that I cannot sleep to a point that I have to give him a call and be like,

Can you come?

Because,

You know,

I feel a lot of fear in me because I hear some noise you know,

As if like there is like some explosion and then Mukesh,

You know,

Found out it was thunders,

Right?

Was it thunders?

Yeah.

But at that time the fear is real.

So,

You know,

Would you say in any kind of experiencing if we are in the present moment is meditation even including that whatever,

We don't want to name it,

Right,

But whatever that I experienced,

You know,

A couple of nights ago.

So,

Whatever is being experienced to be unconditionally present with that experiencing,

That is part of meditation.

So,

When there is no fragmentation inside and you open,

Then you allow that fear or sorrow or pain to pass through you.

It's like you keep the windows and doors of your house open so that wind can pass.

Ah,

I see.

So,

Keeping the whole of your being open,

Your mind,

Your heart open so that all these emotions whether fear,

Sorrow or any kind of strong feeling can pass through your system.

Right.

And you remain in a way empty yet full of energy of life.

So,

Like a conduit,

Like an empty vessel.

Just let these pass through oneself.

Yeah.

So,

That's why I shared with you that don't be afraid of being afraid.

Yes,

Exactly.

That's my lesson from a cat.

You know,

Because as long as we have a body,

We will experience all type of emotion including fears.

So,

That was very profound.

Don't be afraid of being afraid or don't be afraid of if pain might come or sorrow might come or what you can meet.

So,

Being open to whatever might arise and that openness is part of meditation.

Wow.

That's so profound.

It seems like meditation is our daily life.

We're experiencing it.

So,

Meditation includes whole of our life.

So,

You can't say,

Only this part of life is meditation.

Then,

I am really narrowing down this beautiful space of meditation which includes whole of life,

Everything.

Yeah.

So,

Instead invite the experiencing,

Embrace whatever is in the present moment.

Just like what Krishnamurti said,

In what is.

You have no idea how long I have been in that,

What is he talking about what is at the very beginning of my spiritual journey because Krishnamurti is my first teacher.

So,

Yeah.

The learning is so deep rooted.

It become innate,

Natural in us.

Learning and unlearning.

Sometimes,

You have to unlearn.

Unlearning is much more important than learning.

There you go.

For me,

Deep learning is deep unlearning.

So,

Unlearning happens when there is a state of presence or an open compassionate attention.

Yeah,

I got goosebumps when you say that.

You know,

Deep learning is unlearning.

Wow!

Can we explore a little bit about this?

Yes.

Because we accumulate so many layers psychologically.

All the layers of conditioning,

Ideas,

Opinions,

Belief systems.

So,

We are filled with all that.

There is a heavy baggage which we are carrying unnecessarily.

It doesn't serve our life.

So,

Unlearning all those false layers of ourselves.

You know,

The false ideas about oneself.

So,

To unlearn is also to unburden ourselves.

It is a process of unconditioning and it happens when there is this open compassionate attention.

Or rather I would call it presence.

Compassionate presence to oneself,

One's whole being,

To the surrounding and to the whole of life.

Then this unlearning is inner transformation which has no end.

It is a continuous process.

Without any goal to reach.

So,

It's an open-ended journey.

Yeah.

So,

Unlearning and invite the openness and that will,

You know,

Naturally compassion will come.

Yeah.

Yes.

When our ego mind is silent,

It becomes silent by offering or being present with it with no judgment,

With no condition,

Even to end it.

Sometimes people make it a task to end the conditioning.

That is not the task that to end your conditioning with force.

But,

Because if you try to end your conditioning with a goal,

With a motive,

With a mission,

Then you might end up strengthening your conditioning in a different way.

Right.

Yeah.

So,

The key is not to fight with what you observe in yourself but give it a space.

Yeah.

Hold it in a compassionate space of attention,

Of presence,

Of awareness.

Yes.

And then it has its own process of dissolving,

Of transformation.

Right.

Yeah.

As you were explaining that,

You know,

All I can think about,

Ego is a slimy eel.

It's very slimy,

You know,

You can't catch it.

It will find a way to come back,

Right?

Yeah.

And ego is just a process of self.

So,

Ego is not an entity but it is a field of conditioning and the field of this separation,

Psychological separation which is created by our thoughts and memories and to be aware of this whole field,

Then there is no effort to try to end the ego mind because there is no ego mind as such.

It is just an idea.

Right.

Yes.

It is just a field of energy.

The field of energy,

Conditioned energy.

Ah,

I see.

Yeah.

It can be cultural,

Religious,

Political,

Society,

Education,

Economical,

All this.

So,

To learn to observe it Right.

With no judgment.

To observe it without any motive.

So,

Observation means being present with this quality of love,

Care and compassion.

Right.

Which is all one.

Yeah.

So,

This is the art of learning,

Art of living.

Yes.

Talking about art of living,

Can I just read this book here from Krishnamurti?

Yeah.

So,

This is a beautiful flowering book from Krishnamurti.

It is such a beautiful.

It is from the library here.

And then there is one that is so beautiful.

Let me just find it.

If you have anything to share.

I think this is right here.

So,

The greatest art is the art of living.

Greater than all things that human being have created by mind or hand.

Greater than all the scriptures and their gods.

It is only through their arts of living that a new culture can come into being.

Absolutely.

A beautiful flower as well.

So beautiful.

Art of living is also art of dying.

Dying to all that baggage which we have accumulated inwardly and outwardly.

Yeah.

So,

That's why Krishnamurti says living and dying go together.

Right.

So,

You cannot live fully without dying inwardly,

Psychologically to all those false layers.

Fully as well,

Right?

Yeah.

So,

It's like in the morning or at night when we go to sleep,

It's like part of us or part of the condition dying and then every morning we have a chance to you know rebirth.

Yeah,

Yes.

Every morning or rather any moment.

So,

It doesn't even depend on times.

Whenever you are awake inwardly,

Which means this presence an unconditional presence or I call it compassionate attention then that is the moment of being awake and that is the new birth.

So,

This new birth can happen at any moment.

And it's moment to moment.

Yeah,

Moment to moment.

And that is the secret of living.

Right.

Yeah.

So,

I do see that you know it seems like every great teacher,

They're all saying about this one thing.

Something that we cannot be described and can only be feel.

Yeah,

That's why it is beyond words.

Words are just pointers,

Indicators.

Right.

Words may carry certain energy if they are arising from a deeper space of your being of silence.

So,

If we are aware of the limitations of the words,

Then we can hear,

We can listen beyond the words.

So,

Listen to the energy behind the words,

The space,

The silence between the words.

Then this listening is an opening of the doors,

The windows of your being.

This listening itself is a transformative process.

Right.

Yeah.

You often,

You know,

Share about what is deep listening.

That's also part of the art of living,

Isn't it?

Yes.

Actually,

Deep listening,

I feel is the portal to that unconditioned space of being.

Deep listening is the foundation for connecting with yourself,

With others,

With life.

This deep listening is the bridge.

Right.

Yeah.

And it is not just listening from the ears or just hearing.

And this deep listening means being really fully present without any resistance.

Then your whole system,

Your being is empty,

So that fresh breeze can pass through.

Right.

Pass through you.

Would you say it's like deep listen from the heart?

Yes.

Yeah.

So instead of listening intellectually,

It's to listen with your heart.

And this heart means not just this physical heart,

But.

.

.

The universal heart.

Your whole being which is part of the universe.

So that in listening there is no any boundary,

There is no any center created by thought or memory.

That's why it is limitless.

When you are present without this me,

Without the I,

Then it has no borders.

And that is pure love.

Right.

Yeah.

Wow.

I definitely feel the love here.

So thank you so much,

Lakash,

For you know,

Being here and being in this space and also having this open dialogue inquire about and allow things to flow,

You know,

Because like one word,

Meditation,

It opens up such a great feel.

And so why?

Like you say,

You know,

Sometimes we just have to be in the present moment to allow things to open.