Be as you are.
Be who you are and remain as the self.
This is the knowledge that all the enlightened spiritual teachers have shared.
You don't have to get into an altered state to experience it.
All you need to do is to become aware of the part of you that sees and knows.
When you touch that inner knower,
Even for a second,
You touch your essence.
The way to most easily understand this essence is to think of yourself as composed of two different aspects,
A part that changes,
That grows and ages,
And a part that doesn't.
There is a changing part of yourself,
The body-mind-personality part,
That looks very different now than when it was a child.
The occupations and preoccupations have changed since being a child and now the person has grown and changed and adopted different roles and characters.
The student,
The journalist,
The spiritual seeker and so on.
This changing part of a person has different outer personalities and many secret selves.
And then there are aspects of the personality that seem ancient and wise and parts that seem impulsive and developed and there are different attitudes as well.
There is a large capacity for emotional turmoil,
For frivolity,
Depth,
Compassion,
Selfishness.
There are any number of inner characteristics inhabiting our consciousness,
Each with its own set of thoughts and patterns and emotions and each with its own voice.
And yet,
Amid all these different and often conflicting outer roles and inner characters,
There remains one thing constant,
The awareness that holds them all.
This is the part of the self that doesn't change.
The awareness of your own existence is the same at this moment as it was when you were two years old.
That awareness of being is utterly impersonal.
It has no agenda.
It doesn't favor one type of personality over another.
It looks through them all as if through different windows,
But it is never limited by them.
Sometimes we experience that awareness as a detached observer,
The witness of our thoughts and actions.
Sometimes we simply experience it as our felt sense of being.
We exist and we feel that we exist.
So when you focus in and get to know that awareness,
It becomes the doorway to your deeper awareness or consciousness.
If you keep exploring awareness in meditation,
It emerges more and more distinctly.
Thoughts and other sensations gradually recede and you begin to experience the still yet fluid field of bare consciousness that is the underlying ground of you.
Only the awareness that was at first only perceptible in snatches will reveal itself to be a huge expanse of being.
Rumi wrote,
No words are necessary to see into reality.
Just be and it is.
So let's begin our first meditation.
It's important when we start off that we choose a space which is comfortable for us,
Whether that's seated in a chair or on a cushion.
The main point being that you can hold your body still for the duration of the practice.
In this case,
It will be about 20 minutes or so.
One thing I find very useful and helpful to prevent sore knees is to use a meditation bench that lifts the buttocks above the knees and helps the circulation.
Anyway,
Sit comfortably with your back upright yet relaxed and your eyes closed.
Spend a moment listening to the sounds in the room.
Become aware of the sounds in the distance.
Gradually change your focus to the sounds closer and closer to you.
Notice that wherever we place our attention,
Wherever we place our focus,
We become intently aware of that.
Now bring your awareness into your body.
Notice how your body feels sitting in your posture.
Become aware of the sensations of your thighs meeting the seat that you're sitting on,
Of how the air feels against your skin,
How the clothes feel against your body.
Notice whether your body is warm or cool.
Note any areas of tension,
Especially in the shoulders or the neck.
Simply being aware of these areas helps to relieve the tension there.
Now feel the sensations in your inner body.
Perhaps you are aware of your stomach rumbling if you are hungry.
Perhaps you notice sensations of contraction or relaxation in your muscles.
Perhaps you become aware of the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe.
Become aware of your breath,
The sensation of the breath entering the nostrils,
The slight coolness as it enters,
And the slight warmth as it goes out.
There may be an imbalance between the nostrils.
Maybe the left nostril is clear and the right one is blocked.
Or perhaps the other way around.
Or you may notice that as you bring attention to the breath,
That it becomes gradually clearer.
Notice that as you relax further and bring your attention to the breath,
That quite naturally the out-breath becomes longer in duration.
Now become aware of what is going on in your mind.
Observe the thoughts and images that move across your inner screen.
It's like you are watching a movie.
And notice that the moment you do this,
That there is a detachment from thought.
We are aware that thoughts arise,
Have their being,
And then fade away.
Thoughts and feelings arise,
Have their being,
And fade away.
Notice the deeper feelings,
The emotions,
Any mental static that arises.
You are not trying to change any of this.
Accept everything that you see and that you experience.
But simply hold it in your awareness.
Can you see now that we've created very simply the split between the thoughts and the awareness?
You're able to see the thoughts arising,
Feel the emotions,
And yet be detached from them.
Become aware of your own awareness,
The knowingness that lets you perceive all of this activity.
The inner spaciousness that holds together all the sensations,
Feelings,
And thoughts that make up your experience in this moment.
Focus your attention on your own awareness,
As if you were paying attention to attention itself.
Let yourself be that awareness.
