Thought Yoga: Unzipping The Body To Infinity

Hello,

My name is Saja and welcome to Thought Yoga.

Thought Yoga explorations take place as spontaneously as you hear them.

They embark on the same journey at the same time,

Just in different places.

Today we're at the beach so you may hear a little bit of wind.

You may hear a little bit of rustling and tucked up in my coat in the car.

It's quite windy today,

Otherwise I'd be down by the waves.

I think there's great benefit having these experiences in various places.

I hope that wherever you are,

You're comfy,

You're relaxed,

And you're ready to dive.

Feel like you've been there.

We can't ever know anything for sure about anything.

We can't really know anything other than what we are intimately experiencing.

And even then we still can't really be sure on everything about that thing.

But there's one thing we can be sure of,

And that we can know for certain.

We can know we exist.

Just be aware of that.

Notice that being aware of that is almost as if we're being aware of nothing.

And that's true to some degree.

We are aware of existence.

We are aware that something is.

Now that is absolutely certain.

There's no doubt about that.

There is no doubt,

And 100% certainty,

That we are aware that we exist.

Now,

Just for a moment,

Recognise the importance of that fact amongst all continuously changing,

Coming and going,

Birth and death.

Growth and decay.

There is one thing that is consistent that we can be certain is true.

And it's that we are alive.

For a moment,

Take away the qualities that seem to overlay the fundamental quality of being alive,

Or the fundamental sense of being alive.

The knowing of our own existence.

And just peel them away.

Imagine that you're sitting,

Imagine yourself,

Imagine looking at yourself,

Face head on.

And you're sitting in your regular clothing,

And you're cross-legged,

Your hands are on your lap.

Now,

What I want you to do is peel away the layer.

Imagine that from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet,

Imagine you're in this suit.

I just want you to peel away the layer of person.

The layer of the personality.

Peel it.

Unzip it from the top of your head,

All the way down,

Like a Russian doll,

All the way down and it just drops off.

Now you notice that there's another layer underneath.

This is the layer of bodily sensation.

Now you go to the top of the zip,

And you watch yourself unzip the layer of bodily sensation.

So,

You've just unzipped,

The bodily sensation layer just drops off.

There's another layer.

This layer is your sense of hearing.

You can probably hear,

If not sounds,

In where you are right now,

As this focal point of audio.

But you can probably hear sounds from where this focal point of audio is being recorded.

Just for a moment,

Experience these sounds.

Remember there's no one to listen to them.

There's no person to listen to them,

So there's no assigning roles to the sounds.

There is just pure hearing.

And there is no body that is hearing them,

No physical bodily sensation.

So there is a field of hearing with no labeling.

It's hearing something but it doesn't know what that thing is.

It's experiencing vibrations,

Although when we take away the fact of vibrations,

We still don't know what vibrations are.

There is just raw hearing.

No person to assign them a label,

No body to know what they are,

Where they come from.

There is no location.

There is just a sense of hearing.

Now,

I want you to peel the layer of hearing.

Unzip the layer of hearing.

Grab the zipper.

Zip all the way down.

And just unravel that layer.

Now this figure that used to be what you are is now getting very dim.

It's almost a silhouette.

It's getting more and more transparent.

It's an opaque,

Slightly more misty than a faded window.

And you notice that this other layer that we've just uncovered is your feelings.

Or a field of feeling.

There is nothing else right now other than feeling.

Internal feelings of experience.

Notice what's present.

There is no one to assign them an emotion.

So there is no one to assign them.

There is no person to give them a label,

So there is no one to give them an emotion.

There is no body,

There is no physical body to pinpoint where it is,

So it's just floating in space.

One floating feeling.

Now,

What I want you to do is to unravel,

Unzip the layer of feeling.

Grab the zipper,

Zip it down,

And bring out the next layer.

Note this is a very thin layer.

It may as well be a perfectly clean window.

Almost invisible.

This is your layer of thoughts.

Anything that you think,

Any thoughts that arise,

They are simply floating vibrations.

In fact,

We can't even say that they're floating.

We can't really say we know what they are.

They're just vibrations.

No body to locate them.

No person to give them a name.

There's just the raw experience of vibration.

Take the thought.

Cars drive by.

Don't focus on the meaning.

There is no meaning.

It's as meaningless as you'd assume.

It's just a vibration.

Now,

What I want you to do in your mind is just make this noise.

Do it again.

Notice it arise,

And then notice it disappear.

Now,

All that's left of you is this noise.

There is no body.

There is no personality.

There is no hearing.

There is no senses.

There's just the raw experience that is.

.

.

.

.

.

And then disappears.

Nothing.

When you make the sound,

And the sound comes to an end,

What do you think is there?

What could be left of you?

Something must be there.

Something must be there in order to know to make the noise again.

But we've just uncovered all there is to experience.

The final place of experience that we can go,

That we can stretch to,

Is obviously just our thoughts.

There's no body to smell.

There's no body to taste.

There's no person to give any label to anything.

There's no hearing.

There's no sensation.

There's just.

.

.

.

.

.

And when that comes to an end.

.

.

.

.

.

What's left in its place?

Let's take away the last layer and find out.

Grab the zip.

Unzip it.

Now all of a sudden there is nothing else underneath.

There is just a load of clumped clothing on the floor.

A load of layers just resting on top of each other on the floor.

There's nothing left.

Although there is something left.

Yourself.

You are left.

You are still there.

Now notice that this you is there even when thoughts are not.

Notice that this you is prior to thinking.

Not just prior to thinking but outside thinking.

Outside in the same way that when we are watching a film or using a virtual reality headset.

If we are using a virtual reality headset we could be thinking about the content of the reality of the virtual reality.

All our thoughts and feelings could be corresponding to what's happening in the virtual reality.

But are you in the virtual reality?

Are you actually inside the reality?

You're not.

You're prior to that experience.

Well likewise this you that is present now is not limited by any of the layers of clothing that we just undressed.

It's not contained by any of the layers of clothing that you just undressed.

This you that is present,

Thoughtless,

Sensationless,

Soundless,

Is the canvas in which all sounds,

All thoughts,

All sensations,

Feelings and perceptions arise.

It's the background,

The ever present baseline condition of being alive.

Now how is this,

How does being alive relate to this?

Well the only quality to this experience of this empty spacious sense of consciousness is that it knows that it is.

It doesn't know anything other than what it is and what it is is simply the knowing of itself itself.

It is consciousness itself.

Being alive is simply to know that I exist or to know I am.

That's it.

Being alive has nothing to do with the layers of clothing that we just undressed.

Being alive is not limited to the layers of clothing that we just undressed.

We do not need anything in the world of experience in order to know that we are alive,

In order to know that we exist.

So in other words,

We do not need any of the layers of clothing that we just undressed in order to be alive.

The knowing of this baseline sense of being is what we call meditation itself.

It's the highest form of meditation we can experience because it is meditation.

In other words,

Meditation is the nature of being alive.

Meditation is what being alive is.

Because all there is to being alive is the knowing of our own being.

Notice the quality of yourself that is absolutely certain that it is.

Notice that you are real.

That's not an illusion.

There is no other quality to you other than being.

Being is the source of existence.

Everything that appears to exist,

Everything that appears to be real,

We're not wrong when we look at something and it seems to be real.

It has a reality,

But that reality that it has doesn't come from that thing we can perceive.

It comes from our sense of being.

Our being,

This infinite spacious presence of consciousness,

Is the source of everything that appears to be real.

Notice that in order to know this sense of being,

Which is extremely familiar,

There's nothing exotic about this,

It's extremely familiar,

We experience it not just sometimes,

Not just most of the time,

It's the only thing we actually experience.

Although,

When the layers of clothing that we just unzipped are so tightly fitted,

We can sometimes get lost.

This sense of being can be overlooked and this sense of being can be obscured by thoughts,

Ideas and labels and everything in between.

At the heart of all that experience is this,

This simple,

Inherently peaceful sense of being.

This sense of being is never actually touched by anything.

It's never hurt by anything.

It's never offended by anything.

It's never disturbed.

It's only quality that we can suggest is acceptance itself.

And the only reason we can give it such a quality,

Other than that it's conscious,

Is because that's what it is by nature.

The knowing element of experience is what we are.

And all that knowing element is knowing is itself,

Mixed up with the layers of clothing of experience.

In other words,

We're only ever experiencing meditation.

It is what we are.

So,

What I suggest we do is we grab that first layer,

The layer of thoughts,

And we zip our thoughts back on again.

Grab the zip,

Zip it up.

Notice that this underlying peaceful sense of being,

Or meditation itself,

The knowing of ourself,

Which is simply what we all refer to as being alive,

Is still present amongst any thoughts we want to think.

Think anything.

Notice that we don't disappear when a thought arises.

We're still here.

If we're still here,

Then the presence of being is still here.

There is no disturbance.

Now grab the next layer.

The layer of feeling.

Grab the zip,

Zip it up.

Now this time I don't want you to be looking at yourself head on.

I want you to be now,

As you are,

Zipping the zip.

Now you're this thinking,

Feeling,

Floating experience of knowing.

Notice all there is to any of the thoughts you think,

Or any of the feelings you feel,

Is knowing or being.

The only thing that's present there is being alive.

Now grab the next zip.

We're zipping our hearing.

And we've just come back into the plane of the audio.

We're now a floating,

Hearing,

Feeling,

Thinker.

It's getting quite cozy.

Notice that amongst all the things you hear,

All these vibrations,

You don't quite know what they are,

But you know that they are.

There is just being alive.

Turn the volume up on being is only that to the experiences that we experience.

Now we can bring on the coziest coat of all.

Let's bring back our body,

Or our bodily sensations.

Grab the zip.

Zip it up.

Notice the quality of being,

Of knowing,

Of the knowing of ourself,

Which is simply being alive.

Just notice it is also present simultaneously to this experience of this hearing,

Thinking,

Feeling sensation.

There is this obvious presence of being alive.

Now what I want you to do is to open your eyes.

You have just vanished as a person and a body and a mind.

And you have just put back on your clothing of experience.

And you are back,

Seemingly back,

In this plane of experience.

However,

Where are you really?

Notice that the obvious quality of being alive,

Not just interwoven,

As if there is one thing called being alive and another thing called experience.

But notice that in the same way that a gold ring is made of gold,

Simply taking the shape of a ring,

Notice that all there is,

Is being.

Taking the shape of experience.

There is no two substances here.

This isn't some,

Some,

Some strange type of metal that needs two materials to form its substance.

There is only one element to this.

There is only one ingredient.

This isn't knitted.

A little bit of experience,

A little bit of mind,

A little bit of consciousness.

Together we make up the map of experience.

There is only one substance.

That substance is being.

Being exists.

Being knows it exists.

Being is consciousness.

Being is conscious of itself.

Being is alive.

This experience is simply being alive.

We're not inside this body.

The body is inside us.

There is no distance between what we are and the appearance of this body.

Our sense of location is also another thing that we witness or experience as the infinite,

Borderless expanse of consciousness itself.

Another thing within the infinite.

These clothes that we're wearing right now are nothing more than temporary gifts.

The greatest gift of existence.

To be alive.

Notice the sense of being is not limited.

It is not contained.

It is ever-present and continuous and shared between all other seeming bodies and minds.

Be that.

That's what you wear prior to putting on your headphones.

That's what you will still continue to be when you take your headphones out.

That's what you will be when you're driving.

This is what you will be when you're talking,

Conversating,

Walking,

Watching a movie,

Going to sleep,

In deep sleep.

This is what you will always be.

Your body-mind will fall asleep and you will stay awake.

Your body-mind will wake up and you will be there present,

Noticing,

Waking up.

You will be there already,

Noticing that the body is waking up.

I challenge you to notice that the next time you wake up or seem to wake up,

Notice that if you weren't aware while you were asleep,

You wouldn't even notice waking up.

There would be nothing to wake up from.

If you were to totally disappear and not be aware while you're sleeping or while you're in deep sleep,

You wouldn't notice the body waking up.

You must be there prior to what comes after in order to notice the transition between not being awake and being awake.

You are never not being alive.

You are never not being yourself.

All it takes is to simply notice.

Just simply notice whenever you forget.

That's all that's necessary.

I hope that you're cozy back in your body or as your body.

And I hope you have a beautiful day or a beautiful evening.

Thank you.