Hey everyone,
Welcome to this talk about meditation and simply being as you are.
My name is Charlotte Brady and I've been teaching yoga and meditation for almost two decades.
Many of you probably have some experience with meditation already,
But I'd still like to start with a basic introduction.
Then I will talk a little bit about how I work and go through some of the ideas behind my approach.
I hope you'll enjoy.
Please rate this talk at the end and let me know what you think in the comments.
Meditation is an ancient method to still the mind and attain self-knowledge.
There are many different meditation techniques,
But only one meditative state,
Abiding in one's inner self or true being.
I like to focus on the most essential,
To simply be as you naturally are.
This can be a little difficult at first because our mind is like a wild horse that resists being tamed.
That's why we need to practice taming the mind so that it allows us to remain in our true being.
When I guide people in meditation,
I usually start with a body scan to anchor the person in their body.
It's a powerful way to quickly become grounded and centered in the now.
After that,
We focus on the breath,
Which is like a bridge taking us to our inner stillness.
Everyone I've ever worked with immediately recognizes this place as a peaceful,
Quiet beingness or knowingness that has always been the same throughout their lives.
It's the most familiar place in us,
But it's also elusive due to its quietness.
It's easy to overlook because the world,
Our thoughts and feelings are so loud.
Thoughts or feelings are usually what challenges our meditation practice.
Perhaps our thoughts are racing and make it hard to focus on the stillness,
Or our feelings demand attention.
Since we have been trained to identify with our thoughts and feelings rather than with our beingness,
It can be tricky to remain silent.
The thoughts grab our attention and meditation is lost.
I see thoughts and feelings as useful tools to engage with the world around us,
But they are not what we ultimately are.
Our thoughts don't define us.
Our beingness is what really defines us.
It's what we are.
We could have any thought or feeling and still exist,
But without our beingness there would be no existence,
Or at least we wouldn't know about it.
It can be very useful to create a little distance between yourself and the thoughts and feelings that occur in you.
That way you make some room for discovery and insight.
I came to meditation through yoga.
I had been interested in yoga since the age of 14,
But this was a time when yoga wasn't popular and there were almost no yoga studies around.
I tried to do it from a book.
It wasn't easy.
In my 20s I took my first yoga class and I was immediately drawn to the sublime peace I felt during meditation.
Later the yoga practice fell away,
But meditation remained.
Then the distinction between meditation and non-meditation in my life disappeared and I remained as conscious being.
I never really leave meditation.
It's always there in the background,
Like a camera that zooms in or out depending on the image it wants to capture.
So what is that inner presence or beingness we all experience?
It seems both personal and impersonal,
Or rather beyond personal and impersonal.
Perhaps this sounds abstract,
But that is only because we never talk about it.
We have never learned to pay attention to this part of ourselves and so we don't really have a good vocabulary for it.
We are taught to put our attention outward,
Away from our inner presence.
Perhaps because the outer world is more tangible,
Easier to describe and understand.
But the inner silence is the most intimate and familiar aspect of us.
We all recognize it once we look.
Meditation as a means to access one's inner silence is very easy.
It's simply sitting with yourself as you are.
It's not grand or difficult,
It's very,
Very simple.
It's not something alien to you that you can achieve.
Rather it's something to discover,
To feel into.
In fact you are not the one meditating.
Meditation is meditating.
That's why I tell my students that they don't have to remember anything I say.
The only thing to remember is themselves.
Not that hard.
How could you ever truly forget yourself?
Not for long.
The trick is to come back to yourself over and over again until you are naturally able to remain as you are at all times.
All it takes is practice.
When I guide you to this point of stillness you immediately recognize yourself.
Although the knowledge is instantaneous,
It can be a process that takes time to complete itself.
It's a process in which you learn to loosen your identification with thought and emotion and identify more as your innermost being,
The one free of any defining thought.
This doesn't mean that you will lose human emotion.
Rather it means you will have full access to your whole range of emotion and be able to express yourself naturally and accurately.
Meditation is a practice to get to know yourself.
You simply observe what's going on inside.
This discovery is endless.
Meditation is learning to sense what you naturally are.
It is learning to listen to yourself,
Your natural voice,
Your stillness,
Your beingness and your knowingness.
From there joy arises.
This is because happiness is a by-product of knowing yourself as you are.
The priceless gift is remaining as you are.
I want to leave you with some words to take with you.
If you remember only one thing,
Remember this.
Nothing is better for you than what you naturally are.
Feel into this.
Sense what this could mean for you.
Nothing is better for you than what you naturally are.
Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.
Until next time,
Remain as you are.
