Who Are You? (A Practice In Awareness)

Welcome,

This is Shane Wilson and I'd like to guide you through a meditation.

This meditation is really designed to allow you to discover who you are and who you're not.

We go through life allowing the ego as some type of I-ness to make the decisions and decide what is right or wrong for us and others.

And that ego as we discover is thoughts,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Memories.

It's a part of the mind that once made aware of it becomes weaker and weaker.

I hope you enjoy this meditation and can use it again and again,

Both in your formal practice and keep this meditation in mind throughout the day when you're doing your everyday activities.

It's something that has to be processed in order to really discover who we are and who we are not.

So please make yourself comfortable.

Close the eyes.

I'd like to have you bring your attention to the aspect of the body and in this situation the breath.

This is something you've done many,

Many times in the past.

If you're new to meditation,

Bringing your attention to the breath may be fairly new,

But still something that you've done before,

Particularly if you've ever had any trouble breathing.

Bringing your attention to the breath,

Notice the mechanics behind that.

What brought your attention to the breath?

What brought your awareness to this aspect of breathing?

That's what I'd like to have you pay attention to while you're paying attention to the actual breathing process.

What is your attention on at this moment?

Is it on some aspect of the breathing that includes the movement of the body,

Such as the rising and lowering of the abdomen,

Or the movement of the chest as it rises and falls?

Or is your attention on some point of the body,

Some area of the body where you feel the breath?

And where is this?

Is this the area of the nose,

The throat,

The abdomen,

Or the lungs?

Where is this point at?

And as we do this practice,

Can you notice your awareness moving around as I make these suggestions as I say these words?

Abdomen,

The nose,

The throat.

Is your awareness moving to these different areas?

And who's in control of that?

We're moving our awareness around like it's a flashlight,

Shining our awareness in different areas of the body.

We haven't strayed too far,

We're focusing on the breath at this moment,

But we're going to go into other areas.

Bring your attention to your shoulders at this moment.

Very basic,

Very simple.

Your shoulders likely produce a feeling of heaviness in a certain way that we're supporting the arms with the shoulders.

And in some respects we're supporting the neck and the head upon the shoulders.

Notice if there's any tension or any discomfort within the shoulders at this time.

We've all experienced the feeling of having the weight of the world on our shoulders.

How does it feel now?

Again feel free to move your shoulders around a little bit to get a good feeling of what is happening there.

But more importantly,

Who is guiding this awareness to the shoulders?

What is behind the movement of this awareness,

This direction of awareness?

Now move this attention or this awareness from the shoulders down the arms and into the hands.

What is felt there?

What do you feel within the palms of the hands?

Is there a coolness or a warmth?

Is there comfort or discomfort within the palms of the hands?

Don't let the mind wander at this point.

Stay with the body.

The instructions are to keep your awareness on the body.

We're going to be moving that awareness around some more.

Bring your awareness to the torso or the trunk of the body.

This includes the area of the chest or the heart,

The upper back,

The middle of the back and the sternum,

And down into the stomach,

And then around to the lower back.

Is there any discomfort or stiffness in the lower back?

The human body is designed in such a way that if there's tension within any other part of the body,

We often first notice this in the lower back in the same way that we did with the shoulders.

How does it feel at this moment?

Can you relax that?

Can you notice the digestion in the body in this area of the torso?

Can you notice the heartbeat?

Just focusing on the torso or the trunk of the body.

No head,

No arms,

At this point no legs.

How does it feel?

Can you keep your awareness there?

Now let's move your awareness down into the hips.

If you're sitting on a chair,

Sitting on a cushion on the floor,

Ask yourself,

Are your hips comfortable?

Do they feel open and spacious?

Is everything in balance?

Is there imagery or visualizations when I mention the hips?

Do you see the hips as a one piece or is there two pieces?

All of these fine nuances,

Are you controlling the awareness and moving it about?

Now let this awareness fall down into the legs.

Relax the legs.

The thighs and the hamstrings,

Shins and calves.

Bring this awareness down into the feet.

When you bring your awareness to this area,

Are the other areas of the body still available?

Are they disappearing or are they there as a result of bringing your awareness to the legs?

And now,

Not forgetting about the breath,

Let's use the breath to relax the entire body.

So every time we exhale,

Mentally sweep the body with relaxation on the exhalation.

Every time you exhale,

Allow relaxation to flow through the entire body starting at the top of the body at the area of the head.

Allowing that relaxation to sweep from the head down into the neck and shoulders and arms,

Torso,

Trunk,

Into the legs.

Every time you exhale,

Just waves of relaxation caressing the entire body,

Sweeping it again and again.

Bringing your awareness to relax the entire body.

Focusing on the body allows us to take our awareness off of other things,

Including the aspect of the mind and the function of the mind.

I'd like to have you release your awareness on the body and actually move it to the area of the mind at this moment.

Ask yourself,

What kind of sensations do you feel in the body?

These sensations are feelings.

This is the connection between the body and the mind.

Is there pleasantness in the body or is there any kind of negativity,

A feeling of negativity as stiffness,

As a feeling of discomfort,

Tension?

So these sensations are coming into the mind.

This information is coming into the mind and actually creating a mood or a state.

It could be joy,

Happiness.

Could be any type of verbal definition of a feeling that is actually something that we can call a state,

Such as discomfort or comfort.

Can feel as if the body and the mind are in harmony.

The emotions of gratitude or love.

The emotions and the feelings or states of happiness or anger,

Restlessness,

Calmness,

Fear,

Anxiety.

Any of these feelings,

Any of these states,

What are you feeling at this moment?

So you're bringing your awareness to the mind.

Notice the mind,

Whether it's concentrated,

Is it focused or is it having a need to wander?

And in that wandering,

What is happening?

Does the mind go into the past?

Does it go into the future?

Notice and ask yourself,

Are you present at this time?

Are you in the present moment rather than in the past or the future mentally?

And who is doing this asking?

Who is doing this investigation of past,

Future and presence?

Who's looking into the mood that is being experienced?

Who's noticing any of the thoughts?

Can you actually call these thoughts you?

Can you claim these as being yours?

Ask yourself,

Where do these thoughts come from?

Even if you have thoughts of the body,

These are present moment thoughts,

Where did they originate from?

Where does the memories that you have come from?

The memories of the past,

Where are these things stored?

And more importantly,

Who is looking for these memories?

Who's looking for this area of storage of these memories?

Is that you?

Are any of these memories you?

Or are they just mental pictures?

And if so,

Who is looking at these pictures?

Is that you?

So what aspect of you could exist within the mind?

Is there something that's able to move this awareness from the emotions to the thoughts,

To the memories,

To the feelings?

In the same way that we are able to take our awareness and move it around the body,

From the head,

To the arms,

To the breath,

To the legs,

To notice all of these different things within the body and the mind.

Who's in control of this?

Is there someone in control?

So let's take a look at awareness itself.

We're able to move our awareness around the body.

We are,

Or something is,

Able to move our awareness around the mind.

So we can actually notice awareness.

We can play with it.

We can notice if there's lots of awareness or very little awareness to some extent.

What's behind all of this?

Throughout our everyday activities we feel as if we are working or we are playing,

We are experiencing.

But yet when we look at it from a deeper level we notice that experiences are arising.

But they're not arising to anyone particular.

They can be noticed.

They can be remembered.

But is there anyone that actually had that experience?

So again ask yourself,

What mood or emotion are you experiencing at this moment?

Is that mood or emotion happening to you?

Or is there something behind this?

When there's anger that comes up or fear that comes up,

What has actually created that?

What's behind that?

If we're unaware we feel as if this is us,

This is a part of us that is happening.

But if we're aware,

If that aspect of the controller or what we can call the witness knows that there's an awareness that is noticing the fear or anger,

What happens to that fear or anger,

What happens to the realness of that fear or anger?

It fades.

All of these negative emotions are made by something that we call the ego.

Even the pleasant emotions and moods and states are caused by the ego as well in a type of manipulation we could say.

The ego is simply something that says,

This is happening to me.

It's a mechanism that is a part of being human as a safety device.

It's a part of the fight or flight mechanism.

It's okay to have it.

It actually does serve a function.

But we can also live without it.

And we can actually live very harmoniously and happily without having the ego or much of the ego being a part of this mechanism that we call mind,

Body,

Life.

So that we can notice that there's an awareness that is watching this awareness.

Is that who you are?

Like this witness,

This unshakable aspect of life that never changes.

It's always there,

Whether you're awake or asleep.

It's always been there.

Always will be there.

So there is the mind.

There is the body.

And when we're doing our everyday activities,

We seem to forget that there's this other aspect,

This witness or this other type of awareness.

And this is the awareness that the ego is actually afraid of because when we realize and understand this aspect of who we are,

The ego becomes very weak.

This idea of self fades away and we become very connected with other things to such a degree that the we and the I and the me and my actually are,

Fade away from the picture.

And this is all a process that we will all understand and live.

This clarity is a part of waking up.

Something that we can look forward to.

But most of all realize that the process is happening right now at this moment.

Ask yourself moment by moment,

Who am I?

Keep in mind this practice,

Who is able to move this awareness around the body?

Who or what can move this awareness around the different aspects of the mind?

Who is that?

Who loves?

Who feels?

Who lives?

Thank you.