The True Purpose Of Meditation

Let's start today with a couple minutes of focusing on the breath,

Calming the mind,

Coming into the felt sense of the body.

So wherever you're at,

Just bring awareness to the natural movement of the breath.

Feel the duration of the inhalation and the exhalation and the pause between.

Bring your awareness to the felt sense of the body as a whole.

Experience how your body is situated in space and with each exhalation try to release any unnecessary tension,

Holding,

Or guarding.

Thank you all for being here with me this morning.

In last week's class we talked about stories,

How we all have internal stories about how we perceive ourselves,

How we perceive the world around us,

And how many of those stories are conditioned,

Habituated tendencies of the mind.

If we want to grow as humans,

If we want to continue to unfold,

To find our natural state,

We need to work with letting go of these conditioned states,

Of moving towards that unconditioned nature that we all have within.

We have to let go of attachments of how we want to be perceived or seen by others,

Of what we want or think we want.

I'll share a quote from Adyashanti,

Ultimately all of the images we have about ourselves and the world turn out to be nothing but a resistance to things as they are.

I'll read it again,

Ultimately all of the images we have about ourselves and the world turn out to be nothing but a resistance to things as they are.

These are our stories,

These are our conditioned ideas about ourselves and about the world,

And that's more or less what the ego is,

Is it's comprised of these habituated tendencies that create a sense of separation,

That create stories about ourselves and the world,

And ultimately all of those tendencies of the ego,

All those aspects of it,

Are a resistance to perceiving ourselves as we are and the world as it is.

There is a lot of benefit that comes from meditative practice.

We might find that we're more calm,

That we find more joy,

We might find that we are able to experience more of life,

We might find that it's helpful in some endeavor that we're doing because we have greater focus,

It might help us become more effective in our jobs,

It might help us be better at sports,

But ultimately all of these are side benefits,

They're side effects of meditative practice,

And the true purpose of meditation is to awaken to reality as it is,

To move beyond all the conditioned states of mind,

To move beyond the ego,

To outgrow it so that we become more fully grounded in our natural state of love,

Compassion,

And wisdom in our humanity.

We become awake to reality as it is in ourselves as we are in each moment,

Continually changing.

To be awake means to be present and aware fully in each moment.

It's not that we awaken and we realize this is who I am in some sense of self-identity and then we're like,

Okay,

We're here,

I don't have to do anything now.

It's a continual process of being present to the impermanence of ourselves and the world in each moment.

In Kamini Desai's book on Yoga Nidra,

She also talks about the benefits of Yoga Nidra and how it can have many side effects,

And she talks about how it can be a great way to get out of the comfort zone.

She talks about how using Yoga Nidra to just have those side benefits is the equivalent of having a jet plane that we use to drive down to the street to the grocery store.

It can be effective for that.

It can be functional in that way,

But you're missing out on the potential of what the jet plane is for.

And it's similar with meditation.

And I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about this today because I think that there's a tendency to come to spiritual practice because we are suffering.

And at some level,

Many of us,

When we come to spiritual practice and come to meditation,

We are here because we want to be free of suffering.

And that's reasonable,

And that is part of what meditation can provide.

But it's important to realize that to truly be free of suffering,

We need to become fully present with ourselves as we are in reality as it is.

And that process can have periods of being very uncomfortable.

And it's important to understand this and know this going into it so that we are prepared mentally for that.

Otherwise,

It can be too easy to feel like meditation is supposed to make us more and more comfortable,

That as we do meditative practices,

Life should just get easier and easier and we'll just be walking on clouds.

But that's not the reality of the process for most people on a spiritual journey.

The quote that I shared at the beginning from Adyashanti is from his book,

The End of Your World,

Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment.

And the whole premise of this book is to explore this point that the process of awakening can be very messy.

It can actually destroy our world because it's a process of moving beyond all those egoic structures,

All those attachments to self-identity and who we believe ourselves to be.

And so as we are moving along this path of awakening,

We can have a lot of uncomfortable experiences.

There can be times when things seem like they're getting even more difficult or even impossible.

And often that's when breakthroughs occur,

If we continue on the path.

But it can be easy to want to turn away.

And the mind,

With its wily tendencies,

Will often look for reasons to justify giving up,

Turning away from the path.

This is part of the reason that we need to have discipline and commitment.

But we also need to be prepared to know that things can be difficult at times.

And that doesn't mean that we're doing it wrong.

Sometimes it's part of the healing process.

It's a form of healing crisis,

So to speak.

And this is something that we can only do for ourselves.

Others can help guide us.

They can point out the way.

They can give us encouragement and share techniques with us.

But ultimately,

It's our own individual responsibility.

It's a hero's journey to take on the task of awakening,

To face the reality of ourselves and the world and all of its impermanence and all of its beauty and all of its pain,

To realize that it's the play of life,

Of the divine.

So we need to be aware of our motivations when we practice.

And we need to be aware of the true purpose of meditation,

What it is designed for,

That it's a jet plane.

And while it might be useful to make us more comfortable in moments,

Its ultimate purpose is to help us become fully awake to ourselves and reality.

Meditative techniques help us to move beyond the various states of delusion that we tend to get caught in.

And when we start awakening and becoming aware of some patterns and delusions that we might have,

It can be easy to be hard on ourselves,

To beat ourselves up,

To feel guilt or shame or judgment about those tendencies that we suddenly become aware of.

And yet,

This is still another trick of the mind and the ego trying to pull us back into separation.

And that's why we must have an incredible amount of self-compassion.

We have to be firm with ourselves in our dedication and commitment and to take ourselves to task when appropriate,

When we can do better.

But we also have to be extremely gentle and compassionate with ourselves to know that we are human and we all make mistakes and that this is all part of the journey.

And so there always has to be that balance of gentleness and firmness of yin and yang.

The ego is primarily concerned with keeping us comfortable and with keeping us alive and trying to achieve happiness through fulfillment through fulfillment of desire and avoidance of things that we dislike.

And it makes sense,

Right?

Isn't that how we get beyond suffering is to do what is enjoyable and not do what is not enjoyable?

And from a conventional reality,

That might make sense,

But then we miss out on the ultimate reality.

It also tends to be fairly short-sighted because we don't end up realizing the consequences of those choices.

And we don't realize the necessity of difficulty and pain in our journey and how they're often some of the greatest instigators of growth.

And so we need to move beyond those egoic tendencies to move beyond attachment to life and aversion of death,

Move beyond attachment to pleasure and aversion to pain,

And to realize that all of these things are transient,

Impermanent,

And cannot offer lasting happiness.

That we are empty of any inherent essence.

There is no part of me that is Thomas that I can point to or experience.

I,

As Thomas,

Am a conglomerate of cells,

Of organs,

Of tissues,

Of energy,

Of emotions,

Of thoughts,

And all of those different aspects of self have been affected by every experience throughout my entire life.

And I am continually changing.

Cells are continually dying off and new cells are being born.

And half of what I consider to be me in this body is actually microorganisms,

Bacteria,

Viruses,

Things that we would typically think of as other.

And yet that's an integral part of what makes this body function as a whole.

And it couldn't function without all of those microorganisms.

So I,

As Thomas,

Am an entire universe of different beings,

Of different experiences that is connected to infinite other universes in this world.

And each of you are a universe and are impermanent and changing.

And understanding this can help us loosen the attachment a little bit to the ego,

To the sense of I am Thomas.

And instead just realize I am.

I am consciousness.

I am the divine having a human experience in this form.

But we are all always connected to that underlying unity.

And meditative practices help us to calm the mind and bring it to a greater place of stillness so that we can experientially realize these truths.

So it's not just a philosophy of the mind that sounds nifty.

All of these things can actually be experienced in real time.

In order to do this,

We must first gain stability,

Stability in our minds,

Stability in our ability to concentrate.

Because most of us humans have minds that are minds that are continually active,

Continually caught in attachment and aversion.

And there's always these streams of thoughts and judgments and everything going on within.

And that's what keeps us in a level of separation and away from experiencing the underlying truth of who we are.

And so gaining stability in the mind brings us to a level of stillness,

Which is very peaceful,

For one.

That's one of the nice side benefits.

And with peace,

We experience wholeness.

We experience the inner perfection that we have.

And as we gain stability with the mind,

We're able to focus on anything that we choose to.

And then once we have that stability,

We can make the choice to choose to focus on our true nature.

We can turn that gaze within and experience our unlimited potential,

Our true nature of compassion and wisdom.

We can experience the unity that we are always a part of.

But in order to do that,

We have to first create the stability and the focus and the discipline.

And as we move in this direction,

We find that we naturally begin fulfilling our purpose.

At its core,

Our purpose is to be,

To experience ourselves as we are,

In reality as it is.

There's a quote from Ramana Maharshi that I really appreciate.

Your job is to be,

Not to be this or that.

And when we're resting in a state of being,

Life will naturally unfold.

And we'll find that there is no one right way for us to be all the time,

Or one right way that everybody has to be all the time.

That part of the beauty of the journey is the continual unfolding of life and its complexity of names and forms.

And part of awakening is moving beyond ideologies.

You know,

There's some people who think that they are awake when really they've simply been conditioned in a different ideology.

But because it's different than what their previous conditioned state of mind was,

And it feels new,

It can be easy to think that now I'm awake.

But as long as we are attached to any ideology,

Any strict idea that everybody has to be a certain way,

It means we are not awake.

It means that we are still caught in a conditioned state of mind.

We are still caught by ego.

This is where all dogmas come from.

And so much of the unnecessary pain in the world,

And the fighting of different religions,

Of believing that they have a grasp on the absolute truth,

Or we have a grasp on the absolute truth,

When the truth is far,

Far too big,

Too pervasive to ever be contained in one set idea,

Or model,

Or theory,

Or religion.

And if we attach to an ideology,

It means that we're mistaking a conventional truth for the ultimate truth.

And it keeps us in a state of suffering and separation.

I'll share a quote from Hazrat Anaya Khan.

In balance lies the whole secret of life.

All religions and philosophies have laid down certain principles,

Such as kindness,

Truthfulness,

Forgiveness.

But the mystic lays no stress on principles.

He allows everyone to have his own principles,

Each according to his point of view and evolution.

For example,

There are two men.

One is so merciful that he will not even harm an insect,

And he could not draw a sword to kill another human being.

While the other man,

For the sake of his people,

Is content to fight and to die.

These are two opposite points of view,

And both are right in their way.

And so as we journey on the path to awakening,

It is important to realize that there are many different paths,

And that we all have different roles to play in the unfolding of the world of form,

And that ultimately,

We'll have insights and realizations along the way.

But the greatest realization is to move beyond all conditioned ideologies and to realize experientially our true nature to awaken to reality as it is.

So if you will,

Let us practice.

Please find a comfortable and stable posture for meditation.

You can be seated or lying down.

The most important thing is that you have a stable base beneath you that allows you to release any unnecessary tension from the physical body,

From the emotions,

And from the mind.

Once you arrive in your posture,

Become aware of the natural movement of the breath.

It might be long or short,

Shallow or deep,

Choppy or smooth.

Simply observe the natural movement of the breath.

If thoughts come in,

Or the mind starts to wander,

Gently but firmly guide the focus back to the movement of the breath.

Begin abdominal breathing with each inhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently expand.

With each exhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently contract,

Keeping the shoulders and chest relaxed and still.

With each exhalation,

Allow the awareness to settle more into yourself,

Using the exhalations to relax any unnecessary tension or holding from the body,

Emotions,

And mind.

Now,

As you continue abdominal breathing,

Begin counting internally the duration of the inhalation and the exhalation.

So as I inhale,

I'm counting one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

There's a pause.

And as I begin to exhale,

I count one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Try to keep the inhalations and exhalations even in duration.

It might be three seconds for each,

Four seconds,

Five seconds.

Whatever is natural in this moment.

Continue counting the inhalation and exhalation,

But bring more focus to the pauses that occur between inhalation and exhalation and exhalation and inhalation.

Notice the stillness that occurs in each pause.

Now,

You can drop the counting,

Continue breathing,

But allow awareness of the breathing to move to the background and in the foreground of your awareness.

Focus on the stillness beneath the movement of the breath.

Realize that the stillness is always right here,

Right now.

Become aware of the felt sense of the body as a whole.

Feel the stability beneath you,

Supporting you,

Holding you up,

And the air around you in which you are immersed like a fish in water.

And when you are ready,

Maintain a connection to the stillness within as you gently and slowly begin to open your eyes,

Taking in the world around you,

Seeing the complex,

Changing world of form as a container for the divine to experience itself.

You all have a true nature of love,

Compassion,

And wisdom.

You are all the divine embodied in form.

And while it can be very hard being human at times,

We all have the ability to move towards experiencing our true nature,

To use difficulties and obstacles as opportunities to surrender,

To let go of resisting things as they are,

And instead to embrace them.

Thank you all for joining me today.