Hello,
This is William Cooper.
Welcome to Awakening Together.
I trust you're doing well.
Today let's meditate together and explore some of the principles that we've looked at recently.
So make yourself comfortable and be in a spot where you can just let go and not be disturbed by others.
Take a deep breath,
Close your eyes,
And begin to relax.
As you relax,
Notice what's going on inside of you.
Perhaps different feelings,
Different tensions,
Different thoughts,
Different emotions,
Different sounds going on around you,
Different sensations.
Feel and be aware,
Experience them all.
And notice the energy in all of them.
If you have deep pain,
There's a lot of energy in that pain.
If you hear sounds,
There's energy in those sounds.
If you feel sensations,
There's energy in those sensations.
Emotions all have energy,
Thoughts.
Energy is animating these thoughts.
So just quietly be aware of them all and experience them as packets of energy.
In the awakened state,
You are radiant with energy.
And it's the same energy.
Nothing changes.
It's the same energy.
The only difference is,
Is it's not contained.
It's not encapsulated in little packets,
Packets of sound,
Packets of thoughts and emotions,
Sensations and pain.
Instead,
It's energy.
It flows.
It glows like light.
In fact,
It is light and bliss and love.
So be aware of this energy for a few moments.
Everything that you will experience when you're awakened is right here,
Right now.
Even the power of the floor underneath you and the light coming up from the floor.
The power that's supporting you as you're sitting wherever you're sitting.
Something is pushing you up and supporting you.
That's power.
Enjoy all this power and light and love,
Even if it is secluded and in packets and behind boundaries and crusts and maybe not flowing,
Maybe stuck.
Still,
Enjoy it.
Deeply sense the power that makes up everything that you're experiencing now.
What would it feel like if it was flowing and completely released as light,
As love,
As peace,
As bliss?
Just wonder about it.
And now,
You might take one of these tensions that you feel in your body or emotions.
Just pick one.
And let's experiment.
What does it want?
Try letting it breathe a little bit.
Say it's a tension.
Let that tension breathe a little bit.
Don't force it to breathe more than it wants,
But maybe just wants to take a little breath in,
Just a little bit,
Just a little bit,
And a little out.
How does that feel to it?
Ask it if it wants to breathe deeper.
Or maybe it would like to have your hand right over it.
Let it soak that in,
That good feeling.
Is that helpful?
I don't know.
Maybe,
Maybe not.
Or maybe it would like you to hug it.
Hug yourself and just feel.
Allow yourself to feel good.
Allow yourself to feel at least some of your love.
And ask that tension if that feels better or worse.
If it feels better,
Then just soak it up.
If it feels worse,
Then stop.
Or maybe there's an anxiety that would like your comfort and your protection.
You can ask it,
Are you scared?
And if it is,
Notice that you have a response.
You can protect it and keep it safe.
I'm not saying that you have the skills to actually keep it safe at this moment.
Maybe you do.
Maybe you don't.
I'm not asking you to know that.
I'm just asking you,
Do you care?
Can you respond and say,
If I could keep you safe,
I would and I will.
And maybe you can.
And see how that tense part that might have felt a little afraid,
See how that feels now.
Does it feel better or worse?
If better,
Ask that part of you,
That tension,
To just soak it up.
It feels better than it did,
So soak up the good feeling now.
Enjoy it.
You've gone to this effort,
So I would ask that tense part of you to enjoy it.
Why not?
Soak it up.
A drop of water and a dry sponge.
Just soak it up.
And if it doesn't feel good,
Let's do something else.
You kind of get the idea of how you're beginning to work with yourself here.
I'm not asking you to change anything.
I'm just asking you to listen and care.
I'm not asking you to know what to do and how to do it in the very best way.
I'm just asking you to listen and respond with compassion.
Love yourself.
And as you do,
As you explore and ask and see what these encapsulated parts of you that are holding so much power,
What they want,
Notice if they begin to relax and if the borders begin to open a little bit.
And let them breathe into that.
Maybe just a little breaths.
Remember,
You're asking these parts of you to breathe or receive just enough that feels good to them.
You don't want them to stress out because you want them to open up.
And really today,
It's not so important whether they open or not,
Just that they know that you care and that you're listening and that's good enough.
When continuing to relax with your eyes closed,
Just notice how you are treating yourself.
Do you ever say difficult things to yourself?
Do you ever tense yourself up or stress yourself out?
Do you do that?
You notice all these things happening inside of you are done by you.
There's nobody else in there.
So just notice some of your old habits.
Maybe they're not so nice or maybe they are.
Maybe it's a mix.
That's probably and most likely the case.
But the reason why it's good to notice this now is because if you notice in any way that you're not treating yourself nicely,
You can stop.
You can notice that because it doesn't suit you anymore.
So you can stop that.
I know it's baby steps sometimes because these habits often have been going on for a long time.
We pick them up from maybe even somebody else and just absorb them and they run unconsciously.
But notice how you might be pushing yourself or beating yourself and notice that you can stop.
But right now I'm not asking you to stop.
I'm just asking you to notice and notice that you can stop when you're ready.
Maybe a little at a time,
Baby steps.
But just notice today is all about noticing.
One more thing.
As you notice,
Notice the part of you that is noticing.
You're noticing stress and tension or emotions or thoughts or sensations or pain or sounds,
Maybe all of these things.
That's what you're noticing.
But the part of you that's doing the noticing,
What does that feel like?
Look at that.
And I'll tell you,
Because I already know,
It's empty in a way.
It's very calm.
But if you follow it backwards,
There's nothing there.
I know it's kind of crazy,
But the reason why there's quote unquote nothing there is because it goes all the way back beyond creation.
And when something's not created,
Technically it doesn't exist.
Only existence or those created things exist.
So that's why you can never find it through normal channels.
But notice you can feel into it almost intuitively and it's very quiet.
And you can notice part of it that is in creation and it's very peaceful and quiet.
The part of you that notices everything is doing just fine.
It notices problems,
But it's not the problems.
It notices stress,
But it's not the stress.
Take a moment and see.
That's perfect.
If everything disappeared,
If the pain or tension or whatever the things are that you're noticing,
Thoughts and emotions,
If any or all of them disappeared,
You would notice that because you wouldn't disappear is the point.
Everything else can go and you'll still be there.
The noticing part of you will still be there.
That's who you are.
Everything else is a mental construct or an emotional construct or a physical construct.
And that's fine.
We need those.
We're in this world.
They're good tools,
But they're not who we are any more than we're not the car we drive.
We're not the body we drive or the emotions we drive or the thoughts we think.
So notice the part of you that's noticing.
And in your normal meditations,
From there you can relax and let everything else unwind.
From there you can be very generous and you have the ability to respond and hug yourself or listen to yourself and have compassion for yourself.
That's called meditation where you just stop and let everything unwind and melt into the beauty that you are.
Beautiful.
So this has been a wonderful exploration.
That's what we're doing today.
Just exploring.
And you can take the same noticing and listening and compassion into your daily meditations.
Beautiful.
I've really enjoyed talking with you and I look forward to the next time.
Take care.
Bye.
