Hello and welcome in today's guided meditation.
My name is Yakov and I'll be your companion in this exploration of our experience.
To begin,
Make yourself comfortable whether you're sitting on a chair or on a cushion on the floor and take a couple of deep breaths.
Feel the breath where you can feel it most distinctly,
Whether it's at the tip of your nose or in the rising and falling of your chest or abdomen.
Just pick a spot and stay there for a couple of breaths.
And now we will begin our exploration with exploring the contents of our experience and then we'll look at the context of our experience in which those contents appear.
So,
Let's connect with the feeling of our body sitting on a chair or on a cushion.
Feel the point of contact with your seat.
And notice that you don't really feel the body.
All you feel is a changing cloud of sensations.
The pressure and tingling,
The warmth of your palms on the thighs.
The weight of the body.
And we only feel the body as such when we imagine it,
When we project an image of the body into the screen of the consciousness.
So,
If we stay with the raw sensations,
There is no body,
There is just a changing cloud of sense data.
So,
Feel your feet resting on the floor.
Feel your chest and abdomen rising and falling.
Feel your face.
Your eyes,
Your cheeks.
Feel your arms.
And just allow those sensations to come and go.
No need to control them.
No need to focus on them too much.
Just let them change as they will.
And now let's expand our awareness to the sounds around us.
So,
Notice how each sound that appears,
Whether it's the sound of a car driving outside,
Or the singing of a bird,
Or any other noise.
Notice how each sound articulates this space of consciousness.
It punctuates this conscious awareness that we are.
So,
Now we have the sensations of the body,
We have the sounds.
Now let's focus on the thoughts.
Notice that thoughts come and go,
They appear.
Could be images,
Could be bits of language.
Bubble up,
They appear in this aware space of consciousness and then they disappear.
And if you notice yourself getting lost in the thought,
There is no need to judge yourself.
Just come back to the sensations of the body or the sounds.
And just notice how thoughts also appear in this space of aware consciousness.
Pay attention now to the darkness behind your closed eyes.
Notice that it's always present,
That the darkness also isn't quite dark.
There is shimmering to it.
It's like a breeze.
It's a brilliant darkness,
It's not completely dark.
And notice that the darkness is not confined to our visual field,
That it's not constricted by our eyes,
That there is no boundary to it really.
Any boundary we imagine is purely imagined.
It's either a sensation in the body or it's a thought.
Notice that without imagining the boundary,
That aware space,
That darkness is boundless.
It's not confined by anything.
So,
That is the context of our experience.
Thoughts and sounds and bodily sensations are the contents.
But that content is appearing in the context of our aware presence.
They do not limit it,
They simply punctuate it.
They appear within it and as it,
And then they change and they disappear.
So,
When we pay attention in this way,
It becomes clear that we are not our thoughts or our sensations or the sounds exclusively.
We are that aware space in which they occur,
Which is not confined by them and which always welcomes them and gives them their existence.
So,
Now let's explore that aware space,
That feeling of aliveness,
That consciousness,
A little bit more.
Does it have any.
.
.
Eye of me appears within it?
See it for yourself.
What is your experience?
Is it always present or.
.
.
It must be always present because everything we experience that we call ourself or we call our experience or our life appears within it.
So,
It must be always present.
Notice that,
Notice its qualities.
Notice that unless a thought appears within it,
A thought that is seeking something or resisting something,
That aware,
Conscious space knows no lack.
It's not lacking anything.
It is simply being itself,
Noticing itself.
Any sense of lack is only a thought that appears within it.
Without that lacking thought,
There is really no need to change this aware experience,
The aware consciousness.
There is not only no need,
There is no mechanism with which it could seek something because seeking would be just another thought that would again appear within it.
So,
Without that thought,
It is simply being itself,
Noticing itself.
That feeling of an absence of lack,
An absence of agitation is what we know as happiness.
That happiness is not found in the future.
It does not depend on any sensation or thought or sound,
Any other perception that appears within it,
But it is its nature.
Ourself,
That aware presence,
Is happiness itself.
Notice also that ourself,
That aware presence,
Does not resist anything.
It does not resist any bodily sensation,
It does not resist any sound,
And it does not resist any thought that appears within it.
So,
Any resistance would simply be another thought that would also appear within it.
So,
That absence of resistance is what we call peace.
Notice also that this peace is not something that is present in the future.
It does not depend on any sensation,
Any thought,
Or any sound that you experience.
That peace is inherent in that aware,
Conscious presence that we are.
That peace is what it is made of.
And notice also that any perception,
Any sound,
Any sensation in the body or any thought that appears within it,
Appears right here.
It does not appear far away.
No thought is closer to this aware presence than any other thought.
No sound is closer than any other sound.
And no sensation,
Although we may feel like some sensations are closer,
But actually,
Unless we imagine them to be closer,
That is,
Unless we imagine that the sensation in our feet is closer than the sensation in our face,
Unless we imagine our body,
If we stay with the raw sensations in our feet and in our face,
They all appear at an equal distance in this aware,
Present consciousness that we are.
So,
If they're all equally present,
Equally close to that aware consciousness that we are,
Then there is no distance,
There is no separation.
And that is known as love.
So,
Happiness,
Which is the absence of lack and agitation,
And peace,
Which is the absence of resistance to anything that appears within our aware presence,
And love,
Which is the absence of a distance from anything that appears within that aware presence,
Is who we really are.
Happiness,
Peace,
And love are not the qualities of the body or the mind,
The inherent qualities of that aware presence.
So,
When we notice ourself seeking something in the future,
When there is a seeking thought arises that tries to convince us that happiness,
Peace,
And love can only be found in the future,
Notice that that thought is also appearing in that aware presence that we are.
And notice also that in an absence of that thought,
If we just stay with the feeling,
If we just stay with the experience of that aware presence,
Which is with that shimmering darkness,
With that brilliant darkness behind our closed eyes,
That is not confined by any sound,
Any image,
Or any sensation,
If we just stay with the experience,
There is no lack,
There is no agitation,
There is no absence of love.
We are right here,
Right now,
Totally at peace,
Totally content,
Totally loving,
Which is being at an equal distance from whatever appears within us.
So,
There is no need to search for something in the future.
So,
That searching activity,
That restlessness,
That agitation,
That feeling of lack can subside.
That seeking thought that is always seeking something in the future,
That is always seeking peace,
Happiness,
And love in the future,
That thought can finally rest.
We can let it go.
And when we let it go,
Or when it rests,
That aware presence,
That we are,
Shines forth.
It was never really hidden,
It was never absent,
It was always there as the background of all experience that we have ever experienced.
But we tend to overlook it,
Focusing instead on thoughts that convince us that happiness,
Peace,
And love can only be found in the future.
But when those thoughts,
When the mind quiets down,
When those thoughts disappear,
There is no need to search for something,
There is no need to seek for something in the future,
We can just stay in that experience of happiness,
Peace,
And love that is always present,
That is who we are.
So,
Thank you for joining me in this exploration today,
And if you're inclined to stay longer with that experience,
Feel free to do so.
And if you want to conclude this meditation,
You can do so,
Just stretch and open your eyes.
And have a lovely day,
And until next time.
Bye.
