Hello and welcome into this guided meditation where I want to use the biblical story of the prodigal son as a metaphor for exploring how our restlessness,
Our spiritual search.
Maybe also the search for pleasure in material pursuits eventually leads us to to returning home to ourselves and we recognize that the home,
The place we've been searching for all along was was very close,
Was closer than close.
So in the biblical story,
The prodigal son leaves his father and wanders into a far-off country.
And after many tribulations returns back and is welcomed by the Father.
So on the surface it seems that the story is about forgiveness,
It's about the generosity of his Father and those wonderings of the Son.
But on a deeper level I believe that all of us,
Every person,
Every spiritual seeker repeats this,
Relives this story of the prodigal son.
So what do I mean by that?
We have is a form of restlessness,
A form of seeking for something that we follow so often it takes the form of searching material possessions everything we we buy makes us happy for a short while then at some point we recognize that that is not enough so often that's how we become spiritual seekers that was my experience i that even though I was buying myself new things,
New experiences,
New books,
Clothes,
Etc.
,
New travels,
The deeper dissatisfaction never actually disappeared.
It could only be.
.
.
Satisfied for a short time.
That's how we become spiritual seekers.
And in that spiritual search,
We start looking for something outside of ourselves,
Some deeper experience.
So if we meditate,
For example,
We seek some transcendent state.
We seek something outside.
So that is also a form of wandering off.
A form of seeking a far far away land but What I want to explore today with you is that The home.
And the Father that always welcomes us is that consciousness that is the ground of our being in which all this searching was taking place all our lives.
So.
Going back to the metaphor,
The Father that welcomed the Son is our consciousness,
Is our awareness that we return to,
That we turn back to.
And we recognize that actually what was doing the searching all these years,
What was doing this seeking is that consciousness that we were all this time.
So I don't want it to be theoretical.
So let's do this exploration together.
So if you can sit a little bit straighter than you were.
And take a couple of deep breaths.
So,
Feel.
Feel the breath where you can feel it most distinctly,
Either at the tip of your nose or in rising and falling of your chest.
Wherever it's.
.
.
Easier for you.
And now I want you to notice this sense of aliveness.
You can feel it as that darkness behind your closed eyes.
You can feel it as that.
Tingling.
In your body.
Or it just,
You can feel it as a sense of I am So we definitely know that we are alive We can feel it So now.
.
.
Let's pay attention to sensations in the body.
For example,
Notice your feet.
And their point of contact with the floor.
Notice your hands resting on the on your thighs and notice as well your chest And rising and falling with every breath you take.
So now.
.
.
Let's pay attention to the thoughts that.
.
.
Arise and linger and disappear.
So notice the next thought very clearly.
Whether it's an image.
Or a bit of language.
And just notice that Even those thoughts appear.
We are not our thoughts.
Because we can notice them.
And we can notice them coming and going.
So we are something.
Greater than our thoughts.
We are something greater than the body sensations.
We are something greater than the sounds that also appear and disappear.
So.
In our wanderings,
In our spiritual search,
We've been searching for some special state.
Perhaps.
The clarity of mind.
State of high energy A state of deep calm.
But notice that all of those states They appear in this space of awareness.
Is alive.
So every thought,
Every sensation,
Every sound.
.
.
They appear.
As their content.
Of the context which is that awareness,
That consciousness that we really are.
So in a sense,
We've been searching for.
.
.
Something other than this.
Awareness that we are beyond the content.
We've been searching for something other,
Not recognizing that all this time it was awareness that was looking for awareness.
It was consciousness that was looking for consciousness.
It was that sense of aliveness that was searching for some special experience,
Some special state.
Not recognizing really that.
All those states,
They come and go.
All that content comes and goes.
But what is unchanging?
What is constant?
Is that sense of aliveness.
So that's.
.
.
Is our spiritual home.
That is the home that eventually we return to we turn back to and we recognize that it is the home that we never actually left because it is what was doing all this searching.
So it's like trying to get back closer to your own body.
Yeah,
No matter where we go we can't get any closer to it because we take it with us.
So in a sense.
.
.
We can't,
In spiritual experiences,
They're fine.
They're nice and can be very pleasant.
But what we've been searching for,
That sense of calm and peace,
And happiness was available to us all along beyond the content,
Which is the changing thoughts and sensations and sounds.
As soon as we recognize that,
As soon as we realize that we are already that for which we have been searching for.
Soon as we recognize that we have turned back,
We have come back home.
And the father in that metaphor is that awareness that we are,
That intimate but impersonal awareness,
That sense of aliveness,
That dark space behind our closed eyes in which every experience we ever felt in this life was appearing.
So that is the home we return to.
So.
.
.
Let yourself sit back,
Sit sometime with this realization,
With this feeling.
And I hope it's been useful.
In showing that we can essentially.
.
.
Come back home anytime because we never actually left.
The home we've been searching for is the very home that was doing the searching.
Thank you for listening and have a great day.
