Guided Nondual Meditation by Michael Taft
Welcome to guided meditation tonight with me, what’s my name? Michael Taft.
All at once we’re going to do guided meditation, it’s going to go on for an hour and the concept is to take a seat still for an hour, okay? A few things; turn off your phone if it’s on this room and also you haven’t checked turn it off, be certain it’s off, the opposite thing is; there’s a pair things one, again, try not to maneuver and principally you don’t must follow the guidance, right, so long as you sit still and meditate. You possibly can do whatever you would like in your mind, do whatever meditation feels good to you. We’re gonna do something sort of difficult tonight so if you happen to’re into what I’m leading then, by all means, get into it but if you happen to’re like, ‘whoa, not for me,’ then just sit and do your personal meditation and completely ignore the guidance, okay?
So, the primary half, or whatever, is not going to be the difficult part. So at the very least for the primary half hour we could probably all sit together but you’re never required to follow the guidance at any part, okay? So if you happen to just want to take a seat with a bunch and do your personal thing, so long as it’s silent and motionless, you’re very, very welcome to try this.
All right, so let’s begin as usual by checking in with ourselves just how are you doing at once? Notice the thoughts within the mind, notice the sentiments within the body, notice just the final temperature and texture of your existence, and nevertheless that’s, just let that be okay. In other words, there’s no state we’re trying to attain that’s the precise state, fairly, nevertheless you are feeling is nice, nevertheless your mind is at once, nevertheless your emotions are, even when it’s very chaotic, even when it’s very unpleasant, that’s the best way it’s at once and in order that’s perfect. So just tune in to whatever’s occurring and just let it’s nevertheless it’s. For those who just had an enormous temper tantrum about not having enough time then that’s how you are feeling. For those who feel deeply ashamed about that then that’s how you are feeling, right? That’s okay. However, if you happen to’re experiencing total joy that’s okay too. All good.
What if we just start out with the attitude that there’s nothing to alter, that every part is nice, that we’re in a position to totally accept whatever’s happening just the best way it’s, even the state of not with the ability to accept? We will accept that and just allow whatever is to be the best way it’s. Notice how different that is than the everyday attitude of our society which may be very aggressive towards our own experience, very aggressive towards having to alter the best way we feel, and alter the best way we’re, and alter what’s occurring with our thoughts, and alter every part. It’s very aggressive and judgmental but what if it’s all okay? Our mind is could be only a sewer stuffed with chaos and our emotions could be deeply upsetting and random-seeming. What if that, for now, is okay? And we just allow the space for that to be?
And now, I would like you to take the mood or attitude the to make use of the sanskrit word, use the mood, the bhavana, of the sky. So take the mood of the sky, being tremendously vast without boundaries, tremendously open, tremendously accepting. Sky welcomes every part, every part can move through the sky, tremendously welcoming or accepting and, in a way, totally impervious, totally undamageable. The sky is nice regardless of what happens within the sky. Planes can undergo, clouds can undergo, birds. Every little thing happens within the sky however the sky shouldn’t be damaged, sky stays just nice, just the best way it’s.
So take this mood of vast boundlessness and openness and acceptance and even centerlessness. What’s the center of the sky? There isn’t one, it’s just–every a part of it’s the middle. The sky is the closest thing to our own deepest awareness, space, openness, clarity. The one differences are; the sky of the mind, the sky of our own awareness is awake, it’s cognizant, it’s gnostic, it has knowing, it’s not like a rock or a piece of cement, it has experience. So it’s the sky and experience, be that sky. You possibly can’t help but be that sky since that’s your personal deepest nature, it’s open awareness, vast spacious awareness.
Now, I would like you to picture something rising within the sky from the horizon and it’s an exquisite full moon. For those who’re not good at picturing, then just feel the complete moon. See this full moon, which is that stunning cool white against dark, dark, dark blue, rising–effulgent, vibrant, cool, calm and clear. And just picture it, just now, above the horizon, right in the middle of imagination, this perfect circle of a vibrant white moon against dark, dark blue background. And let’s just stick with that for just a little while together.
So the meditation object is that vibrant white circle against the infinite blue sky background. For those who lose it just bring it back up. Remember you don’t need your physical eyes to do that. So there’s no must strain or attempt to focus. It’s happening within the mind’s eye. If you should make it just a little more difficult and just a little stronger of a meditative focus see if you happen to can notice the curvature, the dimensionality of the sphere of the moon
in addition to the depth of the sky, so it’s not a flat visualization. Now imagine that this moon is the sunshine of your personal awake awareness and movie a beam of sunshine coming from the moon into your belly and this beam of white light is bringing energy and playfulness and spontaneity into the body. Filling the complete body with this moonlight brings the complete body into balance, brings tremendous life force and uplift and energy to the body, regulates the body, uplifts the body, turning the body into almost like a crystal bottle full of light or a tent, a white tent full of light. It feels very, superb. Lovely energy that feels healing and soothing and loving within the body.
For those who feel sleepy open your eyes. Do the meditation–even the visualization–along with your eyes open so that you not sleep. It’s essential to not sleep. And now see a second beam of sunshine coming from this moon of awareness into the center center allowing it to blossom into full openness, wide openness, feeling kindness, feeling caring, feeling joy, feeling love beaming into the center causing all of the metaphoric petals of the center to open wide and filling the complete body with much more of this soothing light.
Chances are you’ll notice quite a little bit of energy within the body as you do that, especially as these positive emotions of joy and kindness and caring and love really begin to glow in the center. Just loosen up and let that energy just beam out as light. Clear, crystal body lit up with light. Really feel that joy, that love, that caring kindness radiating out from the center center and radiating into the center, from this moon of awareness, of your personal deepest awake awareness.
Good and now a 3rd light beams out from the moon into the middle of the brow and into the brain filling the complete mind with wisdom and clarity and, most significantly, confidence, an amazing sense of confidence, which shouldn’t be arrogance but a way of knowing, wisdom, clarity. Confidence within the mind radiating out like a vibrant lamp, vibrant shining light within the mind filling the body with much more light, our own deepest wisdom.
Now the three lights within the body come together so the sunshine within the belly moves as much as the center. The sunshine within the mind moves down into the center in order that the center becomes its own vibrant moon of awake awareness. After which, on an in-breath, the moon within the sky comes into the center as well, bringing the wisdom and clarity and confidence into the center, bringing the spontaneity and playfulness and energy and healing into the center in addition to the love and kindness and compassion and joy. All of those qualities shining vibrant. And the shape of the body drops away so the complete body is, as a substitute, just the sky with the moon within the sky, nothing but sky with this moon of vibrant awareness shining inside it. Stick with that now.
Any person’s psychic powers are messing with the lights. So, that’s cool.
Now let go of the visualization and just stick with the mood, an enormous space full of this
awake awareness or we’d just say; an enormous space of awake awareness, tremendously clear, vibrant, awake, kind, joyous, playful, most significantly confident.
Just rest as that sky. No visualization, the sky of awareness is all the time there, it’s just a way of openness and clarity–utterly easy, already present with none effort.
Now let go of time entirely, any considered the long run vanishes upon arising, any considered the past vanishes upon arising. Even thoughts of the current are still thoughts of time they vanish upon arising and we rest in timelessness, which shouldn’t be a time in any respect. We rest in only openness. Without time boundlessness is a sort of spaciousness but without the boundaries of space, timelessness with none boundaries of time. If that seems hard to do exactly ask yourself the query how long has this awake awareness been here? After which look and any sense of future past and even now will vanish into timelessness. Just pure wakefulness in time, pure awakeness, primordial perfection, pristine primordial perfection, just awakeness outside of time and space.
Now, we’re going to start doing the difficult part. So if you happen to’re not feeling up for a challenge then just rest as this primordial awareness. It’s a really powerful meditation to simply proceed with. For those who feel up for some intense tantric stuff, that’s what we’re going to do next but it’ll be difficult. So if it becomes too difficult for you come back to this moon, come back to space, come back to simply resting with this resource space, okay? You’re all the time welcome to bail on it, back to this.
But for those of you who need to take awake awareness for just a little spin I’m going to try this now. So the very first thing we’re going to do it is a sort of trigger practice. We’re going to be really feeling some strong emotions and allowing those emotions to simply be on this space but we’re bringing them up on purpose. So, again, if that doesn’t sound like what you should do at once don’t do it, just keep with this basic space because we may be within the primordial purity like this. But now we’re going to make make an extra move which is moving into spontaneous presence. That’s the form that may arise out of this awareness. And these forms are like rainbows, they’re real experiences but if you happen to attempt to hang on to them there’s nothing there. It’s very essential to know that out of the primordial emptiness basic space experiences arise but they’re also empty.
So here’s the very first thing I would like you to do, it’s easy, I would like you to get in contact with sorrow, your deepest sorrow. And it doesn’t must just be one, it’s things that bring up tremendous sadness, tremendous broken brokenheartedness, all of the suffering you’ve endured, all of the suffering of individuals you’re keen on, the truly sad things which have occurred. I would like you to bring that up as strongly as you may after which allow that have of this sadness to shine like a rainbow in space. It just shines as an experience in space, we’re not negating it, we’re not pretending it’s not there, we’re actually amping it up and allowing it to be there, very strongly. But at the identical time noticing its dreamlike property there–but not there vivid, vibrant, clear and yet intangible. Don’t hold back I would like you to essentially dig into the deepest sorrow you will discover after which stick with it. We keep ourselves armored away from this sorrow, attempting to keep it at bay but now we’re going to completely open to all of it the best way. All of the considered all of the murdered children, ravenous children, the stupidity that causes cruelty that hurts everybody not only our own suffering however the suffering of all beings is tremendously sad. Feel that sadness as sharply as you may now while at the identical time noticing that it’s like an appearance within the sky, the sky of awareness itself shouldn’t be harmed in any way. And we’re not blanking out our thoughts here. We’re really working on bringing the sadness up on purpose. Awareness may be very confident, very brave, and it can’t be harmed so there’s room for this sadness, let it break you open now.
Good, now just spend a moment back with the rainbow, let the image of sadness recede and just rest as this vast spacious awareness, the primordial purity, the pristine emptiness but notice how your presence has deepened. Notice how your reference to openness has deepened. Since it’s armoring ourselves against these feelings that keeps us out of our own deepest awakeness.
Good, next let’s bring up rage, anger, the pictures, the thoughts that make you probably the most enraged, all of the belongings you’d prefer to smash, that sense of tremendous energy that’s there in anger. Don’t hold back. That is the alternative of moving into, feel the anger as intensely as you may, as truly as you may. What are you actually mad about today? Feel it, feel the craze.
And see that this rage is a rainbow within the sky, its spontaneous presence, its form arising in emptiness, a vivid vibrant clear type of rage and yet intangible, not disturbing the sky of awareness in any respect, and the truth is, if we go right into the white-hot core of the craze delivering us back into pristine awareness over and once again. But don’t shortcut it, feel the craze, don’t be afraid of it. Again, it is a very difficult approach to meditate, so if it’s an excessive amount of just come back to simply resting because the sky. Feel that intensity of rage and see the way it actually sharpens the clarity of awake awareness, feel the facility of the dark side,
it’s pure form arising within the vast empty space of awareness, harming nothing in any respect, simply one other sort of energy, one other color within the rainbow.
Good, now let’s let go of that. Coming back to simply space, all form dissolving back into pristine open space. Notice that the space is just nice. Space is unmoved and tremendously open. And see that it’s much more open than it was and just rest as space for an additional moment.
Good, again, take a break if you happen to need a break, otherwise, I would like you to bring up into this vast space of awareness the shape, the shimmering rainbow of fear. This may be just all of the stuff you’re frightened about and anxious about, all of the stuff that you just don’t need to have occur, all of the approach to the undeniable fact that the earth is on fire and polluted and dying, in every single place is war, we’re all getting older, there’s a pandemic, there’s many things to be afraid of. Tap into that raw innovative of fear and feel it shining in awareness, bring up whatever it takes to truly feel some real fear. What do you actually hope isn’t going to occur? Notice how tremendously energizing, fears brings plenty of energy into awareness. The rainbow of fear shines vibrant within the sky of awareness. We’re not resisting it, we’re not trying to manage it, we’re letting it shine as intensely and brightly because it wants, not holding it back. Let the actual fear of fear–just let that go and let the fear be as huge and as terrifying and uncontrolled because it desires to be, don’t hold back. The sky of awareness is greater than large enough.All those thoughts you’re afraid of getting, all those feelings you’re afraid of getting, just let all of it occur. Don’t hold back. This meditation is all about not holding back. Notice, regardless of how afraid you turn into, the sky of awareness is unhurt, unconcerned, just as all for fear as anything, wide open, wide awake. But our contact with this awake awareness may even be deeper, much deeper because we’re not holding back, we’re not attempting to not have this experience. Letting go.
Good, now let’s take a break again, just resting as pristine awareness, just the vast sky with nothing in it utterly pure, utterly pristine empty.
Okay, last one. This could be the toughest one. Again, if you happen to’re overwhelmed, just keep resting as sky, let the vast sky just bring its own peace. But if you happen to’re ready for more I would like you to bring up shame and self-loathing, all of the ways you are feeling silly, ugly, undeserving, broken, fucked up, a worthless piece of shit. Bring that up as truly and deeply as you may, all of the belongings you’ve done unsuitable, that only an idiot could have done unsuitable, all of the ways you’ve let people down, all of the bad actions you’ve done, that sense of real shame and self-loathing, and see that too is sort of a rainbow shining within the sky, vivid, intense, powerful and yet intangible, almost just a mirrored image or a mirage and yet vividly there like a scene in a mirror which you may brightly clearly see and yet never touch. Just shining within the sky of awareness, reflected within the mirror of awareness, and awareness isn’t harmed, the mirror isn’t harmed by what it reflects, in the identical way the sky of awareness can experience this deep, deep shame and be just nice with it, feel kindness and acceptance and caring towards it since it doesn’t harm awareness, this awake awareness that we truly are in any respect times, it’s just one other experience.
Notice how much deeper that takes you into this awake awareness since you’re not avoiding anything, all of the belongings you don’t need to feel you’re open to feeling and it lets you settle into the tremendous, deep, vast, timeless, pristine awareness.
So you may let go of this cloud within the sky of shame and just come back to this beautiful clear open awareness, completely unsullied, pure, unharmed, undisturbed, vast timeless spaciousness. Notice how rather more deeply you’re resting in that with none effort. That is the primordial purity, the fundamental awakeness, unstained, clear, and vibrant. After which feel and see again the moon shining in the middle of the center. This sky in the center beaming out confidence and clarity and wisdom, suffused with kindness and caring and love, shot through with vibrancy and spontaneity and energy, shining vibrant within the sky of awareness, radiating out healing and caring to everyone on this room, shining out wisdom and confidence and nobility to all of the beings in every single place, not only on earth but all other planets and all other universes. Really feel that shining moon suffusing the entire multiverse with joy and love and kindness and wisdom and energy
Superb, so let’s let go of the meditation now. Be at liberty to maneuver and stretch.
Dharma Talk Q & A
All right, that was–for those of you who took part in that second a part of the meditation–that was…that’s real meditation, that’s the good things, right? That’s where we will not be simply gathering resource, right? Gathering resource is vital but we’re not only only gathering resource after we meditate we’re using that resource to rework.
And so we did some real–that’s some very adult industrial strength meditation, touching the magic, right? Really getting in there. So good on you for doing that. For those who do this in your personal practice each day that will be good, right? Really overcoming the barriers, overcoming our barriers of feeling like we–there’s just a lot we wish to avoid, right? But as a substitute what we’re doing here is taking the view of awake awareness seriously, taking the view of the bodhisattva seriously, taking the view of the buddha nature seriously. Our awake awareness really is indestructible and really is unafraid and utterly confident and totally welcoming, really welcoming of anything that arises within the sky. Welcomes every part into it and so we’re taking that at face value after which noticing that wow, there’s all these experiences that I attempt to avoid, there’s all these experiences which might be unpleasant. And there’s such an odd alchemy to life because if we keep attempting to avoid internal unpleasantness life will just get smaller and smaller and smaller, and increasingly flat, and increasingly dull, and increasingly concrete, and eventually we’re essentially dead. It’s like a phenomenon, just get increasingly sensitive to what you don’t need to feel, and every part just gets smaller and more fragile, and smaller and more fragile, until we’re so small and so fragile we will’t do anything.
And so this tantric mood is the alternative, where we go into it–whatever is arising, we welcome and go into it and recognize that awareness is large enough to handle it, large enough to be with it, and large enough to be confident with it. That confidence is tremendously essential. All the time sit with supreme confidence. Why? Because inside we’re already a buddha. Buddhas are tremendously confident. What do they must be afraid of? And so we tackle that mood of the inner buddha and sit with confidence and
notice that whatever comes up awareness can handle it. That, in fact, doesn’t mean we’re all the time able to do such a meditation. We would need some preparation, we would find ourselves in a bit over our heads, which is why you mostly have the in-case-of-emergency-break-glass thing you may pull and just come out and are available back to simply awake awareness and don’t proceed with the practice if it’s too intense.
But over time you’ll notice an odd thing; you get superb at handling the inner intensity even when it’s really unpleasant. But in addition life starts shifting, external life starts shifting quite a bit. So we wish to look into our own awake awareness, look into our own shining core of wakefulness. That is the one thing we all know that we’ve got, right? For those who come back to first principles like what do you truly know? There’s just one thing you truly know and that’s you’re having an experience at once, that’s it. That’s the only knowledge. The lights are on in your mind, you’re having an experience, every part else is–could possibly be unsuitable, every part else could possibly be a fantasy, every part else could possibly be, you recognize, data being pumped into the brain within the fish tank, or whatever, it could all be just totally false. However the undeniable fact that you’re having an experience is completely the one thing that you recognize.
So look into that have at once. That’s it. Every little thing else is thoughts and feelings and so forth, which is nice. That’s all of the form arising, however the wakefulness itself, the experience itself, that’s it. That’s the true knowledge. What can we call this awakeness in Tibetan? We might call it rigpa, right? What does rigpa mean? Knowledge. If we were talking in Sanskrit, we call it vidya. What’s vidya? Knowledge, right? It’s just the one thing we all know. It doesn’t mean knowledge like stuff out of an encyclopedia. It means Oh! The one real thing or the one sure thing having an experience at once. Take a look at that at once, that’s it.
And this shouldn’t be to one way or the other make the world seem insignificant. However the stuff that’s arising in experience–experiences becomes much more fascinating, much more vibrant, crisp, clear, interesting, salient because we’re seeing it as if for the primary time. It’s not all this stale, known, predictable, quotidian mundanity that we’re just slogging through. It’s the one thing that’s experiencing, being experienced at once. It’s right there like a lightning bolt within the darkest night or some sort of, again, shining rainbow right in the midst of the rain, right? It’s as fresh and crisp and clear as anything could ever be. And that’s the angle from which we don’t need to hold back, ‘oh, I would like to see that one rainbow but not the opposite one,’ or ‘I would like…’
We don’t must take this concept of awareness, or the concept of the buddha nature, as some sort of belief system or fantasy or an idea. Please don’t have it as an idea that you just, you recognize, like take a look at. It’s just this fact of your personal awareness at once, that’s the one fact. There it’s, take a look at it now, it’s undeniable. It’s the one undeniable thing. There it’s.
And if we take that at face value, because well, how else can you most likely take it? Then you definitely’ll notice yourself developing tremendous confidence and tremendous fearlessness and tremendous openness. It’s not an boastful, armored confidence. It’s a wide-open, broken-hearted, loving sort of confidence that claims yes.
So again, kudos for having gone there with that sort of meditation. That’s not the sort of meditation that tends to fill meditation halls. If we were only visualizing cute bunnies or whatever, which–that’s nice nothing unsuitable with visualizing cute bunny’s noses, you recognize, it’s all good but that only gets you to this point. And eventually, we’ve to do that. So what do you–it doesn’t must be emotions, we only worked with emotions, but what are you avoiding? And does the notice again, look into it at once, it’s the thing that’s awake at once, it’s not even a thing, it’s just awake awakeness. What’s that avoiding? Hint; it’s not avoiding anything. It has the alternative impulse. It desires to contain every part.
Questions? Comments? Reports?
Questioner 1: Report. That was powerful shit.
Michael: That’s powerful shit. That’s true.
Questioner 1: So, I used to be struck by the last emotion that you just had, shame.
Michael: That’s not an issue for any of us.
Questioner 1: It felt so constricting. I just felt like there was this force around me that was just squeezing me down and there wasn’t a rainbow of any type in any respect.
I noticed the kind of super high-profile teeny little rainbow, I feel it was in rage or anger, but this one just felt like this strong powerful thing and it was just, I used to be just in that place. After which I stayed with it and I used to be just feeling it, I used to be in it. And you then said, ‘okay, now it’s time to return to the openness,’ and I felt lost. I didn’t know where I used to be and thank goodness you said ‘the moon,’ and I used to be in a position to return to that open place. And I just…there was no sense of…I just dropped into it like the underside went out. I used to be like, what the fuck just happened? I’m still in that open place.
Michael: That’s right. What the fuck did just occur? So again, that is–after we try to not feel that each one the time, and it’s a feature of our society, it’s not the feature of all societies. It’s a feature of our society that there’s this core layer of shame and self-loathing that gets embedded. And so, if we’re all the time attempting to not feel that, there’s a complete a part of like there’s a bottom on experience, we’re constrained. But after we allow that in, it could be very intense, right, very intense, but then a breakthrough will occur. It doesn’t mean it went away, you recognize. It’s still there. We’re not–this isn’t like, oh
all of it goes away and you then feel like a completely happy bunny without end. The purpose is that each one of this stuff may be experienced and that openness just gets more open, and as you notice that it’s like the underside went out, right?
So if you should like, if you happen to feel stuck in your practice or I’ve been meditating for thus long and I just don’t appear to get any further, or it’s sort of like there’s some sort of weird magnetic force field holding me back, it’s not a weird force field. It’s the constriction. It’s the need to not feel something. There’s something that we’re holding back from and the sky of awareness doesn’t hold back, right? So we search for the terrible thing, search for the terrible thing in there, the thing that you just really don’t need to notice inside, and it’s going to feel bad, it doesn’t–it’s not prefer it magically feels good.There’s a reason you’re avoiding it, you recognize. It seems like shit.
Nevertheless, once you permit it, again, if you have got enough resource. You don’t need to do that from an unresourced place, or if you happen to’re already feeling overwhelmed, but under the precise conditions you go into that and expose it to this sky of awareness. After which, such as you said, suddenly it’s like open wide and we drop into a totally deeper level of our practice because we aren’t avoiding that anymore.
Am I just saying the identical thing every week? Okay, yeah I’ll get this, you recognize, this stuff are available in waves, so that is the month of non-avoidance.
Other questions or reports? That’s fucking fabulous by the best way.
Questioner 2: What I discovered really interesting was just noticing the several way
each of those 4 flow through me. I felt almost no constriction around sorrow it was similar to oh that is just flowing, after which I noticed with anger and with shame I noticed a number of the constriction. There I used to be like, oh these two, I like sorrow I’m like letting flow, and these two I’m probably not wanting to be there as much. After which I also noticed, really interestingly, with fear that the things that I’m most afraid of, once I invite them and are only a lot less intense than once I’m resisting them. And so it was interesting that that one actually wasn’t as like–it was like more scary off the cushion than on the cushion because I used to be similar to, all right, I’m going to consider all of the things, pull in all of the things that make me probably the most afraid after which they’re just there.
Michael: That is the key to working with fear, right? Many of the fear is the fear of fear. So we let it in after which suddenly it’s not that big of a deal. Yeah, that’s awesome.
Other reports or questions? What’s s in your mind here about this?
Questioner 3: I even have an issue. I assume my query since now a number of individuals are talking about yeah like recession and likewise like two years of Covid how would you
juxtapose this type of meditation with stoicism? That’s very fashionable at once in certain circles or simply usually.
Michael: I mean all this stuff share some stuff in common, right? I feel the major thing with that is that we’re open to life, right? I mean we’re really the true terror of being alive and the undeniable fact that, you recognize, we’re falling through space, and who knows what the fuck? And all we’ve got is awakeness. That’s it and nothing goes to save lots of you. We’re still all going to get old, we’re all going to get–I mean if you happen to’re lucky you get old–we’re gonna get sick. Terrible shit is gonna occur to us and to people we love. And, you recognize, on a very good day you then die.
So that is the situation during which we discover ourselves, right? For those who’re lucky, you only croak. But who knows? Does the notice actually go away? We don’t know. So that is the situation during which we discover ourselves and it’s odd because one way or the other that sounds pessimistic or like really morbid but it surely’s similar to a basic fact. Like nobody’s ever speculated to say this but it surely’s only a basic fact. You can’t deny it. So let’s start from the fundamental fact. Start with awareness itself, which is the one basic fact, after which start engaging with life from the understanding that that is an intense experience.This is absolutely intense.And yet it’s really fascinating how the notice itself is into it. The attention itself loves it. The intenser the higher, you recognize by way of the setup. It’s just as into peace because it is to intensity. But what I mean is the undeniable fact that there are sort of no guarantees is great for awake awareness.
So I’m probably not answering your query but that is what’s coming to mind. I mean I’m not gonna sit there and compare it point by point with stoicism or something. But I feel like that is the tantric mood. The tantric mood–go into it. Regardless of the problem is, go directly into it. And it’s really amazing practice and it’s not only emotional, it’s problems in life. What’s the toughest thing you have got to do at once? Go into it. What’s the thing you’re probably the most afraid of doing? Do it.
That’s the mood and it starts to strip away the layers of mummification and necrotic, you recognize, cement-mind and complete checked-outness that we are inclined to gather to attempt to insulate ourselves from the fundamental fact.
You notice that you just did that to feel comfortable however the more comfortable you
feel in that one particular way the more dead you might be. It’s like a foul trade and yet every part tells us to try this, like that’s the smart thing to do and, the truth is, I’ll sell you some stuff that’ll provide help to do this higher. That’s our whole society. and so we’re just unraveling that. Throw off the mattresses that we covered ourselves with, throw away the numbness of the necrotic flesh, and are available back into vibrant awakeness and awareness at once. I don’t know what else to say. Some other angle on the query?
Questioner 3: No, I mean that was beautiful commentary and truly, I had the same
experience with going deep into shame and sort of falling way too deep into it. Once I just didn’t know what to do and it felt like being thrown out of the helicopter with
no parachute or a parachute that didn’t…
Michael: That’s the precise feeling. That’s tantric.
Questioner 3: Yeah after which I noticed that there isn’t a ground, so then the fear like you recognize falling and dying disappeared because there isn’t a ground. There’s no way for me to die because I’m just endlessly falling. But then if I’m truthfully falling am I actually falling? Or simply suspended in place?
Michael: So then, how did that feel?
Questioner 3: It felt superb. It felt empty and neutral.
Michael: Right, then just come back to that sky, super vibrant clear sky. The error, besides avoidance, that folks make is to only go into the emptiness, right? Such as you gotta start out going into the emptiness since it’s a contrast to being attached to every part on the planet, and so it’s like a giant miracle to search out the emptiness. And that may be very, very cool but the error people make is just to remain there. I’m just going to maintain going into voidic cessation. That feels great but then that’s one other trap like now you only got to go sit in a meditation cave for the remaining of your life because that’s the place you’re finding. You’re in your groove.
So once we’ve got the sky of pure awakeness then we notice the spontaneous presence,
the stuff that arises in experience. It’s probably even the case that we are inclined to make an object out of that pure awareness, but it surely’s not an object, right? It’s empty similar to anything but moreover, it probably doesn’t exist without the stuff that’s arising. It’s probably like that the awakeness and this perceptive stuff, the perceived stuff, the spontaneous presence, the rainbows, the peacock tails cauda pavonis here in our alembic, that stuff is all just co-arising with the notice. They need one another. They invite one another. They arrive together and, the truth is, awareness is empty, the stuff that’s arising is empty however the perception is empty too. But that’s what’s really occurring. That’s all there’s. So we don’t stay in our void. We come into being and are available into experience and are available into what’s happening within the fullness of it, okay?
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