Guided Nondual Meditation by Michael Taft
So again, remove your glasses, get in your meditation posture, whatever that may be. I’ve gone over the posture several times intimately recently so I’ll just say get in your meditation posture, whatever that may be. Be sure that it feels nice for you straight away.
And, the very first thing we’re going to do tonight is I need you to simply check in with yourself. So, I need you to simply simply, almost like, take inventory or form of like do a weather report in your being. How’s your physical body feel? How’s your mind feel? How do your emotions feel? You already know, how’s – how’s the being doing? And the one thing I need you to ensure that you make an element of this inventory is that you simply just accept whatever you discover, right? So that you’re not judging stuff, you’re not trying to vary it; make it go away, make it larger, or whatever. Whatever you discover I need you to easily accept it and just, , tune in. That is the weather report on yourself and again, it’s not spoken. It’s not like you could have to be commenting to yourself about it. I’m just using the weather report metaphor. Just tune in to the way you’re doing and I’ll be quiet for a minute whilst you try this. That is only a self check-in – hey, what’s it prefer to be me straight away?
Good. Doesn’t must be an extended practice but it surely’s a crucial practice. Just, , be where you’re at straight away, be with what’s occurring and just let that be okay. So, next I need to tune right into a metaphor, a meditation metaphor. And sometimes, as , sometimes we meditate like and sometimes we meditate like Tonight we’re gonna do one which we don’t do that usually, which is we’re gonna meditate like , okay?
So I need you to straight away, okay? You’re meditating like a large bonfire or perhaps a star, right? Like a giant nuclear fire. But whatever kind of fireplace; a bonfire, a star. Some form of blaze of pure fire, there’s not even – unlike a star – there’s not even any fuel. That is just pure fire itself. And the, , after we meditate like a we tune right into a form of groundedness and rootedness and stability. And after we meditate like space we tune into that openness and vastness, right? Within the form of totality of acceptance of space, the indisputable fact that space accepts every part. But after we meditate like fire it’s really mainly about, there’s a few things, but the large thing is just that every part is repeatedly changing, right? And that total change, continuous change is absolutely nice, right? The hearth is just not stuck, it’s not fixed, it’s repeatedly moving, okay? So notice that thoughts are repeatedly moving and changing, moving into and out. The cycle of the breath is repeatedly moving and changing, it’s moving into and out. The sounds of the world around you might be repeatedly changing. In order that’s a side of meditating like fires; the continual impermanence, the change, the flow of every part. After which one other aspect of meditating like fire is, fire is taken into account to be tremendously pure, right? It’s, you possibly can’t get a, it’s like the fireplace isn’t dirty, the fireplace isn’t contaminated. It’s utterly pure, the fireplace is perfectly pure. So there’s a form of exquisite, beautiful purity in this hearth, okay? So we’re not only repeatedly changing moment by moment, every part’s repeatedly in flux, repeatedly flowing. It’s – you possibly can’t step in the identical river twice form of move – but at the identical time there’s a form of perfection, a form of purity in this hearth.
So those are two important qualities. One other quality of fireplace that’s really necessary is that it’s right? It’s not sleepy, it’s not flat, it’s not unconscious indirectly. Fire is energized, it’s awake. There’s tremendous energy there; tremendous vitality, tremendous life force. So we feel a whole lot of juice, a whole lot of energy, a whole lot of , right? A variety of power within the sense of energy. And that’s a very beautiful quality of this hearth, is that there’s enough energy for every part, right? It might be very wide awake.
And regardless that the fireplace itself is pure, a fourth quality is that in a way it burns away all impurity, burns away, eliminates all dross. And this special kind of fireplace that we’re meditating as – has no remainder. When it burns something there’s no smoke, when it burns something there’s no ash. It just is gone; utterly, totally gone. In order that’s why the fireplace itself is so pure. So I need you to simply sit as a hearth for a couple of minutes here, along with me.
So we’re tuning into the fireplace quality, the fire-type meditation, right? And so we’re tuning into this impermanence, this continuous flow and alter. We’re tuning into the purity and the indisputable fact that it may possibly burn away all impurity. And we’re tuning into just the pure energy level, the tremendous energy that’s available; the wakefulness of fireplace.
After which I need so as to add one other element because, in fact – or it’s still the element of fireplace – but one other property of fireplace, which is that, , that is only a metaphor for our own awakeness, right? Our own awake awareness, our own right? Our own naturally occurring, woke up mind, our own Buddhahood. So let this hearth that we’re meditating on – or meditating as, fairly – be tremendously beautiful and tremendously loving and just infinitely powerful. And just feel that lovely, powerful, infinite ever-changing, perfectly pure and highly energized fire that you simply are only effortlessly burning, effortlessly burning.
Okay? Good. Now from here we’re going to do something relatively easy and yet very profound. For the remainder of the guided meditation tonight I’m just gonna, I need you to simply rest as open awareness, changing nothing in any respect, okay? So we’re letting go of the fireplace metaphor, you don’t must visualize that anymore in any respect. I need you to simply rest as open awareness. We will say for now that the open awareness is centered, in quotes, centered in your head. But, it’s just effortlessly and spontaneously all the best way wide open. Tremendously vast without you doing anything to make it vast. Tremendously open without you doing anything to maintain it open, it just is that way. And, as usual, when you end up gripping, grabbing, tensing up around anything – just notice that, let go, come back to simply being effortlessly wide open, okay?
So we’re doing the practice although with a slight variation where we’re imagining, and it’s just imagination – awareness isn’t actually centered anywhere – but for now we’re imagining just slightly bit that it’s centered in our head. But, anything that comes up, when you start getting involved in a discursive thought, you’re following a train of thought, just let go of that. Come back to simply resting as open awareness. If you happen to start following a body sensation just like the breath or whatever, yeah that’s okay, just let it go. Come back to simply resting as open awareness. Let’s do that together for some time here.
If there’s any thought that you simply’re doing it fallacious and you ought to attempt to do it higher, just let go of that. If there’s any thought that you think that try to be doing something, just drop that. Just drop it. If there’s any thought that you simply don’t get it, just drop the thought. As we’re resting within the mind here, any considered any kind that’s welcome to come back and go, but don’t entertain them in any respect. We’re just totally dropping engagement with any thought. We’re not stopping pondering because that might be a form of ‘grabbing up’, but neither are we engaging with any of the thoughts; they’re just happening, similar to respiratory, similar to digesting. We’re not getting involved, we’re just dropping.
And when you notice any negative self-talk, “I’m doing it fallacious, I’m not good at this,” or anything like that, “I’ve tried this for therefore long and that i can’t do it.” Just drop all of that, right? Again, dropping on this case doesn’t mean eliminating, it just means don’t engage. Fairly rest as vast, spacious awareness without engagement with anything.
Okay? Good, now we’ll make a change here. We’re still going to rest as vast, spacious awareness; effortlessly vast, effortlessly spacious, effortlessly aware. But I need you to assume now that as a substitute of being centered in the pinnacle it’s centered in the center. Not on the front of your chest, but deep inside your heart and truly off to where you are feeling, , that deep, deep sense of – let’s say your . And so, the notice now’s coming from this, the emotional center in your chest. And, although we’re still letting go of and never engaging with thoughts, I need you now to be just slightly bit more aware of letting go of and fascinating, not engaging with, any emotional content. So again, emotions are 100 per cent allowed to be there, we’re just not particularly digging into them, avoiding them, attempting to push them away or with other emotions attempting to get them, or savor them, or whatever. We’re simply allowing the emotional stream to do whatever it wants, without us engaging in any way. We’re coming back over and yet again to simply vast, spacious awareness, centered in the center. So each time you end up getting engaged in any way, just calm down and are available back to the current moment of vast, spacious awareness centered in the center. Feel how good that feels.
So, on this vast, spacious sky of awareness that’s centered in the center, emotions may arise in the notice, they might go through the sky of awareness and awareness is fantastic with that. There’s total freedom of emotion. Any emotion can arise on this vast, open sky of awareness and do its thing after which pass away, and yet the vast sky of awareness is just not paying any attention in any respect, special attention in any respect, to those emotions; it just is resting in itself. It’s not engaged or being with, in a selected way, focused by the emotions in any respect. It’s just totally simply resting in itself, accepting all emotions. There’s no good emotions or bad emotions; there’s nothing to vary concerning the emotions. All emotions are fantastic. We’re just resting as vast, spacious awareness, unengaged, uninvolved with emotion.
Okay? Good. Now continuing to rest as vast, spacious awareness, effortlessly and repeatedly. Let’s move the felt center of this awareness – in fact there isn’t any center – but let’s move the imagined center down into our belly. So, slightly bit below your belly button and deep inside, there’s a spot in there that feels form of particular, it feels form of special. And, but , it’s slightly below your navel in the course of your body. And now the notice is coming from there, it’s coming from the It’s 100 per cent embodied awareness and now, not only thoughts are arising on this vast, spacious awareness – and we are usually not engaging them – and emotions are arising on this vast, spacious awareness – and we’re not engaging them. But now also, all body sensation; even everything of the sense of the physical body is an appearance in awareness. It’s not the notice is coming from the body, it’s that the sensation of the body is arising in awareness. And we allow those feelings to arise, they may be painful, they may be nice, but we completely allow them to arise and do their thing and eventually pass away or change. But we’re not engaging with them in any way, we’re not meditating on the body in any way. We’re simply resting our awareness in its own vast, spaciousness without doing anything with it in any respect. But when it starts to become involved in body sensation or thought or emotion; we said we drop those and are available back to simply resting as vast, spacious awareness centered within the belly.
Notice how awareness centered within the body is excellent at dropping the ball, right? We just, the vast, spacious awareness, just allowing the body, to the sensations of the body, to arise and fall. Thoughts to arise and fall, feelings to arise and fall, but with any of them. It’s superb at this, right? The centered within the belly is kind of good at non-conceptuality, so let’s proceed with this.
Good. So we’ve rested as vast, spacious awareness centered in the pinnacle, centered in the center and centered within the belly. But every time I’ve said it’s probably not centered anywhere, so let’s embrace that now and let go completely of any sense of awareness being centered anywhere. It’s simply present awareness, itself is the middle. Awareness itself is the furthest rim, right? The furthest edge. Awareness itself is every part in between. Awareness has no center, no edge and no middle, right? It’s just what every part else is arising in, so just let awareness pay attention to itself. Allow awareness to concentrate on itself. That’s what is definitely resting in vast, spacious awareness. Now spacious awareness is resting in vast, spacious awareness. And let the rest that arise, arises just be let go of immediately; just not even grab all the way down to in the primary place. Awareness showing itself to itself, awareness aware of itself, by itself. Awareness effortlessly vast, effortlessly spacious, effortlessly with none boundary of any kind. Aware of itself, resting in itself, wide awake.
Nothing to vary, nothing to do, nothing to defend; every part just because it is straight away.
Good. Now I’d such as you to simply notice a sensation of joy within the heart-center and permit that joy to radiate out to all beings all over the place on this planet, all beings all over the place within the universe, all beings all over the place within the multiverse. And the identical thing with the sensation of affection radiating out to all beings all over the place. Since awareness is boundless it stretches to all multiverses, or every universe within the multiverse. All is inside awareness, so we feel this joy radiating out to all beings all over the place. We feel love radiating out to all beings all over the place. We feel this can be a positive sense of power, a positive sense of energy. That fiery power that’s so energizing and life-affirming, radiating out to all beings all over the place. Bringing all beings love, bringing all beings joy, bringing all beings health and well-being. Radiating out, spreading all over the place, beaming in all directions. Okay? Good. Very, superb. Now let’s bring the meditation to an in depth.
Dharma Talk
So, although, in fact awareness stays vast and spacious at all times, there’s nothing different within the meditation that makes awareness vast and spacious. So we’re just letting go of the meditation posture and starting to do other things and yet notice that awareness stays vast and spacious regardless of what.
So stretch your body, move your body and shake out your body, whatever feels good. And have a drink of water or whatever as we end the meditation process and as a substitute switch to Q&A. So, if you could have any questions this evening go ahead and toss those within the chat window. I’ve got my special ‘query reading’ glasses on, which principally edit all of the questions. These glasses have an influence to edit all of the questions just all the way down to their essence immediately, and I just read the assets after which try to reply that. It is a Q&A so, , live dharma Q&A. So I’m just not doing anything except answering the questions principally as best as I can. As best I can, or as I sometimes say, I’m just parading my ignorance on the web. Creating my ignorance in recorded videos so people can see it forever! So, these are usually not necessarily in some way the appropriate answers, although they’re, to one of the best of my ability, the right answer. But, they’re my answers, so do my best. You, your mileage may vary, so if you could have any questions or comments please go ahead and put that within the chat window.
Now, the essence of what we’re doing here’s a , right? So, in shamatha without an object we’re, we’re stabilizing awareness. But as a substitute of stabilizing awareness on an object just like the breath, or like a mantra, or possibly just regular body sensations outside of the breath, or possibly external sound. There’s all types of things after we’re meditating that we rest awareness on as a way to form of impart or borrow the apparent stability of the thing, right? That’s what we’re doing after we do shamatha with an object. But after we do shamatha without an object there isn’t any object to borrow apparent stability from, right? There’s no object to borrow a way of a spot to focus from. Now, in fact, our objects aren’t actually stable in order that’s why I keep saying ‘apparent stability’. But they will seem pretty stable in comparison with, let’s say, the, , wanderings of thought. So, in comparison with my mind jumping throughout to the past, in the long run and out and in of things – just gazing a pen like this; ‘pen’ doesn’t appear to be changing very much until we glance very, very deeply. But, until that time which requires stability, the pen goes to appear relatively stable and so we borrow a few of that stability after we do shamatha with an object. But we didn’t do any shamatha with an object this time, we did shamatha without an object.
So, what does that mean? It means, I mean, I’ll state it incorrectly, but it surely gets you want 90 per cent of the best way there. It means the main target object is awareness itself. Now that’s not true since you’re not focusing and awareness isn’t an object. In order that’s why that statement is deeply false and at the identical time you get the thought, which is awareness is resting in itself. Awareness is aware of awareness itself. And, that truly is tremendously more stable than any object that’s arising in awareness, which is at all times, regardless of what, going to be inherently unstable. But awareness itself – quite stable. It won’t be infinitely stable, we will speak about its impermanence or its emptiness depending on tradition and our own experience. But, basically, in comparison with some other object that’s arising in awareness, awareness itself could be very, very stable.
So, in a technique of talking about shamatha without an object, like we just did – dropping the ball practice – like we just did. As a substitute of hanging out with objects; thoughts are objects in awareness, feelings are objects in awareness, the body is an object arising in awareness. As a substitute of getting involved with all that, we’re just form of letting that stuff be and letting awareness just be , right? And rest in itself. And that may be a really, really powerful practice. If you happen to can’t do it, it just means you haven’t got the hang of it yet. Then as a substitute, do awareness, , do shamatha with an object. Then, meditate in your respiratory rhythm or meditate on a pen, , just set it on the table in front of you and calmly stare upon it, and so forth. Because these apparently stable objects will help to form of settle things down within the mind until you possibly can just let go of all that mental kerfluffle and the emotional kerfluffle and all of the things – and just notice the notice that’s the premise of all of them, right? It’s the thing that’s doing all noticing anyway.
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