Live Guided Nondual Meditation by Michael Taft
Hey everybody! Welcome to tonight’s guided meditation, guided nondual meditation. Let’s begin immediately. Okay, let’s start meditating right out of the gate. So what I would like you to do is to take your meditation posture. As usual this implies to take a seat up nice and straight. I’m in a chair here at a desk, but when I move the thing there, then I can sit up. And what I do is you sit away from the back. Right, so you progress forward within the chair barely enough that you just’re not leaning on the back, but as an alternative sitting up, supporting your back along with your back muscles. After which move your legs in such a way that your knees are no less than the identical level as your hips and hopefully lower.
You may sit forward enough on the chair your knees will go lower than your hips. Be sure that when you’re in a chair that rolls that it doesn’t roll out from under you when you do this. And then you definately just sit up nice and straight. And you realize that last little little bit of straight is getting the highest most point of your head form of pulling upward only a tiny bit. And that makes your chin tuck only a tiny bit or your tin chuck depending. After which when you get your spine feeling form of straight up and down like that, I would like you to simply wave it slightly bit like a young sapling in a fresh rainy breeze, very nice breeze, with some water and a few wind. After which step by step settle to that perfect spot where it feels just completely each upright and relaxed.
All the time remembering that this is a component of the physical embodiment of realization or no less than a concentration of nice collection gatheredness, unification of mind is that it’s each alert and relaxed. So we now have our body alert with the upright spine and the whole lot else within the body is relaxed. In order that’s how we do this.
Okay, now I would like you to tune in along with your own, just the way you’re feeling immediately. Just tune into your mind, your emotions, your body. Just what’s it wish to be you immediately. Just tune in for a moment and check in. Check in with yourself. And don’t just deal with one thing, like oh I’m just nervous concerning the keys or whatever. Notice how does your body feel, how’s your emotions feeling, how’s your heart, you realize, how’s your heart feeling? Just tune in like this. What’s it wish to be you immediately.
After which from here I would like you to note your intention or let’s imagine your motivation. Why are you meditating? Come back to why are you meditating every time. It could possibly be, like you realize, a tactical goal like I’m meditating to recover at concentration. Or it might be something very big like a bodhisattva vow – I’m here to repair all of creation; I’m here to bring love and kindness and compassion to all beings. Or it might be something form of in between like I’m meditating to be a kinder person with an open heart each day, something like that. Whatever it’s for you. Go ahead and consider that now. And really get clear, so it’s not only “oh I’m meditating like brushing my teeth because someone said it’s good for me.”
And now the following thing we typically do is gather resource, gather resources and that could be the visualizations of deities we do, or visualizations of varied objects that symbolize our own pristine awareness, our own rigpa after which we work with that. Tonight I would like to do something different.
So you possibly can sit along with your eyes closed again. Normally in nondual practice we sit with our eyes open, but for this part you possibly can close your eyes. And I just want you to spend the following five minutes considering of things that you just’re grateful for. And for every thing that you just’re grateful for I would like you to truly say out loud, I’m grateful that I had such a pleasant bike ride today, I’m grateful for the attractive colours of sunset that I’m seeing out the window immediately. And it might be anything in any respect. The one stipulation is you might have to mean it. You’ve gotten to truly feel grateful. And you possibly can say the identical thing again and again if it’s too hard to think about belongings you’re grateful for. But for the following five minutes we’re just going to do gratitude practice. And also you’re going to note that that’s form of melting your heart, melting your armor, opening you up, tuning you in. It’s a beautiful practice. So let’s do gratitude practice for five minutes here.
Keep just considering of things that you’re feeling grateful for and just noticing. You don’t have to think about them fast. Just consider one and just feel that gratitude. Really feel the smile, the nice and cozy smile of gratitude and the meltiness of the guts. Let’s keep going.
Okay, good. Now the following thing I would like you to do, that is slightly harder, but I would like it to be a continuation of this heart opening and armor dissolving opening here. And so as an alternative of gratitude now I would like us to do forgiveness. So just think of people that you forgive, or things or situations that you just forgive and don’t do it with belongings you’re not able to forgive, okay. So I don’t want you to get all certain up and distressed, but quite, only situations and other people and things that you just truly feel able to forgive. I would like you to simply again bring it up, give it some thought and say aloud you realize so and so, I forgive you. After which feel the forgiveness. See them in your mind’s eye. Forgive, forgive, forgive and see your heart relaxing and opening. And in fact you possibly can forgive yourself too. So let’s practice some forgiveness here.
If there’s any individual or something you could’t forgive all the best way, are you able to forgive them partially, no less than slightly bit, no less than for some things? Let’s clear the decks, our internal system. Let’s clear it entirely of the whole lot that we’re holding on to that we currently have the capability to forgive in order that we’re now not holding on to that. And so even when there’s something, you realize someone who you possibly can’t really forgive yet all the best way possibly there’s among the stuff you possibly can forgive and deal with that. Again this is just not about getting wrapped up within the stuff you possibly can’t forgive, but we’re getting nice and heart-melty and staying open and relaxing tension via forgiveness.
Notice how, as you realize we tune into our gratitude and we tune into our forgiveness you may start feeling teary-eyed and your heart really you realize wells up. Your heart gets really big. It’s an enormous relief to let go of the things we’re holding on to and just allow ourselves to forgive. So that is one other way we are able to gather resource, not only visualizing deities and our own pristine awareness, but in addition practicing gratitude, practicing forgiveness. That’s constructing our resources, that’s constructing our resilience, right. The more that we let go like that, the more things that we genuinely are grateful for, the more things those who we generally forgive, the more resource, the more resilience we now have available. And you possibly can feel that now, right. You are feeling quite different after doing that.
Now let’s tune into our shamatha with an object. We’re going to start doing something with an object on just the breath. And so that you’re respiratory in and feeling that respiratory in sensation and also you’re respiratory out and feeling that respiratory out sensation. And you possibly can do that along with your eyes open, resting as vast spacious awareness and just allowing the sense of the breath to return and go in awareness. If you would like to close your eyes and do it form of the more closed in, focused way that’s okay, but I like to recommend sitting along with your eyes open and just feeling that breath coming and going like a wave in awareness. It’s very nice that way.
Again, just resting as vast spacious awareness, feeling the breath wave come and go. But I would like you to note the minute the in-breath the moment, the second the millisecond the in-breath involves an end. And spot you don’t should do tight laser beam focus to try this, you only are aware, noticing, noticing, noticing, aware, aware, aware, when does the in-breath end. And same thing as you’re respiratory out, respiratory out, respiratory out, respiratory out, when does the out-breath end. And a vital caveat here is, don’t manipulate the tip of the in-breath or the tip of the out-breath so that you see it. Right, just wait for it to naturally occur. But make sure that you catch the tip of the in-breath, end of the out-breath with each breath cycle.
Now don’t miss a single a part of the breath wave. Again you don’t should drill down. You don’t should be doing micro deal with this. You’re resting as vast spacious awareness and the sensation of the breath wave just arises in awareness and passes away in awareness. But I would like you to pay attention to every little moment of that breath wave. Don’t miss any of it and particularly notice the tip of the in-breath, particularly notice the tip of the out-breath. Those are special emphasis points, but you’re also noticing the remaining of the entire breath. So allowing the breath wave to to actually be clear in awareness, noticing every little a part of it. Let’s do this.
I would like you to sink into this much more deeply. Allowing that breath wave to fill vast spacious awareness. After all, vast spacious awareness is vast, but that breath wave becomes very, very obvious. Very, very clear and also you’re not missing a millisecond of it. And the breath wave is so big it form of just pushes thoughts out of the best way. We’re not on purpose doing that, however the breath wave is so big and so clear, it just form of dominates the spacious awareness. It’s really very clear in there and also you’re particularly aware of the tip of the in-breath. you’re particularly aware of the tip of the out-breath. And the remaining of the time that breath wave, that feeling of the breath rising within the body and the sensation of the breath falling the body may be very clear. You’re staying with that. You’re almost resting with it or riding it. Very effortless.
Notice that awareness of the breath doesn’t take any effort. Awareness is already aware. And so the attention of the breath just is there. Rises in awareness, passes away in awareness with none effort required in any respect.
Good. Now, with only a slight shift in emphasis, remaining resting as vast spacious awareness, just let go of intentionally being aware of anything and even intentionally doing anything. We’re just resting as vast spacious awareness, already awake, already aware, already vast. There’s nothing to do in any respect. Now when you end up doing something like engaging with a thought, just drop that. For those who end up attempting to meditate, just drop that. For those who end up attempting to do anything in any respect, that’s doing. Just just drop it. Come back to easily resting. And this is just not a sleep form of resting we’re very, very, very awake but we’re not doing anything in any respect including following thoughts. So it’s not about sitting and just being distracted because that’s actually a doing, that’s following trains of thought. So when you end up following a thought, just drop it.
Now for some people the word ‘drop it’ is just too strong. They become involved in a struggle. This is just not a struggle. For those who’re struggling, drop that. Right, so we are able to use other words besides drop it. We will just say just ‘let it go,’ we are able to say just ‘let or not it’s,’ whatever, but we’re not doing. That is total non-doing. Letting go or dropping is just not a doing. That’s a relinquishing.
Okay, good. Now we’re going to do something that takes slightly little bit of effort. we’re all already existing buddhas, already existing bodhisattvas. Our pristine awareness is already fully enlightened. There’s nothing to do on that level. On that deep level there’s nothing to do. You’re already wide awake, but often we don’t recognize it, we don’t see it. And so it’s easy for me to take a seat here and say hey you’re all fully woke up buddhas, we’re all fully woke up buddhas, but you is perhaps considering yeah, but I don’t see it. Well why don’t we see it? We don’t see it due to our belief system. We don’t see it because we now have ideas that we are able to’t be that and these ideas get in the best way because we’re fully woke up buddhas. Our thoughts like which have real power to influence our own minds.
So immediately I would like you to take a look at whatever thoughts you might have and so they’re going to sound like this: I’m not adequate to understand my buddhahood; I’m too broken to understand my buddhahood; I don’t deserve it; I’m too fucked as much as ever really notice my very own buddhahood; oh I’ve tried for years and nothing works; possibly it really works for other people, but I can’t do it. Thoughts like that. I don’t know the way it sounds exactly for you and it is perhaps in your personal language, or it would you realize arise in a very different way, but whatever that’s for you want, I’m too broken to ever recognize this buddhahood Michael’s talking about. Let’s pretend that’s the thought, I would like to listen to that thought in your mind. Bring it up whatever words are the actual thought for you and listen to those words as empty. Hear those words as just sounds passing through this vast sky of the mind, utterly empty, utterly dissolving, utterly passing, utterly not true. Okay. More often than not emptiness doesn’t mean things are true or not true. That’s not the purpose. Even true things could be empty, but on this case it’s also not true.
In order those thoughts come up, just see them as empty. okay. Any thought that you just’re not adequate. Any thought that you just’re too broken, any thought that you just’re too lost, any thought that you just’re too old, any thought that you just’re too silly. Anything like that. We now have all types of thoughts like this. That is only for other people, I’ve tried too hard and it doesn’t work. All of that. All of those thoughts are completely empty. So I would like you immediately to bring those up over and yet again and see that those thoughts are each empty and never true.
Keep in mind that because we’re already existing fully woke up enlightened beings. , Green Taras, Buddhas, Shiva, Shaktis, whatever your belief system, whatever probably the most sacred, most awake, most compassionate, most loving being is, we’re already all that. And so it doesn’t matter what the thoughts are. They could be things like I used to be abused a lot as a toddler I can never recognize my buddhahood. That thought is empty and it’s not true since the buddhahood is stronger than that. That’s to not negate what happened. It’s to not say it doesn’t count, but when it comes to your already existing buddhahood, that may heal all that. In order that’s an empty and incorrect thought. I actually have experienced an excessive amount of trauma and the trauma blocks the whole lot. It doesn’t block your personal buddhahood. That thought is empty and unfaithful. Notice that now.
One other one can be I used to be an excessive amount of of an addict, I’ve just hurt myself an excessive amount of, I’m too sick to acknowledge my very own buddhahood. No that’s not true. The Buddha never ever was affected by any of that for even one moment. Your buddhahood is beyond all that. It could possibly assist you to to heal all that and you possibly can connect along with your own already existing enlightenment despite all that. So all of the abuse we’ve suffered, all of the trauma we’ve suffered, all of the terrible things we’ve done to our body, none of that gets in the best way of recognizing your buddha nature, right. The buddha nature can recognize itself since the buddha nature was never hurt in any of this.
The buddha nature is flooding you with acceptance, self-acceptance and confidence and love and kindness at every moment. And the buddha nature is what you actually are so even in case your physical body is hurt, even in case your psychology is hurting, all that, that shall be healed and that doesn’t get in the best way of recognizing your buddhahood. So notice that those thoughts are empty and unfaithful, empty and unfaithful, empty and unfaithful. Possibly there’s things that may’t be healed, however the Buddha, the already existing buddhahood still recognizes itself beyond all that. So notice the emptiness and never trueness of those thoughts now and release them, allow them to go. They will now not block your recognition.
Good, now let go of that and I would like you to simply come back to resting in vast spacious awareness. Wide awake, totally clear, utterly effortlessly awake, aware and still. If anything comes up and we become involved in it, we just chill out and relinquish that involvement. We remain completely uninvolved with the whole lot. We’re just aware, effortlessly wide awake like a buddha, effortlessly utterly aware.
Good, now resting as vast spacious awareness, wide awake, utterly clear, I would like you to simply have the intention for this awakeness to note itself. There’s nothing to do, you possibly can’t do that, but you possibly can intend it, so just allow awareness to see itself. Allow awareness to pay attention to itself after which just rest again.
Just allowing or intending that awareness pay attention to itself. Don’t do anything in any respect, there’s nothing to do. For those who do anything you’ll get in the best way. so just allow awareness to pay attention to itself. Allow awakeness to see itself after which just rest doing nothing.
What if there’s nothing to alter? Just let go of trying to alter anything completely. What if there’s nothing to do? Just let go of doing anything now. What if the whole lot is already completely perfect just the best way it’s? Let or not it’s perfect just the best way it’s. What when you’re already perfect just the best way you might be? Just allow yourself to be perfect just the best way you might be. Resting as vast spacious awareness because the buddha mind. Just resting as clear, crisp, brilliant awakeness aware of itself doing nothing in any respect.
The urge to alter something comes up and also you grab on, just chill out, let go of that, drop it, just come back to rest. The urge to carry on to a thought, to do something comes up. Just let go of that thought, don’t do anything, just chill out and open and remain open. Naturally, open naturally, awake, utterly effortlessly brilliant and clear.
Good, now let this already awake, fully enlightened buddha that you just are, beam love and caring and kindness and joy and strength and health and love and sweetness and kindness to the entire world. Just allow that. It takes no effort in any respect due to the facility of a buddha. Just let that stunning energy shine and shine and shine and spread to all beings, all people and animals around you, all people and animals and beings in every single place on the earth, in every single place in all worlds, on this universe, in every single place in all worlds, in every universe. Feel that joy and that kindness and that love and that wisdom and clarity and confidence and natural dignity and a way of regality shine forth touching everyone in every single place including yourself.
All beings in every single place rejoicing, all beings in every single place feeling loved and cared for, all beings in every single place feeling healthy and robust, all beings in every single place feeling protected and secure, all beings in every single place feeling confident and capable. Feel that beaming in all directions now.
Okay good, let’s bring the meditation to a detailed now, thanking all beings in every single place. Feeling gratitude for the whole lot, feeling forgiveness for the whole lot and just noticing our natural already existing effortlessly present, wide awakeness which is all the time right there. It’s all the time right here immediately, this buddha awakeness. And just allow your body to maneuver and stretch. Allow yourself to feel comfortable. Have a drink of water as we bring the meditation to an end now.
Dharma Talk
In order you saw tonight we started off with gratitude and forgiveness and as I discussed on the time, that’s really powerful for constructing resource, for helping us to open our heart. Meditating with a closed heart with an armored emotional body, armored body. You may do it, but it surely’s hard. It becomes much easier if we open our heart, if we form of melt our armor, we form of chill out, right come out of our tortoise shell and open, open, open. So we do our gratitude practice, we do our forgiveness practice, other times we do our deity yoga or whatever, but we would like to have more openness than possibly we typically do when walking around on the earth. So tonight we did gratitude and forgiveness to assist ourselves with that.
After which notice once we did shamatha—we did a dzogchen style shamatha—which, as an alternative of being narrow, may be very wide. So you realize when you learned easy methods to do let’s say mindfulness in a vipassana tradition, otherwise you’re doing the mind illuminated style shamatha or whatever, it’s very narrow. You retain focusing down, focusing down, focusing down and also you’re stepping into micro details. And that’s fantastic, that’s one form of shamatha. It really works, but within the form of shamatha that I’m showing you tonight, which is a more dzogchen style shamatha, we’re resting wide open. Our eyes are open, awareness is aware, it’s all the best way aware in all directions, it’s just resting wide open prefer it is. We’re not narrowing it after which we’re just letting that breath wave arise in awareness.
Now notice how different that’s than saying I would like you to make form of a flashlight beam out of awareness into this tight attention and also you’re noticing the breath with tight attention. And a few people say like in TMI it says to try this while still maintaining some openness, but what we’re doing here is different than even maintaining slightly openness. We’re mainly just resting in open awareness and as an alternative of form of efforting to make a beam out of attention and shine it on the body sensations of respiratory, quite we’re noticing that the body sensations of respiratory are present in awareness already. You don’t should form of on purpose make this beam and shine it on those sensations of the breath. They’re just arising already in awareness. That’s how you realize it’s there you’re aware of it. There’s nothing to do. You’re already aware of it so we’re not stepping into the micro details, but we’re staying with the attention of the breath right through the cycle of the breath. You’re not missing any a part of the breath cycle.
The major mistake that folks do once they’re attempting to do shamatha practice is what I call check the box. So in your list of things to do it says feel the in-breath and in order that they’re feeling the in-breath and so they go, yep felt the in-breath. After which they go and take into consideration their pokemon go snorlaxes, or whatever, or how they’re going to rearrange their pokedex until the following breath comes and so they’re like, oh there’s the breath again, I feel it, check, now I can go take into consideration my pokedex again or the following pokemon that I would like to capture, or whatever. You go off and play along with your mind in between because you’re thinking that, oh I checked the box, I did what I’m presupposed to do.
That’s a mistake once we’re doing shamatha, even this very wide, open awareness shamatha where we’re just effortlessly aware of the breath coming and going. You don’t want to envision the box. Or to place it a distinct way, you’re checking the box every moment of the breath. Feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now. After which really extra noticing the tip of the in-breath, noticing, noticing, there it’s. Okay, here comes the out-breath, feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now, feeling it now. you’re checking the box repeatedly after which especially here, here comes the tip of it, there’s the tip of it, boom. Now here comes one other in-breath.
So that you’re not missing any moment of that breath cycle, but neither are you, the best way we’re doing it tonight. Again, there’s many many various sorts of shamatha and there’s nobody magic kind of shamatha. But anyway, the best way we’re doing it tonight, you’re resting as open awareness, noticing you’re already aware of the breath. You don’t should do anything. There it’s. It’s just happening in awareness. Now stick with it, stick with it on a regular basis. All the best way on the out breath. All the best way on the in-breath. Give slightly extra notice on the tip of the in-breath, staying with it, staying with slightly extra notice on the tip of the out-breath. And also you’ll find that you just’re having quite a focused meditation, right. Not focused narrow, but focused within the sense of you’re really staying with that breath. And it’s not even hard, right.
And as you’re allowing increasingly more of that breath sensation to fill awareness, other things like considering gets really pushed to the side. It’s not that you just’re in any way attempting to stop considering or manipulate your thoughts. You’re not doing that in any respect, but you’re getting so involved within the rising of the breath and the falling of the breath that it’s almost that rising and falling is taking on all of awareness. And it’s form of pushing the considering out of the best way. So that you’ll notice increasingly more time passes where you’re just all that’s arising in awareness is the breath sensation, right. You’re still seeing the surface world and also you’re aware of stuff but there won’t be a lot considering occurring since it’s form of getting almost like, there’s not room for it.
And in order that’s how I would like you to do shamatha right. For those who’ve learned this other way where you’re doing the narrow shamatha that’s fantastic. Go ahead and do it, but for these non-dual type meditations we’re doing a non-dual tradition form of shamatha where we’re just allowing the breath to arise in awareness, allowing the breath to fall in awareness, while remaining wide awake like that. While remaining vast and spacious like that. In order that’s how I would like you to be doing shamantha for these meditations.
But I also wish to say, I just said it briefly, but I’ll say it again. There isn’t a one right solution to do shamatha. Shamatha is shamatha. There’s a zillion ways to do it and if certainly one of those ways was so a lot better than the opposite ways, because people tried out all of the ways of doing shamantha 2000 years ago, 2500 years ago, 3000 years ago. If there was one exceptional way that was so a lot better, it could have taken over a thousand years ago. We’d all find out about it and it’d be the just one we do.
So there isn’t any one right solution to do shamatha. That’s just nonsense. Nevertheless, having said that, the best way that we’re doing it, with our eyes open and keeping in vast spacious awareness and never getting narrow just makes it much easier to then move into shamatha without an object and so forth. It just makes it easier for what we’re going to do later. But notice that’s different than saying it’s a greater form of shamatha or it’s the correct form of shamatha. It’s just setting us up for the following moves. Plus it’s a fantastic way, it’s fun to do effortless open shamatha. So it’s nice. But I don’t want to say that by some means the correct way or one of the simplest ways.
And a corollary to that that’s super vital, I’ll inform you I’ve been teaching meditation a protracted time now. Here is the query that I hear so often. I hear this almost every single day. And so that you just never should ask this query again, I’ll say this as clearly as possible. There isn’t a special shamatha object. There isn’t a special shamatha object. There isn’t a special shamatha object. What do I mean? What I mean is in several traditions they’ll be like, oh those stinking dirty losers do shamatha on the breath, but we’re going to do shamatha on visualization and that’s the one true way, that’s the best way you get enlightened. Oh no no no, the individuals who do shamatha on the visualization are stinking dirty losers, but we who do shamatha on this special mantra, we all know that is the best way you’re going to get enlightened because what you would like is the correct shamatha object. You wish a special shamatha object. People there isn’t any such thing because the special shamatha object. Just let go of that concept ceaselessly. It is just not the case.
Here’s form of the implied query within the query when people say what’s the great shamatha object, what they really mean is what shamatha object will get me enlightened and I respect the query. I’m not mocking the query. That’s a completely reasonable query. But the reply is all of them or none of them, because concentration or staying with an object, is just staying with an object and you possibly can do this with any object. So there’s no one which is the correct one except the one which works for you.
So to barely backpedal, let’s say you want doing mantras and also you don’t like doing visualizations, well then mantras are higher shamatha objects for you since you like them and also you’ll do them more. Or let’s say you actually love doing shamatha on the breath and also you’ve done years of it and you only love that. Well okay then, that’s your shamatha object. Tremendous, that’s great for you, but it surely’s not the case that there may be one right focus object for all and sundry. Or like there’s a special one which when you’re led into the key back room and you set a fifty dollar bill in my hands I’ll show you the one right shamatha object. And that’s the actual one. shamatha is shamatha is shamatha is shamatha. All of them work. It’s all just resting the mind on an object. Allowing awareness to pay attention to that object whatever it’s okay.
So stop the seek for the special shamatha object or the one right solution to do shamatha. Just do your shamatha and permit yourself to rest with it. Again, the best way I would like you to learn to do it’s form of the traditional way in my courses, but in addition on these youtube meditations is eyes open, awareness resting wide open and just allowing awareness of the breath to return and go. That’s our shamatha with an object. But other times you’ll hear me do it one other way. Sometimes we’ll do a visualization. Sometimes we’ll do a mantra. In order that’s form of just one other way of doing shamatha. So there’s all these other ways to do shamatha and there’s nobody magic object.
You read a few of these books which might be on breath awareness and so they make it sound like that’s the one thing you possibly can meditate on. And that’s just incorrect. You may meditate on anything. It’s quite common in meditation traditions to start out out meditating on something like a pebble. Go get a pebble, set it in front of you, stare at that thing along with your eyes gentle. That’s a completely normal meditation object and it’s not by some means higher or worse than the breath. So just let go of this concept that there’s a special object. There isn’t, okay. In order that’s my form of ranty a part of the dharma talk.
The opposite part is, notice that you just don’t should do anything to remember. That is one other thing possibly that is kind of continuous the rant, but on a distinct topic. What I hear people say lots is something like I’m struggling to make my awareness vast. Or I’m struggling to note awareness. You may’t make your awareness vast. It’s already vast. It starts out vast. But what happens is that as an alternative what you’re used to doing is narrowing, narrowing, narrowing and just noticing one little tiny channel, an attention channel out of the entire vastness of awareness. But awareness is all the time vast. So that you’re not making your awareness vast. All you’re doing is relaxing your attention. And you realize and when you’ve got a habit of tight attention, you bought to simply keep letting go, keep letting go, until it relaxes and also you notice the attention that’s already wide awake. So there isn’t any making my awareness vast. Never struggle. Never spend even a second struggling to make your awareness vast. Just let go of narrowing and also you’ll notice it’s already panoramic. It’s all the time been panoramic.
After which the opposite one is I’m attempting to notice awareness. Now that one is actually actually form of funny since the koan there can be: oh really you’re attempting to notice awareness? What’s noticing? The one thing that may possibly be noticing is awareness. Awareness is what notices. So if someone says, or when you are saying I’m struggling to note awareness. That’s like your dog trying to seek out its tail. It’s already got it. It already is the tail. The dog includes the tail. The notice includes the noticing. So just notice the noticing. That’s awareness.
One other solution to say the identical thing is that awareness is nearly the identical word as experience. The incontrovertible fact that anything is occurring immediately in any respect, that the lights are on in your experience, the incontrovertible fact that you’re having a thought or can feel your body and see the thought or feel your body. Or the actual fact you could hear my voice or see this video or any of that. That’s all awareness. So the hard thing to do is just not notice awareness. Awareness is what’s noticing. The hard thing to do is to by some means not notice awareness. So these are some pointers about things people struggle with that you just now have permission to completely let go of.
Now we also did numerous psychological work tonight talking about beliefs that get in the best way, thoughts that get in the best way and so forth. And we worked with that a bunch and we’ll proceed to work with that over time because that seems to be a giant deal. I just didn’t get into it within the talk tonight, so we’ll come back to that one other time.
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