Guided Nondual Meditation by Michael Taft
Let’s jump right in. Tonight we’re going to work on what is named It would be our essential thing.
Let’s start out with our posture. As usual I need you to principally wiggle your body, feel good, be goofy along with your body, wave it around, shake your mouth out – all those sorts of things simply to loosen up and open up. Let your body feel nice and good. Crack your neck should you’re one among those people who at all times cracks their neck. But when you’re ready then I need you to sit up. That’s the essential point. You gotta sit up. In the event you’re on a cushion I need your knees to be lower than your hips, so that you simply get a pleasant curve in your lower spine. In the event you’re sitting in a chair it’s best should you sit forward, so that you simply’re away from the back of the chair. You’ll be able to get it to the place where you let your knees hang off the front fringe of the chair, so that they’re further down than your hips. You then get that nice back curve and also you cross your feet. You won’t have your feet flat on the ground depending on the peak of your chair. Without even trying – just by having your knees and hips in the appropriate position you get a pleasant upright spine. That’s the essential posture whether you’re in a chair or you might be on a cushion. But as I at all times say you too can “sit” or meditate lying down. In that case you desire to use a bolster or a strap to maintain your knees up so your lower back feels nice and comfortable on the ground. Only try this should you don’t get sleepy. The opposite thing you’ll be able to do particularly should you’re sleepy is arise and do the entire meditation in a pleasant relaxed standing pose.
So get into your meditation posture and I need you to form of – especially should you’re sitting and also you’ve got the upright spine – I need you to simply slowly wave forwards and backwards such as you’re a chunk of seaweed in a really gentle, very soft ocean. And your head is that a part of the seaweed that has like an air bladder in it, so the very top of your head is just rising straight up. After which the present within the water gets smaller and gentler and slower to the purpose where eventually you’re just sitting perfectly straight up. It seems like your head is just being lifted up – the very very top most a part of your head is just lifted up. That causes your chin to tuck slightly bit. And now you’re in that sweet spot, that goldilocks zone where your back stays upright with the absolutely smallest amount of effort.
From here what we do next is we set our intention. You get to set whatever intention you wish. Why are you meditating in any respect? In the event you don’t do that what tends to occur is you’ll sit down and also you’ll just start sloppily meditating. It’s such as you wade in and your mind remains to be back in whatever you were doing before you’re meditating. So what we wish to do is to set our intention. After taking your posture, setting your intention is the subsequent step in leaving all the pieces behind and moving into the meditation with purpose. So leave all the pieces behind and say “I’m meditating because ‘x’ or I’m meditating to be able to ‘why’.” Get it nice and clear.
The subsequent thing I need us to do is our resource constructing period or lets say our resilience constructing period. It’s interesting because once we meditate, it’s different than other things we do. In the event you’re gonna paint a fence otherwise you’re going to create an internet page otherwise you’re going to work with some physical stuff or some virtual stuff, your mood matters. But it surely doesn’t matter that much. It matters how good you might be on the technique. It matters what the situation is. And particularly should you’ve done lots of it your mood is nearly superfluous – it’s not superfluous but almost superfluous. It’s more situational. It’s more what’s occurring with the stuff. Like should you gotta unclog your kitchen drain at home your mood about it helps slightly bit or hurts slightly bit. But it surely doesn’t really change the facts of what you’re going to do to unblock that drain. But once we’re working with internal things, psychological things or meditation things the mood really matters. And other people are inclined to think it’s like external, physical stuff. Like “oh, my mood doesn’t matter if i’m doing the technique right. That’s all that counts.” And that’s true for the outside world should you’re going to alter a tire in your automobile. Being in a superb mood helps nevertheless it doesn’t help that much. Nonetheless, should you’re going to meditate, getting your mind in the appropriate place to meditate really matters since the mind is the thing we’re working on. So the state of your mind is crucial.
What we’re going to do here is we’re going to work on constructing resources. And should you’ve done a bunch of those videos you understand that we do that in many various ways. We will visualize deities or visualize various sorts of lights and beams coming into chakra. There’s every kind of stuff we will do. Recently I’ve just been doing the gratitude one. It’s quite simple. It’s very straightforward. It doesn’t require lots of visualization. We’re going to do this again tonight. So for the subsequent jiffy all I need you to do is the next: I need you to simply sit and consider things that you simply actually feel grateful for. After which feel gratitude. That’s it. That’s the entire practice. But you gotta do it. You bought to sit down there and consider the stuff and feel the emotions. Okay, so let’s go.
Now, notice this isn’t a practice of things it’s best to feel grateful for. That finally ends up becoming principally a ‘feeling ashamed’ or ‘feeling bad about yourself’ practice since you don’t feel grateful for the stuff it’s best to feel grateful for. So I don’t want you to do the practice of things I should feel grateful for. Somewhat I need you to do the practice of belongings you actually feel grateful for. I’ll let you know each night when I am going to bed I feel grateful for the cup of black tea I’m gonna have within the morning. That cup of black tea tastes so good and every single day it really just.. I just wait for it. And adore it and it’s just such a sweet moment and it’s just the appropriate warmth. I often drink PG suggestions. I actually like PG suggestions and it’s like super bitter in only the appropriate way. Every part about it’s amazing. So especially if it was within the evening I would sit and say I feel grateful for my cup of PG suggestions I’m gonna have tomorrow or the one I had this morning – whatever. And you understand I actually feel grateful for it. It makes me feel good. You may even sit there and go ‘I feel grateful for the air that I breathe in’ or ‘for my mother’ or whatever. And people are the belongings you’re alleged to feel grateful for. In the event you do then more power to you. Nonetheless I’ve noticed that sitting and attempting to feel grateful for the proven fact that there’s air to breathe or whatever. For lots of people who just doesn’t resonate. So use something that resonates. That’s something you truly feel grateful for or many belongings you actually feel grateful for. Notice, while you do belongings you actually feel grateful for, you get a smile in your face, your heart feels more open, your heart feels more melty, your type of body armor falls away slightly bit – you’re just more open and your mind state is more positive and nice. That’s the mind state we wish to be in once we meditate. That’s how we wish to start out. It just helps.
From this state of feeling gratitude – that there’s air to breathe and that there’s water to drink – I then want you to start with me to do our unification meditation, our settling meditation, our staying meditation, our shamatha with an object. On this case you could possibly at all times use whatever shamatha object you wish. This time – as usual – we’re going to do form of the Dzogchen version of shamatha with an object, where we rest as vast spacious awareness and we just notice the breath wave coming and going. That’s it. It’s very easy.
Now, something I’m going so as to add this week to this meditation whilst you’re doing it – so go ahead and do it – is that I need you to note that it doesn’t take any effort to have a spacious awareness. It’s not an altered state. It’s not something that you might have to work to attain. Straight away you don’t should work to attain feeling your body. Your body is just presenting feelings into awareness. The sentiments are only there. If you desire to consider it then that’s work. But just feeling your body it’s just there to feel. In case your eyes are open you don’t should do any work to see. The visual field is just blasting into awareness. It’s just there. Same thing with sounds: You’re not working hard to listen to. It’s just presenting itself in awareness. Now all those things – the visual field, the sound field, your body, all the pieces else – all that’s just arising on this big space of awareness. And also you don’t should do anything for that awareness to be there. That’s what I’m saying. It’s just there. How do you understand it’s there? Well, in case your eyes are open, sights are blasting into it. sounds are trumpeting into it and your body sensations are burbling up inside it. And that thing, that awareness, that’s just there without you doing anything. That’s vast spacious awareness. There it’s. It’s just there!
When people say to me ‘Well, I’m working to get into vast spacious awareness’ that’s talking inside out and backwards. You’re not working to get into vast spacious awareness. What you’re doing while you try this is you’re attempting to chill out out of being tightly focused on something. You’ve been tightly focused all day. And it means you’ve form of forgotten the vast spacious awareness that’s at all times there. And so that you don’t should do anything to have spacious awareness except let go of the death grip, of the tightness around whatever you’re trying hard to listen to. Just chill out. Just chill out. Vast spacious awareness is already vast. It’s already aware. It’s already spacious. You don’t should do anything in any respect for it to be that way. After which the practice here is, just notice that bubbling wave of the breath that’s presenting itself effortlessly into that awareness. The notice is effortless. The breath is effortless. If there’s any effort on this part in any respect it’s that while you start getting wound up in pondering again, you let go of that and are available back to this effortless breath wave that’s arising and passing in awareness. So let’s try this now.
Awareness is already spacious. Awareness is already open. Awareness is already relaxed. It never leaves that. It’s at all times open. It’s at all times spacious. It’s at all times relaxed. It’s at all times peaceful and settled. It’s at all times soft and mild. That’s what awareness is. You don’t should do anything special for that to be that way. And the body sensation of breath is just arising in that without you doing anything for it to arise in that. In reality here’s what I need you to do: Stop respiratory! Just hold your breath for a minute. Notice that sensation of holding the breath arising in awareness nevertheless it’s a holding-the-breath sensation. Now you’re doing something. You’re holding your breath. Okay, stop holding your breath and just return to respiratory normally. Notice that that breath wave is just doing itself. That’s different than holding your breath which is doing something. Body sensations of breath are only arising in awareness effortlessly. And also you’re just staying with that and allowing yourself to ride this peaceful openness. That is shamatha with an object and shamanta is peaceful. It’s settled. It’s staying. It’s easeful. So let’s stick with this for slightly while longer.
Okay, good. That’s our shamatha with an object. Now we’re going to dig into the essential shamatha object here which goes to be the mind itself. We’re taking the mind because the path. We’re going to sit down with this for some time. However the instructions are easy: Rest as vast spacious awareness and observe the stream of pondering. That’s it. We’ve already talked in regards to the vast spacious awareness. You’re not doing anything to get vast spacious awareness. It’s just the attention that’s naturally present. And all we’re doing here is as an alternative of being aware of this breath wave arising and passing – that’s in fact going to be within the background. But we’re not particularly staying with that. Now we’re staying with the stream of thought. However the trick here is, to not get entangled with the thoughts. We’re resting as awareness and just noticing that there’s this stream of pondering happening. We’re not attempting to make thoughts occur. If thoughts stop – great. Observe the stop-ness of the stream right then. It’ll begin again probably. But it surely doesn’t matter if it’s streaming or not. We’re just noticing the thoughts. And that’s it – not getting involved in any way. Now we’re going to do that for some time. That is your concentration object. In the event you end up getting caught up within the pondering, just come back to resting as vast spacious awareness and letting the thoughts go by. But when it’s too hard because this is tougher often than meditating on the breath. So if this is just too hard return and do the breath meditation as an alternative. Somewhat than simply sitting here, getting real frustrated, meditate in your respiratory. For the remainder of us who’re going to proceed with the ‘taking the mind as path’: We typically do that with our eyes open. And just rest as vast spacious awareness. You’re not narrowing down with tight deal with the thoughts. You’re resting as vast spacious awareness. And again allowing the thoughts to simply be in awareness. They’re already there. You don’t should do anything to love bolt your mind to them or something. It’s like no. Awareness is already aware. Thoughts are arising in awareness and also you’re just being with them – as like a stream of thought activity. That’s it. That’s the entire meditation. Let’s go.
As you’ll be able to see this may be slightly bit tricky because in most other meditations of this kind we’re taking a look at something else, like body sensations and never getting caught up within the pondering. But here we’re looking right on the pondering – or really more like listening, most of it’s auditory. We’re listening on to it and never getting involved. We’re just resting as vast spacious awareness aware of the stream of pondering and really noticing it. Using it as a meditation object. We’re resting on it. But not getting involved.
Besides getting caught in thought, the opposite way this could go mistaken is should you get form of drowsy. Sometimes if we’re not paying tight attention and we’re resting in awareness like this, you’ll be able to begin to get drowsy. So if that happens sit up, make sure that your eyes are open, reaffirm your intention, your commitment and keep going. In the event you’re really drowsy like really really drowsy then do the meditation standing up.
Okay, good. Now let’s just let go of getting a meditation object in any respect. So despite the fact that the breath is perhaps there within the background we’re not paying any attention to that. And despite the fact that we were being attentive to pondering and pondering might proceed we’re not now paying any attention to it in any respect. And we’re just resting as vast spacious awareness. This is named shamatha without an object. There isn’t any meditation object. Or one other option to describe it’s, awareness is just aware of itself. Okay, that’s not an object. But lets say roughly you’re concentrating on awareness – or a greater option to say it’s, awareness is aware of itself and we’re not getting involved with anything. In the event you get entangled with anything that’s called ‘grabbing onto the ball’. The dog grabs onto the ball. In the event you notice yourself grabbing on anything in any respect – pondering, the breath, anything in any respect – just drop the ball. And just come back to resting as naturally occurring vast spacious awareness that’s at all times present. This meditation is usually called ‘do nothing’ because there’s nothing to do. You’ll be able to’t make yourself have vast spacious awareness. It’s already there. Rest in that now. Again, if this is just too hard, come back to one among these meditation objects.
Remain uninvolved with anything. Awareness is shiny and clear. It’s very very awake. It’s also vast. It’s spacious. It’s open. It’s relaxed. It’s restful. There’s a way of space, of room. It’s just wide awake and resting – resting like an ocean, resting like a mountain. It’s just being. It’s wide awake itself – uninvolved with anything. Notice that any idea, that you simply’re even doing something, is a form of involvement. So let go of the sense of doing a meditation, of attempting to do a method. Just rest because the vast spacious awareness you already are and at all times have been.
Okay, good. Now we’re going to let go of that and are available back to some ‘state of the mind type’ practice that takes slightly effort. So, I need you to simply notice any joy in your being and radiate that out to all the world, to all the universe, to all universes in every single place, to all sentient beings in all universes in every single place. If there’s any peace that you simply’re feeling, I need you to radiate that out to all sentient beings in all universes in every single place. In the event you’re feeling any love, any kindness, any caring, I need you to radiate that out in all directions to all beings in all universes in every single place. And just keep radiating love and kindness and joy and peace in all directions. Continuing to simply beam out that love and peace and joy and kindness to all beings in every single place – even beings in the long run, even beings in every other multiverse. Just beaming and beaming and beaming love and joy and kindness and caring, friendliness and peace to all beings in every single place.
Okay, good. Let’s end the meditation there. So you’ll be able to now be at liberty to maneuver and stretch and shake out your hands and feet again should you want. Have a drink of water. Do whatever it’s worthwhile to do to permit your body to be glad.
Dharma Talk
I need to return again to this concept of the effortlessness of awareness. So often I just hear this comment. And again it’s a comment that’s form of inside out and backwards. Despite the fact that it’s a standard way of speaking – a very normal way of speaking. But from the perspective of the nondual meditation it’s just inside out and backwards. So the thing that I often hear is something like “I’m working to search out vast spacious awareness” or “I’m attempting to make my awareness vast and spacious” – something like that. And like I say it’s not that that’s bad or whatever. It’s a very normal way of speaking. But I need to make sure that that you simply understand that that’s unattainable. You’ll be able to’t work to make your awareness more vast and spacious. you’ll be able to’t attempt to do anything to awareness and a very ‘inside out and backwards’ one is when someone says “I’m attempting to notice vast spacious awareness” – so my query is who’s noticing. Right, should you’re attempting to notice your personal vast spacious awareness, who’s doing the noticing. Right, the reply is “the attention is noticing the vast spacious awareness” or to place it much more clearly “vast spacious awareness is noticing the vast spacious awareness”. So the entire sentence like “I’m attempting to notice vast spacious awareness” as soon as there’s that word ‘notice’ in there – that’s the attention. It already notices itself. There’s nothing to do.
Except rest in that noticing. It doesn’t mean, “hey, there’s nothing to do, so go and play Pokémon Go straight away. There’s some really interesting Pokémon across the Pokéstop in your neighborhood. Perhaps it’s best to go and try this as an alternative because awareness is already…” no, no, no, I’m saying that awareness already notices itself. Now rest in that, effortlessly. If we’re going to do ‘shamatha without an object’, awareness is just resting in itself. Awareness is just resting in itself. So you’ll be able to say the sentence “I’m attempting to notice my vast spacious awareness” but – and again it’s not that I’m criticizing that, I’m just attempting to point something out which is – that thing that’s noticing is the vast spacious awareness itself. You already are vast spacious awareness. It’s at all times there. So there’s nothing to do.
Moreover it’s not like awareness is typically narrow and sometimes vast. It’s at all times vast. It’s at all times spacious. So again, straight away, do it with me. Don’t just take heed to me. Do it with me straight away. Along with your eyes open, notice the entire visual field. It’s like pouring within the front of your head. Right, there’s just visual stuff – identical to an ocean of vision pouring within the front of your face. You’re not doing anything to make that occur. An ocean of sound is just coming in your ears straight away. It’s nothing you’re doing, it’s just happening. A complete universe of body sensations is just bubbling up in awareness straight away. You’re not doing anything for that to seem that way. And in fact, as we noticed, there’s this stream of thoughts just pouring through awareness on a regular basis. We’re not doing anything to make that occur. And all of this stuff – an ocean of vision, an universe of sound, one other universe of body sensation, further multiverses of pondering – all of that’s by some means, so to talk, within awareness. Awareness is already spectacularly vast, totally wide open, effortlessly infinite, effortlessly boundary-less. With all this stuff happening inside it.
Okay and so from that understanding then we did three different meditations:
- We did ‘shamatha with an object’ – the article being the breath. And again the attention is already vast and without doing anything special, you only notice the breath inside that awareness. That was the primary one we did.
- The second we did was ‘taking the mind as path’. All meaning is meditating on purpose, as an alternative of on the breath, on the pondering. The pondering becomes the meditation object. Notice how that’s really different than almost any meditation tradition where you’re either alleged to stop pondering or meditate on something besides the pondering. After we ‘take the mind as path’ – the second – it’s still a form of ‘shamatha with an object’ – the article is just the pondering itself. Now we’re not following the pondering within the sense of getting caught up within the train of thought. That’s just called sitting there pondering. After we’re doing the shamatha on the pondering or what we’re calling ‘taking the mind as path’ we’re on purpose being attentive to the pondering but not getting involved in it. One other way of claiming it – again it’s not super accurate but – we’re outside the pondering, taking a look at it. That may be a more vipassana way of describing it. That’s probably not what’s happening. We’re resting as vast spacious awareness and the pondering is arising. However the pondering is our object. That’s the thing we’re resting on – without getting involved within the content. The content is irrelevant. In reality you will have noticed – despite the fact that you weren’t alleged to notice the content – chances are you’ll notice that the content gets really really weird sometimes. Why is that? Because while you’re not being attentive to the content very much, the traditional filter in your unconscious mind becomes permeable and might even just not be there in any respect. So the deep unconscious mind starts to throw up thoughts that normally you’d only have in dreams or something. There may be disturbing thoughts, violent thoughts but often they’re just weird – just like the jellyfish thoughts which might be just strange. But we’re not being attentive to that. So I don’t want you to think “Oh, I hope there’s some strange thoughts after which I’m really going to listen to them” no, you’re just allowing thoughts to arise and that’s the eye object.
- After which the third thing we did was ‘shamata without an object’ – again that’s just ‘dropping the ball’, that’s ‘do nothing’. We just rest as our naturally occurring vast spacious awareness not even resting on the pondering, not even resting on the breath. You’re just resting on awareness itself.
So those were the three things we did. And to do them the way in which I described requires this foundational understanding – that awareness is already aware without you doing anything. It’s already wide awake without you doing anything. All this sensory stuff is happening in awareness without you doing anything. That’s the foundational understanding. So while you sit and I say “rest in vast spacious awareness”, it’s like saying “sit there and just be awake”. Do it straight away. Just sit there and see this awakeness that’s happening – the very fact the entire visual field is just pouring within the eyes, sound is pouring within the ears, body sensation is flowing up through the body, thoughts are streaming through the brain, all of this is happening inside awareness itself. And awareness doesn’t do anything to concentrate on it. It’s just aware. That’s what it’s.
The metaphor for awareness – the clearest most precise metaphor – is awareness is like space. Notice space is vast and in fact spacious, spacious, spacious… Awareness is spacious
So awareness is like space. But identical to all metaphors, it’s not perfect because space – like physical space – is just non-sentient whereas awareness is sentient. Awareness has a gnostic quality. It has gnosis. It’s knowing. So lets say ‘awareness is like knowing space’ or ‘like space that knows’.
So once we rest as vast spacious awareness it’s just tuning in to the proven fact that awareness is going on now and never narrowing it. See, that is the thing: You’ll be able to’t make it more spacious but you’ll be able to attempt to narrow it – doesn’t really work because all the pieces’s still coming in. But that’s the true issue that normally we’re narrowing it and only giving any credence to that narrow part – and that narrow part we call attention. But once we chill out the narrowing – the obsession with the narrow part – we recognize that awareness is vast. It’s at all times been vast. It’s at all times been spacious. It’s there. After which that makes these ‘shamatha with an object meditations’ much easier. You simply sit, resting as awareness, allowing whatever the article is to have only a slight amount of attention on it. As a substitute of claiming ‘attention’ we just say that ‘we allow the vast spacious awareness to in a way rest on that object, so despite the fact that technically the attention of the breath is rising into the attention. It’s almost tautological to say ‘the body sensations of respiratory are arising in awareness and we’re just form of resting on that once we’re doing the ‘shamata with an object on the breath’. Then once we’re ‘taking the mind as path’ we’re just allowing this stream – and it seems like a stream, it seems like a river – of pondering that’s just pouring effortlessly through awareness without us doing anything in any respect – and we’re just resting on that. In a way that’s uninvolved. Let’s say that river has a number of fish in it. We’re not catching and eating the fish – yummy fish, little gollum. No, we’re not gollum. We’re not eating yummy fish. We’re just observing the rushing river. That’s it. After which, once we do the ‘do nothing’ or once we do ‘dropping the ball’, we quit all those objects and we allow the attention to simply rest in itself. And that’s very very nice. In order that’s how that works.
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