Guided Nondual Meditation by Michael Taft
I’m going to guide you thru a guided meditation this evening. And this guided meditation is something we haven’t done shortly, we’ve done it before but we haven’t done it shortly. We’re going to do a whole lot of investigation, okay? So be prepared to research with me this evening. And I ask you a whole lot of questions and a whole lot of them are form of odd. But keep in mind that the strategy to work with that is to truly not attempt to seek out the reply to the query in your thoughts or by figuring it out or by, , searching for the precise answer or by memorizing, , looking into your memory; but slightly just directly taking a look at your experience. That’s how we do that, okay?
Meditation
So let’s begin by setting our intention, tonight we’re going to meditate – why are you meditating? What’s the point? I would like you to tune into that now for only a minute. I’ll be quiet when you do this and I’ll inject myself with some intravenous caffeine from this beautiful PG Suggestions black tea with some hemp milk. I’m not an enormous hemp milk fan but that’s what we have now within the fridge, in order that’s what’s in there. It’s not too bad.
Good. In order that’s why you’re meditating. So keep in mind that, keep that as a part of your intentionality, a part of the sensation of, , gathering your mind around why we’re doing this in order that it lets you be clear. Good. Next let’s work on some resource stuff, right? We would like to construct resource once we begin meditating. So, first we’re going to do that by tuning into some gratitude. That’s what we’ve been doing for the past few weeks, we’ve been performing some gratitude practice. So I’m going to provide you about three minutes to only take into consideration stuff you’re grateful for and feel grateful for them. It’s really easy. Don’t take into consideration stuff you’re to be thankful for but don’t care about. Really take into consideration stuff you feel grateful for and take into consideration them in a way that brings up that feeling of gratitude, and also you’ll notice it starts melting your body, armoring. It starts making your heart open somewhat bit, and that’s good. So we’re going to try this for a pair more minutes and I’ll just be quiet here while all of us do this together.
Okay? Good. That’s our gratitude practice and that’s just somewhat little bit of warm up. One other a part of the nice and cozy up is again to visualise some resource again. And so what we’re going to do tonight is, I would like you to picture a in whatever way, this is completely free form. You do that in whatever way works for you. I would like you to picture a diamond and this diamond is sort of a spherical diamond with triangular facets, right? It’s essentially a sphere, nevertheless it’s faceted and the facets are triangular and this diamond is glowing with a form of very soft, very friendly, bluish white light. Almost just like the moon. Sometimes the moon, the complete moon especially, can reflect red or orange somewhat bit, but sometimes it’s really white blue in a way that could be very, very, very nice. So an image of this big, clear diamond sphere with this just slight, very slight blue tint to it; just somewhat little bit of blue. And this can be a representation of our own deepest, awake awareness. Our own bodhisattvahood, our Buddhahood, right? We’re just symbolizing it, we’re just picturing it. And, I would like you to only feel that this blue diamond, bluish, mainly clear, but just barely bluish diamond sphere is radiating wisdom to you and also you’re feeling the wisdom. It’s radiating love, you’re feeling the love, the tremendous acceptance, right? Love and acceptance, exactly the best way you’re, it doesn’t need you to vary in any respect. It loves you exactly the best way you’re. And moreover, feel the playfulness and the spontaneity that’s present with this vast, clear diamond.
So I would like you to only sit with that for some time, picturing it and feeling these feelings of affection and acceptance and joy and wisdom. Feel confident, daring and assured. The Buddhas are never shy, right? They’re willing to vary the world and so there’s a form of confidence that comes from this Buddha-nature and there’s a playfulness of spontaneity. It’s not afraid, so it may possibly play and it may possibly take probabilities. So really, feel that, feel that energy coming at you now in a really nice way. We’re going to try this. We’re going to visualise that and feel those energies for about five more minutes.
Okay? Good. Now from here, from this place, let’s begin simply following the breath. Allowing the breath to easily do what it’s going to do. You don’t must change the breath in any way and again we’re going to follow the breath in additional of an open awareness style meditation. So calm down, allow awareness to be vast and spacious prefer it naturally is. Awareness is already very broad, already vast, already spacious. We don’t must make it that way, we just tune into that aspect of awareness. And from that place, with the mind very broad, sitting possibly with our eyes open but with a soft gaze. Just a really, very broad awareness, allowing the wave of the breath to easily arise and pass, arise and pass , without us necessarily having to grab onto it or give attention to it. We’re just aware of it. That breath wave arising in awareness and passing away in awareness. I would like you to stick with that now in a really gentle and open way.
Remember awareness is just , that’s why it’s called awareness. And it’s aware of this breath sensation within the body, the breath feeling the body, the body expanding naturally with the incoming breath and contracting naturally with the outgoing breath. It’s aware of that with none struggle in any respect. With none must like, focus or narrow attention, or anything. It’s just the wide, open sea, the wide, open sky of awareness, noticing the wind of the breath passing through it with none big deal.
Let yourself unwind, let yourself naturally just let go. Let yourself calm down. Remembering that awareness is each vast, it’s spacious, it’s relaxed nevertheless it’s also wide awake. It’s very brilliant and clear, it’s not sleepy, it’s not muddy. So we’re each very relaxed, very open and comfy and at the identical time wide awake; very clear, very brilliant, all with none effort.
Okay? Good. Now what I’d such as you to do is to sink even deeper. Let go much more completely. Just rest as awareness, following the breath, just follow the breath with none effort. Remember awareness is aware so it feels the breath move. Feeling the breath root move and just let the whole lot else drop away. Let it drop away just like the chains whenever you’re leaving prison. Let it drop away, like… completely. Let it drop away utterly. Let it drop away such as you’re letting go of the heaviest burden. Just allow yourself to only be simply of the breath wave, without every other burdens.
Okay? Good. Now from this place of just open, vast, spacious, clear, brilliant awareness I would like you to, straight away, just look; if thoughts are present, where do thoughts come from? I don’t want you to make use of your considering to figure this out. I don’t want you to make use of your memory, or your understanding of neuroscience, or your ideas in regards to the brain. I don’t want you to attempt to get the precise answer by figuring it out. All of that may be a mistake once we’re doing the sort of practice. As an alternative, I would like you to only look or listen or feel or whatever. In your individual experience, as awareness, where do thoughts come from? Where do they arrive from? Look. Look now and keep looking. Find where they arrive from. Where is the origin of thought? Look now.
When you’re attempting to figure it out, stop doing that. When you think you’ve solved it, keep looking. Just keep looking in that place or listening or feeling or whatever. Where are thoughts coming from? Are they..? When you think you found it, look, or is the precise word; investigate more clearly, more precisely. At once, look. Where do thoughts originate?
Okay? Good. So that you’ve been looking directly at where thoughts come from. Hint, what in the event that they don’t come from anywhere, right? You may notice that you just’re having a tough time actually noticing where they arrive from but, but possibly not. Let’s look now at, directly, at where thoughts go to. So in the event that they’re, don’t generate thoughts on purpose, just rest as open, spacious awareness; noticing thoughts arising and passing. But when the thoughts pass, watch the moment of their passing. Where did they pass to? Where do they go away to? Where’s the trash can in your mind, right? Where is that exactly? Look now. Again, don’t figure it out. Look now. In your individual experience, investigate. Find the reply for yourself.
Where are those thoughts going to? Keep looking, don’t just be satisfied. Even when the reply is that they don’t appear to be going anywhere, keep watching that nowhere, so to talk, to which they disappear. It’s really, really interesting.
Okay? Good. Now you’ll have noticed that it’s very difficult to seek out a spot where thoughts arise from or a spot where thoughts go to. Very difficult. We would even say it’s unfindable, right? Now a related query is, where are thoughts while they’re happening? So, imagine they arise they usually pass but in between arising and passing – you’re having a thought, right? There’s an experience there, but where is that have exactly? Don’t accept the reply ‘in my head’. I would like you to actually notice directly, where are these thoughts once they’re happening? Where are these thoughts? Look clearly now.
Excellent, okay. Now, after noticing where thoughts arise from and where they occur after which where they go to. Which, should you’re looking rigorously you’ll notice you’ll be able to’t even find where they’re happening. They’re happening but they don’t appear to be happening really anywhere. Then what I would like you to look very clearly into, I would like you to research – to whom are these thoughts happening? Who’s the listener of the thoughts? Who’s the haver of the thoughts? The immediate answer might be ‘me’ or ‘my brain’, or something. But what does that even mean? I would like you to look past that easy answer into your individual experience, straight away. Not your ideas about experience, like should you just keep saying, “well it’s me and my brain.” I would like you to look – who’s the haver of this thought? Who’s experiencing the thought? Look now, very, very rigorously.
Keep looking, actively looking on this restful, open space of awareness that is of course awake, naturally aware, naturally relaxed. What or who’s having these thoughts? To whom are these thoughts arising? What’s considering? Where is it? Are you able to discover a thinker?
However it’s not only thoughts. There’s sounds coming in, there’s sight in case your eyes are open, there’s body sensations. To whom is all this happening? Who’s the of all these events, who, to whom is the whole lot arising? Look rigorously now. What’s it that’s aware of the whole lot? When you just say “me” or, “it’s my brain” or, “it’s my body,” those are only words. You gotta look. You gotta feel it, you bought to research. Sense into it. To what, to whom is arising? Investigate now, clearly. Look in your individual experience, don’t accept the simple answers. Look. Look now.
Now, take a look at who’s doing any meditating. Who or what’s doing a meditation straight away? Again just considering ‘me’ or ‘I’m’ or ‘my brain’ or ‘my body’; that’s not a solution. You gotta look. Look now. Look clearly, who or what’s meditating? Who or what’s making an effort? Who or what’s attempting to see? . Attempt to see that. But who’s doing it? Look rigorously you’ll notice something really, really interesting. Really, really interesting. Look.
Who or what’s meditating now? Look rigorously, look deeply. Who’s doing anything? Who’s experiencing anything? Who’s considering anything? Who’s feeling anything? Who’s listening to this guided meditation? Look now. Look clearly and thoroughly.
Good. Now from this place of vast, spacious awareness that’s relaxed, that’s open, that’s comfy, that’s awake. I would like you to easily begin to radiate out love and joy to your entire universe. I would like you to radiate out feelings of peace and kindness towards the people of Ukraine. I would like you to radiate out love and understanding and kindness and compassion towards transgender children within the United, within the State within the U.S. of Florida and likewise Texas and likewise everywhere in the U.S. I would like you to radiate out love and joy and kindness to the entire world. Peace to the entire world. Compassion to the entire world. May everyone feel the enjoyment of awakening, the sweet kindness of compassion, the wisdom of awakening, the clarity and confidence of the Buddha-mind. Radiate this out in all directions now. Feeling the enjoyment, feeling the arrogance, feeling the wisdom. Feeling this fully awake Buddha that you just really are, blessing the entire world, healing the entire world. Bringing joy and playfulness and spontaneity and clarity to all beings.
Dharma Talk
Okay? Good. Let’s let go of that now and I would like to speak somewhat bit about this type of meditation that we’re doing, which is an inquiry style meditation, right? We inquire. So we’re doing inquiry style meditation. I ask you an issue, right? Inquiry is completed with questions. I ask you an issue and also you look.
And, as I discussed at the start of the meditation and persistently throughout the meditation, I’ll just repeat it again here – you’ll be able to’t do these form of meditations by attempting to figure it out. When you end up attempting to figure it out, , and return to only investigating, just looking. So the metaphor I all the time use for that is – it’s like Where’s Waldo. If you’ve gotten a Where’s Waldo picture and someone says “where’s Waldo?” That’s the inquiry query. You possibly can’t go to your memory, I mean presumably you’ve never seen this one before. You possibly can’t go to your memory to seek out out where Waldo is. You possibly can’t use some form of logic or reasoning or whatever to seek out where Waldo is. You simply must fucking look. And for some reason this, for me, was really hard to grasp. As an alternative I might attempt to figure it out. I attempt to get the precise answer. And should you bring up what is a great answer, theoretically or philosophically, notice that doesn’t help. You could have, you’ve gotten to still do the means of looking and continuing to look. And should you can’t find Waldo you only keep looking and you only keep looking and you only keep looking. And, possibly, in some unspecified time in the future you’ll be able to say, “ I even have checked out every square millimeter of this and there is no such thing as a Waldo on this picture.” Well, that’s an interesting answer, right?
But you don’t know that from figuring it out and also you don’t know that out of your memory. You don’t know that through some logical means of reasoning. You already know that by looking, yourself, at your individual experience, straight away. That’s the way you do any form of inquiry meditation, okay? I would like to save lots of you tens or or hundreds of hours of frustration of doing this mistaken. Here’s the way you do it right, okay? That’s where you begin to actually what these meditations are for and the way they work and what they’re about.
Now by way of once we’re searching for thought or we’re searching for where they arrive, or where they go, or where they’re staying, so to talk. Or we much more deeply take a look at who’s having thoughts, who’s even aware of anything, who’s doing the meditation. You already know, if I let you know the reply – I’ll let you know the reply – the reply is you’ll be able to’t find any. You already know, there’s no place thoughts are coming from. There’s not even a spot they’re going to. There’s not even a spot they’re situated once they’re happening, right? There’s no place. There’s no, there’s – – everyone knows they’re there, so to talk. It’s an experience. But you’ll be able to’t discover a place, and if it looks like you’re finding a spot, look more closely, right? But me telling you that and also you remembering that doesn’t really help. You gotta see it for yourself.
And much more deeply, much more powerfully, much more importantly for , we take it even a step further and we are saying – “who’s even considering?” Find the thinker. “Who’s even experiencing?” Find the experiencer. “Who’s even doing a meditation?” Find that doer. And, after all, what’s the reply? The reply is, you’ll be able to’t find one. When you think you’ve found one, keep looking. Look right where you think that you found it and see you’ll be able to’t really find it. Again, that doesn’t mean similar to, although you’ll be able to’t discover a place; thoughts are happening. They’re still happening. And in the identical way experience continues to be happening, you only can’t find an experiencer. Meditation continues to be happening, you only can’t discover a meditator. And if it’s not your experience, should you’re like “no Michael, I discovered it.” Then I might say, “look more closely – good – and look more closely.” Look really, really closely.
You’ll discover something very interesting, which is—you’ll be able to’t locate it. And that’s called unfindability; unfindability, non-locatability. And this unfindability is a side of emptiness, right? It’s very vital to see this emptiness for yourself, to see it for real and to see it in your individual experience time and again and time and again and all over again. Eventually it sinks in in a really deep, vital way. “Oh. Oh, there’s experience, but there’s no experiencer, there’s thoughts but there is no such thing as a thinker.” Right? And even the thoughts, even the experiences themselves in one other way are different. They’re not objects, they’re not situated anywhere. It is extremely, very interesting once we take a look at our own experience very here, which is what we do in inquiry meditation.
Now in other meditations on other Thursday nights you’ve seen me go very deeply into searching for emptiness, right? And that’s called vipashyana, we’re doing vipashyana, we’re searching for the emptiness. This inquiry meditation is just one other way of doing something – the identical thing – or if it’s not the exact same thing it’s something quite similar. It’s quite similar. It’s just a distinct way of going about it.
And these inquiry meditations are beloved of certain traditions. For instance, Advaita Vedanta’s very into inquiry meditations. A number of the inquiry we did tonight could be very much like Tibetan Buddhists schools, like Mahamudra do the sort of inquiry they usually’re also related to Zen. So a lot of traditions do that . And, for some reason some folks feel like that’s hard to do, and if it’s hard to do – great – do emptiness practice, , vipashyana.
But for other people there’s something very form of oddly satisfying about asking an issue and going and looking out and just over and all over again seeing this very interesting thing, or these very interesting things, right? It starts to percolate up from below, it’s not a top-down thing. If it was a top-down thing it might just be considering, considering, considering. It’s not about considering, it’s about experience, right? So – “ – and you only start noticing your relationship to ideas, your relationship to experience, your relationship to meditation. Even, to place it in a funny way, your relationship to starts to vary very drastically.
Okay? So I actually like these inquiry meditations. The college that’s probably the most into them is Rinzai Zen, right? Zen from the Rinzai school because there’s a whole gigantic way of working with questions called koan practice, right? So everyone knows the concept of koans and most of us know no less than two koans. There’s one koan we’ve heard of which is, ‘what’s the sound of 1 hand clapping’? But that’s not the true koan, that’s form of a nasty translation. The true koan is ‘what’s the sound of 1 hand’. Here’s – so take a look at my hand [holds closed fist up to view] – what’s the sound of that hand? What’s the sound of 1 hand? Notice that’s an inquiry query and should you attempt to figure that out it’s meant to shatter your mental machinery. You possibly can’t figure that out. You could have to only keep listening. And that, right, direct experience. It’s not something from memory, it’s not something you’ll be able to determine. You’ve just got to maintain listening. After which something interesting happens. And it’s not only ‘the reply is, there is no such thing as a sound’. You’ve got, it’s an inquiry query. And it’s really, really interesting.
The opposite koan that the majority people have heard of is ‘Joshu’s Dog’, right? So does a dog have Buddha-nature, or not? And the reply is ‘Mu’. Which implies, form of, like, not. However it’s not a solution to the query, by way of like, an mental answer. The reply ‘Mu’ is more like a cosmic, mystical sound or something. And in order that’s even deeper – although that’s the primary koan – it’s a really deep koan since it just introduces you to only an issue you’ll be able to’t answer and you’ve gotten, and you’ve gotten to reply it, right? In order that’s the, in order that’s Renzai Zen. And that’s one other form of those inquiry questions. That’s the tradition that probably goes the furthest with the concept of inquiry.
Zen also, the form of inquiry where we said, “, who’s actually aware of anything straight away?” That’s in Zen. In lots of traditions that’s the inquiry query. That’s crucial inquiry query there may be.
In Advaita Vedanta particularly the Vedanta, as taught by Ramana Maharshi, he says “the one meditation is ?” Which is one other way of asking that very same inquiry query – who’s experiencing anything straight away? Who’s aware? It’s just one other way of asking who am I?
And that’s the core query. That’s the deepest inquiry query. You would just keep asking that query over and all over again in your meditation after which looking. But you won’t ever figure it out. You won’t ever arrive at a logical response. Fairly, you’ll actually see who or what’s looking – who – you’ll actually see . And that might be an enormous surprise. Hint – it isn’t who you think that you’re.
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