That voice in your head.
Take a moment to settle into a comfortable position.
Gently close the eyes or soften your gaze.
Let the jaw relax and the shoulders soften.
Rest your hands comfortably in your lap.
Begin by noticing the natural rhythm of your breath.
Quietly observing.
Feel the breath as it quietly flows in and then flows out.
Feel the breath in the rising chest,
The gentle movement in the stomach,
And the quiet pause between each breath.
In these moments there is nowhere to go,
Nothing to achieve,
And nothing to expect.
Just the quiet noticing of being here,
Relaxed.
There is a voice that speaks within the mind.
It tells stories about how you feel,
What you think,
Who you are,
What you are not.
Now a gentle,
Non-dual contemplation.
Notice this voice as a sound arising in inseparable awareness.
No different from the sound of a bird's call or the sound of waves breaking on a distant shore.
Notice the feeling the voice is describing.
Is the feeling made of words?
Or is it more of a sensation,
A vibration,
Movement,
A particular energy?
And now quietly notice what is silently aware of both the voice and the feelings.
This quiet knowing has no opinion,
No story,
No desire,
And no narrative.
It does not question,
Argue,
Or disagree.
There is simple knowing of what is appearing.
Rest here now as the openness in which the voice speaks and feelings arise,
Moving like clouds across the sky,
Like waves crossing the ocean,
Leaving stillness and calm as they pass.
The narrative voice is often the source of personal imbalance.
And when this voice appears next,
There is a simple,
Quiet possibility,
A soft choice of ease,
A return to one's flow,
A resting as the awareness in which all of this unfolds.
Stay with this recognition gently,
Without effort.
The voice may speak of past or future.
It may recall memories,
Create concerns,
Imagine outcomes.
And all of this appears effortlessly in one's open field of knowing,
Of inseparable awareness.
Notice how the voice comes and goes.
It rises like a ripple on the surface of water and dissolves back into silence.
Feelings arise like tides,
Rising and receding,
Leaving the ocean itself unmoved,
Unchanged.
There is an awareness choice.
You are under no obligation to follow the voice,
To believe the story,
To fix or contradict what appears.
Awareness does not need improvement.
It does not need to be healed.
It does not need to be perfected,
Questioned or understood.
All is as it is.
Even the sense of being the separate self is known here,
As is the search for peace,
The desire to awaken,
To know oneself more deeply.
Let the voice speak if it wishes.
Let feelings arise if they do.
Nothing needs to be pushed away or held or understood.
Like birds crossing a vast sky,
Like waves crossing a vast ocean,
All appears,
Moves and then fades away.
Rest as the stillness of the sky.
Rest as the depth of the ocean.
Rest as the quiet knowing in which all experience unfolds.
There is no boundary to awareness,
Just an open,
Luminous presence,
Effortless,
Unborn,
All-embracing.
Relax here for a few moments,
Open and whole.
One is complete.
Presence is effortless.
The voice will continue to speak in daily life.
Feelings will continue to arise and fall.
Now there is a quiet recognition.
Words and thoughts are temporary appearances only in one's inseparable awareness,
Not the of what one is.
Whenever the voice becomes loud,
Pause in quiet knowing.
This voice is a temporary appearance in awareness.
This feeling is a temporary appearance in awareness.
Know the body and mind are held in this timeless wisdom.
Now gently return to the breath.
Align again with one's natural breathing rhythm.
Slowly breathing in and pause,
Then slowly breathing out.
Now notice feelings and sensations in your hands and your feet.
If the eyes are closed,
Gently blink them open when you are ready.
Return to the surroundings in your presence,
Just as they are.
Carry this wisdom with you.
The voice may speak.
Feelings may arise.
Yet,
What one is,
Is the imperturbable awareness in which all words and feelings temporarily appear then fade.
And what is then present?
Stillness and calm.
Nothing is lost here.
Life continues,
Unfolds,
Gently held in this discerning openness.
