Beyond Thought - Lesson 2

Beginning a new meditation practice is an opportunity to learn how to journey into the deeper parts of your consciousness, find stillness, release anxiety, and awake to the truth of who you are. Just like embarking on an outer-journey, it’s important to have a strategy, tools, and a map. But most importantly, you have to have an attitude of openness, receptivity, and a bit of amusement.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome back to the fundamentals of meditation.

I want to start today with a reminder that there is no religious or spiritual tradition or even secular tradition that owns meditation.

There are many different traditions and cultures that use meditation for so many different benefits.

But I want you to be aware as you sit with me and as you deepen into your own practice that the cultivation of awareness is entirely yours and you can take or leave any part of any technique that you learn.

Because ultimately at the end of the day,

As your awareness rests inside your body,

It's about your relationship with yourself.

So on that note,

Let's go ahead and get started.

And today we're going to be working on going beyond thought.

Now I know what you're thinking.

What?

But yes,

Our existence does not begin and end with thought.

And in fact,

Many of your deepest moments in life,

If you've had a great moment going skydiving or having a deep kiss with someone or being really present in a sports game or whatever it happens to be,

Reading a beautiful poem or seeing art or hiking a mountain,

That I'm sure in those moments you found yourself not thinking.

There's a moment there where you were just present with what was in front of you.

But often during the normal course of a day,

We find ourselves just lost in thought.

And if you're here with me for this series,

You're probably no exception.

I caught you.

So in today's meditation,

We're going to learn how to go beyond thought without having to jump out of an airplane.

Because every moment in life is exceptional if we pay attention.

So let's begin.

Go ahead and close your eyes.

Find that comfortable posture for yourself,

Whatever it is.

And you can start by just having some gratitude for yourself for being here and sitting.

Let your breath begin to slow.

And I'd like you to bring your awareness behind your eyes into the center of your head,

Where you may find you already spend most of your time.

And as you rest your awareness here,

You'll see in front of you almost like this screen that you see all of your thoughts on in your mind's eye.

Your memories,

Your ideas when you picture something.

You might find that you have thoughts just running all day long,

Like one of those stock stickers at the bottom of the screen or news flashes just goes and goes and goes.

And that is totally acceptable.

So we're not trying to turn our minds off.

All I'm asking you to do is be aware of all of those passing thoughts and don't judge them.

Just notice them.

Almost like if you were at an aquarium and fish were just swimming by.

Almost like you're just fascinated.

What is it like to watch your thoughts without trying to change them or solve them or manipulate them?

Just like just as a witness,

You're just watching them.

And then I'd like you to notice that if you have more than one thought,

Then there has to be a gap in between two thoughts.

Notice that there are gaps in between thoughts,

Just like there are gaps in between words and a sentence on a page.

Start to bring your awareness to these gaps.

You may start to find that there are more gaps than you thought there were.

And as you start to focus on these gaps,

It's almost as if your thoughts lose some momentum.

They lose a little bit of fuel.

They don't velcro onto your consciousness as much.

And as you sit and your body relaxes,

As your breath calmly moves in and out,

You recognize that you're that witnessing presence to the thoughts and the gaps between the thoughts that you're having without any judgment.

And if any thoughts pull you away,

You just bring your awareness back.

Our thoughts will always try to convince us that there's something important to figure out or to accomplish.

But in this meditation,

We don't feed that energy.

We just watch and relax.

Take a nice big deep breath in.

Nice sigh out.

Great work again.

We're going to slowly start to come out of meditation.

You can open your eyes and stretch.

And that's how we become aware of thought and the gaps between thought.

Thank you for being here with me.

And I will see you in the next meditation.

Enjoy yourself.

Reviews

There is a lot going on in the background of the stillness, music, words, my own thoughts and breathing. Not exactly boring.

I admire your work. Its pure inspiration. Thank you David

I revisited this meditation couple years later now and I just love it ✨🙏💫👍😘

Thank you! A keen explanation!! 💫💛

Wonderful meditation. You have such a gift for teaching.

Brilliant meditation! David, you are such a good teacher. Thank you and all love and blessings to you.🙏🌻

Thanks David 💗💕
Sometimes little gestures are overlooked in the grand scheme of the daily race.
Thank you for bringing me back to center. I’m more focused now. 😁

David this for me is one of your best. How may I tap into more in 'this' program? Bless you, namaste, Thank-you,👏🏽 J

Another very helpful, wonderful reminder and meditation David!! 🙏🏻💖 Thank you 🙏🏻💖

Especially in this time of covid-19 and political unrest and violence I find my mind working overtime reacting and becoming disturbed. I appreciate the simplicity of your soft-spoken approach to detaching from my thoughts and finding a little peace. Thank you.

Thank you David!

🙏🏻finding the gaps gives so much peace of mind! It’s like i feel my brain relaxing in a fysical way 🧠💕

Really like your talks and meditations. Sometimes I even have a whole session of just your "stuff" (for want of a better word)😊

Thank you David, love your soothing voice! So calming! Namaste 🙏

Excellent beginner meditation. 🙏🏻

Amazing! Love your whole approach! You’re so open minded and non-judge mental. Love your laugh and lightheartedness, but sincere approach! In this particular meditation, I imagined sitting in a movie watching the words go by, but was able to focus on all the space...& there was loads of space! The words were just super thin lines that seemed to blur out and almost move pass me as I continued to focus on all the space in and around each letter. Thank you SO much!!!

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

The analogy that thoughts are like fish swimming by at an aquarium really resonated for me! Wonderful meditation. Thanks!

Beautiful. Thank you ☺️

Such gentle guidance. Thank you David. Much love to you dear soul 💜 x