So I want to start by defining meditation.
One of the definitions I really like is meditation is the cultivation of awareness.
So just.
Like we can breathe on automatic without thinking while we're asleep,
Unconsciously.
We can also slow our breath down,
Breathe deeper,
Breathe into our belly or our chest.
We can manually take over our breath.
We also have a certain amount of awareness.
Whether we're aware of it or not.
And in meditation,
We can go,
Oh.
I am conscious and I could decide to be more conscious.
I could become conscious of my breath.
Of my body.
Of the space in the room that I'm sitting in.
I can become conscious of my thoughts,
Of my feelings,
Of you.
Of nature,
Of whatever is around me.
And so as I sit still,
Perhaps the mind gets quiet,
I can become more and more self-aware.
And we can also call it reflective self-awareness or subjective awareness.
So instead of just being aware of the outside world,
I can draw my awareness in.
As we start to meditate,
We close our physical eyes and we turn the light on.
On the inside,
We start to see in with our inner eye.
And that's when we start to have subjective awareness.
We start to look inwards.
Maybe we start to find out who we are,
Find out answers and insights to questions we've had.
Start to find some intuition,
Start to feel and sense our own energy.
And really develop ourselves from the inside out.
So I really don't care what kind of meditation practice you do.
You could be chanting,
You can be focusing on your breathing,
You can be watching your thoughts,
You can be doing some visualization.
All different kinds of meditation are wonderful.
Hopefully they all help you cultivate awareness,
Maybe process energy,
Become aware of who you are.
And turn the lights on.
On the inside.
So that's where we start.
We're aware that we're becoming more aware and then we want to decide which tools we're going to use to help us.
And now those change along the way.
We use different meditation practices.
We sit with different teachers.
We learn different techniques.
And we find one that works for us for the time being,
That helps us develop.
And then maybe after a while,
We move on from that and go on to the next one.
So you might go,
I'm done with you,
David.
Next teacher,
Next.
Next tool,
Whatever it is.
So I just wanted to do a broad definition of meditation.
And let me finish with this.
I think there are kind of two spheres of meditation.
We'll call them dual meditations and non-dual meditations.
Wax on,
Wax off.
Dual meditations are almost any meditation where we're doing something,
Visualizing,
Focusing,
Noticing our breath,
Healing ourselves,
Asking an internal question.
Where were.
Focusing on almost accomplishing something.
Dual meditation.
There's the meditator and then the object of meditation.
Nandol!
Meditation,
A little bit more mystical,
More like Zen or Vedanta in India,
Where the meditator turns their awareness back on the subject.
So who is it that is aware?
What is the awareness that is aware?
And if you go deep enough into that,
Perhaps you notice that the ground of all being is awareness itself.
And that this idea of subject and object are some kind of an illusion.
All right,
Maybe we'll get there.
But that's a start.
Dual meditation,
Non-dual.
The cultivation of awareness.
And you can actually meditate and enjoy it,
Have fun.
It can feel good to become more conscious.
In a very voluntary,
Manual way.
And not always have to just be lost in the movie in your mind,
Where you're just looking at your thoughts,
Reacting to every thought and feeling you have,
But backing up.
Finding some stillness,
Being neutral.
And then as it gets silent,
Seeing what wants to unfold.
All right,
That's the start.
Thanks for sitting with me.
I will see you soon.
It'll still be now.
