Let's start our meditation with an interesting dilemma.
It's the dilemma we're faced with anytime we sit down to meditate.
As you realize that there's nothing you can do to make meditation happen.
Just in the same way there's really nothing you can do to make sleep happen.
All that you can really do as you sit down to meditate or sleep is to stop doing whatever it is that you're doing that's keeping you awake.
Whatever it is that you're doing that is keeping you in a state of activity.
So take a moment here to become aware.
Perhaps first just becoming aware of anything that you're doing and try to make meditation or a meditative state happen.
And as you discover these subtle,
Sometimes subtle attempts,
Just relinquish them.
Just release them one by one.
Do not hear trying to achieve a certain state or arrive at a certain experience or make anything specific happen.
And so you can take all the pressure off of yourself here.
All of the burden of doing.
All burden of arriving somewhere.
And to start just having this permission,
This freedom to be as you are.
To be exactly as you are.
That means that whatever you're feeling,
Whatever the state of your mind is like,
However your nervous system is functioning,
Whatever is going on in your body,
It's all okay.
It's all good.
Some parts you may not like,
Some parts you may like.
But our practice here is not to discern one from another.
Instead to initiate a wholehearted embrace,
A wholehearted acceptance of whatever is present right now.
So that can't happen if we're trying to get somewhere or if we're trying to create a certain state or feeling.
So the mind is set up to do something.
And you know this,
You see this.
It's evident if we look at our mind,
It's always trying to do something.
So I want to give the mind a very specific task.
And that is to do nothing.
To do nothing.
That's your performance here.
That's your act.
That's your practice.
To do nothing.
If a thought comes,
It comes.
Just as quickly as it comes,
It goes.
And another.
And another.
But you're not doing anything about that.
You're not trying to stop the flow of thinking,
And you're not trying to participate in the flow of thinking.
If thinking happens,
Fine.
If thinking doesn't happen,
Fine.
You're just to be totally unconcerned with making anything happen.
And the moment you are unconcerned with making anything happen,
Achieving anything with your ego,
You are open and available to really see,
To really experience this moment vividly.
Not through your filters,
Not through lenses and programs,
But to touch this moment directly.
To kiss it.
And it may seem that what's happening here in this moment is quite ordinary,
But you're looking with extraordinary vision.
You're allowing yourself to be utterly sensitive to the sensations of your body,
The moods and flow of the environment,
Your senses.
Even as a thought enters your consciousness,
It can be felt intensely for the short period that it lasts.
So be sensitive.
Be highly,
Highly sensitive.
Like an instrument that will vibrate with the slightest sound.
So sensitive that the line,
The boundary that separates the inside of your experience from the outside of your experience blurs.
So when you hear a car passing by or you hear the fan or you hear a person breathing,
You can sense it's all happening inside you.
And the ego has no role here,
Since there's nothing to desire,
Nothing to gratify you.
And there's nothing to fear.
If you should experience some surge in your body of desire,
Fear,
Or any kind of state,
It's just energy,
Dancing,
Just movement,
Can be welcomed,
Can be accepted.
And now you are here not as a person,
Not as a brain with senses,
But as a consciousness,
As a presence,
Delicate,
Smooth,
Quiet,
Expansive.
Any rational thing or any kind of voodoo can never be that deep inside you.
Paying a very deep attention,
We can even sense that we are not housed or trapped in a body,
But that the body is happening within the space of your consciousness.
Being known by consciousness.
Being experienced,
Every sensation,
Feeling by consciousness.
Recognize,
I am that consciousness.
I am the consciousness that is present in this moment,
And always this moment.
Always now,
Always here.
The person that I take myself to be comes and goes.
A thought,
And then gone.
So you see,
We're not trying to get anywhere,
Because what it is that we really want,
It's here.
Present as you.
The mind in its role will call you back into selfhood.
Call you back into thinking about yourself,
Your life,
Your plans,
Your past,
Your future,
Your relationships,
Your duties,
Your responsibilities.
When you see your mind play this way,
Laugh.
Laugh with the conviction,
I am here.
I am here.
At this moment,
This now.
What's right here,
Right now,
Is all I want.
When you hear the clamor of the dogs barking in your own mind,
You just laugh.
You see the ruckus,
But you have no interest in it,
No desire for it.
You make no movement to resist it or indulge it.
That is called level memory and is this enough to know your true self?
We can see here and now that we're not coming from somewhere and we're not going anywhere.
We're not becoming anything.
We're here as a timeless,
Nameless presence.
And let this recognition,
Let it resound in you.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
As you recognize that you're whole.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
Let it sing as you recognize that you're free.
