When I use the term contemplation,
I mean to sit with a question,
To be silent and still,
And wait for intuition to arise,
As opposed to searching through thoughts for an answer.
When that intuition DOES arise,
Don't get lost in a train of thought around it.
Recognize it and let it go to wait for additional intuition to arise.
Trust that if the intuition was truly meaningful,
It will still be available for you when the contemplation period is over.
Be more interested in a continuous,
Open curiosity of listening for insight than in mentally pursuing the details of anything that arises.
In the following guided contemplation,
I will initially guide you with some mental pointers.
I will then ask you to engage in contemplation about a couple of questions.
Then I will be quiet.
But please continue your contemplation until the bell sounds to signal the end.
Let's begin.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
Relax and get comfortable.
Settle in right where you are and notice what's happening around you right now.
Notice your breathing,
How your body feels,
All the various subtle sounds.
Open your awareness wide to include the vast array of things appearing in your awareness in this moment.
From the big obvious things like the sound of my voice to the very subtle things you normally overlook,
Like how the air feels on your skin.
Let your awareness open wide to include everything right now,
No matter how subtle.
If thoughts appear,
Notice them too,
But don't follow them.
Let them drift on by.
As you focus on being aware,
Now shift your focus away from what appears within your awareness and instead place your focus of attention on awareness itself.
Notice what it's like to be aware.
Sometimes it's not easy to focus on it because it is so fundamental to who we are that we routinely overlook it.
If our life was a movie,
Awareness would be the movie screen,
Often overlooked but always there,
Still,
Constant,
Never changing,
That on which the drama and events appear.
To help recognize the still movie screen of awareness itself,
Look past all that changes and focus on that which never changes.
Recognize that our bodies change.
Our thoughts change.
All the things that appear within awareness change.
But the bright shining awareness that notices everything in the here and now,
That has never changed.
It is always here,
Awareing.
And you have no doubt noticed that it's always now.
The present moment is timeless,
Eternity,
Changeless,
Just like your awareness.
Recognize that awareness and the present moment are always inseparable.
They are not two,
They are one.
Now turn your focus of attention to that sense of being you,
The I AM that has always been the center point of your life.
This has never changed.
This feels like it's always been there,
Timeless,
Eternity.
It was the same sense of being you that experienced childhood,
High school,
Love,
Young adult,
Career,
More love.
There was much change over that span,
But the sense of you being you was constant,
Always there.
In this moment,
Focus your attention on the only things in life that never change.
Awareness,
The eternal now,
Your sense of being you,
And contemplate our are there any boundaries between these things?
Are they really one?
Are they— you you you you you you
