Effortless Flow Of Consciousness

This is the fifth meditation in the Process Meditations Series.

Awareness is still, and life is moving. This movement requires no effort. I can learn to follow this flow, and allow life itself to do the work.

Transcript

Today we're going to be looking at flow.

Flow is how movement occurs in consciousness.

In a material world,

In a physical world,

Movement occurs because of work.

I get in shape because I motivate myself and I go to the gym and I work.

I do something.

In consciousness,

Movement and flow and work don't come from effort.

This is one of the harder things.

It's more challenging to know this,

To live in this state,

But it's tremendously powerful if you can recognize it.

If you can begin to realize this flow,

It will have a tremendous impact on the direction of your life.

So let's go for it.

Now to do this,

All the other elements of consciousness that we've studied before,

These other meditations,

Are really prerequisite.

So if you're not familiar with awareness,

With this ability to hold your body and awareness and focus,

Then I encourage you to go back to those first.

But if you have,

Here we go.

So the first thing we can do before anything happens is realize there already is awareness.

Awareness can't go anywhere.

We can become more or less connected to it,

More or less conscious of it,

More or less aware of it,

But it can't go anywhere.

It's stable.

It's not moving.

It's really important that we begin to recognize awareness is something we connect with that can't move.

Kind of like the ground of our experience.

And we feel that.

And this opens the door to a wonderful contrast.

Contrast is so important in awakening and realization.

Awareness is not moving.

Everything else is.

All of the things that I'm aware of are moving.

And we'll go through that and we'll break it down so that you can experience this for yourself.

We can start just with the sounds that you hear.

So as we are listening we become aware and we notice awareness is not changing.

I sort of drop into this sense of being aware.

And I notice without any effort,

Whether it's the sound of Blaze's voice,

Of my voice,

Or the other sounds around you,

Your own breath.

These sounds are moving.

They're changing.

There is a next thing that happens.

There's a next sound that occurs.

If you rest in awareness,

You're not doing anything.

You're not going anywhere and you're not doing anything.

You're here.

And yet this flow of information,

Of sound,

Keeps happening.

You couldn't stop it if you tried.

The next sound just happens.

And if you really encourage yourself,

You can relax into this flow and be in continual amazement about the next thing that happens.

You don't know what I'm going to say.

You don't know what sound is going to occur next.

It just happens.

It's just the next thing that happens.

It doesn't take any effort for you to hear the next thing that happens.

How about our mental world?

Again,

We ground ourselves in awareness.

I'm aware of my thoughts.

My awareness isn't moving.

Can't really come or go.

It's fundamental,

Foundational.

And yet my thoughts come and go.

If I am connected to awareness,

I'm not doing anything.

I'm not going anywhere.

And yet there's a next thought.

I'm not trying to have thoughts.

They just happen.

In this way,

Thoughts are not something that I do.

They're something that I'm aware of.

Yes,

It's true that sometimes they have an I-subject,

Meaning the thoughts are presented,

They're experienced with a subject like,

I don't think that's true.

I don't know what he's talking about.

I disagree.

But look really closely.

Is I disagree or I this or I that?

Is it something that you're doing or something that just happens?

And you can again encourage yourself.

You can choose to relax into this flow of thoughts.

And notice that your thoughts are moving.

And the next thought doesn't take any effort.

Again,

If you do nothing,

The next thought is self-powered.

How about our bodies?

Again,

We ground ourselves in awareness.

Awareness is not moving.

It's not doing anything.

It's just being.

I am here.

I am aware.

Is my body something that I'm doing or is it something that I'm aware of?

If it's something that I'm aware of,

We can just watch as the body has a life of its own.

It's generating its own sensations.

It's generating its own emotions.

If you let it,

If you were really relaxed,

You would let it generate its own movement.

You could observe it getting up and walking around.

But for now,

We're,

You're probably just sitting here observing sensations and emotions and wondering,

Considering this ability to let things be,

Let the body be.

If we feel these emotions and sensations,

We notice they're changing.

And we can get into a flow,

A fluid movement of the next thing,

A continual next thing,

Which just emerges into awareness and arises into awareness.

This is akin to taking your hands off a wheel and find out that you're operating a driverless car.

If you're operating a driverless body,

You can just sit here.

You can just be.

You can actually relax into this awareness deeper.

And we can start to study this flow,

This movement.

Where is this driverless body taking me?

This could be anywhere from confusing to offensive,

This suggestion that life happens on its own because we make choices.

We concentrate on things.

We're in control,

Right?

You're the one doing your life,

Right?

That's what we've all been taught.

That's what we're all trying to get better at.

So we'll take those two ideas and we'll examine them.

One is that I have choices.

The other is I can focus on things.

I'm going to ask you a question and just see what happens.

You're probably going to generate some thoughts and feelings,

Maybe some memories,

Images.

And we just see if this choice,

If this response to my question is something that you do or something you're aware of.

I would like to give you a car.

Would you like to have a Ferrari or would you like to have a Lamborghini?

Or how about would you like to have a Rolls Royce or a Bentley?

Which one do you want?

Is your response something that you do or is it something that you observe?

We'll get to the implications of this in a little bit,

But just see if you can relax.

Allow the movement of life,

Of thought,

Feeling,

Emotion,

To be effortless,

Self-generating,

Intelligent.

The other idea is,

Other than free will,

Is that we,

Or making choices or responsibility,

Is that we can choose what we focus on.

Just see if you can watch your focus.

Like you were watching a flashlight move about a room.

A flashlight shining around through a space,

Looking at different things.

Just relax and try to have no focus.

Relax into the experience of being aware.

What you'll notice,

I suspect,

Is that your focus keeps moving on its own.

A part of your body,

A thought,

An object in the room.

There's this consistent movement of your focus.

Is that something that you're doing or is it something that you're aware of?

So what if we just let everything happen?

Or,

More accurately,

What if we just accepted and stayed connected to the fact,

The experience,

That everything is already happening?

The only things that happen are things that you become aware of once they have already happened.

It's too late to stop or control life.

By the time awareness becomes aware of the thought,

The feeling,

Sensation,

It's already here.

Where's the choice?

By the time I move my focus towards or away from something,

It's already happened.

I'm only aware of things that have already happened.

This is a state of clarity called choiceless awareness.

But I often describe as God's will.

Because if it's not me that's doing it,

What is the force or intelligence that is animating my life,

Which is causing this movement?

What is this effortless flow of life?

Well,

We can attribute it to God,

Which is another way of saying,

Not some man in the sky,

But a kind of physics of reality,

Of consciousness.

And intelligence is pervasive throughout your experience.

The same force that pushes the wind through the trees is what's generating your anxiety,

Your joy,

Confusion.

One movement.

Awareness is still.

Everything else in your experience is moving.

And you're aware of this movement.

We can think about this like a wave.

A kind of a wave of inevitability.

The fastest way to improve your life is to ride this wave.

This is often unnatural at first,

And we continue to find ways in which we are resistant to letting life move.

But we can come to turn to this reality to mold us,

To navigate our life with,

To take us to our highest potential.

It's my experience that this direction naturally seeks completion,

Expansion,

Higher consciousness,

Higher potential,

The highest state for any person who recognizes it.

It's an escalator to your best life.

Now this escalator may be experienced,

Will be experienced,

As human motivation,

Desire,

Frustration.

It really doesn't negate any of the human qualities.

But what it does do is engage all of our humanity into a flow,

Into this movement.

The funny thing is it's really all the time,

It's this way for everybody.

This is the only thing that's happening,

As far as I can tell.

You can see for yourself.

But it only works if you recognize it.

Think about a dream.

You have a dream,

A nightmare,

And it's only a nightmare until you realize you're dreaming.

No one has a lucid nightmare.

The nightmare imagination of a dream only exists in ignorance.

Once somebody becomes aware that they're dreaming,

All dreams become creative.

The loss of free will,

Of choice,

Is not disempowering.

It's tremendously empowering.

It moves the power of your life from your will to the will of God or life or consciousness.

It moves your self,

Your identity,

From your personality,

Your memories,

To consciousness.

So again,

To the best of your ability,

You fall back into this flow state.

The next thing just keeps happening,

Even when you don't try and do anything.

If you try and do something,

Well,

That's just the next thing that happens.

It's all the same.