Radically Resting In The Sea Of Awareness

For teens (as well as adults!) Come play with your “inner octopus of awareness.” Let go of the pressure to get meditation “right.” Embrace the profound tranquility of simply being, where true rest and rejuvenation await.

Transcript

Hello, Dear one. When I first found meditation practice, I was so excited to have a way to put my attention where I wanted it to be. I was excited to have a chance to train my attention because it felt like my attention was always all over the place. And there was something that I can acknowledge now that never felt inherently restful about my meditations, Which seemed kind of funny, Really. But especially in the beginning for me, Meditation was about concentration. And because I actually didn't feel like I was very good at concentrating, Meditation also had an air of, Geez, This is just yet another thing I'm not very good at. In fact, I kind of suck at this. I'm not able to focus the way that I think a meditation person should be able to focus. I didn't even know really what a meditation person was supposed to be exactly like because I didn't have a lot of people modeling what that was supposed to look like, But I just knew I wasn't it. A huge shift for me occurred when, As I stuck with a meditation practice, I began to ease up on my fervor around trying to get it right. When I began to taste radical, Real rest. So I want to invite you into this now. I'll talk for a while for this meditation, But then I'll fall silent. Let yourself stay with whatever experience you're having for as long as you want. Give yourself permission to rest. Come into any position that works for you. One where you can rest. Or you can rest. Just notice for a moment how calm it is for your attention to be bouncing, Jumping, Hopping from thing to thing to thing. It can be so powerful, As I mentioned, To be able to say, Now I'm going to take the attention and I'm actually just going to focus on one thing. I'm going to pick one thing. Maybe it's the breath. Maybe it's sounds around me. Maybe it's sensations in the body. I'm going to pick one thing and I'm just going to hang out there. That can be powerful. There's a discipline in that that's useful. You are empowered to place the attention where you want it to be. That's a big deal. For this meditation, We're going to rest the attention. Imagine if there are a bunch of things around you, A chair, A light, A thought form, An emotion, A breath, A dog. Instead of focusing on one thing, Instead of choosing just the breath, For example, Instead of thought forms or emotion or even a physical object around you, Imagine releasing those objects. If you were an octopus and your tentacles were reaching out to these different objects, One of your arms grabbing onto the chair, One of your arms grabbing onto a thought form, One of your arms grabbing onto emotions that are arising, Now visualize those tentacles relaxing. It's like the octopus's arms are just resting, Floating in the sea, Free to be released, Gently bobbing in the water. See yourself, Feel yourself as this octopus that's moved from reaching to a thing, Grabbing onto it, Trying to keep it in some way or focus on it. Feel yourself now floating. This wild, Intelligent being just being, Not grabbing for anything, Not straining, Not trying, Floating. So in this meditation, The attention's getting to rest, The attention's getting to rest in the vastness of the sea, The sea of awareness. In the same way that an octopus tentacle can't exist without the octopus and without the sea, The attention can't exist without awareness. So we're resting in the vastness out of which the attention arises, The attention's resting in the openness the spaciousness, This teeming, Alive sea. This sea is your very being. Let the attention soften rest and release in the vast sea of your very being. Here there's truly nothing you have to strive for. You don't have to try to simply be. You don't have to focus in a steady and concentrated way to simply be. And you don't have to be good at anything to know the peace of your own being to float in the peace of your own being. So allow yourself to rest. This is radical, Real rest. It's the rest that's here as the attention can let go of objects when it can soften and draw back into the freedom of this vast open sea of your vast open being.

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