It can be so valuable in practice to realize I am not these thoughts,
I am not this body,
I am not these emotions.
This process historically referred to as the neti neti process,
Takes an approach of not this,
Not that,
Not this,
Knowing that with enough clarity about what we are not,
We eventually reach what we are.
Sometimes with this process we might identify with a self who's believing that we have to get rid of something in order to experience truth.
It's a shadow side of this process.
In your own life,
Have you ever found yourself identified with a self who's on a mission to annihilate the self?
In this turning toward approach,
We see the true nature in all things.
We see all things as illuminated,
Made of,
Known by,
Luminous consciousness.
So pick one place of struggle that feels familiar that arises in your life.
Perhaps an experience of anxiety.
We can take an approach in practice of seeing the anxiety arise,
Naming it,
Letting it go,
Returning to presence.
We can also turn toward this sensation that we call anxiety,
For that's all it really is,
Is a labeled sensation.
So choose something now that's relevant for you.
Some place of struggle.
For the purposes of this short meditation,
I'll continue to work with anxiety.
Notice this experience.
Feel the texture of this experience.
Drop the label.
What's here?
What could this anxiety be made of other than awareness or consciousness?
Where else could this anxiety arise but in awareness or consciousness?
And is there anything in this moment happening other than you,
Awareness itself,
Being aware of this experience,
Which is made of awareness,
Consciousness?
So consciousness,
Conscious,
Of consciousness.
When we see,
Feel,
And experience the true nature of all things,
There's nothing that needs to be gotten rid of,
Nothing we need to let go of,
And no one to get rid of anything,
No one to do the letting go.
Just being,
Being,
Being.
How incredible the mind is that in practice we can focus on what's veiling true nature,
What appears to block or get in the way,
And we can also take an approach of finding being in everything.
In this approach,
It's recognized that even what appears to veil being is made of nothing other than being.
So in this approach,
We turn toward,
We embrace whatever's arising from the recognition that we are not separate from it.
Whatever's arising is arising in us,
In vast luminous being.
Whatever's arising is known by us.
We know what's arising through consciousness,
As consciousness.
Everything that's arising is made of us.
Awareness itself.
From this recognition,
What could there possibly be to fear?
And who would fear it?
I invite you to rest now,
As long as you wish,
Here.
Awareness.
Aware of awareness.
Nothing left out.
Nothing excluded.
There is only this.
