Become aware of the present moment,
Whatever the present moment contains.
So if the environment around you is not peaceful,
Just be aware of that.
If your mind is noisy,
Agitated,
Just be aware of that.
If the body is uncomfortable,
Agitated,
Tight,
Just be aware of that.
And just for this time,
Don't try to change anything.
So there's no resistance to what is happening now.
Whatever is happening,
Is happening,
And all is well.
Begin saying yes to whatever is present in your experience.
Just drop the resistance,
Stop fighting.
Simply notice being itself.
There's no special technique needed for this.
You don't have to do anything spiritual or even meditative for this.
It's just a noticing,
Very gentle,
Very informal.
Just be aware of being,
Just existence itself.
Recognize that you can be aware of all things without placing any opinion or analysis on that which you observe.
You can simply be the neutral,
Peaceful,
Empty observer.
Be open to receive without pushing or pulling.
Be the space in which all experience is free to pass through.
Keep your attention in the present moment.
So we're not interested in anything the mind imagines now.
We are interested in reality as it is.
So we're not recalling memories of the past.
We're not imagining or predicting the future.
It's time to cease that activity.
It gets us nowhere.
Disengage from the mind entirely.
It's not important.
It's not helpful.
You are free to just be the awareness instead.
Just aware of what is.
Nothing needs to be decided,
Judged,
Analyzed,
Categorized,
Interpreted,
Conceptualized.
This is all the exhausting work of the mind.
Let it go.
Bring yourself home to being in the here and now.
What's happening in reality?
Your awareness of experience in the present moment is neutral and at peace.
Even if what you are aware of is uncomfortable,
Annoying,
Frustrating,
Even the negative thoughts in the mind and painful memories or worried thoughts about the future,
You can be aware of all of these things.
And the awareness that is aware of all these things is not disturbed.
It does not suffer.
It just is.
And all is well.
So letting go of all ideas,
All opinions,
All judgments,
And all stories,
All narratives,
The story of you,
The story about other people,
The story about your work,
The story about your life,
Just for this time,
Just close the book and put it to one side.
Just enjoy some rest as pure conscious awareness.
You can pick the story back up later if you wish.
But just for now,
No stories,
No ideas about the future or the past.
And there's no opinion now,
So nothing is either good nor bad,
Right or wrong.
It just is.
Give yourself this grace to just be.
Just witness.
The external world,
Pure and clear.
The internal world,
Pure and clear.
Even the mind,
Pure and clear.
Nothing to be done.
You don't have to be anyone.
You don't have to control anything.
It's already automatically unfolding by itself.
Let go of the need to control and the need to know.
It's okay to just not know.
Hands off the wheel.
There's no next moment.
We're not about to do something.
Just be now.
There's no previous moment.
We're not moving along a timeline.
There's no timer.
There's no clock.
There's no calendar.
The space of pure conscious awareness is timeless.
Eternity is not a measure of time.
It's happening now.
This is it.
Nothing more.
Realize the subtle tricks of the mind here.
It will say this is boring.
Or I'm present but I'm not at peace.
This is the subtle way that the mind endarkens our experience of life.
We are drawing no judgments or analysis about the present moment.
So it can't be boring because that's an opinion.
Let go of this idea of boring.
Be as though you've never,
Ever learned the concept of what boredom is.
This is the very first moment you ever sprang into existence.
There's no such thing as boredom.
Let go of that.
And when the mind says,
Well I think I get it,
But I'm not at peace.
Don't worry about peace.
Don't think about peace.
Release even the idea of peace.
The concept of being at peace.
Let that go too.
Not interested.
It's just an idea.
The mind wants to go looking for peace and will never find it.
Let go of the mind and peace is discovered to have always been there.
Peace,
Happiness,
Serenity,
Stillness.
That's the space that you've been looking from.
But the mind has been looking outwards to try and find it.
So bring the mind home to this space.
Call it off.
Call it all off.
Continually expand.
Expand.
Awareness,
Consciousness has no limits or borders,
Just like the sky.
And all experience is free to arise,
Stay a while,
And then depart.
Like the clouds in the sky.
Just notice the space.
Notice the infinite expanse of consciousness.
And witness experience from that place.
Don't go looking for anything in the experience.
You won't find anything.
You already know this.
We have all tried to find peace and happiness by rummaging through the content of experience.
It doesn't work,
So let it go.
Don't meddle in anything.
Just return home.
And remember,
You've been here before.
How did we forget?
It doesn't matter.
In a moment,
We will be leaving the formal aspect of this meditation.
But even when engaged in your daily activities,
Fulfilling your responsibilities and duties,
The things you have to do,
See if it's possible to do so from this space,
So that you never leave meditation.
It's all just unfolding.
All experience is just automatically playing out in the infinite expanse of pure conscious awareness.
Just practice this.
You'll find it's remarkably intuitive.
Thank you for doing this meditation with me today.
Take care.
Be well.
Stay present.
