3 Sutras To Infinite Possibilities | Choiceless Awareness Meditation

The mind is amazing. What is even more amazing is No-Mind! By No-mind, I mean the consciousness free of contents of the mind. In this meditation session, allow me to take you from Mind to No-Mind and learning 3 sutras of opening up to infinite possibilities. The meditation technique we are using is based on choiceless awareness. Session Format: Wisdom Talk (20min) & Guided Meditation (30min).

Transcript

This meditation session was given in Basel on 18th of February 2019.

In this session,

I share three sutras of meditation that will create infinite possibilities in your life.

A very warm welcome to all of you in this Monday evening meditation session with me,

Dhyansai.

Today,

I hope you noticed the moon outside.

It's shining bright.

There is so much lucidity in the energies that if you allow yourself to be silent,

If you give yourself these next minutes to be here,

To be relaxed,

To be in the moment,

To be with yourself,

To be in introspection and in silence,

This will go very deep.

This will go far in your life,

Just even these few moments.

So make sure that you make the best use of this time that you are here,

That you are sitting in silence with me,

In meditation with me.

For today's meditation,

For today's technique,

I have three sutras for you.

Very simple sutras,

But again,

If you understand them,

If you utilize them not only for your meditation,

But also for other aspects of your life,

They can again impact your life very deeply.

For the first sutra,

Let's do a small experiment.

Let's play a small game.

Choose a number between 1 to 10 and visualize that number in your head.

A number between 1 to 10 and just visualize that number.

Don't tell me the number.

Visualize that number in your head.

Would you be impressed if I tell you what that number is for each one of you?

Yes or no?

Sorry to disappoint you.

I'm not a mind reader.

I'm not a magician.

But I would like you to understand your own mind.

What process goes behind when you use your mind,

Even for such a simple thing as choosing the number.

Let's say you chose 7,

Which I think most of you chose,

But that's not the point.

When you chose a number,

Let's say 7,

How many options did you have?

I'm speaking to you.

10.

You had 10 options.

But did you really have 10 options?

When you were choosing the number,

Did you go through all the 10 options?

Yes or no?

No.

Why?

What comes in the way?

Your own mind.

Your own mind narrows down your options.

When you were choosing this number,

You must have chosen between a couple of numbers.

7,

8,

3,

It doesn't matter which number.

But you were given 10 possibilities,

And your mind narrowed it down to 2-3 possibilities,

And then you moved on to making your selection.

What I'm trying to tell you with this is that you have many more possibilities always than you can think of.

Your mind is of such a nature that it narrows down your options,

Your possibilities.

You may find it useful in many cases if your mind always were to have all the options in front of you.

Maybe you would not be so efficient,

Maybe you will get stuck in just the process of selection.

So yes,

There is a utility in narrowing down the options.

There is a utility in having a small set of possibilities for your efficiency,

For your execution.

But in this process,

We forget what all possibilities we have.

In that process,

We become unconscious of all the possibilities that are there beyond the mind.

What your mind is presenting to you,

There is far more beyond.

In reality,

You had 10 options.

But in your mind,

You had 2 or 3 options.

So this is the sutra number 1 to remember for meditation and for everything else,

Wherever it applies to your life,

That your mind is narrowing down the possibilities.

And then you hit those moments in your life where you feel you are bored,

You feel there is no juice in life,

You feel there are no possibilities in life,

But there are.

All you need to do is to recognize that your mind is distorting the reality,

The possibilities and narrowing down your possibilities.

Make sense?

Second sutra,

For that,

Once again,

A small exercise.

This time,

Close your eyes and whenever I say a number,

Try to visualize that number.

1 2 As I speak for these numbers,

Keep all your awareness on this number and visualize this number in front of you.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Now in your awareness,

Take all the numbers together.

And become aware of all the numbers from 1 to 10 with no one number in particular.

Become aware of all the 10 numbers without focusing on one number in particular.

Now from these 10 numbers,

Imagine there are 100 numbers.

Try to become aware of 100 numbers all at once without focusing on one particular number.

1,

000 numbers.

Hold 1,

000 numbers in your awareness without a particular number in focus.

Now open your eyes.

Let's understand what happens.

What happens when you take 10 numbers in your awareness without one number in particular?

What happens?

Anyone would like to share?

Guys,

This is for you.

All the possibilities open up.

What else?

Lots of options.

What about when you take this to 100?

Even that?

To a 1000?

To 10,

000?

You could see all the possibilities in front of you.

You feel them.

The second sutra is when you hold a lot of possibilities in your awareness and no one particular possibility.

Don't focus on one particular thing.

What happens is your mind cannot hold on to them.

So you come out of the mind.

You fall back in your being.

You fall back into your consciousness.

And from that conscious space,

You can feel the entire spectrum without having to choose one in particular.

The moment you make a choice,

You fall into the mind.

When you don't make a choice,

When your attention is undivided,

You come out of the mind.

Coming out of the mind is just a loosely put expression to say that you are in pure consciousness.

You are not in that process which is narrowing down your options.

This is what meditation is.

When your attention,

Your awareness is undivided,

It is including everything but not focusing on any one thing in particular.

When you do that,

You come out of the mind.

In Zen,

They call it no mind.

Krishnamurthy used to call it choiceless awareness.

Buddha used to call it emptiness or Shuneta.

So many different names of the same state,

The state where there is no choice,

Where you are centered in your awareness,

In your consciousness,

And the entire spectrum is open for you.

Out of this,

Not only comes all the possibilities,

All the possibilities become accessible to you,

But also it has its own flavor.

It's an end in itself,

Which means being in the state of meditation,

It's an end in itself.

You are not doing it to achieve something.

You are not doing it to gain something.

It's a taste and experience in itself.

And you can bring this taste to your life.

Very simple thing,

You can integrate this into your life.

Third Sutra,

Which is more practical,

When you meditate regularly,

When you bring these moments in your life,

Where you are not choosing,

Where your awareness is free,

Where your awareness has all the possibilities,

Once again opened up for you.

Then when you go back into the mind,

When you go back into your choices,

When you have to make a selection,

You have again a more wider selection,

A more wider range of possibilities.

And you will be surprised by your own creativity,

By your own decisions,

By your own choices that you will make,

Which are not really representing your past.

Your past will slowly not have a grip on you.

Your future,

Your present will be arising out of a completely fresh possibility.

Three things,

Three sutras,

Easy sutras to remember.

First sutra,

Mind is what narrows down the possibilities which are there in reality.

They are not in a parallel world,

In a parallel universe.

They are there here.

Second,

Meditation is that space where you are in choiceless awareness,

Where your attention is undivided.

Third,

When you come out of meditation and go back into your world,

You have the choices that you make are coming out of fresh possibilities,

Out of fresh options,

And your own creativity,

Your own life energies.

How to do this as a meditation?

For this session,

We will practice this into,

We will break this into three parts.

When you are doing this at home,

You don't have to break this into three parts.

You could just simply sit in silence and let yourself become more and more choiceless,

Let yourself become more and more aware and silent,

Especially in moments like these when the moon is shining bright and you are here.

How we will do this in this session together,

All of us,

Is first of all,

We will bring our awareness to the body.

That would be the step number one.

And while we bring our awareness to the body,

We will remain choiceless.

We will remain undivided within our body.

We will not focus on one part of the body,

Our legs or hands or our head.

Rather,

We would try to remain aware of our entire body all at once,

Without focusing at one particular part.

When your attention is distracted,

When your attention is taken by one specific particular body part or the noise or anything,

Bring it back and allow it to settle,

Allow it to become more choiceless,

More undivided.

We will do this on the body first.

It's easier because you feel your body.

It's very easy to be in that state with your body first.

Second,

We move to the mind.

So many thoughts are going on in the mind.

So many things are always hanging on in the mind.

When you take your awareness to your mind,

Don't focus on any one thing in particular.

Whatever it means to you as mind,

Whatever this word mind refers to you,

Become aware of that,

That entire space.

Know one particular thing in focus and repeating this again and again and again,

Because it will come in your meditation.

That something will come and try to take your attention,

Your awareness,

Leave that,

Don't give it energy,

Stay silent,

Stay calm,

Stay aware of the entire mind.

Third,

We will,

After we have done the body,

After we have done the mind,

We will integrate this and try to go a little bit beyond the mind,

Beyond the body and while sitting here in silence,

Whatever comes to your awareness from the outside,

From this room,

From the universe,

Wherever your awareness goes,

Let it expand,

But know one thing in particular.

Let it expand as if it's taking the entire space,

Entire universe,

Entire room in your awareness.

All you have to do is avoid letting your awareness on one particular thing.

If that happens,

Take it off,

Let it be choiceless.

Try that.

Throughout the meditation,

Don't try to force it.

If it doesn't happen,

It's okay.

Just relax,

Calm down,

Enjoy the silence,

Don't worry about it.

Why is it not happening?

Because the more you struggle with it,

The more difficult it will be.

The more you relax,

The more you let go,

The easier it will be,

The easier it will be to be in this state and to enjoy this state.

Any questions before we start?

Is it clear?

Another small request while we are sitting now in absolute silence for the next minutes.

There will be moments when you might feel pain in your body and you want to move.

Try to let go of that.

Try not to move because when you do that,

You will disturb your own meditation and you might disturb meditation of other people.

So take this opportunity to for a few moments remain as still as possible and let your body be completely settled.

If there is pain,

You can let it be.

It's not going to bother you if you let it go.

If you don't touch it,

It only would bother you if you give it attention,

If you give it energy.

So try to sit in as much silence,

As much awareness and relaxed state as possible and enjoy the meditation for the next minutes.

With that,

Let's close our eyes.

Take a nice deep breath.

Inhale from the nose and also exhale from the nose.

Keep your body straight.

Your spine upright.

Shoulders down.

Hands in your lap or on your thighs.

No specific hand posture needed.

Just leave them relaxed.

Your neck and head relaxed.

Keep your face at rest.

Your eyes.

And breathing in and out gently,

Smoothly throughout the meditation.

Give yourself these moments for your body to settle,

For your mind to settle,

For you to be here.

Now draw your attention inwards towards your body.

And let your awareness settle on your body as a whole.

With no one part of your body in particular.

As you do that,

Keep on breathing in and out.

The body becomes more still.

And your awareness on the whole of your body,

With no one part in particular.

Let your awareness be evenly experiencing your body.

From top to bottom.

From left to right.

From inside to outside.

Whole of your body.

You're sitting silently,

Just aware of your body.

With every breath out,

Let your body relax.

And you remain aware of your body.

You can feel the vibrations,

The aliveness.

Of your entire body.

Just remain aware.

Don't try to do anything.

When you get distracted,

Just bring back your awareness.

To the whole of your body.

As you do this,

Your awareness is rising.

You're becoming more conscious,

More aware,

More silent.

Try to settle in the silence.

As you become more still,

You can notice your mind.

You can notice thoughts,

Emotions,

And all other things that are going on in your mind.

Include all of them in your awareness,

Without focusing on one particular thing.

Keep on breathing in and out.

And your awareness on your body and mind,

All together.

Allow the silence and the stillness to grow.

As you remain aware of your body and mind.

Undivided attention on your body and mind,

On yourself.

No selections,

No choices.

Just your awareness on yourself.

Breathe in this state.

Settle in this state of your awareness on yourself and nothing in particular.

Maintain the silence.

Maintain the stillness.

And allow your awareness to expand beyond yourself.

And include everything in your awareness,

Without focusing on one thing.

Let your awareness spread freely outwards.

Your body still,

Your mind is silent.

Maintain the silence.

Remain aware and silent.

Don't touch anything.

Stay like this.

Choicelessly aware.

Center.

And absolutely silent.

And let your awareness spread freely outwards.

And let your awareness spread freely outwards.

Let yourself go in this moment.

And let your awareness spread freely outwards.

As you sit here silently,

Breathe in and out gently.

Bring your awareness back to your body.

Bring your awareness back on your breath.

Noticing your peace,

Your calmness.

And very gently and slowly,

While maintaining the silence,

You may open your eyes.

You may remain silent.

Oh,

Now,

Slowly and gently,

If you want,

You can move your body.

Come back.

Take the next two to three minutes,

Just to reflect on your experience of the session,

Of the experience of your inner world,

Of your body,

Of your mind,

Of your energies.

Give yourself a couple of minutes.

Whatever you noticed during the meditation,

What was happening in your body,

In your mind,

In your being,

How was your awareness,

How was your centeredness.

Take this moment to reflect.

Now,

After the meditation,

These are those precious,

Rare moments when whatever is suppressed in you,

Whatever was suppressed in you,

Comes out,

If it's from your past,

Or fresh ideas,

New thoughts,

New ways of how you're going to approach this or that in life.

When you sit for meditation in your home,

After the meditation,

Give yourself these few minutes to come back,

To let your mind,

Let your body,

Get the energy back and allow you to function back into the world.

Last part of this session is sharing.

If there are any experiences which are worth sharing with the rest of the group,

Or any doubts,

Any questions,

Anything that you noticed,

Which you would like to discuss,

Share,

This is the time.

Anyone?

Yes.

Thanks for sharing that.

This is what happens when you give yourself these moments of free awareness,

Or freedom to your awareness,

Where you are not focused and concentrated and alert about one particular thing,

But just relaxed in your own being,

In your own body.

As you said,

You might suddenly be reminded of something that was parked somewhere in the corner,

And now is in front of you.

When you do this more often,

All those things that are unnoticed,

They will come,

And the more you practice,

There will be less and less,

Because there will be more and more consciousness about everything that you do in life,

So there will be lesser of those types of things that are there in your life,

Which you remain unconscious of.

Once you also learn to let them go during your meditation,

You will see that in the emptiness of having nothing to hold on to,

Nothing one particular thing to hold on to,

There is so much freedom,

There is so much just pure being,

Pure consciousness,

The taste of it,

No words to describe that taste.

So thanks for sharing that.

It's exactly a part of the process which everyone goes through when they allow their awareness to be not focused on one particular thing,

But to just be.

Anyone else having similar experience or anything different?

If not,

I would like to close the session with two points.

One is,

Next session,

Before I forget,

Is not on next Monday.

Next session is going to happen on Saturday,

This coming Saturday.

So if you have friends who are always giving an excuse to not have time on Monday and would like to join the session,

If you yourself have more time on Saturdays,

This session is going to be same time,

7 to 8 pm,

But on the coming Saturday,

Only the next one as an exception.

And the second thing is,

I still hear some of you are struggling with your posture while sitting.

Last year we spent a lot of time in designing a cushion for you so that you could sit properly.

Not just here,

But at your home as well.

So if you feel that you need a solution,

You need something that allows you to sit more straight,

Go ahead,

Try it out,

Check it out,

Read about it.

It's on my website,

Dhyansay.

Life.

I hate to make it sound like an advertisement,

But I have to tell you because there is no other way.

I hear you still moving your body,

Still not being able to settle in as much as you should.

So give it a shot,

Take a look at it and let me know if that helps.

Otherwise,

My wish is that the more we practice,

The more we are here meditating together,

One day you will not need any devices,

Any cushions,

Any support.

And we could sit in silence from 7 to 8 without having to speak any words,

Without having to do any guidance.

That would be my dream to have this session with you once.

Meanwhile,

Thanks a lot for joining me in this meditation session and sharing your silence with me.

Namaste.

Reviews

That was the most transformative meditation sitting I’ve had. I felt like I was being physically and mentally lifted up and out into the universe. I will remember this always and hope it is just the beginning. Thank you from all of my being.