31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 16

Welcome! This is the sixteenth lesson to a 31-Day Meditation Challenge recently recorded in July of 2020 entitled "Seek and Find Within." The audio recording is divided into an opening discourse and a guided meditation.

ROTATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS; the mind moves incessantly. It is an unstoppable force but with practice, we can muster up the focusing power to still it momentarily. This single-pointed awareness is called Dharana.

Enjoy.

Transcript

All right.

Good evening,

Everybody.

Day 16,

As always,

Congratulations.

Happy to see all of you participating so consistently.

I'm excited about today,

With what we just did over the last two days,

The Prachin challenge,

Holding our arms up and over our head.

It was a deeply physical and aggravating,

Intense practice style.

What we're going to do today,

And I think it's notable to commit to or to highlight,

This is the first day that we're actually take the time and interact solely with the mind.

And so,

Up until this point,

We've,

You know,

All our techniques have been committed to organizing our bodies or restructuring our breath or humming or chanting or holding our breaths or opening our eyes to give us a sort of a foothold into the more subtle experience of mental nature.

And so before we get into the subtleties of the mind and how to interact with it,

Let's just highlight the three reasons,

Of many reasons,

Why we are participating in this sort of practice.

And the first reason is suffering or the reality of distress,

The reality of dissatisfaction.

Suffering is a very intense word,

A very dramatic word,

But the ancient practitioners,

The forefathers of this hobby,

They were,

You know,

Dramatic,

Poetic,

Philosophical people.

So you know,

The philosophies express that attitude,

But suffering can range from impatience and boredom to severe depression or intense anger.

Any sort of,

Any little thorn that suspends the sense that life is deeply blissful,

As a meditator,

Especially while you're meditating,

You want to consider that that is suffering.

And the point of this practice is to,

You know,

Extract all the thorns of suffering from our experience by really polishing the mind.

Again,

The body was just sort of a doorway to the mind.

And the second reason we meditate,

Again,

Whether you know it or not,

Is to discover a deeper dimension of yourself,

To define yourself in what intuitively feels like a more,

In a more sincere way.

And if you all,

You know,

If we all take the time to contemplate who we are,

Who we think we are,

Who we want to be,

We all have a vague,

You know,

Ranging,

Maybe vague,

Maybe very concrete concept of ourselves.

But if we mull it over for a moment,

The existential questions of why any of us exist as individuals,

Why the universe exists as a reality,

The yogis and meditators tether these,

You know,

Really cosmic questions to the mystery of self or to the false defining or false associating of self.

And so we meditate to really come to terms with our existence as individuals and not necessarily our names and our personas,

But again,

Our sheer existence or our sheer reality.

And then the third reason why we meditate is because we are attracted,

For whatever reason,

To this internal space.

We spoke about this a few sessions ago,

Vita,

Right,

That dispassion with the world,

That sort of boredom with external entertainment or social circles or hobbies or career,

As that dispassion in what might be labeled as depression starts to emerge.

Just take it as a great sign that now you're finally ready because,

You know,

You're being compelled to look in a new direction and that direction is inside.

So we have these three points.

And so today we're finally going to get into interacting with the mind itself.

And so there are three more points that I think are worthwhile to note.

The first is before you meditate,

And you know,

Before you've sort of entered the,

I don't know,

The richness of maturity,

The mind doesn't exist,

Right?

A teenager,

A child,

They're just interacting through the freedom of their own being.

And at a certain point in our maturity,

We start to become very present to our own thought process and our own theories of who we are and theories of who other people are.

And so for a while,

Mind is not a reality.

It's not a question.

But then all of a sudden,

For whatever reasons,

Usually again,

The rising of suffering or distress,

We start to pay attention to this inner environment and the voice in our head.

And at that point,

The mind becomes an obstacle.

And I would say when you're beginning your practice,

And for a long while within the meditative sort of pursuit,

The mind is an obstacle.

And the languaging of meditation sort of,

You know,

Presents the mind in that way.

And it has its value in perceiving the mind as an obstacle.

It's mostly speaking to its negativity or tendency to be negative or tendency to be scared.

And so the mind is an obstacle.

But then,

You know,

After you develop a certain skill within your practice and a certain openness and a relationship to consciousness and a relationship to compassion and inquiry,

The mind becomes a miracle.

And so just sort of like taking a second to consider these three phases,

The mind is at first nothing,

We're all past that,

Then the mind is an obstacle,

And eventually the mind is a miracle.

It might inform you on how to interact with your thought process when you're tackling it head on today and for the next following sessions.

Cool.

And now sort of what's the technique?

The definitions of meditation according to the yogis,

The first is meditation is the full restraint of the thought process.

Meaning,

If you are still thinking,

If you're still analyzing,

If you're still like remembering things or am or,

You know,

Planning out your day or interpreting your immediate moment,

Then you're not fully meditating because thoughts and what they call chitta vritti or the waves,

The waves of the psyche are still sort of rolling through you.

And in that,

They're distorting your relationship to the moment as it actually is.

And so meditation is the full restraint of the thought process.

And then the second sort of like add on to that is when your thought process is fully restrained,

And that's an incredibly difficult feat,

But when it is,

If it can be,

That person who has restrained their thought process completely finally experiences their truest nature.

And from that truest nature,

Suffering dissolves and sort of an unprecedented level of connection and understanding emerges from within them.

But it hinges on true nature and it hinges on a full rest of the thought process.

And then the final add on is that when you are not in that true nature,

When you are a little impatient,

When you are sort of being pulled or swayed by really ordinary thoughts,

You become those thoughts.

And so if we step back and think about our practice yesterday,

You know,

The arms held up and overhead,

The thought of discomfort emerged,

Right,

The interpretation of a sensation,

The thought arose,

And then you became uncomfortable.

And sort of the magnetism between our own experience and the mind's interpretations is so strong that we assume the identity of these thoughts.

And so this is the big point.

When you are not,

When the mind is not a reality for you,

When you have no awareness that the mind is anything to question,

You respond and react impulsively.

You are your anger,

You are your happiness,

You are what you want,

You are what you don't want.

But at a certain point,

We start to question ourselves.

And in that we try to rip ourselves away from that influence,

Which is what we're all trying to do now to perceive a new experience or to perceive a new,

You know,

A new way of being from within our own,

Within ourselves.

Okay,

And so these three ideas also sort of help us understand why exactly we're trying to still the thought process completely.

Awesome.

And so what are we going to do today?

We're going to scan our bodies,

Right,

And so I'll cue you to feel your eyes,

I'll cue you to feel your mouth,

I'll cue you to feel your chest,

And we're just going to sort of run through the entire body feeling.

And so as you feel,

And as I speak right now,

It's like take a second to feel the tip of your nose,

The mind has touched the tip of your nose,

Right,

You're more aware of your nose now that I instructed it than you were previously.

Now take a guess at where I'm going to sort of suggest that you feel next.

No one knows.

Feel your left shoulder blade,

Right,

Right behind you.

And now because your mind is feeling the shoulder blade,

It is more real to you than it was previously.

And so this is called the rotation of consciousness,

And what you're trying to do is feel the movements,

Feel the anatomy of perception,

Of consciousness through the canvas of your body.

And so we're going to scan the body for about 10 minutes,

And you're going to get a sense of what it feels like for the mind to move.

And then I'm going to let you sort of do it on your own rather instinctively,

And you're going to see that the mind,

Right,

The brain is always scanning the body just to make sure there are no injuries,

Just to make sure that everything is running according to,

You know,

Accordingly.

And then through that study of how the mind moves,

And through the study of like feeling perception touch the body,

Right,

All of this data is collected as you're meditating,

You'll find that you are more capable of literally stilling the mind in one place.

And as you work to still the mind in one place,

Which is difficult,

You're going to gain a sense of what the yogis actually meant by Yog-Chitta-Vritti-Nirod,

That it wasn't metaphorical,

It wasn't figurative when they were saying still the thought process.

You are being,

You know,

Very specific,

The mind must be suspended if you want to touch true nature,

If you want to see the world from this meditative lens,

Which I assume you all do.

And so,

And that's it,

And we're going to get two days to practice this,

But this is an integral and sort of monumental moment in a meditator's journey when we realize that the instruction to still the thought process,

To wipe out the psyche,

Was deeply,

Deeply literal.

Cool,

So let's get into it everyone.

The exercise or technique is called rotation of consciousness.

So comfortable seated pose,

Tilt your hips forward,

Nice tall spine,

Wrists resting on both your knees,

Spread your fingers wide for a moment,

Shut your jaw,

Press your tongue into the back of your two front teeth.

And now just enjoy that your arms are not over your head,

And how easy this is in comparison.

Bring a random finger to each thumb,

And appreciate the finesse and grace of your hand gestures.

The delicate beauty of that point of contact,

And that speaks to each of us because all human beings are artistic.

That in that simple gesture,

That simple effort of a finger touching the thumb,

There is this world of understanding,

Compassion,

Sensitivity,

Patience,

Presence.

Lift your chest up a little more,

And as you breathe,

Swell into your belly.

As you inhale,

The belly inflates,

And then the chest inflates,

As you exhale,

Stay tall,

The belly pulls in.

So the more deeply and regularly you breathe into the belly,

The more relaxed your body will be,

Which means the more manageable your mind will be.

And so if your thoughts are the waves of the ocean,

Your body is the moon governing the tides.

Slow down the breath a little more,

And try to breathe even more deeply into the belly.

If that's a struggle for you,

That's okay.

It's like exercise.

You're working the strength of the respiratory muscles,

You're working to expand their range of motion,

But notice as you deepen your breath,

Even if it's a little bit of a struggle,

There is a sense of calm and a sense of wakefulness.

Now with your next inhale,

Quickly,

Eyes open,

And as you exhale,

Eyes close,

Remembering interval meditation.

As you inhale,

The eyes open just once,

As you exhale,

They close,

And then from that point on,

Take those perfect breaths.

Patient,

Present,

And connected.

And so we meditate because there is a dimension of suffering in our lives,

We acknowledge that,

That is an act of truth.

We meditate because in some capacity we are curious of our own mystery.

We believe there's more to us,

More to the world,

And we acknowledge that we don't know what that more necessarily is.

Then we meditate because we are innately attracted to the inner experience,

Which suggests in some way we are disenchanted with the external experience.

So take a second to feel all of that while you hold your body in this specific way,

While you manage your breaths.

And so the best way to fully arrest the mind to stop thinking is to replace all thought with feeling.

The more willing and curious you are to feel the body,

The easier it is to bypass the psyche.

Focus on your forehead.

Now feel your left eye.

Very simple.

Now the right eye.

Now only with the mind feel the tip of your nose.

Feel your lips.

Feel your chin.

Right ear.

Left ear.

Now feel your entire face.

Now feel your entire head.

Feel the center of your throat.

Slow down your breath.

Feel the center of your chest.

Slow down the breath.

Take a second and notice thoughts.

Judgments,

Narrating,

Distraction,

Memories,

Fantasies.

Feel the left shoulder.

Left elbow.

Left wrist.

Feel the left hand.

Now feel the point of contact between your left finger and your left thumb.

And at this point appreciate that the mind makes things more real.

As you focus on the point of contact between your finger and your thumb,

That point of contact,

That distinct experience is more alive.

It was always there,

Always happening,

But now that your attention is focused on it,

Obviously it's become something greater than it was.

Now teleport your awareness to the other hand.

Feel the finger touching the thumb.

Now feel the whole hand.

Right wrist.

Right elbow.

Right shoulder.

Back to your chest.

Feel your stomach.

Feel your belly button specifically.

Feel your kidney region.

Feel your entire spine.

Feel your pelvis.

Feel the left knee.

Left ankle.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Right ankle.

Right knee.

Taking our way back up,

Feel your belly button,

Your chest,

Your throat,

And your forehead.

Now feel the whole body as a single point.

Slow down the breath.

If it's difficult for you to feel your body,

Again relying on techniques,

Just hold your breath for a while.

Exhale hold,

Exhale hold,

And as you build CO2,

You'll force your attention,

You'll force your brain to look into the body.

And as you feel the body as a whole,

Buzzing,

Tingling,

A sense of mass,

A sense of lightness,

A sense of pleasure,

A sense of discomfort,

As you feel the body as a whole,

Simultaneously observe that there are thoughts,

Commentary,

Narrations,

Judgments,

Emotions,

And distractions.

Notice that as the wave of confusion arises,

Am I doing this right,

Am I doing this wrong?

As that wave arises,

For a moment you become confused.

Then it passes,

You come back to feeling.

And when the wave of impatience arises,

For a flash you become impatient.

And so if we can learn to fully feel,

We give ourselves a chance to actually still the thought process,

And in that discover what ancient meditators called the true self,

Sadupya.

We're gonna move a bit more quickly,

A bit more erratically now.

This is how the mind moves on its own.

Forehead,

Left shoulder,

Right hand,

Stomach,

Chest,

Stay in the chest,

Feel.

Left hand,

Right leg,

Belly button,

Spine,

Forehead,

Left ear,

Tip of nose,

Right arm.

Listen to the sounds around you.

Come back to your throat,

Tongue,

Cheeks,

Both feet,

Hips,

Right hand.

A little faster still,

Left eye,

Right eye,

Left elbow,

Left foot,

Right hand,

Left hand,

Right arm,

Stomach,

Kidney region,

Top of the head,

Entire face,

Chest.

Listen to the sounds around you.

Come back to feeling the center of your chest.

And so what I'd like you to do now is allow your awareness,

Your attention to move through your body on its own.

It's like a little fly buzzing here and there.

If you can't feel that movement happening by itself,

Instigate it,

Scan your body randomly,

And then release control.

Again,

Your brain is scanning the body to ensure everything is running normally.

You're just catching a ride on this natural psychological process.

Let's take a deep breath in,

Slow breath out.

One more time.

There we go.

Let's go.

You you you you you you you you you you you you It takes huge amount of energy complete presence,

Hypersensitivity and if we weren't aware of the reasons why this game and how costly it is would seem pointless keep the mind on the center of the chest gently boost your posture a gradual lengthening of the spine so it's not disruptive to your mental work slow down the breath one more minute here increase your focus feel it contract like a muscle so meditation is the stilling of the thought process when the mind is still we experience our true nature but that's a gradual process as we still our minds more our true nature becomes more apparent to us when our minds are not still we become those thoughts so bring your hands to heart center relax your shoulder blades and again lengthen the spine contain the mind in the chest and just appreciate ah I am literally stilling my psyche this is intense focus on very subtle things this is meditation lift your thumb knuckles to third eye center feel the tingling pressure of your thumbs touching the skin of your forehead and again that same observation I am very focused right now my mind is being stilled this is meditation take one more breath in one more breath out hold your breath release your wrists to your knees again lengthen the spine holding the breath mindfully inhale through the nose again hold the breath holding the breath with the lungs full just repeat this phrase in the mind when my mind is not still I become my thoughts exhale with your next breath in open the eyes just feel that transition back to I am no longer meditating so that feeling of like no longer meditating is our consciousness read hearing to our psyche read hearing to our identity read hearing to our opinions read hearing to all the things we have to do and that contrast should inform you on what exactly the yogis meant when they said you must still the mind to experience a deeper nature

Reviews

My favorite type of meditation, breath and body. Another good lesson and talk. Learning to calm the mind and enjoying the stillness. Thank you! ☮️💖🙏