31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 26

Welcome! This is the twenty-sixth 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.

The lesson introduces the concept of an Empty Mind. It takes time but spending time gnawing on the idea will bear fruit. A classic mantra to help us with this is "Neti, Neti," "Not this, Not this."

Enjoy.

Transcript

All right,

Good evening everybody.

Good to see you all.

I think this is like the last week,

The beginning of the last week,

So congratulations as always and again.

We're getting into the eighth lesson today.

So this eighth lesson is the empty mind.

And once you as a practitioner,

You as a person,

Really sort of understand what so many meditative lineages are referring to when they speak about things like emptiness or non-being or undoing.

The whole process of your practice and the point of it is reduced into something wonderfully simple and approachable.

And that point is really in its simplest that when you decide to meditate,

You're really sort of taking this motivation to do nothing as seriously as you possibly could.

And as you learn to appreciate doing nothing,

The phenomenon is that you start to associate to this nothingness so strongly that you become nothing.

And of course that's sort of figurative.

That's a way of describing a psychological experience.

But it's really this nothingness or this emptiness that has driven the art and the tradition of meditation forward throughout the centuries,

Even the eons.

And so let's just sort of wind back all the way to the first class and I offered you two Sanskrit terms that explained what meditation is as both a process or a practice to do and an experience.

The first word was nirod.

So nirod is restraint.

The stillness is a way of restraining the body.

The directional breathing is a way of restraining or controlling the breath.

All the techniques,

The humming,

The chanting is a way of controlling the mind so that you can focus on more and more subtle sensations of the body.

So all of this was nirod,

Restraint.

But as you really commit to these exercises and get a sense of how you can control yourself in this direction of nothingness,

In this direction of sort of like undoing or restraining impulses,

The second definition emerges which is rahita.

Rahita is emptiness.

So when I control myself deeply,

As much as I can and the body just starts to sort of manage itself,

I experience my own emptiness.

So nirod and rahita.

The last thing I want to say about how we can make sense of this idea is a famous mantra or a famous phrasing of gurus to students,

Particularly sort of like heady students that are always asking questions.

So it's like what is meditation?

What is enlightenment?

Is it stillness?

And the meditator,

The teacher would say neti neti,

Not that,

Not that.

It's not stillness.

And then the student would say,

Well,

Is meditation controlling my breath?

The teacher would say neti neti,

Not that,

Not that.

Is meditation focusing my mind?

Neti neti,

It's not that either.

Is meditation the sense of peace that comes from all of this?

Neti neti,

It's not that either.

What about the sense of compassion that might emerge?

Not that.

What about the relationship to truth that might emerge?

Not that.

What about a sense of the divine?

It's not that either.

And so you get the point on and on and on,

The guru would continue sort of reiterating neti neti,

Neti neti.

It's not that.

It's not whatever you think it is.

It's not whatever you're associating it with.

So just sort of like absorbing that really sort of pulls us into again rahita,

This emptiness or this mental sort of quiet.

So that's what we're going to get into today.

You're going to do what you've been doing.

You're going to hold stillness.

You're going to breathe as deeply and as slowly as you can.

But when your mind wanders into sort of the questioning of am I doing it right?

Can I do it better?

Can I hold stillness with a bit more intensity?

Can I breathe more deeply to provoke maybe a deeper sense of peace or a deeper sense of presence or a deeper sense of focus?

Whatever process you're working on and whatever consequence you're aiming towards,

I would like you to sort of assume that position of the guru and just repeat in your head neti neti.

While I am doing these things,

These things are not meditation.

And that's going to sort of provide a little momentum into really absorbing this concept of nothingness or empty mind.

Awesome.

So we have a lot of time to practice today.

Let's all get into a comfortable seated position.

Right off the bat,

The second you assume the practice,

You slow down your breath,

You lengthen the spine,

You hold stillness.

Nothing does change.

For at least right now,

Try to identify that change.

What's the consequence of your stillness physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally?

What's the consequence of your posture physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally?

Slow down the breath.

As you inhale,

Be sure to swell into the belly.

And as you exhale,

Continue to reach your skull and spine towards the ceiling or sky.

As you slow down your breath,

What is the consequence?

So,

Is stillness meditation?

Neti neti.

It's not.

Not this,

Not this.

Is your posture meditation?

Neti neti.

Is your deepened breath meditation?

Neti neti.

What about these consequences?

Is presence meditation?

An increased sensitivity to the body.

Clear mindedness.

Focus.

Mental quiet.

Are these consequences meditation?

Neti neti.

Intellectually,

All of these efforts of restraint,

All of this narrowed.

Are things,

Actions,

Gestures,

That we push out into the world through our bodies.

So they can't be nothing.

Because there's something.

And the same can be said of the consequences.

They are phenomenological.

Experiences.

Identifiable.

They're specific.

And so they can't be nothing.

Where is nothingness?

Where is pure absence?

Where is formlessness?

Where is rahita?

Where is an empty mind?

It's a riddle you need to figure out for yourself.

But consider that it is always there.

The way there is always silence.

The way there is always stillness in a singing and dancing world.

You just have to tune yourself into that subtlety.

So we have three days to unravel this riddle.

Today,

As your mind scans your practice,

Narrates it,

Analyzes it,

And judges it,

You will naturally fixate from time to time on your techniques.

You'll question your stillness.

You'll question your posture.

You'll question your breath.

And in that questioning,

You'll attempt to adjust your techniques to reach certain endpoints.

To increase peace.

To increase presence.

To increase focus.

Every time your mind wanders to analyze a technique or reach for a consequence,

There is this subtle linking between those techniques and the definition of meditation.

Intervene with that association and repeat within your own head,

Neti neti.

Slow down your breath.

Enjoy the confusion.

Work with the riddle of it.

Things,

By their nature,

Do.

Things react.

Things respond.

Things reach and things repel.

All of this restraint is about learning to do less.

When we stop doing,

We stop being things.

We stop.

Through this restraint,

We move from thing to no thing.

There is an emotional undercurrent of either trust or mistrust that either inspires us to jump into this void or compels us to look away from it.

Meditation is about trusting we don't have to do anything,

Not our bodies,

Not our minds.

Everything is being governed.

Feel that current of trust within your practice.

Let that embolden your willingness to restrain your doing.

And then continue.

Neti neti.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

Not this.

At this point,

It's unnecessary to articulate the value of accessing this space.

Who knows better than you?

At this point,

What should be mentioned is that as meditators,

We have to trust this attraction.

That for whatever reasons,

Known and unknown,

We are compelled to look inside ourselves.

And to not stop short on this journey.

Stillness is not the finish line.

A stable breath is not the finish line.

Mental peace is not the finish line.

Compassion is not the finish line.

Focus and energy is not the finish line.

Understanding the divine.

Understanding our fellow man.

Understanding what is right and what is wrong and what is true is not the finish line.

Rahita.

Emptiness is the finish line.

And who can say what that emptiness is?

It's easier to say what it's not.

Nithi nithi.

In the final minutes of this introduction class,

Just tap into the trust necessary to make your way to this end point.

You have to trust the world around you.

You have to trust your future.

You have to trust your circumstances.

You have to trust the sensations in your body.

You have to trust the distractions in the mind.

You have to trust the impatience.

You have to trust the pain.

The irritation.

Soften your face.

Southwest is much lighter and Eighties are still much lighter than ground.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.