Nothing To Wait For

There are some experiences that naturally evolve over time. The meeting with our true self and the awakening to a larger life is not one of those experiences. It is here, right now, already, and always. It requires no preparation, no preliminaries, no putting off until another day. What we are seeking is there at the beginning – complete, finished, whole. Jin me in this breakthrough teaching and practice.

Transcript

This is Elliot Dash,

Welcoming you to my podcast,

Meditation and Beyond,

And this episode,

Nothing to Wait For.

There are some experiences that naturally evolve over time.

The meeting with our true self and the awakening to a larger life is not one of those experiences.

It is here,

Right now,

Already and always.

It requires no preparation,

No preliminaries,

No putting off until another day.

What we are seeking here is there at the beginning,

Complete,

Finished,

And whole.

Of course,

It's our learned habit to put things off to another day.

It is no different with awakening to our inner self.

We put that off as well,

Only thinking it is developmental or a result of progressive self-improvement.

That is not a belief that is easy to change.

It is a tenacious belief that obscures our deeper life and larger possibilities.

Consider a moment when you had a glimpse of awakening,

Of flow,

An immersion in nature,

The oneness of intimacy,

The astonishment and wonder of beauty and art,

The absorption in dance or music.

Suddenly,

Spontaneously,

You experienced an easeful and expansive sense of self.

Did this require any preparation?

Did you previously plan for this glimpse of awakening or schedule it?

When this opening occurs,

Our personal and cognitive self stops,

Softens,

Dissolves.

This opens a gap in which our complex psychology,

Identities,

Tomorrows,

Fears,

Anxiety soften and dissipate.

The mind stills,

The past is gone,

The heart opens,

Spaciousness and freedom arise.

Our consciousness shifts and we awaken to a natural and true self that has no name and no identity.

We touch the awakened joy of who we truly are.

We experience it directly.

We live it right here,

Right now.

Unfortunately,

Most often we are unaware that what we label as a happy and pleasurable experience was actually a profound taste of the ever-present awakened state of our inner self.

A metaphor can help you.

What happens when you try to look through an aquarium that is filled with silt?

To the extent that you can see through the silty water to the other side,

What you see will be clouded,

Unclear,

Obscure.

We say the water is dirty,

Unclear.

When this silt settles,

We see clearly through the water.

We say the water is now clear.

But was the water ever unclear?

Did the water change at all?

At all times,

The water was clear.

It clearly was simply obscured by the silt.

In much the same way,

Our natural self and its life-enhancing qualities,

The peace that surpasses understanding,

Happiness without a reason,

Natural wisdom,

Selfless love and compassion and freedom from known,

Are already and always present and fully complete.

They await the obscuring veils of our personal self,

Our recurring history,

Habit patterns,

Fixed perspectives and endless rumination to dissipate or settle down like silt and water.

That's what takes time.

What we are waiting for is not the unfolding or evolution of our awakened self.

What we are waiting for is the obscuring veils of our personal self to drop away.

Who we truly are and have always been is then revealed.

It's not created in time.

It is not arranged by the ego.

It is the grace that is always present when we let go of who we are not.

It is then that we naturally experience who we truly are,

The true,

The good and the beautiful.

During one of my stays in India,

I recall a student rising to ask a question of a very wise elder.

Why,

He asked,

Can I not see my essence?

The teacher simply replied,

Just stop,

Be still,

Look and you'll see that it's there right now.

Right now,

Not tomorrow or the next day.

It's there right now.

Drop the search,

Drop the one who was searching,

Just be and there it is.

Silence descended in the room as the seeker and the seeking in each of us softened and then dissolved.

In the stillness of that simple,

Unprepared moment,

Our natural essence revealed itself.

In this instance,

It required the presence and pointing of the teacher.

What we experienced was our own essence and we can learn to reveal that on our own.

However,

Our small fictional self is a strong habit we've developed and practiced for a lifetime.

For some,

It will not go easily.

That leaves us with the effort of learning how to let go of who we are not,

To remove or at least soften the trance of personhood,

Mistaken belief in a personal self as being who we are.

That may take time,

But that is different than waiting for the awakened self,

Which is always present.

You have to want to know your true nature and its treasures with all of your being,

Body,

Mind and spirit.

You may have to touch and dwell for a while in the frustration,

Needless angst and endless cycle of human suffering until you're motivated to permanently let go of the influence and centrality of your small,

Fabricated self.

Some say that suffering is necessary to break through its hole in us and perhaps that's true.

If we could look directly at the stress and suffering,

The vulnerable and the tender heart may suddenly open.

If that is you,

Use your suffering to end suffering.

Use your suffering and the stress to reveal your true self.

The most important takeaway from these words is where we started.

There's no time to waste.

There is nothing to wait for.

Don't squander your life.

Don't believe the false.

The awakening to a larger life is an evolutionary developmental process.

It is here right now.

Can't you see it?

Now let's begin to practice.

Clear the mental silt and allow our awakened self to self-reveal.

Let's begin by helping the silt to settle our mind,

That is the mental activity to settle.

We do this with breathing exercises which are designed to deactivate the neural default mode of the brain,

Which are the brain centers which are responsible for the restless mind.

So it's quite simple and effortless,

This process we're using.

We just take a deep breath in,

Blow it out forcefully.

When we blow it out,

We imagine that we're emptying out the content of the mind,

The silt,

Letting it settle down,

Letting it dissipate.

Deep breath in,

Blow it out,

Take a breath hold.

The breath hold is a very special place because when you're holding the breath,

The cognitive mind will still,

The personal mind will dissolve.

You'll experience a place of stillness,

Openness,

Spaciousness,

No ordinary mind.

Just dwell on that.

Just let it be.

So at your own pace,

And I'll be doing it also,

But use your own pace,

Deep breath in,

Forceful blowing out,

And then imagining that you're emptying out the mind of its normal content.

And then a breath hold,

Just dwell on the stillness.

So let's do that for a couple of minutes.

Deep breath in,

Blow it out,

Take a breath hold.

The longer the hold,

The more stillness,

The more you can dwell on this simple open awareness and presence.

You'll find this a magical way,

A simple,

Effortless way to still the mind.

You can do this any time that your practice gets a little bit out of control,

To quiet it down and bring it back to stillness.

You can use this during your daily activity.

Just stop for a few moments.

You can keep your eyes open.

Take a couple of deep breaths that are less perceivable to others,

And just do the hold.

After a couple of breaths,

You'll have dropped in much more stillness,

And you can return to your activity to see how it has affected that activity.

Let's continue.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Now,

When on your own,

You can continue this as long as you need to,

To quiet the coarse noise of the mind,

But for our purposes now,

We return to a normal breath.

We want that breath to be harmonious,

Quiet,

Still,

And soft,

Because that will also serve to quiet the rest of this mind centers in the brain.

I'd like you now to drop in.

Drop into a place of presence,

Of stillness,

Of awareness,

Right here,

Right now,

In the present moment.

This is spacious,

Open,

Expansive.

We allow anything to come in that wishes,

But we remain in awareness rather than attaching to,

Grasping to,

Pushing away,

Struggling,

Or having negative thought about mental activity that may arise.

It's very important to understand this relationship to mental activity so that you can have an open awareness,

And open stillness,

And spaciousness,

And not struggle with things that may come in or out.

So I'm going to read you the words of a famous teacher,

Dilgo Kinsey,

Explaining how you relate to thought this way.

It is completely natural that thoughts keep arising.

The point is not to try to stop them,

Which would be impossible anyway,

But to liberate them.

This is done by remaining in a natural state of simplicity,

Which allows thoughts to arise and fall without further elaboration.

When you no longer perpetuate the movement,

The movement to the mind,

Mental activity,

By placing positive or negative feelings in the thoughts,

Seeing them as real,

Being partial to them,

Seeing to them as a benefit or harm,

They will dissolve by themselves without leaving a trace,

Like a bird in flight leaves no trace.

They will dissolve into the clear mind from which they appeared in the first place.

When the thought spontaneously dissolves,

Self-liberates itself because it wants neutrality towards it,

Rather than investment or involvement with the thought,

The feeling,

The image.

One then sees that naked awareness,

Which is the clear mind,

Arises in its absence.

So this is the great teacher's words on how to relate to whatever comes up in the spacious stillness simplicity of the present moment.

So it's well in this present moment,

Here,

Now,

Relaxed muscles,

Nothing to do,

No place to go,

No one to be.

Allow whatever wishes to arise to arise,

But leave it be.

Let it come in the back door of your mind,

Go out the front door,

Pay no attention.

Just be still,

Muscles relaxed in the present moment,

Spacious,

Open,

Just being.

Quiet breathing,

Still mind,

But awake and aware,

Alert,

Right here in the present moment.

No personal lie there,

Just presence.

Your voices from your personal lie come up,

You can't do this,

This is difficult to do,

And so on and so forth.

Just let them out the front door without paying any attention,

And you will find how simple it is to naturally drop into the stillness of your mind without using any technique.

Just dwell on that stillness,

Spaciousness,

Openness and beingness.

You may even drop the sense of a meditation,

A meditator,

And just rest in the is-ness of the moment,

Pure,

Clear,

Open,

Spacious.

And as you do that,

You may find one time or another that there is a deeper opening into spaciousness that's beyond beyond.

Nothing to do,

Just to wait and remain in presence,

Experience that state of stillness,

Beingness.

So I as teacher says how amazing it is that this is always there and we never notice it,

And yet it is the essence of who we are.

I'm going to leave you in a moment,

But you can continue this meditation on your own,

Return to it whenever you wish,

And you will find it the easiest and most effortless way to drop into your deeper self.

Reviews

Thank you for this meditation that is both informational and experiential. Residing in the quiet and stillness within us truly feels like home, peace, wholeness and love.

Wow!! I loved the simplicity and guidance to the direct path of peace

Excellent work and great feeling
Thanks for sharing your wisdom 🙏

Excellent guidance on a method which I’ve done for years, known as still point. It can last a very long time and is so peaceful. I will be turning into some of your other works here. Thank you so much.🙏

You helped me bring many subtle concepts together with this, I feel a shift in how I approach stillness thank you!

What a gift🎇

This has been an audible recording. Audible hopes you enjoyed this program. 《Smile》What a perfect piece of remembering and insight without pressure. Thank you. I intend to write down your words to send to my incarcerated son. He went from minimum security in jail after 2 years of good behavior to medium security because he argued with a guard who wanted my son to throw away his small origami fish another inmate made for him. If I could send your podcast to the guard I would. Perhaps, I will send to the main sheriff of the jail. Things, like silt, do trickle down to the bottom. Maybe your words will reach that guard in this way. Namaste.