The Lake In The Mind Guided Meditation

This contemplative meditation guides you into a deep inquiry into your true nature. Using the metaphor ot the moon, reflected in the water of a still lake, it takes you beyond the body and mind to your original self.

Transcript

Uko Welcome to this direct seeing,

This direct exploration meditation.

We'll start by closing your eyes.

Relax your body.

Allowing this moment to be just as it is.

Let this precious moment,

This small effort you are making,

Be honored with your full attention.

Let it be fully present here,

Inside,

In the world of feeling,

The world of direct experience.

It's without thought,

Without narration,

Without comment,

Judgment,

Or editing.

Just feel your body.

Just let whatever you're feeling be okay,

Be permissible.

And now let us consider an assumption,

An important assumption.

The assumption upon which we will base this moment of meditation.

It is a very significant assumption.

That the direct experience of who you really are is the most important experience anyone can have.

To know yourself directly,

Beyond all doubt.

That is the ultimate achievement of humanity.

It is your ultimate achievement.

It is the end of suffering,

The end of pain,

The end of confusion and doubt.

So this moment you spend in exploration,

To discover that direct seeing of who you are,

Is a precious,

Auspicious moment.

Let the worthiness of this exploration,

The import of this moment,

Sink deeply into your heart.

Consider a nighttime scene.

You are outside.

It is a beautiful,

Still,

Dark night.

You are sitting in a large meadow,

Overlooking a beautiful,

Clear pond.

On the other side of the pond is a beautiful stand of trees.

You can make out their outline against the blackness of the sky,

Just slightly illuminated by the moon.

A full moon,

Which is behind you and above you.

You are sitting on the edge of this beautiful,

Still pond.

It is quiet.

A very quiet,

Still night.

There are a few crickets and frogs that are making their nighttime sounds.

There is a slight breeze.

It is rustling the leaves of the trees.

You can feel it on your skin.

As you take a deep breath,

You look out on the pond.

The surface of the water is totally still.

Not a ripple.

No fish or any creature is moving in the pond.

It is smooth,

Like glass.

And there,

In the middle of this darkness that is the pond,

Is a perfect reflection of the moon.

You wonder at its beauty.

You are filled with awe.

And as you stare at it,

Your mind simply stops.

It wants to comment,

But it can't.

This moment is just perfect.

As you take in this beautiful image of the moon,

You recognize that what you are looking at is not the moon,

But only its reflection.

It is a clear reflection,

A beautifully accurate,

Detailed reflection.

But it is only a reflection.

The fullness of the moon is not seen.

The image is two-dimensional.

It is a reduction,

A representation.

And you know that behind you and above you is the original.

And so you turn.

And as you turn,

You hear your clothes shifting.

You feel the extra weight on your hand as you lean back,

Supporting yourself.

As you turn your head,

You look up,

And there it is.

The original.

Like a goddess in the night sky.

You can see it clearly.

The night is so clear and still.

You can even see its three-dimensional shape.

How it is so much richer,

So much more subtle,

So much more present,

So much more real and palpable than its reflection.

As beautiful as that is.

You reach out,

But no matter how far you reach,

No matter what you do with your hand,

You cannot touch it.

You cannot change its appearance or alter its character.

All you can do is look at it.

And now you turn again towards the beautiful reflection on the pond.

You turn again to the light of the moon,

Bouncing silently off the surface of the still water.

And now you lean forward and reach your hand into the water.

As your hand enters the water,

A ripple goes out from it.

Gradually that ripple arrives at the image of the moon.

And now suddenly the moon begins to move,

Begins to dance,

Begins to reshape.

It begins to come apart and come back together.

Part of it disappears and then reappears.

It is a distorted image now,

Not accurate at all.

For the moon has not changed in the slightest.

As you turn back and look at the moon,

Behind you and above you,

Nothing has changed.

Nothing has been touched.

Looking back once again to the moon's reflection on the pond.

As the ripples begin to dissipate.

As they lose their energy.

The perfect shape of the moon,

Very,

Very slowly,

Once again begins to appear.

It is so apparent to you that the reflection is never the original.

Its appearance is subject to the circumstances of the moment.

To the environment.

To what is passing through it and around it.

To everything that is going on in every moment.

And now as you are sitting by the pond,

The moon is set and the sun is rising quickly.

Now there's a beautiful warm glow.

The trees are no longer dark silhouettes.

Details become clear.

And now they too,

In all of their detail and color,

Are being reflected on the surface of the still pond.

You can look.

You can see the trees.

The sky.

The clouds as they move by.

And you can look up and see the tree that is the source of that reflection.

The sun that is the source of the light.

You can see the cloud whose motion in the sky is only imitated by the motion on the still water of the pond.

And you notice that the reflection leaves not a trace on the water.

Not a trail.

It creates no ripple.

It's as if it is not there at all.

And now as you sit on the edge of the pond,

Illuminated by the sunlight,

You see your own face.

You see yourself looking back.

Like the moon of the night.

Like the clouds and the trees of the day.

This too is but a reflection.

But something is different here.

You looked from the moon reflected on the water to the moon on the sky.

You look from the reflection of the trees to the trees themselves and back to the reflection.

You look at the clouds moving on the water and you can see the original clouds moving across the sky.

And so you try to turn your gaze to see that which is being reflected as your face.

But unlike the moon and the trees and the clouds,

You cannot.

The original,

Whose face is reflected so beautifully in this still water,

You cannot see.

This reflection is different than all others.

Every other image you can see both the reflection and the original.

But this,

This is different.

You can see the reflection clearly with detail and subtlety.

But you cannot turn your gaze and look directly upon the original.

You cannot see yourself.

Why?

Why is that?

Why is this different?

Whatever can be seen,

Whatever can be observed,

Cannot be you.

You cannot see yourself and know yourself through sight,

Through sound,

Through knowledge.

All information you have accumulated about yourself has been only about your reflection.

And that is only what you look like from a distance,

Through the eyes of others,

Like a reflection.

But when you turn from that reflection,

You find that you cannot turn far enough and find the original.

Because you are the original.

You are the seeing.

You are never the seen.

You are forever the doing,

But never the done.

You are forever the being,

But never the reflection on the water.

Never the face on the water.

So,

I invite you now to simply let go.

To release all the ideas you had about who you are,

Where you are,

What you are like.

Here now.

Who are you?

From your direct experience,

You are that which sees but cannot be seen.

You are an invisible,

Impelpable presence.

You are aware of absolutely everything.

The universe itself arises within you.

You are formless being itself.

Sat,

Chit,

Ananda.

Being.

Consciousness.

Bliss.

You are that which is.

That which everything else is but a reflection of.

Everything but a face on the water.

And they are all your faces.

You are the moon on the water.

You are the sun in whose light everything is seen.

The consciousness that illumines the universe.

You are the space which holds the stars,

The planets.

It spins the galaxy.

You are the mind,

The soul,

The heart of the whole.

You are the great I Am.

I Am.

I Am.

I Am.