Hello and welcome.
I'm so glad you're here.
Let's begin our meditation practice by taking a meditation posture.
So sitting with your spine gently upright might feel like a little string is pulling your top of your head upright.
This allows for a posture where we don't fall asleep and energy can flow through the spine better.
Then rest your feet gently on the floor or tucked underneath you.
Rest your hands comfortably in your lap.
You can cup one hand gently in the other with the tips of your thumbs touching lightly.
And lightly close your eyes.
And then let's gently bring our intention for this practice might be to awaken or simply just for more peace and joy and happiness in your life.
Calm your mind.
Whatever it is for you,
Just take a moment to refocus your intention for the practice and why you're here.
And then let's do in Tibetan what's called setting the retinue.
So we'll invite in all of our guides,
Guardians,
Angels,
Saints could invite in meditation masters,
Benevolent ancestors and elders.
And imagine them surrounding you to your left and to your right,
In front and behind doing this meditation practice with you and cheering you on that you're not doing this practice alone.
In fact,
You have a whole team with you.
And then let's take several long and slow breaths into the belly and releasing and relaxing the body on the exhale.
You might even consciously relax your eyes,
Your cheeks,
Your jaw,
Your tongue,
Your shoulders and hips.
Feeling the body present and relaxed and available for this practice.
The great meditation master Tulopa said in the Ganges Mahamudra,
The root of all grasping is nothing to be known.
Rest in the natural state without seeking to know.
And so for today's practice,
We'll use this instruction of not seeking to know anything as a doorway into deeper levels of consciousness,
Into our awakening,
Into a return to innocence and joy of being.
To maybe notice how this mind's need to know can interfere with the seeing and the knowing.
To see how the mind's needing to know can hide or interfere with the freshness and the beauty that's here in every moment.
Just waiting for us to notice it.
So now I invite you to give up needing to know anything.
So let's take this posture now that there is nothing you need to know in order to awaken,
In order to relieve the mind or suffering.
There's no book you need to read or instruction you need to follow.
There's no knowledge you need to have.
All the knowledge and the knowing you need is right here in this moment.
That all the answers you seek are already here within you.
Cultivating this beautiful posture of I don't know.
I don't know what's going to happen next.
Let alone one hour or one day from now.
How much can you commit in this practice to this beautiful posture of I don't know.
As you release the mind's need to know,
Ask yourself what's here in this space now?
Can you feel this subtle curiosity that opens up when you release the grasping on the known?
When the mind releases its needing to know,
A different kind of knowing arises.
We could call it knowing awareness that is freshly knowing each moment.
Bright,
Open and free from concepts.
Innocent and wise.
This space of not knowing that knows.
You see,
Not knowing is a portal into the deepest,
Most fulfilling kind of knowing possible.
The knowing where all the peace,
All the answers,
All the fulfillment you seek lies.
Your heart's true knowing rests here.
But we can't think our way there.
So we give up that idea.
We give up all our ideas.
And let them lead us back into the heart of true knowing.
In not needing to know,
Awareness rests in itself.
Let the innocence and freshness of this unknown knowing illuminate every cell in your body.
Let it light up your heart.
Let it restore your confidence in life.
And that something much wiser and all-knowing is working and molding and shaping your life and all lives.
And then in these last few minutes together,
Just rest.
We'll start to release the practice here.
I invite you to bring some awareness to your fingers and toes.
Maybe wiggling them gently before you open your eyes.
Very gently,
Gently open your eyes.
Looking out at the world with that innocence and freshness of a young child.
And see if you can take this practice off the cushion into your life today through this simple instruction of not needing to know.
And just notice the spaces and the curiosity that that beautiful instruction can bring into your daily life and open you into this deeper heart-knowing awareness.
That's here and truly is working on your behalf in every moment.
And thank you so much for your practice.
Namaste.
