Dropping Resistance To What Is

“Enlightenment is nothing more than the complete absence of resistance to what is. End of story.” ― Adyashanti. In this meditation, we explore dropping resistance to what is in the body as a path to the clear and open awareness and the peace and joy of your innate natural mind and essential true being.

Transcript

Welcome.

This meditation focuses on dropping our resistance to what is,

Dropping our resistance to life itself,

And rather opening to it in love.

Adyashanti says,

Enlightenment is nothing more than the complete absence of resistance to what is.

End of story.

So let's explore that together now.

I invite you to close your eyes and begin by taking a few nice gentle breaths.

Become aware of what is present in your body.

Feel into the presence of you in your own body.

Allow yourself to release any tension.

So scan your body gently from your awareness,

From your feet,

Then through your knees,

Hips,

Belly.

Anywhere you find any tension,

Simply soften and relax and allow yourself to open into this tension.

Then into your shoulders,

Your eyes,

Your cheeks,

And your jaw.

Feel yourself consciously opening up and smile into the body gently.

You're just noticing what is present and relaxing into it.

Bring a sense of gratitude for making this time to be here in this meditation.

To take time out of your busy life and be present with your own being.

Bring a sense of gratitude for the people in your lives or beings.

Bring a sense of gratitude for the people in your lives or beings,

Maybe family or friends or pets.

Then feel into the ground supporting you.

If nothing else,

This ground here is supporting you.

So feel that and give thanks for that.

Allow any thoughts of the past to drop away and any concerns of the future to drop away.

Feel into the presence of your own being.

When you cannot drop anything else,

Feel what remains,

The one thing you cannot drop.

Notice that this awareness that you cannot drop is the same awareness that's been with you your entire life.

This isn't a belief.

This awareness isn't something you need to read about to know.

This is an essential quality of knowing your own being that you know to be true.

Notice that this awareness hasn't come and gone in time,

That you couldn't get rid of it if you tried.

Notice that you also know that this awareness has been with you as long as you've been alive.

This awareness isn't going anywhere,

So there is a stability here,

This essential being of you.

No one can take this away from you.

Notice that this awareness,

Unlike objects that you can see,

Has no boundaries or edges.

Know this to be true for yourself.

So take your awareness out to your right or left or up or down,

And see if you can find any edges so that you know for yourself beyond a shadow of a doubt that awareness has no edge.

So awareness is timeless.

It doesn't come and go.

It is boundless.

There are no edges.

Notice too that awareness has no opinions.

Ask yourself,

How does awareness feel about my body?

Does awareness think you are too fat or too thin,

Healthy or unhealthy,

Or just perfect?

Awareness actually doesn't have any opinions about your body.

It just allows your body to be however it is.

There is a fundamental okayness or allowing of whatever is.

See if you can find this for yourself.

An opinion like,

I am too fat or too skinny,

Is a thought created in the mind,

Maybe with an emotion of shame or not enoughness.

But it's all something that you are aware of,

That awareness is aware of.

So notice how awareness is open and free and can be with your body just however it is.

And here is the brilliant part.

You are that awareness,

Which means that you can be with your body,

However it is.

You are awareness.

So if your body is sick and not feeling well,

Notice awareness can be with that too.

If your body feels happy,

Awareness can be with that too.

So awareness isn't resisting what's happening.

The resistance is added later by movement in the mind or the body,

Arising as thought or arising as emotion.

But this most fundamental aspect of who you really are isn't resisting your own body.

So notice now what may arise as resistance in the body.

So tension or pain arises as a contraction of consciousness in your body.

Bring your awareness that can be with whatever is happening to that contraction or pain.

So move your awareness into anywhere that might feel tight and notice what happens when you move your awareness into the tightness,

Into the resistance.

Drop the label of pain even,

The judgment of what it is,

And allow yourself to gently and lovingly move your awareness into any tension you feel and see what happens.

What I notice when I do this is there's a gentle relaxation to the tension,

That it is waiting to be released,

And all that is required is for us to bring our awareness into it to start the process.

So here we are doing the opposite of what we normally do.

We normally wish our pain would go away and we turn away from it.

Here we turn our attention and awareness towards it and move into it.

We turn inwards with our own loving awareness.

I say loving awareness because is it not the ability to be with whatever is happening unconditional love?

I am here for you no matter what.

That is what you are saying.

You can even ask it,

Is there anything else you need?

And just be patient and listen.

You see your pain which is contracted consciousness is like a fist in a tight ball that wants to open.

It wants to be released,

But when we turn away,

It keeps growing to get our attention.

And awareness has the ability to unlock the tension or pain with consciousness when we turn towards it.

Just allow yourself to gently sit now in your own loving awareness.

Notice too that loving awareness,

Your essential being is whole and complete.

There is nothing in awareness that is missing.

Awareness doesn't need you to read a book or listen to a podcast to have enough information to be complete.

This essential being that you are,

That we all are is already whole.

At this level,

All life is fundamentally whole.

All life is fundamentally connected.

We are not separate.

We are consciousness arising in these bodies like waves in an ocean.

We are one connected ocean and your wave is just as complete as my wave is just as complete as everyone's wave that will ever listen to this meditation.

The confusion starts when we forget.

When we start to identify with a thought or feeling and forget this fundamental wholeness that we are.

Ask yourself,

Is this peace and calm and essentially joyful being always here and always available?

Because it is.

It is your true nature.

It is your natural state of being.

It is your birthright.

When we stop resisting or struggling with what is happening and step back into the awareness that we are,

We find that there is this peace and calm already here,

Just waiting for us to remember.

Dropping our resistance to what is does not mean we don't choose to act in the world.

It simply means that when we do act,

We act from a place of knowing our essential being,

Knowing that we are already fundamentally whole and we move in a kind of co-creation with the universe in alignment with who we are.

We move with compassion,

Loving kindness,

Grace and ease.

Every action becomes an expression of our own deepest innermost knowing.

When you are ready,

Softly open your eyes,

But keep your awareness focused in your heart.

So it is if you are looking out at the room through the eyes of your heart,

You can feel as you look out from the eyes of your heart that you have a soft,

Gentle gaze.

Then focus on the space in the room as opposed to an object in the room.

Feeling the space in the room,

Then feeling the space of your own awareness.

So it feels like there is no inside or outside to your awareness,

That there is just awareness.

Because in fact that is all there is.

There is just awareness.

Nothing in your experience has ever happened outside awareness.

There is plenty of space for whatever is happening in your own life to happen.

Notice what happens when you move in your life from this space of loving awareness.

Most importantly that you give yourself this loving awareness of being in your own heart.

And if something happens that troubles you,

Just ask it if you can give me some space and see what happens when you greet this contraction with your own loving awareness.

If you don't have greater capacity to be with what's happening,

That you don't feel more joy,

Resilience,

Kindness,

And love for yourself and for others.

Thank you for taking the time to be with me in this meditation.

Namaste.

Reviews

Truly life changing. You have a very evolved consciousness. You helped me to get back to myself. I'm very, very grateful.

Such a relief to return to pure and gentle awareness when I’ve been caught up in turbulent thoughts and emotions recently. I appreciate the reminder that this state is always available to me, underneath all the layers of drama, if I will only take the time in stillness to give it my attention. Thank you x

Awareness can be with Long COVID, as it is.

Thank you, Holly! 😊

Great meditation on pure consciousness. Love the voice and way of speaking. I also appreciate that there are neither music nor bells. 😊

Thank you. This experience was exactly what I needed this morning.

Sticking with awareness for an extended period of time is so Freeing