Self Realisation Session: 6th International Yoga Festival

This talk and meditation is the Self Realisation session from the Yoga Festival held online from Vancouver, Canada in 2020. Philip offers insight on what Meditation truly is, why its important and its ultimate benefit.

The talk is followed by a guided Infinite Silence Self Realisation Meditation which emerged as part of Self Realisation.

Supporting this is the forthcoming 2022 Live-Stream Self Realisation Programme on Insight Timer.

Transcript

So our next guest is meditation and self-realization guide,

Philip Wade,

Who lives near the small but beautiful cathedral city of Rypon,

North Yorkshire,

England.

After a 14 year meditation journey,

Philip came to realize the nature of the true self,

Which he refers to as infinite silence.

In his former life,

He was a chartered civil engineer and director of a large consultancy business in the UK.

He left that world behind in 2009,

Following a deep spiritual calling and he never looked back.

His teaching style is simple,

Compassionate,

And offers exquisite clarity.

His teachings are all based on direct experience and not rooted in any traditional,

In any tradition,

And ideal for the modern era.

Philip's meditation journey has taken him to teach across the UK,

Iceland,

Amsterdam,

Greek islands,

And globally online.

So he has a website that you can visit on a YouTube channel with lots of free self-realization resources.

And I know that we could all use a little more meditation in our lives,

Right?

Meditation is something that can be hard to start,

But once you realize the benefits of it,

You're gonna be hooked.

So let's see what Philip has to teach us now.

Thank you for that,

Nancy.

And thank you everybody here for watching.

It's a delight to be part of the 6th International Yoga Festival and Health Expo.

So over the next half an hour,

I'm gonna give you a kind of journey through what meditation really is,

And we'll have a guided infinite silence meditation,

Which emerged as part of the realization that Nancy referred to there.

So,

You know,

The first thing I wanna start off with,

Oh,

And by the way,

Blessed solstice to everybody.

It is actually today.

Depending on where you are in the world,

It's the solstice,

Either winter or summer.

So why meditate?

Why would you wanna meditate?

And why be interested in self-realization?

Isn't that just for people like the Buddha?

And really the answer to that comes from actually one of the Buddha's quotes.

It's about bringing an end to suffering,

Because when we identify as Melanie and Catherine have just pointed out,

With our mind,

We can lead ourselves into all sorts of problems because we start to become our belief systems,

Whether they're conscious or unconscious.

So the key,

Really the starting point,

If you're seeking peace in your life,

Joy,

Love,

Truth,

Then meditation is gonna be the ultimate go-to tool to be able to get you there.

I wanna offer you to start off with one key insight,

And you might wanna jot this down,

And it's this.

Thought cannot heal your pain.

Presence will transform it.

Thought cannot heal your pain.

Presence will transform it.

Now what do I mean by presence?

Well actually,

You know what?

The Buddha actually realized and is available to us all,

And he's actually here now,

Is that actually we are infinite consciousness or infinite awareness.

That is the realized essence,

And it's that that he's eventually realized,

And it is that that is the source of peace and indeed the end of suffering.

The three really key awarenesses that I'd like to share about meditation,

Self-realization,

Because they're intrinsically linked.

The key thing that is ultimately realized is that actually you,

And that's all of us here,

Wherever you are in the world,

Are already this infinite awareness or infinite consciousness.

That might not be your experience right now,

And the reason for that is the second key awareness is that basically most of us believe most of our lives that all that we are is the body-mind.

And every other belief,

Like the ones that Melanie and Catherine have pointed out in their presentations,

Are actually subsets of a mistaken belief that we're the body-mind.

And all these beliefs get interlinked,

And they're either conscious or unconscious,

And you may not be aware,

As Melanie pointed out so clearly,

Of some of those beliefs that you have built into your system.

So the biggest block to self-realization is a belief in something that actually you are not.

You see,

This body that you have and mind that you believe you have is actually a gift or an expression of something greater,

And I'm gonna go to that in a moment.

The third key awareness is that meditation begins as a practice,

Something that you sit down or maybe lie down and do,

But eventually as you become practiced at that and move beyond the mind,

The realization is that actually you are a living meditation,

The living awareness or infinite silence or infinite consciousness that I referred to at the beginning.

Now,

This may seem a distant goal to you right now,

But I can assure you,

And you don't need to believe me on this,

This awareness is actually here now in all of us,

But because all of our attention has been conditioned into what's going on in our heads,

What we call our minds,

We forget that there's something higher that's watching or witnessing all of this.

And to get to that point,

We need to start to look at what is unchanging.

You see,

Part of the conditioning that we go through is that love is to be found,

Say,

In another or a set of circumstances,

Or peace may be a place you're in,

Or joy may be a happy turn of events.

But actually,

Have you noticed that all of those,

All of those are constantly changing,

And it is in that changing backdrop of life by the identification with it and the belief in it that we suffer.

So to come to this deeper awareness,

We must look for what is unchanging,

What is permanent,

What is eternal.

And it turns out that,

My friends,

Actually is incredibly simple.

That is silence,

Or more accurately,

Infinite silence,

Or infinite consciousness.

You see,

Silence is not dependent on anything.

It's actually a self-aware energy,

And the whole universe is actually constructed of this fabric that is a self-aware energy,

Or infinite silence.

Now,

When it comes to meditation,

If you're new to it in particular,

I want to share with you a little story I heard from Oprah Winfrey not that long ago.

And she was talking about a conversation that she had with somebody about meditation.

And they said this,

You know,

I tried that once for 10 minutes,

And nothing happened.

And it made me smile,

Because really that sums up the mind's approach to meditation.

It simply doesn't want to go there,

Because mind is always looking for activity,

Striving,

Achieving,

Reaching,

Busyness.

All of this comes from belief in what's going on in our minds.

Now,

What is the mind?

You may not have asked that question before,

It's not like an organ in the body,

You know,

Like the kidneys or the heart.

If you were to drill into your head,

You wouldn't find something called the mind.

Actually,

What that which we call the mind is simply another concept.

It's actually another belief.

You see,

A good metaphor for mind is this,

Thoughts plus beliefs equals mind.

Thoughts plus belief equals mind.

Now,

If you take away the belief part of that,

What you're left with is a random set of thoughts.

And that's why in what Melanie was talking about and what Catherine was talking about,

Beliefs are crucial to understanding what they are.

And you remember I said the biggest block in both in meditation and self-realization is that you are the body-mind.

So what I'd like to do is just a little exercise now,

Just to start to help you to see a little bit more deeply.

So what I'm going to invite you to do is just simply close your eyes for a moment.

Just simply close your eyes.

And as your eyes are closed,

Just ask this question inside.

Who am I?

Who am I?

And just be open to see what may come,

What may emerge from that.

Good.

Now,

Having done that,

Because we're sort of the format tonight,

I can't get feedback.

So what I'll share with you now is when I do that live with people,

The kinds of responses I often get vary from people come up with,

The mind starts to go to their body,

Whether it's a woman or a man,

Or their roles or their job and so forth.

And some people,

Maybe a smaller number,

Start to have an awareness of something deeper on opening or stilling.

But none of those,

Your job,

Your role,

Your agenda,

Whatever,

Are actually anything to do with that,

Which you really are.

So the second part of the exercise,

Which tends to help most people to do it this way,

Is to close your eyes again.

Close your eyes again.

And just now asking inside,

Who am I without memory?

Who am I without memory?

We'll just be with that for a moment.

Good.

So now you can open your eyes again.

And again,

Because of the format,

Normally when I then go back to the group I'm with and start to invite people to share what emerged for them,

The answers that typically come,

They start to move towards love.

And then you can start to open your eyes again.

So you can have nothing,

Void,

Or they experience some kind of stillness or energy shift.

And actually now this is starting to move us a little bit closer to the awareness of that which we are,

The infinite consciousness or the infinite silence that I'm referring to.

Now here's something now,

The mere fact that when you say close your eyes and you can observe your bodily sensations,

The breath,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Any other phenomena,

And that you can observe also that these are all changing over time and you can report them to other people,

That means there's a higher awareness that's actually watching or observing all of that that's going on.

And this higher watcher is where we're gonna go to in the meditation.

And the key to meditation is actually ultimately very simple.

It's about associating,

Moving from identification up here in our heads to initially what I will call the silent witness and then into an ocean of silence.

So I trust all that's making sense to you so far.

So without any further ado,

What I'd like to do now is to introduce and invite you to experience the infinite silence meditation which emerged as part of the realisation.

It wasn't something that was created from the mind.

And just get somewhere whether you're going to sit down or lie down.

And I'm gonna use a few terms that you're probably not familiar with in the meditation.

One of those is the term spheres of light,

Like balls of light,

Spheres of light.

It's just a name that emerged in meditation for me to refer to the state I am.

The state I am.

And this I am is a universal state.

You will find it in many spiritual traditions.

The pure state I am,

It's pure being.

So when I say that in the meditation,

Just be open to that.

There's nothing that you need to do.

The other term I'm gonna use is,

I've said it several times already,

Is infinite silence.

And that's a name that emerged in the realisation as a reference to the infinite awareness or the infinite consciousness that we are.

So with those little pointers now,

Whether you're sat down or lay down,

Just closing your eyes and simply becoming aware of all of your body and all the phenomena taking place.

Breath,

Sensations,

Any emotions,

Feelings.

Just simply and silently observing those.

And doing so without any judgment of what's here.

Just simply,

Silently noticing or observing all that is occurring.

Good.

And as you continue to notice,

To watch,

Just be open from your heart.

To the experience of spheres of light.

That's it.

Now,

I'm gonna use this word,

That's spheres of light.

It is the pure state,

I am,

Or pure being,

An aliveness,

Just the mere fact that I am with nothing after the words,

I am.

And as your attention rests on this I am-ness,

Know that it can only do so because it is seen or witnessed.

Or witnessed from a deeper awareness that I call the silent witness.

So we're just going to allow our attention to merge or become one with this silent witnessing that sees the I am and all other phenomena.

Just resting,

Witnessing silently,

Effortlessly,

This state,

I am.

And this silent witness is like a sliver of ice in an ocean of water.

And it's dissolving,

Melting,

Just by the presence of the water.

And this water is like an ocean of silence or stillness,

Just like you dived into the ocean and all has become still,

Silent.

There may be waves on the surface but you're simply,

Silently,

Merging,

Becoming one with this ocean of stillness,

Of silence,

Deeper and deeper,

Melting,

Merging,

Totally dissolving into and as this ocean of silence.

And just for now,

Being open to this.

In silence,

We trust.

Just for now,

Being open,

Merging deeper,

Effortlessly,

Silently,

And somehow knowing,

In silence,

You will realise your truth.

In truth,

You will realise you are silence,

Infinite,

Silence,

Absolute,

Awareness,

Pure,

Eternity.

And from this silence,

The perfumes of peace,

Love,

Joy,

Gratitude,

Grace,

All flow effortlessly for no reason at all.

Into every cell of your being,

Simply here now,

Silently,

Effortlessly,

Merging,

Becoming one,

In this rarefied atmosphere of infinite,

Silence,

Deeper and deeper.

Nothing else matters now,

But this,

This silence,

Always here,

Unchanging,

Unmoving,

Absolute,

Stillness,

Perfect,

Whole,

Complete,

Pure presence,

Infinite awareness,

Infinite silence,

Knowing that this is always here,

And never has there been a time when you were not this,

And never will there be a time when you are not this,

Always this awareness,

Here,

Now,

Just by remembering,

Realising what is always here,

Realising,

Not seeking,

Finding,

Not searching,

Seeing,

Not looking,

And in a moment I will ring a singing bowl three times,

Just keep your eyes closed,

And knowing you can return to this awareness,

Anytime,

Any place.

And as the sound of the singing bowl fades away,

Just gently again aware of your body,

The chair you maybe sat on,

Or maybe the mat you lay on,

Just noticing,

Just present here,

And if you need to stretch,

You can do,

And aware of the space you are in,

But keeping the attention rested in,

And as this ocean of infinite silence,

And when the time is right for you,

Gently opening your eyes.

Good.

Namaste,

Namaste,

Namaste.

Thank you for participating in the Infinite Silence Meditation.

Reviews

Beautiful. Hiw exciting to be sharing at this yoga festival 🙏🏼😄😇🙏🏼

Excellent! Feeling whole and relaxed after this.
🙏♥️🙏

Namaste 🙏 💖🪷🌟

I Am. A silent reconnection without thought being.

🌸🙏🏼