The Essence Of Meditation (Live Replay #43 - Morning Stream)

Inner-standing what is shared on this Live Replay has transformed the lives of people around the world over more than a decade with Philip's sharing of the Self Realisation message. The essence of meditation is infinite awareness that we all have direct access to and that is always here.

In the stream, Philip guided people to recognise the presence/awareness that is always here and is in unblemished wholeness. He uses some key inquiry exercises, offering insight into the responses to and answers questions about how awareness is affected by sleep, the nature of awakening, the mind along with trusting the heart, spiritual inquiry, his fibre optic lamp metaphor, and leads a guided Infinite Silence Meditation.

This stream was run twice in one day and this is the morning version.

Relevant Replays: What does it mean to go within (Live Replays 1 and 35) and: A Journey to Silence (Live Replay 2) in parallel with this track. The Harp Music is from Philip's friend Tara Cook.

Transcript

The Essence of Meditation My name is Philip Wade,

And this stream is entitled The Essence of Meditation,

The Essence of Meditation.

Some of you are relatively new to my streams,

Others will have been here many times.

And for those of you who haven't been here before,

I endeavor to put all of the live streams as replays on my profile on Insight Timer.

So there is a self-realization replay playlist on my profile on Insight Timer,

And you can also find that in my group,

Which is entitled Nothing Special with Philip Wade.

Nothing Special with Philip Wade.

So there are other streams that are similar to this one.

When I felt called to do this one,

There's about 30 live stream replays and about 30 other tracks of varying durations there,

By the way.

Because over many years of sharing the message of self-realization with people all over the globe,

One of the things that's become very clear really is that there needs to be a deeper inner standing,

That's the inner version of understanding,

Of what meditation really is,

What meditation really is.

And particularly making that highly effective for you.

It's something that perhaps isn't as well understood as one might have imagined.

And so what I'd like to do,

Like I've done on many streams today,

Is take you on a journey which will include a guided meditation to try to open you up a little bit more to this inner standing of the essence of meditation.

And so we'll start that straight away.

And what I've got is some exercises that we're going to go through which will lead into the formal meditation itself and then we'll have the opportunity to ask questions,

Share anything that you want to share about your spiritual journey,

Your life journey.

We can go through that on the process.

But I'm going to start with a really simple but fundamentally profound pointing about meditation.

And it might sound to the mind,

You know,

Surely it can't be that simple,

But it really is this simple.

And it's this,

The essence of meditation is awareness.

The essence of meditation is awareness.

That is also true,

By the way,

Folks,

The essence of self-realization,

Spiritual self-realization,

The realization of the peace within is also awareness.

So the essence of meditation and self-realization are one and the same.

One and the same.

And it really is that simple.

It really is that simple.

I would not say that were it not so.

But there can be quite a bit of misunderstanding about what is meant by awareness and what that really is.

Now,

In my terms,

I would say that awareness is the,

If you like,

The perfume or the first expression of what I will refer to as infinite silence,

The very source of whom we are.

This awareness is one with that silence within.

It's one with that silence within.

And whether this has been realized experientially in your form or not,

It will be seen upon realization that your essence has always been this.

Always been this.

Even if you're having the experience,

Even if you're having the experience of that realization not being here,

The fact of the matter is that your essence has eternally been this infinite silence.

And the awareness,

The awareness is its first expression.

Princess is asking that the awareness is a birthing.

It's a bit like a perfume,

Princess of a rose.

Awareness is a natural perfume of that infinite silence.

Another very,

Very,

Very important point here.

Very,

Very important point is that this awareness that I speak of,

The perfume,

If you like,

Or the essence of the silence,

Is not personal.

Is not personal.

Now,

The identity self,

That which we believe ourselves to be,

Doesn't typically like this.

In fact,

It dislikes it a great deal.

Because it takes it away from being front and center stage in your life.

And it imagines that its days are numbered.

And this can bring up fear.

But the essence itself,

The awareness of the silence,

Is not a personal awareness.

It's not a personal awareness.

This is really profoundly important.

And we'll go into that more deeply as we go through the stream.

So to kick off the sort of exercises,

I've been giving you that precursor,

The essence of meditation,

Is non-personal awareness,

Or the awareness of infinite silence.

There's three questions here.

Now,

These are not the things you need to write down in the comments.

This is just for your own benefit.

And there isn't a right or wrong answer,

By the way.

So don't try and come at this from the mind.

Just go with what feels right for you.

Basically,

There's like three options we're going to go through.

And just see if any one of those is the most resonant for you.

As I say,

There's no right or wrong.

There's an important pointing that will come after the questions.

So if you want to close your eyes just for a moment,

Just to help you stay centered in that,

You can do.

So the first question is,

Do you think that you're always aware?

It's a yes or no answer.

Second question is,

Does it feel like,

Or do you think that sometimes it feels like you're aware,

And sometimes you're not?

So sometimes it feels like you're aware,

And sometimes you're not.

That's the second one.

And then the third one.

Do you think,

Or does it feel like you're not really aware?

Awareness is not here.

Okay,

Three simple questions.

Now,

The great news is,

Whichever one you answered or you chose,

You were right.

What I mean by that is actually,

Whether it was number one,

You're always aware,

Or number two,

It feels like sometimes you're aware,

And sometimes you're not.

And number three,

It feels like you're not aware.

The point here is,

And the question is,

Who or what was aware of those choices?

Who or what was aware of those choices?

Now,

The mind will probably go me,

But you cannot be that one,

And at the same time,

The one that was aware of all the things going on in your body,

The breath,

The sensations,

The emotions.

So it turns out that actually the answer to the question is that the one that was aware is the awareness that you already are,

Always are.

So there's awareness of any of those choices.

And then the next question,

The next question is,

Is that awareness,

Is that awareness in any way affected by any of those selections,

Any of those selections?

And even if you can't see that now,

What's eventually going to be realized is that no,

It's not.

It's just always simply,

Silently aware.

Just simply,

Silently aware.

That's all.

This may seem incredible to the mind,

But the mind doesn't get this.

That which I'm speaking of is before and beyond what we call the mind.

I have a live replay,

By the way,

On that self-realization replay program playlist that's called or entitled,

Whose Mind Is It Anyway?

So if you want to understand or understand more about what you think is your mind,

Have a listen to that one.

So Stefan's asking a question here.

Am I aware,

Even in deep sleep,

When I am not dreaming?

I have no remembrance of that.

It's a good question.

The answer to that,

Stefan,

Is that awareness is always eternally here.

And that awareness or the experience there is more like an awareness of absence.

There's nothing.

No thing.

There's not an identification in that dreamless sleep with mind identity going on.

So the way we could point at that is the awareness of absence.

Lauren's saying,

Could I repeat the name of that,

Please?

So I think you're probably referring,

Lauren,

To a stream that I mentioned a few moments ago,

Which is entitled,

Whose Mind Is It Anyway?

Whose Mind Is It Anyway?

You can find that on my profile,

But it's also in the livestream replay programme,

Which is a replay programme of 30 of the 40 lives I've done here on Insight Timer,

Or 42 lives I've done here on Insight Timer.

It's entitled that way for a very good reason,

As you will understand as you go through the stream.

And it's a very important stream.

They're all important.

But it's very important because we have these ideas or beliefs around what we perceive to be mind,

And that stream unpacks all of that.

And what we're focusing on here today is opening to awareness,

Which I'm equating for the purposes of this stream with infinite silence.

And that term,

Infinite silence,

Came from the realisation itself.

So it's not a term that Philip created.

It was,

If you like,

Emerged as part of that realisation.

So it turns out,

Even if it doesn't feel like it,

That awareness is always here,

And that sometimes we're off on one with our mind.

We get lost.

We catch the train of thought,

As I like to call it.

And you're apparently lost in thought.

Coming back to the key questions I was asking earlier,

Who or what is aware of that experience of lost in thoughtness?

Who or what is aware of that?

It happens over time.

It appears that awareness might be here.

Then there's an experience of being lost in thought,

And then maybe there's a pause.

But awareness was observing that all along.

What was actually happening was there's just identification with thought going on.

Awareness noticed that.

What's Claire saying?

Like the great ad-lib comedy show,

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

That used to be on the telly.

Exactly that,

Claire.

That show that you mentioned,

It was at least part of the inspiration for the title of that stream,

Whose Mind Is It Anyway?

It was silly and it was a comedy show,

But it also came from the silence that the stream needed to be entitled that to give you that light-hearted feel but also invite people to explore more deeply.

Well spotted,

Claire.

I think you're the first person,

Or probably the first person in a few years,

But you're in Ireland.

Noticed that.

They were brilliant comedians.

They were.

So it was at least part inspired by that program.

So,

Awareness always is here.

Awareness is always here.

So what I'd like to do now,

And it's going to be helpful for you to close your eyes whilst you're doing this.

It can be done with eyes open,

But to really get into it and remain sort of focused,

It's helpful to do this with your eyes closed.

So let's just gently close our eyes for a moment whilst I guide you through this exercise.

So as you've got your eyes closed,

Just going to invite you to simply and silently accept whatever's here now.

Just like you're watching a movie from the inside.

There may be breath here.

There may be physical sensations.

There may be feelings.

There may be emotions.

Whatever's here,

Without any judgment,

Just accept it and just watch the phenomena.

Without any judgment.

It's all appearing on the screen of consciousness.

The green screen.

And as you watch,

In a moment now,

I'm going to ring these ting-sha bells.

It's quite a loud ding,

So be ready for that.

And just notice what happens.

And I'll do this a few times.

Just notice.

So keeping your eyes closed,

This may seem very simple,

But did you notice?

Were you aware what happened there?

First,

There was no sound from the bells.

Then,

I brought them together and there was a sharp rise in sound,

Like a wave arising out of the ocean.

It reached a peak of intensity.

And then,

Of its own accord,

It faded to silence.

And then the same thing happened three times.

Why is this so important?

Because this wave of sound that arose,

Reached a peak,

And faded to silence is like all phenomena in the universe.

Every phenomena in the universe is a vibration.

It may take many forms,

But when you boil it down to its essence,

It's a vibration.

Now,

Without any further input,

I.

E.

I didn't keep on dinging the bells,

That sound,

Of its own accord,

Faded to silence.

It faded to silence.

Effortlessly,

Silently,

Just simply faded.

Now,

The same is true of what we call our mind,

All this noise that is going on in our heads.

If there's no engagement with it,

No engagement with it,

Just simple observation from within,

From the awareness within,

There's only one thing that will happen.

It will be just like the Tingsha bell.

It will fade to silence.

It will fade to silence.

This,

My friends,

Is the essence of meditation.

It's the essence of self-realization.

It's the essence of inner peace.

No trying.

No efforting.

No doing.

No visualizing.

Nothing at all.

Just aware.

Just aware.

It's as simple as this.

Now,

The mind might object to this,

But who or what is aware of that objection?

And if objection energy is here,

As I say,

Who or what is aware of that?

And is that which is aware of that affected in any way by it?

The answer to the first question is awareness.

The answer to the second question is no.

It just remains silently aware.

Completely untouched.

Completely unmoved.

Simply,

Silently aware.

That is meditation.

That is self-realization.

When that becomes experientially,

Profoundly,

Experientially clear,

That is that awareness being recognized,

Realized.

There really is nothing more to meditation,

To self-realization,

Than that.

All of the wisdom,

All of the insight that's shared over many streams,

That's being shared here for you,

Is the natural outpouring of that awareness.

It's not something that is learnt.

It just flows effortlessly from that space.

So,

Whilst to the mind it might appear that I'm going into this in great detail,

It is profoundly,

Profoundly important to embrace and to open to the inner standing,

The inner knowing.

There's nothing complicated about self-realization.

It is so simple,

It's beyond even the concept of simple.

Beyond even the concept of simple.

It just is.

Simply,

Silently aware.

Just looking at a couple of the comments there,

Claire's saying,

I could feel the reverberation in my body too,

That's good.

So the question then Claire is,

Who or what was aware of that feeling?

Was that awareness affected by the reverberation?

The answer again is awareness,

And the answer again is no it wasn't.

It was just aware of it.

Christine's saying,

And we're off,

Laughter that there is no one here with a mind and there is no mind.

Good.

To fully understand that one folks,

That live stream replay I mentioned,

Whose mind is it anyway,

We'll explain that more fully than I've got time for here today.

But very,

Very briefly,

That which you call the mind is simply a set of thoughts with the weight of belief added to them and we create what the experience of what we call the mind.

If we were just really into our heads,

There wouldn't be a physical organ there called the mind.

So the laughter is a good response to that,

It's a recognition of a deeper awareness.

Now,

If you haven't got your eyes closed or maybe just close them again if you want,

Because I'm going to do another version of that and this is going to be quite loud just to forewarn you,

Just to forewarn you,

But just witnessing again,

Just watching again.

And I'll do the same thing with the Ting Sharp L's and then I'm going to go take a little bit further.

Now,

Notice fading to silence.

Now what happens when you catch the train of thought?

This is the noisy bit,

Folks.

You engage with it.

Not very pleasant,

Very noisy.

The bells keep clashing against each other.

That's because you're putting energy,

The energy of belief,

It turns out,

Into I am my thoughts.

When you simply notice that energy is here and trust the awareness,

This is what happens.

It all becomes silent.

That's it.

That's it.

So Claire is asking,

Can I ask you something?

I watched an old man kiss Mooji feet,

Cry and laughs,

I think that is.

He just had a profound awakening,

Perhaps.

Is it not a gradual inner standing?

So this kind of response,

Just like Christine was laughing there,

This is a common response when there's a seeing,

A recognition arising from a deeper place.

And it's a laughter at the,

How could I not have seen this?

How could I not have realized this?

How could this not have been seen before?

And it can feel funny experientially.

And the laughter energy is also an energetic release at the same time.

So it sounds like what you're describing there with the old man was that process was unfolding there as he was in that process of being.

And also with that,

As you also mentioned in the question,

There can be a deep sense of gratitude for this knowing,

For this realizing.

And so again,

You go on to say,

Is it not a gradual inner standing?

For most people,

The answer to that is yes.

It's a gradual opening,

A gradual flowering and opening up to this awareness.

And this may take place over a number of years.

There can,

Of course,

Be light bulb moments,

Aha moments,

Seeing that happen along that journey.

So yes,

It tends to be typically a gradual flowering.

Yes.

Yes,

So undoubtedly,

From what you're describing there,

He would be beyond what is traditionally called happy.

The joy,

I would go as far as saying from what you describe,

It sounds like,

To me,

It sounds like the joy for no reason.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that this energy that he was experiencing,

This gratitude,

This joy for no reason,

Means it wasn't coming about because of a specific event.

It is,

As I was saying earlier,

The natural perfume of the silent awareness.

Joy is one of the natural perfumes of the silent awareness.

As is gratitude,

As is grace,

As is love,

As is peace.

When one of these is there,

They are all there.

And it's not because your football team has just scored a goal.

It's because there's been an inner recognition of what's always been eternally present.

And yes,

Just like Christine,

There can be a physical laughter response in the body,

Which in itself is also an energetic release.

This awareness,

This awareness,

Is always here.

And when we go with the identity and believe in the mind,

We get the clashing experience.

We catch the train of thought and it's very noisy.

When we trust the inner awareness,

The silence within,

Notice that we are the one that is the untouched observer,

The silent awareness.

Then everything of its own accord,

No effort required,

No effort required,

Will return to silence.

And that's because that's a natural process in the universe.

There's another stream I have on that playlist I mentioned,

And it's called A Journey to Silence.

A Journey to Silence.

So I explain in that stream the importance of the power of silence.

Here's an insight for you that's included in my infinite silence meditations,

Which we'll get to in a short while.

In silence,

You will realize truth.

In truth,

You will realize you are silence.

Always have been and always will be.

So just to recap,

The essence of meditation is awareness.

And this awareness is not personal.

The essence of self-realization is awareness.

They are one and the same.

And your essence is always it.

And it's never not here.

It's always here.

This isn't about believing what you perceived Philip to be saying.

It's about realizing it.

Thanks for putting up the quote there,

Stefan.

Just a slight correction in the second part.

It says in silence,

You will realize truth.

In truth,

You will realize you are silence.

You are silence.

Silence and awareness for the purposes of this stream,

I'm equating as one.

An energy that's aware of itself as that.

All good so far,

Folks.

Thank you,

Stefan.

I'm spending time on this because this is so fundamentally important.

As I said,

I've been sharing this message for 13 years in various forms now.

And it's surprising the misunderstandings that are there.

And so this stream is dedicated to unpacking that.

What I'd like to do now,

And I've done this many times.

Some of you have seen this many times.

It bears endless repetition is use my trusty fiber optic lamp metaphor to take things a bit further still because it captures what I've been pointing at in a beautiful way.

The original version of the metaphor came from my wife.

I've adapted it and developed it a lot over the years.

Whether you've seen it 100 times or for the first time,

One of these points of light at the end here will equate to our body mind experience and all the other body minds,

The other people,

And that's just the people,

Are appeared to be separate from you.

And we spend our lives looking outward into the world.

And it appears to be a world of separation.

The meditative journey,

The self-realization journey,

The journey of inner peace is what I will refer to as a turning point.

Experientially,

At first,

It's a bit like turning the attention around and looking down the fiber optic.

This is the first part.

It's like doing that.

And when one does that in the physical metaphor,

You see that there is a light at the base here.

Excuse me.

Some dog hairs from Amber and Joel there.

There's a light at the base here where all of the lights at the ends of these fiber optics has come from.

From one source.

One source.

These all come from one source.

This has a number of names depending on whatever spiritual tradition or whatever you come from.

In my language,

Because this is how it came in the process in the form of Philip,

I will refer to this as spheres,

As in balls,

Spheres of light.

Also known as the pure universal state.

I am.

I am.

This I is not personal.

It's an infinite I.

And I am pure beingness.

You might have heard that in spiritual traditions.

I am.

It's not a personal I am.

It's an infinite I am.

Pure being.

Also known,

If you're from India,

And I think we've got Dheeraj on here,

At least from India,

Hiranyagarbha.

Hiranyagarbha.

The golden egg of creation.

The golden womb of creation.

Now,

As powerful and as profound as this pure state I am,

Or spheres of light,

Or Hiranyagarbha is,

It is a phenomena.

It can be noticed.

It can be witnessed.

And in the metaphor,

In the physical metaphor at least,

The source of this,

The power for that,

Comes from the battery in the base here.

And that would be the equivalent of the infinite silence,

Or the awareness of infinite silence.

It sees the pure beingness,

Which in turn,

We can then see the body-mind experience.

And that's a limitation in the metaphor here,

Because this awareness isn't confined to a location.

It's everywhere.

It's everywhere.

And nowhere in particular.

It's infinite.

It's unlimited.

It's completely still and silent and always present.

This is another way of looking at the essence of meditation,

The essence of self-realization.

It gives you a kind of a visual for it.

So we can say,

Or begin to open to,

The fact that all phenomena,

All appearances,

Including your body-mind experience,

Appear within,

Appear within or in front of awareness.

And consciousness,

And consciousness is energy aware of itself,

Is like a green screen,

Just like in the movies.

A green screen.

You've all heard of green screens.

You can project anything onto a green screen.

Anything.

And it looks and feels very real.

Consciousness is like that.

But this awareness,

This infinite silence,

Or the awareness of infinite silence,

Simply silently watches all of those appearances.

And it is this that is your very essence.

It is this that is your very essence.

So we've seen the metaphor there.

And now what I'd like to do is deepen the exercises we've been doing so far further.

I'll guide you into what I refer to as the infinite silence meditation.

And there's another playlist on my profile,

Also in the group Nothing Special with Philip Wade,

That has seven versions of this meditation.

One that's 15 minutes long,

And the other,

At the other end,

Is one and a half hours.

The 15 minute one is fully guided.

No gaps.

Deliberately so.

So if you're expecting silence in the first one,

You're not going to get that.

Infinite silence is there,

But absence of words is not going to happen in that first one.

The reason that's fully guided is because it guides you through the steps in the meditation,

Or the apparent steps,

To recognizing and realizing this awareness.

And then the next one's 22,

And the next one's 29,

The next one's 40,

60,

An hour and a quarter,

An hour and a half.

It has exactly the same guidance in each one,

But increasing amounts of silence.

Why is that?

Because as you move through them,

You'll become more and more comfortable with the recognition of the awareness,

And we've been doing awareness recognition exercises.

This whole stream is about recognizing and realizing awareness.

And as you become more comfortable with that,

The wider and wider gaps between the guidance,

You'll be more comfortable with the silence,

You'll be more aware and recognizing the silence,

Till eventually you get to the point where you don't really need the guidance.

You'll be able to simply silently rest in,

Through,

And as that.

These seven meditations sit alongside the Self-Realization Replay Program freely available in a playlist.

So that's the Infinite Silence Meditations playlist on my profile and in the group.

So I'll guide you into this meditation today.

For those new to it,

There's a couple of key pointers I'd like to draw out.

One point,

I'm going to say,

Just be open from your heart to connect with the energy of the spheres,

As in spheres of light,

This part of the metaphor.

I don't want you to visualize anything,

Don't want you to try to do anything,

Or try and think about what these are.

Just be open at that point,

And we'll go silent for a while at that point.

And then eventually we'll open into,

With some further pointings and guidance,

Deepening that further into opening to the silence itself.

All good?

So let's go for it.

So let's just close our eyes.

And simply,

Silently,

Noticing,

Accepting,

Whatever's here,

Now,

Without any judgment.

Just like you're watching a movie from the inside.

Simply,

Silently,

Non-judgmentally,

Aware,

Effortlessly,

Aware,

Silently,

Aware.

And just be open now from your heart to connect with the energy of the spheres.

And this energy of the spheres,

Or spheres of light,

Is the same as the pure,

Universal,

Non-personal,

I am.

And this energy,

As pure as it is,

Is seen,

Witnessed,

Noticed from the silent witness within infinite silence.

It simply,

Silently,

Notices,

I am.

And this silent witness that notices I am is like a sliver of ice that's melting,

Dissolving in the ocean of water.

Effortlessly,

Silently,

Melting,

Becoming one with the water.

And the water is actually an ocean of infinite silence,

Infinite awareness.

Simply,

Silently,

Effortlessly,

Aware,

Infinite silence,

Infinite awareness,

Eternity,

Here,

Now.

Be still and know this awareness,

This silence.

In silence,

You will realize truth.

In truth,

You will realize you are silence,

Infinite silence,

Infinite awareness.

This rarefied atmosphere of silence transforms,

Transmutes,

Dissolves all that you are not.

Effortlessly,

Silently,

One with silence.

In this,

Through this,

As this awareness of infinite silence eternally,

Effortlessly,

Silently,

This.

Be still and know this.

Knowing this awareness of silence is ever present and your essence is it always.

And staying with that now,

Nothing you have to do to be this.

And now,

Just let rest in this awareness,

As this awareness.

And let this beautiful harp track,

Harp song,

Just appear,

Float into awareness.

Harp music Harp music And if you still got your eyes closed,

Simply,

Silently aware of your body,

The chair,

Your satin,

Or whatever you may be lay on,

Aware of the space,

Simply,

Silently aware.

And in a moment,

I'll ring the Tingsha bells.

And when the moment's right for you,

If you haven't already done so,

Simply,

Silently,

Remaining as this awareness,

Opening your eyes.

Namaste.

Good.

Good.

So that was a version of the Infinite Silence Meditation.

The guidance within that emerged from the silence itself.

And you can experience varying lengths of that,

As I say,

On the playlist on my profile,

From 15 minutes to an hour and a half,

Infinite Silence Meditations.

So thank you to Ben and Ely and Lee for sharing.

So if anybody got anything that they want to ask or share,

Either from the meditation,

From the insights and experiences or exercises we did earlier,

Anything to do with your journey of self-realization.

So Ely says,

Or Ely,

I'm not sure how that's pronounced,

How do you get so good at this?

You know,

Ely,

There's no simple answer to that.

One is this.

One is this.

It wasn't a planned thing from Philip's perspective.

But there was a deep listening,

A deep trusting of what was emerging inside.

And I would say it's about trusting the heart.

Trusting the heart.

And to understand that more fully,

Another live replay available on my profile,

And also in the self-realization program playlist,

Freely available,

Is called Trust the Heart.

Trust the Heart.

And that was central to how the realization flowered and its sharing with the world.

Trust the Heart.

So that's our way of responding to that.

Because when we trust our hearts,

It will lead us home to realize that we've always been home.

And that that which we have been looking for,

The peace,

The silence within,

Is always here.

And then its natural expression in your form will flower.

And for Philip,

That was a big surprise,

Because if you'd have said in the year 2000,

When meditation began,

That this would be happening for the last 13 years now,

Or 10 to 13 years,

Depending on where I measure it from,

That would have been a big surprise.

Probably would have thought you were crazy or something.

The silence within had other plans.

And for those who don't know,

I was a civil engineer in a former life,

A chartered civil engineer.

So about as far from this as you could get.

Very grounded profession.

Very necessary profession.

So that's a way of answering your question,

Ali or Eli.

Anybody else got anything?

There's other things I can share,

But.

.

.

So Claire's saying,

I trust my heart sometimes and feel very expansive,

But I also experience a contraction,

Okay,

A.

K.

A.

Low moods.

I'm aware of the low moods and difference in experience,

But still have to allow it to come and go.

So,

Claire,

This trusting the heart,

And then only occasionally,

Is a mind function.

So basically what happens is the appearance of the experience we're having is one of being in the heart space and trusting that,

And the trust becoming a knowing and a very expansive experience.

And then next moment,

Or five minutes later,

Ten minutes later,

An hour later,

Two weeks later,

We're in trusting what's going on,

Identifying with what's going on with the mind,

And that's what leads to the experience of contraction.

I explain this more fully in the replay,

Trust the Heart.

And that will lead to low moods,

Emotions,

Trauma,

And so forth.

But the key here is that you've reported there's an experience of trusting the heart sometimes,

And then also a contraction and low moods.

And an awareness of the lower moods,

And noticing of those lower moods,

Or maybe even emotions that come with that.

Question for you,

Claire.

Which are you?

Are you the low moods,

Or are you the one that is aware of them?

Don't answer that just yet,

Just be with that.

Are you the low moods,

Or are you the one that is aware of them?

And is that which is aware of them,

And you must be aware of them because you've reported them,

Is that which is aware of them affected by the mood or the emotion?

Or does it just notice?

Does it just observe?

Is it just aware?

And even if you can't see that right now,

The answer is it's just aware,

It's unaffected.

And so the wave of the low mood will come and go,

Like a vibration.

And awareness will just watch.

Now when you watch as that awareness,

And trust that awareness,

That'll have a transformative power because energy is not going into the lower mood,

Or the emotion that might be associated with it.

In the trusting of the awareness,

That not only will that experience of the lower mood eventually dissolve,

It will actually transform it.

And I have a whole live stream on this,

Claire.

I have a whole live stream on this,

It's called Transmuting Fear into Love.

Transmuting Fear into Love.

That forms part of another playlist of Dissolving Emotions,

Blocks,

Belief and Trauma,

Which is an extract from the longer Self-Realization Program playlist that you can look out on my profile or in the group.

You're welcome,

Claire.

Getting hooked with the stories because you believe the stories.

Stop believing.

Start trusting awareness.

There's a very short track on my profile called Trusting and Daring Not To.

Trusting and Daring Not To.

Have a listen to that.

What's Lani saying?

I hope that's how you pronounce it,

Lani or Laini.

That was beautiful,

Thank you.

There was a deep sense of peace.

Sometimes I go into an almost sleep state.

I can compare it to other times during meditation where I do fall asleep.

So it seems that getting to that state of pure awareness,

Peace,

The brainwaves are in a sleep-like state.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Obviously,

One can fall asleep sometimes in meditation.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

If you fall asleep during meditation,

It can get a bad press.

But actually,

If you fall asleep from a meditation,

I forget what the Zen tradition is where they hit you on the back and bring you back.

But actually falling asleep from a meditative space is going to take you into a deeper rest in my experience.

So I don't see it as a bad thing.

However,

There can be,

As one deepens into awareness and the phenomena start to quieten down,

Still down,

And then one comes out of that,

That can feel similar to but not the same as sleep.

And it might take a while to emerge or come round from that.

And that too is okay.

So falling asleep is happening is because your body is needing that rest.

That's okay.

But eventually,

The more that you rest in this awareness,

This stillness,

The silence,

Then it won't be a sleep,

But it will be a very,

Very deep space where eventually all phenomena will drop.

And that will take you to the space of realization.

So it's not thoughts on this,

Lami,

It's insight.

Yeah,

Making sense?

If there's anything else that I missed there,

Let me know because I tried scrolling back on the comments last time and it just kind of blew a gasket on the machine and I don't want to do that.

So somebody else said they were a civil engineer.

I think that was Dheeraj.

Yes,

That was my previous life,

Dheeraj,

Before this unfolded.

So,

Okay.

So Stefan shared various of the playlists.

There's a replay transmuting fear into love.

That's part of the bigger playlist,

Dissolving emotions,

Trauma,

And beliefs and blocks.

That in itself is a subset of the wider self-realization replay program playlist.

All these are available freely.

There's more than enough material in there to realize the self.

And the short track was trusting and daring not to.

So Claire's saying,

I am reminded of when the student is ready,

The teacher will appear.

I'm familiar with the saying.

The pointing I would offer there is although people like myself and others can get referred to as teacher,

And I've had that many times,

Master,

Guru,

And so forth,

Be aware,

Folks,

That although there may be a deep resonance with what's being pointed out here,

I'm not ultimately teaching you anything that isn't already known inside.

That isn't already known inside.

When this is realized,

It will become true self-evident.

So it appears as a teaching and you might experience it as a teaching until it isn't,

Until it's a realization,

As in self-realization.

If your heart calls you to what I'm sharing here,

Then you can trust the heart.

Simple.

So nothing to teach and nothing for you to learn,

Learn only to realize,

As in self-realization.

So there's various people,

Blossom's saying yes,

And Lani's saying yes,

Thank you.

Claire's going to watch the interview that's referred to there,

Good.

Glad you found that.

It'll give you a bit more background.

Eli fell asleep,

No worries,

It happens.

Claire's saying yes,

But holding one hand,

Metaphorically speaking,

Towards the inner standing.

Yes,

Of course,

And therein,

With those pointings,

As your next comment,

It's helpful because what's actually happening here,

There's a communication at a number of levels.

So there's the appearance of a human level,

This guy called Philip,

And Claire in Galway in Ireland,

And listening to what's being shared.

And the insight,

The knowing,

Carries the energetic signature of the silence,

The inner standing.

And that inner standing is already there in the form of Claire.

It might be masked by belief,

In a case of mistaken identity,

That all you are is the body-mind.

That's okay,

There's nothing wrong with that.

But if there's an openness and a willingness,

And you wouldn't be here were that not there,

Then this gift of life for life to life,

And you are life,

Can flower.

So the realized being simply acts as an anchor to that which you already are,

That's all.

That's all.

So I just want to pick up on a few things,

Because we've been going nearly two hours,

And there's a few things I just wanted to finish off with.

I started off by saying the essence of meditation is awareness.

That this awareness is not personal.

It's infinite.

It's one with the infinite silence.

Coupled with spiritual inquiry,

The question,

Who am I?

This brings you to the realization.

I have live stream replays on that question.

Who am I?

The meditation inquiry aren't two things,

They're one.

They're one.

So the essence of meditation is awareness.

Awareness of infinite silence,

And you are always that.

And you're always simply silently aware.

Always.

Meditation,

We practice meditation,

But eventually the practice part comes to an end,

And you will become or realize you are a living meditation.

And there's another live stream called From Meditation Practice to a Living Meditation.

From Meditation Practice to a Living Meditation.

That's in the same playlist.

And what I mean by that is that the realization shows you that you are a living meditation.

You are this living awareness.

You are,

In fact,

Life itself.

An insight came to me this morning to share with you,

And it said meditation is food.

And what that means is it doesn't mean food that you eat.

It's like the food of life.

It's like the gift of life.

It will give you energy.

It will open you to the infinite sources of energy within.

So meditation is awareness.

A few things that meditation is not.

It's not visualization.

Visualization is visualization.

It's not wrong.

It's not right.

It can be helpful.

Meditation is not visualization.

It's not techniques.

It is beyond and before technique.

These pointings,

These guidance might seem like stepping stones,

But they're all to take you to the point that is beyond technique.

Meditation is not practice.

Meditation simply is awareness.

That's permanently here.

The practice comes to an end,

And the awareness,

The silence,

Is realized.

Meditation is not tools.

The tools,

Techniques,

And so forth have a place.

They're not wrong.

But they're all to take you to the practice-less place.

The essence itself that's simply,

Silently,

Aware.

I don't know if any of you noticed,

It might not have been loud enough to pick it up,

But during the meditation,

It was quite windy here in England.

On a previous stream,

People could hear the birds because I had the skylights open.

On another stream,

A plane flew across,

And it was loud enough for people to hear.

And awareness noticed it.

Awareness noticed it effortlessly,

Silently,

And was unaffected by it.

Anything that's appearing now as a phenomenon,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Sensations,

Thoughts,

Breath,

All of it is being seen by awareness.

And it's always here now.

Always here now.

And you,

Your essence,

Is always it.

Ultimately,

You won't learn to meditate.

You will realize you are the meditation.

Did you catch what I said there?

Ultimately,

You won't learn to meditate.

You will realize you are the living meditation.

All the practices,

Tools,

Techniques are stepping stones to it.

Eventually,

You will leave them all behind.

You will leave them all behind.

There's a live stream it reminds me of on that same playlist.

I'm just trying to remember the name of it now.

I think it's something like Beyond Coping Strategies to Peace or something like that.

Anyway,

You'd recognize the one when you looked at that playlist.

So I talk about what I've just said there at greater lengths.

I think it's From Coping Strategies to Inner Peace,

Something like that.

So to complement this stream,

I've mentioned several replays you can listen to,

But there's some others that are directly relevant on that same playlist.

And there are two I'm going to mention now.

No,

Four I'm going to mention now.

Two of them,

What It Really Means to Go Within,

Part one.

What It Really Means to Go Within,

Part one.

And then the same title,

Part two.

One of those is stream number,

Live replay number.

I think it's number three or something like that.

One's number 30 odd.

So you could listen to both of those.

Oh,

Stefan's found the title of that other stream I just mentioned.

Thank you,

Stefan.

One I've already mentioned,

A Journey to Silence.

A Journey to Silence.

And then finally,

One I've also mentioned,

From Meditation Practice to a Living Meditation.

From Meditation Practice to a Living Meditation.

The practice,

All of it,

Eventually is to take you to the practice-less place.

That doesn't mean that you don't sit down and formally meditate.

I have the blessing of sitting down in this space every day for an hour or so or whatever it is and just resting deeply in,

Through and as this silence.

That's pretty much it from me,

Folks.

I'm back again live tonight at 20 past 8,

2020,

UK time.

Stefan's just popping up the titles here,

So thank you.

I'll let him do that.

So 20 past 8,

UK time tonight.

Same stream.

You're welcome to rejoin us.

If anybody's making donations,

I think if you do it on the live,

Apple take 30%.

I think if you do it on my profile,

I'm not sure if that's the case.

Blossom might know.

Anyway,

Thank you if you've made any donations.

They're much appreciated.

To helping share the message with the world.

So meditation,

The essence of meditation is awareness.

Non-personal awareness,

The awareness of infinite silence.

And you are it.

Always.

This is what you're here for,

To realize this.

Not because I say so,

But because when it's realized,

It will become self-evident.

Reviews

So glad I have done this meditation. I have to be honest that I took a short nap, but my level of relaxation was at the maximum. Namaste 🙏🏻

Excellent space of deep silent awareness. Enjoyed this very much 😇🙏😇

Thank you for all the pointings…Truth is Simple ego is complicated.
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