Insight Meditation

'You Are Absolutely Necessary For This Universe'

John leads a joyful direct insight meditation to help you be grounded and move deeper on your path of awakening and wholeness.

Recorded live on a yoga retreat, this audio captures the wonderful energy of practicing together, however ​there are some background sounds - and apologies for the rumble of the A/C.

Transcript

So if you'll just let yourselves be as much as you can right now.

Close your eyes,

If you're closing your eyes.

So you've been practicing really beautifully.

And you can feel that practice in your body.

Just be aware of where you are right now.

Aware of the time of day.

Aware of the room that you're in.

Aware of the people around you.

And notice the state of your mind.

And the beautiful thing here is the noticing.

Noticing if you are judgmental or critical when you notice your mind.

Thinking that it should be otherwise.

But we can only be where we are right now.

However that is,

This is where we begin.

And so we lovingly accept the state of our mind as it is right now.

We just accept.

We don't try and stop the mind or push it away.

And the same for our emotions.

Just notice your emotional tone.

If there's any worries or any excitements.

Whether your emotions are fast and fluttery.

Whether there's a solid emotional tone.

Whether there's an absence of emotion.

Well you would imagine there would be.

And just the same.

Noticing that you notice the flow of emotion.

Notice that it's not your mind that is noticing.

That there is something in you that comes before the emotion.

Not trying to change how we feel.

But just meeting how we feel in this moment.

And your beautiful bodies.

Your wonderful bodies.

You can feel your feet on the floor.

Your legs.

Your buttocks.

Your spine rising up from the buttocks.

Mid back,

Shoulders,

Neck,

Back of the head,

Top of the head,

Sides of the head.

Forehead,

Face,

Eyes.

Let your forehead be soft.

Let your eyes be soft.

Let your jaw especially be soft.

Let go of trying to meditate.

Have any idea of achievement here.

But just resting a little more into yourself.

Upper chest.

Whole chest.

Checking in with your abdomen.

It will tell you so much.

Reproductive organs.

The whole body.

Nothing left out.

And we notice the breath in the body.

Notice how the breath is moving your body.

If the mind has got a lot of content moving.

Just let it move.

Just allow yourself not to be caught too much with it.

The breath breathes the body.

Perhaps at the abdomen.

Perhaps at the chest.

Noticing the quality of the breath.

Noticing if you're trying to change your breath in any way.

Just letting your awareness touch the breath.

Perhaps you begin to notice.

You can feel the space at the top of the breath and at the end of the breath.

There's a gap there.

Notice how the mind continues.

Notice how the emotions continue.

Perhaps you can begin to notice that thoughts arise from silence and pass away into silence.

And as they pass,

Like cars on the motorway,

They project onto the screen of your consciousness.

And that we have a tendency to pick them up.

Certain ones perhaps about our identity or stories that we have about who we are.

Certain thoughts trigger the emotional cycle.

And we feel.

And we're not trying to change this.

Just notice that there is something in us that comes before this,

That is aware of this movement.

We're aware of our breath.

We're aware of the movement of the mind.

Aware of the movement of the emotions.

Aware of our five senses operating.

You're aware of your clothes against your skin.

You're aware of the air in your nostrils.

The sounds of the room and my voice in your ears.

The light coming in through your closed eyelids.

The taste that is in your mouth right now.

And the mind processes this information.

And we just notice that movement.

And your awareness deepens.

And if something does come up,

If something suddenly throws you into mind again or into time again.

Just returning to the breath.

Not trying to push it away.

But just acknowledging what has happened without judgement or criticism.

There is nothing to get back to.

No experience to have.

Only your life in this very moment.

If there's pain in the body or there's restlessness because of sitting.

Simply acknowledging that restlessness.

Allowing yourself to move to a more comfortable position if you need to.

Allowing yourself to be what you need.

And perhaps you notice a layer of the mind that is judgemental and critical.

Perhaps towards other people.

Most often towards ourselves.

Notice that you can notice it.

Or if there's a pain in the body.

Or something that the mind holds onto.

Notice that you notice it.

And rather than trying to push it away,

Say hello to it.

Not drawing it towards us.

But just simply acknowledging that that is there.

Perhaps now you can feel the energy of life in your body.

Just the subtle feeling of life in the body.

You may feel life in you as heat.

As vibration.

As energy.

Allow yourself to rest in that feeling of life.

Notice how the life of you comes before the mind.

That the mind arises from the life.

That it comes before the emotions.

Before the senses.

We're not pushing anything away or changing anything.

We're simply resting within ourselves.

Notice that you are fully here in this room.

Fully present.

And you feel the source of life that is in every cell of your body and your being.

Perhaps it expresses as light.

As energy.

But allow yourself to recognize yourself at this level.

This is your true beauty.

Recognize your true beauty.

How it is not limited by mind.

By emotion.

By your status.

By your nationality.

By your wealth.

By your education.

Bright.

Alive and beautiful.

And you are doing nothing to create yourself.

You are life itself.

You are absolutely necessary for this universe.

You are life.

Traditionally this place is called the witnessing consciousness.

It is not something that you have to achieve.

It is not something that you can do.

It simply is who you are.

And as our practice grows,

We can allow our outer life to align more with this truth of who we are.

By transcending.

By being the love and the life that we are.

You are present at every moment of your life.

And perhaps you can even feel a space around this truth of you.

Knowing.

Recognizing.

And this space is the space that is in all things.

The space in your life.

The space in the room.

The space in all beings.

The space in the whole universe from which life and being arise.

This is who you are.

You are not a doing.

You are life.

You are life.

You are life.

You are life.

You are life.

You are life.

May this practice be for your highest benefit.

And by being for your highest benefit,

May it be for the benefit of all beings.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

This certainly was a practice for my highest benefit. Thank you for helping this body find peace. 🙏

Background noise is nothing. Loved the meditation 🙏

Thank you John for a peaceful meditation of going within. Just being. 🙏🏼💙

Truly beautiful. Proof that recording quality is far less important that the teacher’s depth of understanding.
There are a few similarities in the way I teach but I learned from this. A deep bow. Thank you 🙏🏼

Total gift of a guided meditation. So much wisdom and gentleness embodied and woven in through the vipassana. Thank you John for living it 🙏🏼💙

Another wonderful meditation. So helpful 🙏 Bookmarking!

Thank you John for guiding me through my morning meditation 💙🙏🏻💙

John this was so affirming, and I feel really whole which is amazing.
I have been doing silent meditations while I read your book, but I am really glad I listened to this one.
Love and greetings from Norfolk, Helen x

What a gift of a meditation, gently guided and held..
With much gratitude 🙏

I felt very centered when I finished this meditation. Just what I needed today! Thank you!🙏🏻☮️❤️

Just right and clearly arising from greet depth. Thanks John

Lovely guided meditation to notice that underlying all the “stuff” is bare consciousness, naked awareness. An inspiration to carry awareness of awareness throughout the day.

Thank you John. You hold such a soothing & compassionate space. Namaste 🙏🏼

Thank you John I woke in the night with my heart pounding and you voice was such a comfort. Bless you for these beautiful gifts xx

Thank you so much for this very beautiful meditation

And there I thought the a/c was a river rushing somewhere nearby John! The mind eh. Beautiful and grounding meditation. Thank you. 🙏 Sue

Lovely blessings!

Deep, gentle holding of space ...

I loved this approach! Nothing I didn't know already yet unfolding in an original way, reminding me it's all good! Thank you!

Wonderfully spacious and peaceful. Thank you.