Welcome to this meditation.
I'll start by reading a quote from the late influential Thai forest Buddhist monk,
Ajahn Chah.
Followed will be a guided meditation based on his insights.
The quote goes as follows.
Within itself,
The mind is timeless,
Naturally peaceful,
Unmoving.
Rest in this natural state.
If the changing sense impressions cause a mind to forget itself,
To be deceived and entangled,
Your practice is to see this whole process and simply return to the original mind.
So what Ajahn Chah was referring to is that through meditation we see our true nature,
Which is timeless and unmoving,
And this is our natural state.
Now,
There are certain things that obscure or derail us from abiding here,
Such as impressions known as samskaras and vrittis,
Which are thought patterns.
And we may mistakenly identify ourselves with or get carried away by these fluctuations,
Which cause us to lose sight of our true nature.
And in essence,
We get entangled in this net of delusion.
So Ajahn Chah's advice is simple.
Our practice here is to simply see this process of how your mind pulls you away,
And we can witness this and return back to our true nature.
Three elements in this passage we can explore in this meditation are witnessing,
Resting,
As in resting in the natural state.
And note,
There isn't a quality of doing anything here.
And lastly,
Repeating this process any time we need to,
Such as whenever we get lost in thoughts or distracted.
Let's get started with this meditation.
Find a comfortable posture.
Close your eyes.
Close yourself off from distractions by closing the sense doors.
Close your eyes and withdraw your attention inwards.
Gently relax any tension present in the body.
Whether it be elevated shoulders,
Clenched jaw,
Furrowed brow.
Similarly,
Relax any tension in the mind,
Which may manifest as resistance,
Boredom,
Or agitation,
Or wanting to do something else.
Just let it all go.
Any time you notice any resistance that pops up,
Whether it's noticed in the body or mind,
Simply just notice it.
Relax and release.
Begin to observe your thoughts come in and out like clouds in the sky.
Don't try to hold on to any thoughts.
You'll notice and watch it arise and pass away on its own time.
You might observe that as it passes away,
You'll notice and you might observe that as we look for other thoughts,
They disappear and they create a gap in which there's a space.
Settle and rest in this gap.
Observe this quality of spaciousness.
If your mind slips into a subtle dullness,
You may open your eyes to bring more alertness and you may ask yourself,
Who is it that falls into dullness?
And by posing this inquiry,
We go beyond observing a dullness or emptiness.
If this spacious quality feels bright and wide,
Notice who is it that observes this and you go beyond mind.
Start to rest in this place of not knowing.
Rest in this place where you don't grasp or aren't pulled by different impressions.
If you do observe that your mind is getting distracted or pulling you away,
Simply just notice and watch this process.
Once again,
By actively looking for our thoughts and watching them,
You can observe them arise and pass away.
Once you let go of any thoughts or distractions,
Simply just rest in your natural state.
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
As this practice comes to a close,
Know that you can practice little micro-hits of this presence in meditation throughout your day.
You can observe how your thoughts may pull you away from time to time and when observed,
Simply just watch them and let them go as we did in this practice and relax into the moment.
Bring your hands to heart center and take a moment to thank yourself for taking the time to practice today.
Thank you.
