When The Mind Settles, The Light Shines Through

Beneath the surface of thought, emotion, and nervous system activity, our True Nature is steady and clear. This Stillpoint practice invites you to rest in the present moment and sense the quiet awareness that is always here. As we bring attention inward, distractions and worries can move to the background and we begin to feel the peace that does not depend on circumstances. By allowing stillness to come forward, we reconnect with our Being - ever pure, ever wise, ever free. Join this guided practice to rest deeply in presence and remember the light of your own being.

Transcript

Present moment awareness,

Spiritual depth.

Come into presence,

Come into awareness.

And we use those words.

What exactly does that mean?

What comes to mind?

It depends on our personal experience with this.

You might have a memory come back of a feeling in a meditation where there was a lot of stillness.

Or maybe you were with a meditation teacher in a retreat.

Or maybe you were out leaning on a tree,

Looking at the sky.

One of the things that I talk about is how the nervous system gets in the way.

If I have a regulated nervous system,

Which means really that I'm not in a fight,

Flight,

Or freeze,

That I'm here in this moment,

I'm aware that I'm safe,

Then a lot of things happen.

We have fewer thoughts in our mind.

The thoughts in our mind are not as compulsive or relating to hypervigilance.

When we are scared or worried or activated into a survival response,

We naturally have tension in our body.

Our body gets ready to move,

Ready to fight or flight.

We have catastrophic thinking.

We're trying to figure it out.

Well,

If this happens,

I could do this.

And if that,

Oh,

I don't know if I can handle that.

So we get a lot of intensity in our thinking and in our body,

The sensations and energy.

What is your personal experience with having a dysregulated nervous system or having a nervous system that's warning you about some kind of danger and that's activated?

What comes to mind when you think about that?

Well,

When I'm activated,

I lose connection with myself.

My mind gets very busy.

I lose connection with my heart.

I'm not as self-compassionate,

But also I'm not as compassionate with other people.

We might hold our breath,

Might have a sinking feeling in our gut.

There's a lot that goes on when we're activated into a nervous system response that prevents us from accessing our body or being aware of our own inner depth.

A lot of the work that I do then is to help us regulate our nervous systems.

And there's a lot of reasons for that.

Really helps in daily life.

If we have a calmer mind,

If we're not as taken up by compulsive thinking,

If our body works better because we're relaxed,

We're breathing,

Then our life works better.

Daily life works better.

Relationships.

Relationships are deeper.

We feel happier.

When we walk outside and feel the sun on our face,

We're not filled with catastrophic thinking.

We might take a moment to breathe,

Relax our shoulders and enjoy that.

So there are very practical reasons and benefits for working with our nervous system.

And it very much relates to being able to access our inner being,

Our true self.

The nervous system and how it operates can prevent us from accessing or being aware of our safety in this moment.

We come back to in this moment,

Very specifically,

Am I in immediate danger?

And if not,

Then I can relax a little.

I can let myself enjoy peace of mind,

Some deeper breathing.

Am I in immediate danger?

What's your answer to that right now?

Well,

Of course I'm not,

But my body feels like I am.

That's the ongoing daily practice,

The work that we do around regulating our nervous system so that our nervous system can accurately assess that right now in this moment,

We're safe.

Bring yourself into this moment,

Letting go of the past and the future.

That's almost entirely what takes up our attention.

We ruminate about the past and we plan for the future.

We might be catastrophizing.

We might be held in the grip of the nervous system's negative bias.

Sometimes we could just step back and go,

Wow,

I was really caught by something there.

And then we look around,

We might hold our own hands,

Put a hand on our heart.

It's hard being a human being right now in this world.

And it's also wonderful because we have all these ways to come back in,

Into connection with ourselves,

With each other,

With the earth.

Let your attention come into this moment and become aware of your being.

We might have words,

Thoughts about that.

Oh,

What do I mean by that exactly?

Or where is it?

Or what is it?

Or we might have memories coming back of times when we've really felt like we knew unity experience of knowing ourselves as our being,

As our true self.

We might have thoughts like,

I don't have that experience.

I don't know my being.

I'm always caught up in all of this other stuff.

And then when I get quiet,

It doesn't feel like there's anything there.

So maybe that's just for other people.

Maybe that's not for me.

Trying to get back to a certain experience is another way that sometimes we actually limit ourselves by trying to return to an experience of real unity or depth or connection.

And can also be very helpful to bring forward a memory of a deep spiritual experience.

What did you know when you were experiencing that?

What did you know?

The deepest connection,

The deepest experience of meditation or unity,

True self,

Your being.

What were some of your insights?

What did you know?

What did you feel?

What was that experience revealing to you?

And notice where your mind goes and see if you could notice the words but not get too involved with the words.

We've probably all read about or listened to or been around people talking about spiritual experience.

And talking about it is like the reflection of the moon on the water.

The reflection is not the moon.

And yet our mind always tries to put words to things and to figure things out.

So let yourself come below the level of thought.

If you were thinking of your mind as a lake,

There might be the reflections on the surface,

The ripples,

The wind,

And then let your attention,

Your awareness come away from the activity and into the stillness.

You might bring your attention to your heart,

Your spiritual heart center.

Let thoughts move to the background.

Bring your attention inside and away from thoughts in the mind.

In yoga meditation,

We talk about the true self or the divine light.

So a lot of different words.

The Atman,

The Jivan Atman,

There's Sanskrit words as well.

As we bring our awareness to rest in the heart center,

We don't really need those words.

One of the ways that we talk about the true self or the divine or the inner light,

All of those different words we use is that it's at our core.

It's not affected by thoughts,

Experiences.

This inner awareness or being is ever pure,

Ever wise,

Ever free.

And then we have things that obscure the light.

A lot of those are related to the nervous system.

I want something to be a certain way and it's not.

I'm worried about something personal like my health or I'm worried about what's going on in the world.

We're worried about a lot of different things and our nervous system is paying attention to a lot of different things.

And it covers up or it impedes or obscures our true self,

Our being that is always here.

As we're doing this practice,

Notice if there are things that are getting in the way.

And then let those move to the background.

Let yourself really focus on stillness.

And some people have the experience of a sudden awakening,

Piercing the bindu,

It's called.

One way to describe that.

We go from all of this on the outside into this point and then we realize our true nature.

That's not the case for most of us.

Most of us have a gradual knowing,

An opening,

A realization.

I'm more than the thoughts in my mind.

I'm more than the experience in my life.

What else is here?

It's never changing.

And we attune to that.

One of the ways that we access that is that we work with the obstacles.

So maybe we'll work with our breath if we're holding our breath.

We might work with really trying to regulate our nervous system.

Smooth,

Even breaths,

Relaxed body,

Working with catastrophic thinking so that we're not caught in a trap like that.

And then we also bring our attention,

Our awareness inside to our being,

Our true self.

And this is always here.

And sometimes we know and can access that awareness and sometimes we can't.

Sometimes there's too much in the way.

As we're coming to completion on the practice,

Think back through and what did you notice?

What were your insights into your own experience around your true self,

Your being,

What gets in the way of that?

Take a moment to reflect on that before we finish the practice.

Maybe there's something that's inspired you to work with,

To go deeper with.

I love that there's so much that we can do.

If we are noticing,

Well,

I'm too busy,

I never have time even to step outside and take a few breaths,

Then that's something we could work with.

We could reduce the busyness.

For many of us,

It's not as structural as it is,

What's going on in my mind and how am I responding to my life?

There's no question that sometimes things are very difficult.

Our nervous system is very activated.

And what is the place in my life for spiritual practice?

I live alone.

I could meditate all day long if I wanted to.

And I do sometimes.

More often,

I get engaged with daily life.

That's what we do.

That's not wrong.

I mean,

We're living in a body,

We're living a life.

It's good to be engaged in our life.

And if we're looking for more depth,

There are ways that we can do that.

Some of those are things that we've talked about here and that you've been considering and reflecting on.