Effortless Awareness Meditation

In this guided meditation, we explore the subtle power of live, shared meditation, and the direct experience of oneness.

Whether you join in a group or listen individually, this practice helps you:
- Abide effortlessly in awareness beyond body and mind
- Release effort, separation, and the sense of distance
- Witness thoughts and emotions like birds in the open sky of consciousness
- Connect with the universal source that unites all beings

Experience the quiet, intimate knowing of your true self, the effortless freedom that is always present, and the unity that transcends time and space.

Transcript

The difference between live meditation and recorded meditation is very subtle, But it's very clear. It became clear to me last Tuesday, Where in our university I was conducting meditation. We are doing Mindful Mane program, It became very clear to me that live meditation is like engaging in reality or truth simultaneously with a group of people and even if it is live or Zoom, Where we are all dispersed everywhere, But in our understanding, Understanding of the truth, Understanding of the reality, We come close and we become one in that understanding. That can happen on your own when you are doing meditation or listening to a recorded meditation, But you do feel the presence of others and there is subtle push, A subtle sense of belonging togetherness that we feel very clearly. So even though live meditations sometimes are not very highly edited meditations, I think if I were you, I would prefer live meditations now. I have been, Like many of you, A lone seeker who have been seeking quietly on the side for now more than probably 26 years, 27, 28 years, That it is good to find, It is good to be in a group of seekers. Actually working with a group of people has been one of the core principles of Buddhist Dharma. They call them Sangha. Sangha means togetherness and there are multiple layers of meaning of Sangha and I think many of you probably have experienced Sangha in other pursuits, Spiritual pursuits, But I have been a lone seeker for a very long time and for me, Sangha is emerging, The meaning and layers of it are emerging to me. So, Let's sit in this Sangha. Sangha means togetherness. The music in my ears are very loud but hopefully the lapel mic is not catching as much and it's not too loud in your ears. So again, Let's sit in this Sangha and imagine that there are energies sitting in different parts of the globe right now. Some are sitting in Australia, Some are sitting in USA, Some are sitting in Canada, Some are sitting anywhere in between, But the sense of distance, The space and time is illusory. Time you can live with because time is right now. So the time is one, But the sense of space is very hard to comprehend and actually the sense of space is also illusory. This is where your search culminates, Where even the sense of space is seen as real, But it is not as it looks. Deep down, There is no space and time differentiating me with you and you with others and you have deep intuition about it. Deep down you know this, But when you open your eyes, Space comes back and it is hard for you to rationalize, To believe, To feel that this sense of space is also an expression of yourself. It's also an expression of one awareness that we all share. I see it not with my eyes, With my leather eyes, But I feel it, I know it and deep down you also feel it, Know it. So believe in that knowing and feeling that the sense of space that is dividing or distancing one from other is gone and we are all sitting in one awareness, In oneness right now. So if your eyes are not closed, Allow them to close and let go of the sense of separation. Let go of any sense of separation. Let go of any sense of effort. There is no effort whatsoever needed right now. If your body is efforting in sitting straight, Sitting upright, Allow your body to be completely at ease. Your fingers are at ease, Your shoulders are at ease, Your head is at ease. There is a very gentle, Subtle smile telling your body everything is at ease. There is no effort whatsoever, Not in your body, Not in your mind, Not in your breath. You are as effortless as the breath that is coming and going on its own and now even opening your eyelids is too much to do. You are completely effortless, Sitting in the stillness of your own awareness and I know you are experiencing all the edges of your existence coming down as if the ring of outer layer of the ripple on the surface of the pond is slowly just diminishing and becoming water itself. Allow the outer edges of the ripples of your mind to integrate in its source and see how slowly and surely, Subtly you are nothing but one awareness, Awareness having this experience. You are awareness. You are awareness so much so that body is in you, You are not the body. You are awareness so much so that all the mental activities appear in you, They are not definition of you and none of the mental activity can define awareness that you essentially are. So see yourself beyond the body, See yourself beyond the mind, See yourself beyond all the perceptions, Sound, Sound, Sight, Touch, Beyond all of it is you the awareness, Knowing and being are your two essential nature, Knowing and being. This knowing is effortless knowing and this being is also effortless being. There is no effort needed for you awareness to be and to know. See that clearly, Know yourself clearly, Feel yourself clearly, Abide in yourself fearlessly and the awareness that you are abiding in right now is the awareness that is shared. Deep down it is the same awareness with which I experience, With which Holi, Jignesh, Tara experience. There is no boundary, You will never find a boundary in awareness, If there was a boundary between your awareness and my awareness, We will find them. In our experience our own awareness is infinite, Go anywhere, In your experience go to Mars, Sit like this and that experience is also in awareness. Go to the most distant galaxy, Sit and analyze your experience, It is still in awareness. So deep down let go of any sense of separation, Sense of distance with all your experiences, With all of us who are sitting in this meditation exploring the sense of reality are one, Having the same experience of awareness all at once. When you experience this sense of reality, This direct understanding of reality, There is no distance, See it clearly, Feel it clearly, Smile and allow the reality to flourish. In other words smile and let go of the thoughts and doubts, Let go of the tendency to analyze and sit in a direct experience of your own awareness, Having this experience. And remember the experience is appearing in awareness, Awareness knows the experience. As I sit in this oneness, As we sit in this oneness, See that the efforts disintegrate, See the efforts are not needed, There is no option but to surrender. If your mind comes to this realization, It knows that it is now futile, Not needed and it surrenders, Surrenders to the source of its own beauty, It was never an enemy, The mind was never an enemy, The mind was constantly seeking the source of itself, Whether it knew or not. All our human activities are seeking to liberate themselves, To go back to the source, Whether we know it or not, All our strivings have only one destination, Which is to go back to the source, The source that it has come from, The source from all our activities, All of us have come from, Calls upon all the activities in the world and you will investigate deeply, You will know. So let go of any effort naturally, Abide in this oneness effortlessly and if there are thoughts, Emotions and sensations arising, See them as birds arising, Dancing in your big open sky of awareness, Allow them to dance as per the tendency, With you the awareness is sky like, Not affected, You look at those mental activities, Sense perceptions, Like a mother watching her kids, Not interested in their play, But just exploring, Knowing, Loving their play, You are not perturbed by your children, It's a sense of lovingness to all the activities that are appearing in you, After all they are also appearing from the one source that you are, There is no distance, There is no complaining, Concern, Not even a shred of unhappiness, There is no sense of lacking, Smile and know that you are included in this source, That you are this source, That we all are this source, I don't have a little bit of source and you don't have a little bit of source, When you are in a source, It is one source, The little bit of mine and little bit of yours, That sense creates the whole world, So let go of that little bit of yours and little bit of mine and see how effortlessly you also feel the unison in this source, And once you feel this unison in this source, What else there is to do? See that every fibre of your being is just wanting to surrender and sit in this oneness, Sit in this oneness, Smile and be in this oneness, You know that efforts are meaningless, You know that the boundaries are meaningless, Boundaries are like the lines drawn on the map, But there are no lines on the terrain itself, There is no little bit of you, Little bit of me, Smile and know this effortlessly, Know this deep experience of oneness, Do not necessarily come with the bells and whistles and fireworks, In most cases we seekers experience them in the quietude of our own being, The stories of bells and whistles and fireworks of knowing and awakening have been misleading us, Whereas realisation, The truth was always there quietly in the background, Supporting and having the whole world, The whole universe in itself, Every moment it did not need the fireworks to claim itself, In the same way you do not need fireworks to know yourself, I am referring to the elaborate definition of enlightenment that our culture has given us, In most of you the realisation happens directly like this, Without bells and whistles and there are no bells and whistles, Nevertheless the effect of knowing reality in all its nakedness has the benefits that will unfold slowly, Life long manner, In a way you haven't anticipated, Way you can't anticipate or know, So trust your awakening, Trust your knowing, After all it is your own intimate direct experience, Smile and know that we are all sitting in this oneness of knowing our true nature, As one awakens, Know that this knowing of truth is certainly going to guide what you call future life, Give the driving seat position to this awareness, Whether you know it or not it already has the driving seat position, This driving is not our fictitious identity of our self, The fictitious identity of our self is like a ghost sitting in a car claiming to drive the car, But it has never been on the driving seat, And I know that you know and I know that the doubt will come and the eyes will open, This is the process of awakening, Doubts will diminish on their own accord, Doubts are also a conspiracy of getting you to come home in a decisive way, Doubts are arising to liberate themselves, So that your liberation is complete, If there is a doubt welcoming see it as a sign, Right now in this oneness see all the mental activities as birds in your open sky, Smile, Sit in this oneness with all of us, All of us and a lot of time has passed without knowing, In the same way a lot of space has been without knowing, Know that beyond the space and time we were one in oneness, So continue to smile, Sit in this oneness as one, But those of you who have time limits, Who need to do something or other, They are welcome to open their eyes, Proceed to the next thing, But as you do that see and feel the lingering smell of this experience, Continuing throughout your day, Smile and abide, I'll sit here with you for a few more moments,

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Here and now, before all thoughts and all worlds, shines the simple truth “I Am.”