So,
If your eyes are not closed already,
Please feel free to do that and have a very relaxed posture.
Scan your body from top to bottom and allow your body the rest that it deserves during a day.
Our body as if captures micro-stress and strains and doesn't really let go of them and they show up in your experience as you meditate,
As sensations,
As contractions.
So,
This time in the beginning of meditation,
We attend to them and we with our awareness try to pacify them,
Try to relax them,
Try to acknowledge them and you do that with your smile and with your awareness.
When you smile,
You are giving your entire existence a message that I am here,
I am comfortable,
I am poised and with that when your awareness touches the part of your body that needs relaxing,
You will see that often a lot of relaxation just happens by you paying your kind benign awareness to that part of your body.
And I know that in our community a lot of people suffer from bodily pain and aches and while this doesn't wash all of the pain away,
This makes it somewhat bearable,
Somewhat accepting.
So,
With that I hope your body is now fully relaxed,
I hope there is a smile on your face and as you smile,
Please do attend to the sensations of your smile as if you are doing it first time in your life,
Genuine smile,
Genuine sensations of rest right on your face.
Your lips are softening,
Your cheeks are softening,
Your eyes and your forehead are softening,
Your entire face has softened,
Even the back of your head has softened and this softening is now percolating,
Softening your entire body.
Vipassana,
A majority of time of vipassana is spent like this with your body.
There are phases of scanning,
Living,
Staying with body,
Paying attention to the sensations of your body and it is one of the most researched meditation techniques.
It is bound to have a lot of physical benefits but also mental and spiritual benefits.
While our session today is not about vipassana,
Ultimately all meditation techniques,
All prayers reach to one destination so that destination has to be inclusive of all other pathways.
If it is not inclusive,
If it is exclusive then it is not.
Perhaps it is not able to understand its own grandness.
So in this approach,
After calming your body and mind like this,
We move on to the deeper realm of what now world calls non-duality.
The word non-duality suggests that there is no separation,
That there is only one.
Non-dual means no two.
Everything is one,
Oneness,
Including this beautiful self that you are experiencing right now.
However,
All our languages are designed to talk about the second,
The other,
The duality.
So here we use whatever words we can use to signpost,
To signpost the non-dual oneness truth.
No words will ever be the truth.
It can only signpost to the reality,
To the truth,
To that oneness.
So continue to smile and know one thing for sure,
That whatever the reality may be,
You are right in the middle of it,
Right now.
Very essential sutra,
The foundation of your seeking has to be based on this,
That whatever the reality may be,
I don't know,
The mind can't comprehend the reality.
I am in the middle of it right now.
So have the courage to recognize that and then to honor that.
What else there is to do for little mind-body to do?
If it knows this,
If it really knows this,
Surrendering like a star-struck teenager to this grandness that you are witnessing right now,
It is as simple as that.
That is why Zain doesn't make a lot of fuss.
It sees divinity in mundane,
In everyday moment,
Everyday experience.
If you attend to this simplicity,
To this divinity in which you are having this experience,
Truly there is nothing else to do,
To control,
To manage.
What have we managed so far anyway?
The biggest miracle of our existence just happened.
We just happened to be here.
What have we managed?
Any bravado,
Any sense of doership,
When you test it like a true scientist,
That it is a fictitious story we have been telling ourself.
So become completely powerless,
Completely lazy,
Passive,
Because you are in control of that,
That controls everything more beautifully than we can imagine.
We have the courage to explore,
Even for next 20 minutes,
To let go and surrender.
Surrender to the reality that has you right in the middle of it.
The reality that always had you right in the middle of it,
Like mother cocooning its baby.
So smile,
Breathe,
And prioritize the experience of this self,
The self that you are,
And the self that is right in the middle of this vast reality.
Recognizing is the word they use.
It is recognizing.
It is not cultivating,
Or creating,
Or assuming,
Or dreaming this reality.
It is recognizing,
Re-organizing,
Knowing reality as it is,
Simply as it is right now.
Really allow yourself to be completely taken over by this.
Surrender beyond the limits of your surrendering.
Allow the boundaries to dissolve.
Become the lover of this reality.
All seekers who find becomes lover.
They have no other option but to let go,
Surrender,
Surrender,
And become part of the bigger,
Or in other words,
Become the bigger.
And when you are not compartmentalized,
You are the lover itself.
You are the love itself.
Lover,
Loving,
And loved,
All three becomes one.
Remember that non-duality would eventually have no boundary or compartment left.
And while I claim this as non-dual,
Different cultures and religions at the height of it are these.
I have just used the model to help,
To help myself,
To help perhaps you.
Those words are now all fictitious,
Just some scaffolding we had used.
What's the point in the use of scaffolding while you're already on the top floor?
So continue to smile,
Continue to love this.
Love this that happened or I experienced right in the middle of your day,
Morning or evening.
Was not created,
Was always here,
Was only recognized,
Recognized.
Seating is recognizing and thoughts,
Bodily sensations,
Breath,
And all perceptions while they exist,
They are also surrendering,
Calming down in the light of this reality.
They have no other option but to become lovelike.
Your breath becomes the love,
Your stories and thoughts become the love,
And your body becomes the expression of this love,
This oneness.
They are experienced,
They are known,
But the only material exists in them,
In this knowing,
Is this reality,
Is this awareness of reality.
Oneness means everything is made of one in essential reality.
But when you view the world from the virtual reality headset that we call our mind,
Which has five senses,
It's like a virtual reality headset.
From that perspective,
When you see the reality,
It shows up in multiplicity and diversity of experiences.
Listening,
Touching,
Light,
Seeing,
Thoughts,
Body,
All come in to you,
Reporting to this awareness,
A version of reality.
Not the full version of reality,
A very microscopic version of what they could sense.
And that world outside will flood in when you open your eyes.
But this world that you are experiencing,
The world of yourself,
The world of pill-like awareness that we call reality,
Is your inward experience of this reality.
Eventually,
You will have to open your eyes and interact.
Eventually,
Different stories of our mind will be projected in this field of awareness.
And navigating your life experiences outwardly becomes a challenge,
Remains a challenge.
But not if you live the life from the perspective of this non-dual reality.
Slowly and surely,
Things will make sense.
Relationships will be touched and colored by this truth.
Material that you need for your life will present itself.
But try to live your life,
Have courage to live your life from the perspective of this non-dual reality.
Not by forcing this reality,
But by recognizing this reality that is here.
So when you will open your eyes,
Remain in touch with this being,
With this sense of self.
Touch the flower as if the whole universe is touching the flower.
See the landscape as if it is the path of you.
At this as if it is you looking at yourself.
Look at other humans and other beings as part of you.
Awareness like you.
A weekend is a good time to do this because we are not compelled to live in a fast manner.
In made of world of work life,
There is some freedom I hope you have over your weekend.
We can explore this,
We could slow down and could remain in touch with this non-dual reality.
And because it is your essential nature,
It will also help you recognize.
You are recognizing what you are.
You are not cultivating,
Creating,
Establishing,
Building,
Constructing,
None of that.
That's why it's easier once you are on the path of this non-dual reality.
The right path.
So may that happen for you today and every day.
A few more moments.
Let us sit again recognizing this one non-dual truth.
Truth we call self.
Truth we call I am.
There's so much to share and so much to talk.
An essential experience of this non-dual reality is this you yourself.
Experiencing what you are.
Please,
A few more moments.
Become that lover in love with the reality.
And allow your entire body to be affected,
Imbued by this love.
Allow each cell of your body.
Feel this.
Become this.
Know this.
From top to the soles of your feet,
Your body has become the love you experience for the reality.
Not by controlling,
Just by recognizing your body's true nature.
I would have loved to sit with you for longer today.
I feel,
I feel that what was spoken today has affected me and you.
I would have liked to sit in this oneness with you for longer.
But something outside needs me today.
But as we proceed into our weekend,
We'll come back to this truth,
This being one with the love itself.
And allow the love of reality to manifest in whatever we do.
I welcome you,
Nora and Marina.
And I hope to see you next week again.
Thank you so much for your presence,
For your love,
And your recognition.
Remember that all recognitions belong to that oneness,
To the one.
We are all connected in ways our mind can't comprehend.
Because it was not designed to comprehend the reality.
When your eyes are open and when you try to find this experience with your open eyes and the mind is active,
You may not find it.
