Hello,
And welcome to Methods of Contemplation.
Today's method is a non-dual meditation.
Find a comfortable seated position,
Either on a cushion or a chair,
With your back straight,
And your hands resting on your knees or in your lap.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths,
Allowing yourself to fully relax and settle completely into the present moment.
Begin to notice the sensation of your breath as it moves in and out of your body.
Gently focus your attention on the feeling of the breath moving in through your nose,
Filling your lungs,
And then flowing out again.
Now,
Shift your attention to the space of pure awareness that exists just behind your thoughts and your sensations.
This unlimited space,
With no edges and no boundaries,
Is always present,
Even when the mind is busy,
Or distracted,
Or frantic.
Rest your awareness in this space of pure awareness,
Allowing yourself to simply be,
Recognizing and knowing yourself as that space of pure awareness.
You're not trying to achieve anything,
Some exalted state of mind,
And you're not trying to change anything by trying to quiet the flow of thoughts.
All you're doing is simply noticing and resting in this ever-present,
Natural state of awareness that is always here,
Always now,
Always you.
As you continue to rest in this space of awareness,
You may begin to notice a sense of buoyancy,
A sense of spaciousness,
Peace,
Bliss even,
That arises within you.
This is a natural effect of the mind releasing control and resting in its nature.
Allow yourself to simply be with this sense of spaciousness and peace,
Without grasping for it,
Without attaching to it,
Without trying to analyze or understand it.
Now begin to expand your sense of awareness to include the world around you,
Not just of your thoughts,
Not just of your emotions,
Not just of your bodily sensations,
And not even just of the objects in your immediate vicinity.
Expand it to encompass all phenomena,
Every object,
Every movement.
As you do so,
Notice that the world and everything in it,
Everything we thought was so solid and separate before,
That all of that phenomena of life is arising within and dissolving back into that same basic space of pure awareness that you're resting in,
That you are.
And since it doesn't come from anywhere else,
Since it arises within and subsides back into pure awareness,
The world and all of its objects,
All of the people we love,
All of the people we hate,
All of the people we're indifferent to,
All the bliss and all the suffering,
It arises from and sets back into that pure universal awareness that you are.
And since it comes from awareness and goes back to awareness,
That phenomena can be nothing but that same awareness.
Allow yourself to rest as this awareness,
And in the knowing that everything in the world,
In this universe,
Is intimately interconnected,
And that there's absolutely no real separation between you and the world around you,
Even if it looks that way from the mind's perspective.
You are simply a part of the vast and interconnected web of life on one level,
And on another,
You are the womb from which existence comes forth.
