Taking a few minutes to focus on your physical body and check if your spine is straight and if you're holding on to any tension.
Then continue with a few rounds of mindful breathing,
Following the breath as it passes into your nostrils and then out again through your nostrils.
Feeling that gentle breeze on your upper lip without labelling,
Without judgement and just calm the mind.
And it's really beneficial when your mind is calm and focused to create an altruistic motivation for this meditation session.
Think that you're not just meditating for your own well-being but in order to develop the incredible wisdom,
The wisdom of emptiness,
Understanding what that means in order to benefit others by grasping less on the self.
Now think I,
Me.
Allow that feeling of I to develop and grow and become stronger and stronger.
Focus on that sense of I and me,
Who I am.
One way to bring up this sense of I is to generate a very strong emotion.
For example,
Bring to mind an instance in which you felt really strong aversion or jealousy or fear.
And whilst we do this,
We allow the observer part of our mind,
That part of our mind that just watches what we're doing,
Observing that sense,
That strong sense of I.
It will be subtle but don't lose it,
That observer.
How does the I appear?
Is it one with the body or completely separate from the body?
Is the I your mind or completely separate from your mind?
Often this sense of I appears to be something independent,
Separate from the mind and the body.
But can that be true?
This is our investigation.
If you were searching for the I,
Where would you find it in your head?
Is it located in a particular part of your body?
So when we say my head,
Where is the I?
Do I possess my body?
Can the I exist without the body?
And as we take our investigation deeper,
Is the I the same as the mind,
That which perceives and thinks and experiences,
Both perceptually through the five senses and conceptually through thinking,
Through the mental consciousness?
Is the I the same as the whole mind,
As every moment of the mind?
If the I is the mind,
Which moment of the mind is it?
Which part of the mind?
So why do we say my mind?
The appearance of the I as something completely independent of the mind and body is a complete illusion,
Isn't it?
What we would call a false appearance.
And this appearance gives rise to all our delusions,
Our negative states of mind,
Because we are grasping onto a sense of the I that doesn't actually exist.
This is actually the root of all our problems.
So conventionally,
I do exist.
I'm here,
Flesh and blood,
With a name,
A body,
A brain,
A mind.
But,
If I investigate,
There is actually nothing solid and self-existent.
It's dependent on many parts.
The I is completely empty of independent existence or inherent existence.
It's a mere imputation,
A mere label that depends on the base of the body and mind.
So think about this really strongly.
Does this make sense?
And if it does,
Contemplate this very strongly.
Feel it.
Allow all your thinking processes to stop and merely focus on your understanding so that it can penetrate into the deeper levels of your mind.
Generate a really powerful feeling of happiness,
Because you have not eliminated yourself.
You have found a sense of self that is open to change and growth and development and is not dependent on body or brain.
It gives us an incredible sense of freedom to let go of a solid,
Self-existent I that never existed in the first place.
And then you can end your meditation.
