Today,
An advanced form of self inquiry meditation for spiritual development and letting go.
My name is Paul Harrison.
Let us begin by assuming good posture.
You may sit or lie down,
Making sure that your body is relaxed and also grounded.
Notice the stability in your body,
That feeling of being grounded.
Now let us bring our attention to our breath.
We focus the mind on the sensation of the breath moving through the space just beneath the middle of the nose.
And we breathe deeply,
Simply observing the breath,
Letting the breath be as though we are detached.
Should thoughts or feelings enter the mind,
We simply let them come and go as we continue to breathe and to relax.
Now I want you to bring to mind one question.
You will recite this question almost like a mantra.
The question is,
What am I in this moment?
What am I in this moment?
Continue to balance your mind on your breath so you are breathing consciously and relaxing.
And while you are conscious breathing,
Ask yourself,
What am I in this moment?
What am I in this moment?
As you ask this question,
Notice how your mind brings up answers.
Your mind attempts to show you what you are in this moment.
Right now my mind is directing me to the feelings around my body.
And so my mind is saying,
In this moment I am this.
I am these feelings in my body.
And to this I simply say,
These are just sensations and nothing more.
These feelings I am observing around my body,
These are just sensations and nothing more.
And by saying this,
By labelling these sensations as we would in Vipassana,
We let go of one pleasure,
One delusion of mind,
We let go of the idea that we are these bodily sensations.
We let that go.
That is the nature of self-inquiry.
Now let us return to the breath.
Let us return to focusing the mind on the breath as we simply breathe in and out.
Just focusing the mind on our breathing and simply observing.
Now let us repeat our mantra.
What am I in this moment?
What am I in this moment?
Again,
Notice how your mind directs you to an answer to a sense of self.
And all you must do is observe the present moment reality of that sense of self.
For instance,
My mind right now is showing me the overall form of my body.
I am aware of the form of my body.
But again,
This is just a mental illusion.
It's just a idea in my mind.
And so I say to myself,
This is just an idea in my mind and nothing more.
And by saying that,
By labelling,
We let go and we move past that kilesha.
Now I would like for you to become aware of the nature of consciousness itself.
Ask yourself,
Where is the centre of my being?
Where is the centre of my being?
And observe the centre of your being.
You will notice that your conscious awareness stems,
It arises from a place of nothingness.
There is nothingness at your core.
Focus your mind on that nothingness from which your consciousness arises.
Be mindfully aware of that point of nothingness and let your mind dwell there.
This is your true self.
This nebula of silence,
This core of emptiness.
This is your true self.
It is the seed from which the plant that is your being grows.
And I invite you to spend some time simply observing this place of complete nothingness that is at your core.
For now let us return to the present moment.
And we shall do so by slowly opening our eyes to the count of five.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And five.
