Welcome back.
Today in meditation we're going to look at thought and the absence of thought.
Often thought is seen,
Or can be seen,
As an obstruction to meditation.
The ideal state being one in which the meditator is resting in awareness without any thought forms like memory,
Desire,
Or any narratives running in the background capturing attention.
The sense of equanimity or peace that's often associated with this practice is related to the attenuation of intrusive thought.
The absence of thought leaves only our body's present moment homeostasis to be noticed,
Which isn't inherently painful unless of course there is physical pain present in the body.
But an effort made to control or eliminate thought is counterproductive.
Firstly,
Thought cannot be controlled by a muscular force,
Or a tightening,
Or a refusal to think.
And secondly,
Trying not to think is like,
As the late Alan Watts would say,
Trying to smooth the surface of a lake with the palm of your hand.
It only disturbs it all the more.
So what can be done to rest in a state that is unperturbed by intrusive thoughts?
Well,
You can begin by regarding your thoughts just like sensations in or on the body,
Or as sounds inside or outside of yourself.
These are happening all the time while even the most practiced meditator is engaged in their practice.
So how do these sensations not become an obstruction to meditation?
Well,
They do so by becoming the anchor for meditation.
As you begin to notice a sensation such as the rhythm of your breath,
You can experience also a depth of appreciation for it.
You might notice that the breath is both something that you do,
As well as something that happens to you.
And even further,
You might notice that these two categories of doing versus happening are not really accurate categories,
Because both doing and happening are appearances in consciousness.
For example,
When you sneeze,
Are you doing it or is it happening to you?
Well,
Consider then the movements of thought across the backdrop of your mind to be just like that,
A hiccup or a sneeze,
Which interrupts the flow of breath momentarily,
But then is gone.
There is no point in adopting a posture of vigilance towards the next sneeze.
It will happen again when it does,
Just as thoughts will happen when they do.
But between the arising of thought,
There is a spaciousness.
There is the absence of thought.
So meditation here is a process of subtraction,
Not addition,
Of allowing and not demanding the mind not to think.
So having said that,
Please relax back in the seat that you're in.
You may want to take a nice deep inhale and exhale or two.
And again,
We can experiment with this addition of force.
You can clench your fists.
You can make everything in the body tight voluntarily.
See how that feels.
And then just exhale and let it go.
See if you can let it go enough so that your baseline of relaxation is even lower than it normally is.
Really just resting back in the chair.
And anything we do with pointing out instructions here in the mind are really effortless.
You don't even have to worry about doing that.
As you hear my voice,
Your attention will probably be directed spontaneously.
So now take a few moments and allow whatever sounds are appearing inside or outside of the body to simply float into awareness as they do.
You can imagine the ears are soft and receptive and the act of hearing is completely natural,
Unforced.
Once you begin to notice this,
As the thoughts arise and as the sounds arise,
In the same way they have a duration and they have a dissolution.
So let's start with sound.
I'll give you a minute here,
Noticing anything you hear and the quality there.
Noticing the spaces between sounds.
You can switch the focus here to as if you're looking past an object at the landscape or at the wall behind it.
So imagine looking at an object in the foreground and having the eyes be working and focused on that foreground object.
Imagine a lamp on a table or a candle flame that's close to you.
And notice how as you do that,
In the same way that photography works,
The background is blurred as the foreground is made distinct by your focus.
That's one kind of awareness.
Allow the eyes,
Metaphorically here as well,
Allow consciousness to relax.
Allow your tight focus to relax and do a wide focus.
Imagine you're looking past the object in the foreground and allowing the landscape or the wall or the background to simply rise into focus.
This will have a tendency of course to somewhat blur the foreground object.
Notice how you still have awareness of the foreground object,
Its presence,
But your attention is not fixed to it,
In exclusion of the background.
In exactly the same way,
When a thought appears across the screen of consciousness,
Against the backdrop of consciousness,
You can choose to focus on that thought,
The word,
The image,
The story,
Or you can look through it and behind it and notice the backdrop.
The thing that's supporting the screen of consciousness,
The thing that's supporting the arising of the images,
You can call that silence or relaxation,
Receptivity.
Take one minute here.
And now turning your attention again and back to the breath,
Making the breath a little bit deeper voluntarily,
Feeling your lungs fill and empty comfortably and associating a word or a concept that you want to encourage for today along with that breath.
As if you're breathing that in,
Spaciousness maybe,
Receptivity,
Or anything you want.
Take a few moments there.
And finally you can let even that go,
The practice of the breath go,
Begin to gradually blink open the eyes.
And thanks again for listening and I'll see you in the next session.
