Meditation and the Cultivation of the Witness Perspective During meditation,
We are cultivating higher states of consciousness simply by practicing the process of meditation.
Meditation is a journey from activity into silence.
It is a technique that allows you to settle into quieter and quieter levels of awareness until you experience the pure silence within.
You restore the memory of who you really are,
Which is pure love,
Unbounded bliss,
And infinite possibilities.
As we cultivate the witness perspective,
We experience four main things during meditation.
We remember the hook or the guide,
The instructions of the teacher.
We have thoughts,
We fall asleep,
Or we slip into the gap,
The gap in between thoughts,
The gap where there is pure,
Quiet awareness,
Only awareness.
No experience of the body,
No experience of thought,
No images or emotions,
Simply pure awareness.
And it is the cycle between those four distinct markers during your meditation that cultivates the witness perspective,
The witness perspective that will be with you when you come out of meditation.
The witness perspective is the non-self,
The objective,
Relative life that you experience.
Also,
The full self,
The true self,
The deeper self,
The inner quiet,
That inner quiet that you have accessed during meditation begins to come out,
Outside of meditation.
It is noticeable,
This different perspective,
This perspective that is not caught up in the relative experiences of outer life,
This witness perspective that is absolute,
Unchanging,
Unbounded,
And just is.
So let's practice and meditate together and cultivate our witness perspective.
Find a comfortable seat,
Wherever you are,
Be comfortable as we move into meditation together.
You can be sitting in a chair,
Sitting on the floor.
If you're tired,
You can be laying in bed,
But that's not ideal,
As you most likely may fall asleep or drift off.
But if you're tired,
And that's where you can get today is to lay in bed and be aware,
Then let that be where you practice today.
Wherever you are,
Allow the body to just begin to relax and sink into its own weight,
Feeling the support of whatever you're sitting or laying upon below you,
Feeling the heaviness of your body being supported.
Let's begin with Durga Pranayama,
Meaning full or complete breath.
It is a three part breath.
This breath increases the full capacity of your lungs.
This breath brings in seven times more oxygen than normal breath.
Let's hold this together.
I'll mind the time and walk us through it.
Relaxing the belly.
Begin to observe your normal breath,
Your normal rhythm.
And then on your next inhale,
Draw the breath into the belly first.
So feel your belly expand out.
Push your belly out as you inhale,
Draw the breath up into your diaphragm.
And finally,
Feel the inhale in your lungs.
And then you can use that as you exhale,
Contracting the lungs,
The diaphragm,
And the belly to complete the exhale.
Continue that breath.
Imagine you are filling a glass of water.
As you inhale,
You bring water into the glass.
And then watching the glass of water fill as you bring the air up from the belly,
Into the diaphragm,
And into the lungs.
And then the glass of water empties as the air leaves the lungs,
Leaves the diaphragm,
And leaves the belly.
Continue here on your own for a couple of minutes.
Okay.
Release your attention on your breath.
Slowly move your awareness to your sense of sound.
Pick up any sounds in the room.
Follow the sound from its point to the point that the vibration of that sound makes contact with your ears,
Your eardrum.
Just hold your attention on the sense of sound.
And now move to the sense of sight with eyes closed or eyes looking down.
It's almost as if the backs of the eyelids are a movie screen.
And let your sense of sight just rise to meet your awareness.
Nice and easy,
No plans,
Just let any image or light,
Or maybe you see pinpricks of light,
Waves of color,
Or simply no sight,
No image,
The experience of no sight.
And now take your sense away from sight and to smell.
As you inhale,
Bring your awareness to any hints of smell,
Any notes of smell.
They may be in your room or in the environment that you're in.
They can be smells coming from you,
Your clothing.
Release your sense of smell.
And move your awareness to the sense of taste.
Picking up any notes of flavor on your tongue,
In your mouth,
Or maybe it's simply the absence of any tastes on the tongue.
Leaving the sense of taste,
Moving to touch,
Feeling your clothing touch your skin,
Your body touching your chair or your cushion,
Air circulating in the room,
Touching your skin.
Releasing your sense of touch.
We'll move to the four questions we'll take into our quiet meditation.
First question,
Who am I?
Just let the answer come naturally.
What do I want?
Don't overthink it.
Just let something come into your awareness.
What is my purpose?
It can be your purpose in this moment or in this life.
What am I grateful for?
Big or small,
Whatever pops into your mind.
Bring into your awareness now,
Yourself,
And begin to say quietly,
I am your first and last name.
And now release that and say,
I am just your first name.
Repeat that over and over.
And now drop your first name and simply repeat.
I am.
Moving from I am.
Introduce the mantra.
Aham.
Aham.
Aham.
Using the mantra as your vehicle for your meditation.
As thoughts,
Images,
Emotions rise.
When you notice you've gone with those mental activities.
Just as easy as the next thought.
Come back to the mantra.
Aham.
Aham.
Aham.
Aham.
If you experience a thought,
Ask the question,
Who is the one experiencing this thought?
Who is the one having this feeling?
Who is the one having this feeling?
Who is the one having this feeling?
Who is the one having this feeling?
Who is the one having this feeling?
Release the mantra.
Sit quietly.
Becoming aware of your natural breathing rhythm,
Aware of your body.
Gently and softly move the body.
Slowly begin to open the eyes.
Just open them a little bit.
Just enough to see a little bit of light.
Then go ahead and close the eyes.
Let's do that one more time.
Just barely opening the eyes and close the eyes.
And when you're ready,
Go ahead and open the eyes.
If you want to give yourself a big stretch,
Bringing the arms up overhead,
Take your gaze up,
Big inhale and exhale,
Bringing the arms back down.
Cultivating the witness perspective is inclusive of having thoughts when we meditate.
Moving from the hook,
Which can be your teacher's instruction,
In today's case,
A mantra or following along in a guided meditation.
Thoughts will begin to creep in.
You may fall asleep and you may have that moment of clearness,
Of awareness,
Of only awareness as the cycle through these experiences that not only deepen your meditation practice,
But cultivate the witness perspective that you will begin to experience.
You will begin to have your own direct experience of during your waking state,
Noticing that quiet self that is present with you in your state of activity.
Namaste.
