Welcome,
Then,
To what is now Session 10 of this 21-day challenge.
We're going to continue today using or developing our practice of Calm Abiding Meditation.
But we're going to differ a little bit now because we're going to take a different object.
In general,
When we're talking about Calm Abiding,
We're talking about focusing on a particular object.
And with some qualifications,
That object can be anything.
Obviously,
We don't want to be meditating or focusing on negative objects because we're going to be increasing our negative emotions.
But anything which is either neutral or virtuous is suitable to be an object of meditation.
That can be a visualized image,
It can be the breath,
It can be our bodies,
It can be various sorts of things.
But the one we're going to focus on today is one of the most profound Calm Abiding Meditations that one can do,
Is to focus upon your own mind.
Now,
When we're doing this,
It's very important to understand that we're not focusing on the superficial level of our mind.
We're not focusing on the surface,
The way the thoughts,
The feelings,
The emotions,
The constant coming and going that goes on,
The obsessive identification,
The fabrication of our lives,
Of who we are,
What we're doing,
What we should be doing,
What we shouldn't do,
Etc.
,
Etc.
Rather,
We're trying to focus on the clear level of awareness which is below that part of our minds.
Now,
In general,
When we take the mind as our object,
There are many benefits,
There are many pluses which come about from this type of meditation.
Of course,
One of the most fundamental things is what we're doing here in meditation,
As we've already mentioned,
Is working with our minds.
So,
Of course,
If we take our mind as an actual object in meditation,
We're working directly with the object which is what we're trying to change,
What we're trying to work with.
So,
That brings us a connection which is much more deep than with other objects of meditation because we're already there with our mental state.
It also allows us to be able to connect very easily our meditation practice with our everyday life because our mind is always with us.
And,
In fact,
What is most interesting about what we're about to do is that the level of mind that we're trying to focus on,
The one which is below the thoughts,
The simple sense of awareness which has a clarity to it,
Which has a beauty,
A balance,
A health to it which the superficial level of our mind doesn't have,
That level of our mind is always with us as well in every moment of the day and night.
But the problem is we don't see it and we don't connect with it.
Why?
Because we spend most of our time in distraction.
We're distracted by work,
By friendships,
By TV,
By drink,
By food,
By experiences.
We live in constant distraction.
And many people actually thrive on this distraction.
They live for this distraction because they don't want to be there with their own mind,
With their own life.
And although that's understandable,
It's also very sad because if you go through life doing that,
Distracting yourself with meaningless activities,
Games or TV or whatever it may be,
You're missing your life because that is not your life.
Your life is there with your mind in the moment,
Being with what you're doing.
And this deeper level of our minds,
What we call the subtle level of our minds,
Is much more there all the time in the moment.
So,
How do we begin to focus on this?
Now,
There are traditions whereby our mind,
Where a great master can show you your mind by doing something and your mind is revealed to you.
Or if you do very deep meditation over a long period of time,
Quite intense meditation,
You can get to the point which is reached by many,
Many people,
Hundreds of thousands of people have reached this point whereby the mind and body separate.
This is a very well-known meditative experience.
It's not one that comes through a small amount of daily meditation.
It requires months of intense meditation,
But you can get to that experience of the mind-body separation.
And then you see the mind as a different thing from the body.
However,
For most of us who are not doing those things,
Then the best way to try and connect with this level of the mind is to use examples.
So,
The classic examples are things like a clear dawn sky,
A clear lake,
Or to think about that sense at the level of your eyes when you're meditating.
For us as humans,
I'm our principal,
For most of us our principal sense faculty is our eye sense.
So,
When we're meditating,
You've probably noticed there is a sense there at the level of your eyes.
That's another example of our mind.
Now,
These are all examples.
They're not what we're actually looking for.
They're ways of trying to get to what we're looking for.
What we're looking for is that simple sense of awareness,
That clear nature of being alive,
Of being there where you are in the room or in the place where you are,
And that feeling of just being there and being alive,
Not the thoughts and feelings.
And one of the most easiest ways to get to this level of the mind is to let go of the thoughts.
And that's what you'll be left with is this level of the mind,
This pure awareness.
And once you've managed to identify that,
Once you've got that as your object,
Then focus on that.
Now,
This is different from the previous meditation where we were doing choiceless awareness.
We're not trying to focus on the objects which come up in this meditation.
We're not trying to notice this is a sound,
This is a smell,
This is a sensation,
This is a thought,
And so forth.
We're not trying to do that.
We're trying to let those things go and stay with the clear nature of being aware.
So just like the sky,
Which is unaffected by anything which passes through it,
A plane,
A cloud,
A bird,
Whatever it may be,
The sky itself remains unaffected.
In the same way,
We're trying to let everything pass by,
Everything just go and remain with this clear sense of awareness.
Now,
There's one more thing I would like you to understand and do in this meditation,
And that is instead of having your eyes closed,
Almost closed as we have done up till now,
I would like you to have your eyes open.
Now,
There are various benefits that come from this.
The first one is that with the eyes open,
We start to be able to identify with our conscious world,
Our visual world,
And that makes it much easier,
Therefore,
To go from meditation into the rest of our life and still be coming from that good part of our minds because we were already doing it in meditation.
The second thing we should talk about more as we move along is that it begins to break down the sense of an objective world out there and a subjectivity here.
Although we are focusing on our subjective awareness,
We're not focusing,
We're learning that that subjectiveness is not as subjective as we think it is,
But in fact that subjectiveness is actually a part of everything around us.
And that if we can,
When we keep our eyes open,
It's much more easy to see that the things that we're observing,
Or what we're not intentionally observing,
The things that are there within our visual field,
Are also part of our awareness,
Are also very much connected with our awareness.
So keep your eyes open in this meditation.
That doesn't mean you focus on the things you're seeing,
Rather you maintain a sort of blurry image of what's in front of you without focusing on any particular thing.
And using that and being in that simple clear nature of being aware without focusing on anything in front of you,
Focus on your subjective awareness.
Be there with your sense of awareness.
Get an idea of it as well as you can,
As clearly as you can,
Get an idea of this level of your awareness and take that as the object of your meditation.
Good.
So your challenge for today will be to do the meditation as we're going to do now,
Ideally to do it one more time today.
If you're connecting still with the breathing meditation,
Then do that at the start of the day also.
But gradually,
If you find you're connecting to the mind one,
Then you can start to replace the breathing one with the mind.
Try to notice this level of mind during the day,
Not just in meditation,
But try and be coming from this slightly more clear,
Deeper level of the mind in other parts of your day as well,
Not just in the meditation,
Rather than being lost in the coming and going of obsessive thinking.
And so allow the calmness,
Allow the peace and the centeredness that you're finding in your meditation practice,
Allow that to pervade into your day.
And finally keep up with those moments of mindfulness and those moments of introspection during your day as well.
Good.
In the next audio,
We'll do the actual meditation.
Thank you.
