Effortless Mindfulness Meditation

An extended guided practice from the podcast Mindfulness+ with Thomas McConkie. This guided practice focuses on practicing without effort, releasing into the underlying perfection of each moment. Rather than practice meditating, practice being meditated.

Transcript

Notice in this moment that you are aware.

Whatever you're experiencing,

Whatever you're feeling,

Seeing,

Hearing,

You're experiencing all of these things because you're aware.

If you weren't already aware,

There would be no experience.

There would be no human life to be had because you wouldn't be aware.

But as it stands,

You are aware.

And because you're aware,

You're experiencing experience in this moment.

Just take a moment to fall back into this awareness,

So to speak.

We spend so much time fixated on all of the objects in awareness,

All of the content of awareness.

We forget,

We ignore the basic fact of awareness itself.

In this pure awareness,

Irrespective of content of any objects in awareness,

It has a particular taste,

It has a particular flavor.

It's a flavor subtle enough that it can be dominated by the particulars of the experiences we have in life.

But if we pay attention,

If we just turn our attention one degree,

So to speak,

And start to attend to awareness itself,

Not the content of experience,

We start to get this taste,

A taste of utter simplicity,

Of freedom,

Of happiness.

Notice in this moment that if you bring your awareness to the body,

You'll be aware of physical sensations flowing like a river,

Falling like a waterfall.

This flow of sensation,

It never stops.

Just notice for a moment the flow of sensations through the body as the body.

Notice that if you weren't aware,

There would be no experience of a body.

So take this moment to appreciate the awareness that is aware of physical sensation.

Whatever you're doing,

You're sitting,

You're walking,

You're standing,

Lying down in a car,

Hiking a mountain,

The body is full and flowing with sensation and it's awareness that's aware of sensation.

Moment to moment to moment,

The sensation in the body shifts kaleidoscopically,

Always changing,

Never the same.

But the awareness that is aware of sensation never moves.

Here nothing ever happens.

The same is true of hearing.

In this moment you may be hearing external sound,

Like the sound of this voice,

Or sounds in the environment,

City sounds,

Rural sounds,

Sounds in nature,

The sound of trees,

Bird songs,

Traffic lights.

Or you might be hearing internally,

Like the chatter that goes on in the mind so often,

Remembering something someone said to you yesterday,

Imagining something someone may tell you tomorrow.

And whatever you're aware of,

Whatever you are aware of hearing,

You can ask,

What is it that is hearing?

What is it that hears?

When we ask this question,

The focus is no longer on the content of hearing,

It's the fact of hearing itself.

And we realize intuitively that we are hearing because we're aware,

Because we are.

Just let the soundscape flow around you,

Within you.

It changes every moment,

It's always in flux.

But awareness is not in flux.

Awareness is aware.

I feel how effortless this is.

You can't try to be more aware or less aware.

You're only aware.

Awareness is closer to us,

More effortless than breathing itself.

It's really our nature to be aware,

To be awareness.

Notice visual experience in this moment,

Whether your eyes are open,

Halfway open,

With a soft gaze,

Eyes closed,

It doesn't matter.

Notice in this moment that there will be some kind of visual experience,

Objects in the world and the environment around you,

Images in the mind's eye,

Your imagination,

Your visual memory stimulated.

Or you may just be aware of a kind of grayscale blank,

The eyes detecting dim light underneath closed eyelids.

Whatever the case,

All of this experience is in flux,

It will be changing,

Always changing,

But the awareness that is aware of seeing never changes,

Never blinks.

What is it that's aware of seeing?

Don't answer that with your mind,

Answer it in your direct awareness and experience.

When you can open up your awareness to all of seeing,

All of hearing,

All of feeling,

The entirety of your human experience and human life in this moment,

You can ask,

What is it that is experiencing experience in this moment?

Not experiences,

Experience,

But awareness.

Notice you don't have to strive for this awareness,

You don't have to try and become this awareness.

When we let go of effort,

When we stop trying,

We realize that this awareness is shining at the heart of this moment,

Of this experience,

Of every experience.

It's been called different names and different traditions,

Chitta,

Sin,

Mind,

Spirit,

Intelligence,

Awareness.

And when we relax,

When we really relax and quit trying so hard to manipulate experience around us,

Quit trying so hard to get conditions just right in the world so we can finally relax for five seconds,

When we let go of that,

We realize there's already a profound restfulness and effortlessness already available to us.

Notice how you don't have to try to be aware in this moment.

Whatever the content of your experience,

Whatever this moment in life is serving up to you,

This aware presence,

Notice that you just effortlessly experience it at this level.

And when we practice letting go,

When we practice remembering this effortlessness,

Then we can show up in life with a different quality,

Not seeking incessantly to get what we think we need to finally have a brief moment of joy,

But rather when we really relax into this ancient identity as awareness,

As spirit,

Intelligence,

Then our movements are informed by a sense of fulfillment.

We're already okay.

We're already fulfilled.

So what will we do in the world now?

How will we express this already okayness?

How will we express our fulfillment and our happiness?

Not reaching for things trying to get full,

But moving from fullness,

Overflowing into the world as this fullness.

It starts with this simple and subtle turn,

Turning away from the content of experience,

Turning awareness towards the source of experience.

Take a final moment here to just appreciate how much you don't have to try to be this,

To be aware of this voice,

To be aware of your own heart in this moment,

To be aware of the air you breathe and the world around you.

You're just aware.

It takes no effort.

Fulness effortlessness flows fullness,

Flows peace,

Flows joy.

And these qualities and more are the gift that you offer to the world when you remember who you essentially are.

Reviews

Thought provoking content. A very good talk.

beautifully presented short meditation containing much wisdom. thank you.

Thank you! I love your meditations! I listen on your podcasts too!

Very nice meditations, sir! Bookmarked⭐️

Lovely voice. Nice reminder of what awareness is.

So pleased you have put something else Thomas- your meditations are so insightful, inspiring and effortless. 🙏