Essence Of Meditation

In this talk and guided practice, we review the essence of meditative practice. The outer world draws the mind, while the inner world is the realm of the soul. As we concentrate, we calm the fluctuations of the mind and soften into our true nature. The essence of meditation is a movement of consciousness towards the inner world; paradoxically, this allows us to experience the outer world more completely as it is.

This is a 20-minute talk followed by 25 minutes of guided meditation.

Transcript

Often in these classes,

I'll focus on a particular topic,

Such as self-compassion or forgiveness.

And it's important to keep in mind that all of these are different facets of the underlying natural state.

For today,

I'd like to go back to the beginning and talk again about the essence of meditation.

It's good to have in our awareness both,

Kind of the essence of meditative practice,

And then all the different facets of how that manifests,

Such as self-compassion or forgiveness,

In our daily lives.

It's one of the core challenges of being human,

Is maintaining awareness of both unity and duality simultaneously.

In this practice of being human,

It's of the utmost importance that we continually come back to ourselves,

To check into our internal state,

To find that place of peace and stillness and silence within.

In my experience,

The essence of meditation is the movement towards the inner world.

Being individuated beings,

Immersed in the seeming world of duality,

It's very easy for our minds to get caught by things occurring in the outer world.

The outer world draws the mind,

And the mind can become attached to that which is occurring,

And believe it to be fixed and concrete and solid.

But often,

Those are filters of the mind that project judgments and desires and aversions onto all that we experience.

I think this is perhaps more difficult in contemporary times because of how connected we are to the entire world,

Through the internet,

Through the news.

It's very easy to be inundated by information of what is occurring out there,

And to feel this compulsion that there's something we must do.

But to my knowledge,

And in my experience,

The one imperative that we have as human beings to live a meaningful and fulfilling life and to be of benefit to others in the world,

Is to continually return to the inner world and find that space of stillness within.

And ironically,

As we return to that inner place of stillness,

Of quiet,

We actually have a much greater power to affect not only our experience,

But what we bring forth into the world to share with the world,

And thus to impact the world without even trying.

Moving towards the inner world,

Paradoxically,

Allows us a greater ability to experience the outer world as it is in each moment,

Without judgment,

Without wanting it to be different,

Simply immersing in the experience of being.

And in so doing,

That allows our natural state of love,

Compassion,

And wisdom to shine forth from us.

There are many ways to cultivate this grounding in the inner world,

In the inner stillness.

Pretty much all of them rely on calming the fluctuations of our mind,

Of our consciousness,

Finding that stillness,

Because the mind has a purpose.

It is the go-between between the unity that we all have access to within,

Where we are connected to everyone and everything around us,

And then acting as an individuated being immersed in the realm of duality of self and other.

But the mind acts most efficiently when it is the servant of the soul,

Not when it is in charge,

Because the mind will always be drawn by duality until we learn to cultivate discipline and find that point of focus and concentration within.

And for me,

That is the essence of meditative practice,

To still the mind,

To find that place of stillness within that we can ground within it and be fully experientially present to ourselves and our experiences and to the world as a whole.

I'd like to share with you a mantra that a dear friend of mine who passed away a number of years ago used to use on a regular basis as a way of creating that internal focus and awareness and focusing on the beauty that is always present within life.

Sometimes he would do periods of 24 hours of silence,

And he would wear a sign around his neck saying that he was doing 24 hours of silence so that he would go about in the world and he would still interact but without speaking.

And taking time for periods of outer silence is one way of cultivating the inner silence,

And often when he would engage in this practice,

He would be repeating the mantra internally over and over throughout the day,

Because while we're moving towards the silence and the stillness,

Often we first have to have a point of focus to intentionally focus the mind on something,

And that will bring stillness within.

So the mantra that he would use was,

I am a being of pure love and compassion,

Of peace at its highest level and in awe of all creation.

I shall do nothing without respect and love consideration.

I shall find beauty and love in all that I encounter.

I will choose to live in a creation of bliss,

Eternal energy flowing freely and unbiasedly,

In humble recognition of the interconnectedness of all things.

I am.

I've always found that to be a beautiful mantra.

It's poetic,

And it inspires us to recall the beauty that we always have within and without.

Meditative practice helps us to return to that natural state within us,

Where we experientially feel and know that we are all connected,

That there is no separation,

That all experience or belief of separation is actually an illusion from the mind.

The mind,

Until it is trained,

Will always be pulled by fluctuations,

Thinking about the past,

Thinking about the future,

Having judgments about everything that is occurring.

And those fluctuations of the mind,

If we are not aware of them,

Lead to a lot of reactivity,

Of fear,

Of anger,

Of worry,

Of a sense of internal urgency that we must act.

But when we act from that place of reactivity,

It's usually based in fear,

And it's an attempt to try to control what's occurring in the outer world.

Rarely does that bring about that which we truly desire.

The fluctuations of the mind keep us from being experientially present with our experiences,

Both inner and outer,

As we calm the fluctuations of the mind and cultivate focus and concentration,

It actually allows us to experience ourselves as we are,

And the world as it is,

In all of its complexity,

In all of our complexity,

Because living a human life is a complex experience.

We have so many different aspects to our lived experience,

Thoughts and emotions,

Physical sensations within the body,

Relationship,

Our professional lives,

Our social lives.

And because we are complex,

Multidimensional beings,

Those aspects are not always in harmony with each other,

And that's perfectly okay.

We can find the sense of inner harmony through creating space for all that we experience and allowing it to be as it is.

And as we do so,

The mind,

The soul,

And the body will naturally gravitate towards healing,

Towards a state of integration and wholeness,

And we'll find that we have greater integrity across all the different aspects of our lived experience.

So initially,

The meditative practices are intended to create that focus and concentration that leads to single-pointed awareness.

It's almost like a form of laser focus,

Where anything that we direct our awareness to,

We are fully present with that.

This often occurs for us by accident,

When we have an experience that so fully draws our awareness,

That we become completely immersed in it.

You know,

It happens when we fall in love,

Or when you have one of those incredible meals that you take a bite and you just pause and close your eyes,

And you're so fully present with the flavors.

And this is something that we can intentionally cultivate,

Such that more and more moments are like that,

Where we are just so fully immersed in what is occurring that the mind is quieted and focused.

With meditative practice,

After we cultivate the single-pointed awareness,

Then we can open to experiencing ourselves and reality as they are,

Being immersed in experiential awareness of the present moment as it occurs within and without.

And it's from this state,

Which is considered the natural state in Buddhist and Taoist and yogic practice,

It's from this state that all of those incredible qualities of compassion,

Love,

And wisdom naturally pour forth.

And it doesn't mean that the outer world inherently changes,

But our perspective and our relationship to it does.

In some traditions,

They'll use the analogy of the ocean.

And for many of us,

Until we learn to calm the mind,

It's like being on the surface of the ocean,

And there's all the waves and the storms and the tumultuousness that occurs.

And as we cultivate that single-pointed awareness and connect to that still place within,

It's like sinking down into the depths of the ocean.

The tumultuousness at the surface is still there,

And yet we experience it from this deep place of stillness within,

And we are not caught by it.

We're able to observe it,

Be present to it,

And respond to it from a place of stillness instead of being buffeted about by the waves and the storms at the surface.

To move towards this state requires intention.

We have to use our willpower and intention to create discipline of the mind,

And then to use that discipline to surrender,

To surrender the control or the illusion of control of the outer world and of our experience,

And to surrender to that place of stillness within.

It also takes great self-compassion because living a human life,

We all experience traumas and difficulties and challenges,

And it's easy to start to believe,

To create an inner story,

That those are simply part of who we are at our essence instead of something that we've experienced.

And with those traumas and difficulties,

The heartbreaks,

The betrayals,

The pains that we experience,

We can have a lot of self-doubt,

Self-judgment,

Fear,

Guilt,

And shame.

And so we must have self-compassion to make space for those feelings,

But to not let them define us,

To not let them become our sense of self-identity,

To realize that they are not who we are.

They are part of our experience in being human,

And if we allow them to,

They can be teachers that allow us to grow,

To learn,

And to develop more fully into ourselves and who we are meant to be.

It's the pain and suffering of life that can teach us,

That can help remove the clouds of ignorance,

Tear open the heart,

And let the light that is our true being shine forth.

You know,

The mystics of all traditions have shared the understanding that the mind is one of our most powerful tools,

And that it's the mind that plays a significant part in framing our experience of ourselves and of reality,

And that whatever we hold in our consciousness will grow,

Because it's that which we hold in our consciousness that channels our intention.

And so as we purify our intention by focusing the mind and gravitating towards that stillness within,

It allows that beauty that is within us to come forth,

To grow within our experience,

And to be shared,

Poured out from us like a fountain,

To all of those that we encounter and interact with.

When we cultivate a deep sense of peacefulness within,

Through allowing space for the complexity of ourselves,

We naturally become more peaceful in the interactions with all of those around us,

And allow space for the complexity of others in the world to be as they are.

You know,

One of my yoga teachers is fond of saying that practice and all is coming.

That is our work in the world.

That is the work of meditative practice,

Is to calm and focus the mind,

Find that place of stillness within,

And from there everything will arise as it needs to,

And we begin to enter the flow of life,

Becoming more experientially present,

Witnessing the beauty that is always already right here in this moment.

So let us practice.

If you will,

Please find a comfortable and stable posture.

You can be lying down or sitting.

However you are,

Check to make sure that you have stability beneath you,

Supporting your body,

And holding you up so that you can let go of any unnecessary tension holding or guarding.

If you are sitting,

Make sure that your knees are below your hips,

So that the fronts of the hips stay open,

And energy can circulate freely.

Allow your torso and spine to rise with the natural curves up towards heaven.

Make sure that your shoulders are relaxed back and down,

That your head is situated over your shoulders and torso and spine.

Once you have found your posture,

Gently scan your body and try to release any unnecessary tension.

Become aware of your breath,

Observing the natural flow of the breath as it moves in and out.

Notice if it is long or short,

Rough or smooth,

And simply allow it to be as it is.

Use the breath and the awareness of your body as a grounding point for the mind.

If the mind starts to wander,

Gently guide it back to focus on the breath and the awareness of the body.

Combining awareness of the breath and the body,

Begin abdominal breathing with every inhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently expand,

And with every exhalation,

Allowing the abdomen to gently contract,

Allowing the chest and shoulders to remain relaxed and still.

It doesn't have to be a very deep breath,

Just whatever is comfortable and accessible in this moment.

And with every exhalation,

Allow your consciousness to sink more deeply into your physical body.

Allow your mind to become even more interested in the movement of the breath,

Following it ever more closely.

Continuing with abdominal breathing,

Begin to focus your awareness in the energetic center in the lower abdomen,

Two to three inches below the umbilicus,

And centered between the front of the lower abdomen and the spine.

In Taoism,

This is the lower dantian,

And in yogic practice,

The second chakra.

Focus your awareness in this physical space within the lower abdomen.

Observe any sensations,

Whether it's a fullness,

Tension,

A warmth,

A sense of emptiness,

And allow your consciousness to become more interested,

To look more closely,

And to experience what is occurring in this physical space within the body.

If you catch the mind wandering,

Gently guide it back to focus in the lower abdomen.

With every breath,

Continue to release any unnecessary tension throughout the body.

Allow your awareness to soften into the lower abdomen.

Become aware of the stillness that is present.

Beneath all sensation in the lower abdomen,

Soften into the stillness.

As you soften into the stillness,

You may become aware of a sense of light within the stillness.

If so,

Soften and allow the light to open,

Filling the lower abdomen.

From there,

Beginning to expand throughout your body,

Down through the hips,

Legs,

Down to the bottoms of the feet,

And expanding up through the torso,

The chest,

Out the shoulders,

Through the arms,

Down to the hands,

And up through the neck to the head.

Feeling your whole body as light and stillness.

Relaxing and softening into the stillness,

Into the light.

Relaxing and softening into the stillness.

Being fully present with this awareness of your inner body,

Your inner world.

Relaxing and softening into the stillness.

Feel the stillness deep within.

The water's always there,

Like the depths of the ocean.

Allow your breath to become deeper.

Become aware of the felt sense of your physical body as a whole.

Notice the stability beneath you,

Supporting you,

Holding you up,

And the air around you in which you are immersed like a fish in water.

And when you are ready,

Maintain an awareness of the stillness within as you gently and slowly begin to open your eyes and take in the world around you,

Letting it wash over you and through you as you simply observe from this place of stillness within.

With meditative practice,

We can gain a grounding and stability in this inner stillness to live within the depths of our being at peace,

Even while experiencing everything that is happening around us.

As we do so,

Our potential,

Our power to bring forth the beauty within us and around us will grow.

All it takes is our intention and discipline and practice to keep coming back to this state that we always have access to.

Throughout the day today,

If you notice your mind getting caught by thoughts in the outer world,

Have the intention to notice and to gently guide your awareness back to the breath,

Guide your awareness to the space of your lower abdomen,

Into the bottoms of your feet,

And come back to this place of stillness within.

Thank you all for joining me today.

Reviews

I am so grateful for the peace I find in your teachings every morning..
Thank you

Gift 🙏🏼

Love your teachings. I keep coming back to them as a place of solace. Thank you for sharing your wisdom 🙏🏻💫

Bit of ‘inner cacophony’ today... Thanks, Thomas, for bringing me back to center. (A few times.) ;) Blessings.🙏

Love these talks Thomas.
How often will/do you put out a new talks.?

Deep stillness within during this meditation. Thank you Thomas. ☀️

Thankyou Thomas. Always wonderful lessons with you.🙏 Your insight...!👌👌And it’s in the voice as well..I really listen and follow...And if I drift off...gently pull back..😌Namaste..🙏

A very deep practice and a meaningful talk and reflection. Thank you 🙏🏼