Enlightening In This Moment Talk + Meditation

Instead of being bombarded with gossip and confusion can we accept the challenge to set aside opinions reinforcing our identity and investigate who we really are?

Tony Samara, world-renowned spiritual teacher and author of 16 books, has been sharing deep spiritual work and energy transmission for the evolution of consciousness for over 25 years. Combining meditation, detoxing the body, a plant-based diet and a simple lifestyle, he is best known for how his work touches more deeply than words.

Transcript

So when ready,

Just preparing for the transmission.

Just making sure that you find a comfortable place where you won't be disturbed by all aspects of the world.

You'll just be able to give yourself the time to come back to this wonderful state of stillness.

A meditational attitude that allows for inner growth and a connection to wisdom.

Stillness is so very important.

I'd like to highlight stillness through the many wonderful aspects of life experiences that we have.

The teachings that are there for everyone,

No matter whether you call yourself spiritual or not.

Life experience is part of being manifest here in this world.

And so meditational attitude is not about finding enlightenment or discovering the mysteries of the universe or seeking for something that is outside of the worldly experience,

Something that is out there,

Different.

Basically when you look at spiritual experience,

You recognize that spiritual experience is the transformation of everyday life experience into something that is more than the perception of the ego.

So it is coming back in touch with something that is removed by the perception that the ego has when it is in control of our experience.

It's the sort of freedom that most of us don't really enjoy simply because the ego is so very central to our perception in this world.

So the ego,

Ego mind,

The ego personality,

The identity that is formed through ego perception very much seems to be in control of everything.

So what you like or what you think or what you feel very much is part of the I identity that the mind creates.

Even sometimes in sleep we have a certain identity that says I am the dreamer,

I am this,

I am that,

Even though it's a very different type of identity than the ego that we are used to,

It's still,

The thread of control is still there.

So there are so many aspects in the end that we can transform.

There are so many teachings out there.

Every day we are bombarded by various experiences and we really have to almost catch up with them because they happen so quickly and the ego doesn't function in such a spontaneous way.

It requires a level of thinking or a level of perception that takes time.

So it is not an immediate being state of communication,

It's rather a state of identity.

So it is,

Oh,

What am I in this situation?

Ah yes,

That's who I am,

Okay,

And that's what I think and that's what I feel.

So it requires a little bit of time.

So very often we run out of time just because we have thousands of those experiences that then create a sort of muddle or confusion that we're trying to keep up with.

And this creates,

Of course,

A lot of stress and a lot of anxiety and lack of energy just because we deplete the natural reserves of energy that come from a space of freedom and a space of spontaneous communication to whatever is going on.

And one very important aspect of communication that takes up a lot of energy,

A lot of time,

And also tends to create an energy field around itself that then recreates itself over and over again.

That is the idea that having an opinion is very important.

Of course,

All opinions are important if they're relevant,

Meaning that we have to decide if we're driving a car whether to stop at the red light or to keep driving.

We need to have a sort of situation here that creates a decision,

So we need to have an opinion,

Oh,

I can sneak through the red light,

No one will see me and it's very safe.

Or oops,

I have to break here because it's very dangerous.

We have to interact with the situation because it requires that.

But most of the time we give our opinions or want to give our opinions to situation not because of necessity,

Not because it's going to help us to keep moving forward,

But rather because our sense of identity is either challenged by not giving an opinion,

We feel,

Oh,

I don't believe in this person's opinion,

I need to say my little bit of truth here.

I don't want to just listen to that rubbish.

We have a judgment.

If we have an opinion,

Very often we have a judgment,

We either say this is wrong or we say this is right.

We agree with the person,

Yeah,

Let's support this opinion.

We very often gossip around our belief systems that then create opinions and we gossip,

Did you know that?

And that gossip sort of portrays a sort of opinion which reinforces an identity.

So we could be saying whatever we are trying to communicate to the world simply because we're insecure.

So we are gossiping about others or we have opinions that reflect badly upon others or situation around people or life experiences,

Politics,

Cultures,

Groups of people,

Social situations.

We have those opinions because they reinforce our sense of identity.

I don't like that situation.

Do you like that situation?

No,

I don't like that situation.

So then it reinforces a sort of subtle perspective of identity.

We spend a lot of energy reinforcing this notion of identity that comes through opinions.

So we basically do something that in meditational attitude takes us away from the oneness of experience,

From the freedom of creative exploration when we are in touch or at one with all aspects of consciousness that is manifest as experience here in this world.

We basically separate ourselves.

This is known as dualism.

This is the part of the mind that judges good,

Bad,

I like,

I don't like,

Nice,

Not so nice,

Mean,

Happiness,

Whatever.

Dualism means the two opposites.

So we create a situation where we have an opinion about an experience before we even have the experience.

We have an opinion about the experience that creates a belief system or an idea,

A perception or a filter that sort of changes the perception so that it fits into that opinion and then create a sort of dualistic perspective of the world,

Meaning that we are seeing the world through a judgment.

So our opinion always means that we are judgmental.

So I'm not actually saying that all opinions are judgmental because some opinions,

If you have to make a decision at say a crossing,

If there is a red light,

That is a practical opinion that one needs to have.

But there are many opinions,

You may notice yourself in situations where people are discussing,

I don't know,

Politics and you want to have your say.

It's very interesting,

You know,

And you say,

Oh no,

I don't agree with that or yeah,

That's right.

That reinforces identity.

Now I'm not saying that we need to sort of drop all opinions,

But I'm just saying that a lot of our perception of life is created through these opinions that then creates a separation to those who differ in their opinions or to those people or groups of people or cultures that somehow don't fit into the identity that we at this moment choose as the most relevant.

And that also confuses the mind,

Confuses the mind because if you have an opinion,

As you know,

There will be judgment of some sorts.

And if we have judgment and opinion and a dualistic perspective of thinking,

Then we are separate from the experience.

So if we have an opinion about a person or we gossip about a person or we see them in a bad light or we say things that we wouldn't normally say to a person that we love,

Then we separate this space of love or this space of oneness,

This space of creative connection to life.

We separate from the experience of love,

Which is the experience that's happening in the present moment and remove ourselves into the dualistic realm of consciousness,

Which is very unconscious because it's judgmental.

And then as we remove ourselves,

We create a gap,

A separation.

And this gap creates a space within our experience.

And this space creates the possibility for this energy field to condense and create this idea that we need to have many opinions and that we need to have many aspects of our identity confirmed through opinions rather than,

Why not experiment,

Rather than just dropping those opinions and being present to this moment.

That would be a very interesting aspect of meditational attitude put into practice when meditational attitude is most needed.

That would be a very interesting practice to just actually in the midst of,

Say,

A discussion about politics or a discussion about what you like or what you don't like,

Why you're unhappy or whatever it is with people and with yourself,

To just remain still,

To not have an opinion or not to give the energy that we normally give to the dualistic mind in that moment,

To just remain still,

As the Buddha explained.

It's not about not having an opinion,

But not giving energy to an opinion.

So it's okay to have an opinion,

But not to give energy to the fact that you need an identity to reinforce the opinion that is now being communicated perhaps through a discussion or through a situation that then you need to sort of add your opinion to.

What about just being still?

It's not that you don't have an opinion,

You just observe the situation and the people and the experience that is happening without engaging in the need to identify yourself with the ego,

Meaning to reinforce,

I like this or I don't like this.

What about just being neutral?

That would be true spiritual practice rather than trying to find this sort of mystery out there,

Enlightenment or spirituality or good karma or whatever it is people seek outside of themselves.

What about coming back to this present moment and allowing this present moment to connect not to this compulsive behavior of always trying to reinforce one's identity,

But one's spiritual attitude,

Which of course is the investigation,

The communication,

The enjoyment,

The blissful celebration of this moment,

Of consciousness within this moment.

So we could just have an opinion,

But the opinion is not based in the mind or the identity that the mind perceives as being most important in that moment,

But based here in this present moment deep within the heart.

See the heart also has an opinion,

But the opinion is not dualistic.

The opinion that the heart has is that everything is perfect,

Just as it is.

That's an attitude,

A meditational attitude.

Now if instead of tuning into or attuning our sort of consciousness into an egoic realm,

Trying to fit our consciousness into this egoic realm where our mind says,

I am this,

We just experience what the I truly is by coming back to a heartfelt connection,

To a present moment celebration from this heartfelt connection,

Then it's not that you have to be sort of perfect in your personality or your identity that is being created through your personality.

You are just being yourself and that is in itself perfect.

This is what consciousness means.

Not trying to be something,

Not trying to identify with something,

Whether that something be the dualism that is created through saying that I am this or I am that,

Or whether it be just this egoic game that the mind plays within this dualism that then judges anything that is not like itself as negative or as bad,

Or whether it be the subtle nature of seeking to identify with something that is better,

Seeking to identify with spirituality rather than being spiritual,

Seeking to identify with the search towards enlightenment rather than enlightening your experience in this moment so that the egoic realm doesn't pull you into this judgmental attitude of good and bad,

Recognizing that everything is perfect right now,

Right here,

In this moment,

Recognizing the perfection that is within the space beyond this need,

This compulsive need very often to identify with something.

So you don't need to put so much energy into this search that the mind says,

Who am I?

What is me?

Am I this?

Am I that?

Do I need this?

Do I need that?

You just come back to accepting things as they are.

Now that doesn't mean that when you come back to acceptance that everything transforms and becomes easier and that the ego is not present within your communication to manifestation.

Of course the ego is present,

But what you're tuning into is the heartfelt connection to the world.

There is a state of bliss and grace that allows you to feel gratitude,

That allows you to feel even the qualities of spiritual well-being,

The qualities of say,

Forgiveness if someone is out there and say they drive in front of you and irritate you a little bit because or they drive and it's a red light and you say,

Oh what a silly person,

How dangerous is that?

It's not that you don't have an opinion,

But you have a sort of attitude of compassion towards the situation that transforms everything so that you're receptive to the true nature of reality as it happens,

Rather than your perceptive,

Egoic,

Dualistic perspective that then filters the information so that it fits into its identity.

Now I know this to be complex and of course every situation wants a different understanding,

But here in this wisdom that you can apply right now into your lives,

Perhaps today and in the next few days,

Just explore in the midst of a discussion or in the midst of a situation that requires an opinion or that naturally invokes within yourself an opinion,

Just watch yourself and say,

I choose to come back to stillness.

So I won't really share my opinion with this group of people because it's not that important.

Everyone has an opinion,

So what is one person just coming back to stillness?

And observe the transformational force that you create within yourself as you choose not to feed the ego,

As you choose not to fall into that trap that so many people,

Basically almost everyone,

Falls into,

Falls into unconsciousness,

Falls into an unconscious sort of behavior pattern where the need,

The most basic need,

Identity,

Is the one that our focus and our energy goes into rather than coming back to stillness.

So it's not that you're having no opinion or no presence in the world,

You choose a presence from a state of grace,

From a state of receptivity rather than a presence from the realm of the ego,

From the identity,

I am this,

So this is my presence here in this world.

I have this opinion,

So this is my opinion here in the world.

What about learning things?

What about being so receptive that we listen rather than constantly speak?

What about just being still enough,

Not only to be receptive,

But to allow the wisdom,

The knowledge,

The universal knowledge that is within our connection to all and everything to communicate in many ways that are beyond words,

In energies,

In actions.

So being is not just saying,

I am this,

Being is being.

So being real,

Being compassionate,

Being loving,

These are qualities that from a state of stillness naturally come up to the surface,

Naturally allow you to tune into consciousness because these are the attributes of consciousness that we are at one,

We don't feel separate,

We don't experience the world as separate and this is exactly what meditation means.

So right now as you breathe in and breathe out,

Is your mind constantly seeking to reinforce its identity or are you,

Not just outside of yourself but internally,

Are you coming back to this stillness where everything just relaxes enough so that you come back into being present here and now?

Deep breath and allow yourself to just go deeper and deeper.

Allow yourself now just to breathe in and breathe out and to gently release the attachments that may pull you towards identifying with a thought or a feeling,

Usually negative.

Just coming back to stillness,

Not even seeking the positive that is the opposite of the negative that the mind may be thinking about.

Just coming back to stillness,

To the state of gratitude,

Life is incredible.

Feel this,

Experience this,

Sense this from deep within consciousness,

From the awareness that allows you to tune into consciousness.

It's incredible,

The universe,

Its infinity and the trillions,

Trillions of planets,

The constellations and the energies and the music and the sounds and the manifestations and the incredible level of consciousness that must be so immensely creative that we are just a little fragment of the reflection that is now happening within the universe where we are conscious,

Where the universe is conscious of itself through you because you are conscious in this moment as you come back to stillness,

Where the universe consciousness recognizes itself through you,

Where consciousness recognizes consciousness through you.

Now that doesn't make you bigger than anything else,

It makes you aware that you are part of something bigger than yourself.

And so it is natural to come back to selflessness,

Not being so occupied with that part of yourself that needs and desires and pulls you towards this egoic realm that is compulsive and addictive in its nature.

It is natural to let go,

To breathe in and to breathe out and to let go and just be,

To be without a thought trying to make sense of what it is that you are being.

You just,

You are yourself and the self is a reflection of consciousness.

It requires no parameters to make sense of itself.

Consciousness is reflected within you because you are conscious in this moment.

As you breathe in and breathe out,

Allow the stillness of consciousness to explore this moment in the many beautiful ways that are made possible through your emotions,

Through your thoughts,

Through your feelings,

Through your body,

Through your nervous system,

Through the energies,

The subtle energies around your body.

Just explore.

May wish to do this for a few moments in deep stillness as you breathe in and breathe out.

Thank you.

Reviews

slept like a contented baby...thank you, sooooo needed.

Wow. New way of thinking for me. I really want to put this into practice every day.

Thanks for this beautiful and relaxing meditation 🙏

Thank you for sharing this information! Helpful and will practice stillness! Namaste 🙏

Great reminder of who we are as spiritual beings.
Thank you.