Investigating Emptiness Meditation

A no-background music guided meditation as we journey through stillness and emptiness towards knowing our true nature. We also practice patience and compassion with what is, with whatever we experience at the moment. This is for my Sangha students who would like to revisit this meditation again from our live sessions.

Transcript

I now ask to be surrounded by divine light with my team of guides,

Angels,

And ascended masters,

With the archangels and angels who can most support me now.

Surround me fully and completely with divine white light.

I ask that the white light fill and surround me completely,

Cleansing and purifying my mind,

Body,

And spirit.

Protect me,

Allowing the pure divine guidance of my guides,

Angels,

And archangels to flow through and yet block out any and all negativity,

Lower vibrational energy,

Or entities.

I ask this according to divine will for the highest and greatest good and the highest interest of all.

And so it is.

All right,

Find a comfortable position.

If you need to adjust how you're lying down,

Go right ahead.

We start the meditation by gently invoking some loving intentions for our practice.

I invite you to rest your awareness on your heart space and try to feel the meaning behind these words that I will say.

We do this practice for the benefit and welfare of all beings and all life everywhere,

Including our own.

May we know the peace of accepting the truth of reality as it is.

May we know the security of having our intentions arise from unconditional,

Boundless love.

May we know the freedom of renunciation,

Which liberates us from greed.

May we know the joy of living skillfully for the benefit and welfare of all beings and all life everywhere.

May all beings and all life everywhere be free of delusion,

Suffering,

And dissatisfaction.

May all beings and all life everywhere be loving,

Peaceful,

Compassionate,

And joyful.

I invite you to lovingly bring your attention to your physical posture.

I want you to intentionally rest comfortably for about 30 minutes.

When you are ready,

We begin the meditation by bringing a kind and loving attention to the breath.

Gently take several long,

Easeful,

Silent breaths.

If it's comfortable for you,

Breathe through the nose and deep into the abdomen.

Calmly notice where you feel the breath in your body.

You might feel your abdomen rise and fall,

The movement of the chest or the air inside and beneath your nostrils.

Gently notice what it feels like to rest quietly with your breath.

Gently check in and notice the feeling,

Tone of your experience.

Is the experience pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or just right?

If your breath becomes difficult or unpleasant,

Bring your attention to an object in the room of your choice.

Compassionately respecting and allowing whatever experience is arising and taking care of ourselves during this time.

When you notice the thoughts or feelings arise,

Remember there is nothing wrong with this and gently remind yourself they are not needed now.

Then just experiment with loving,

Lovingly returning your attention to the breath.

If you'd like,

Gently scan your awareness through the body and invite all parts of the body to relax and soften.

If you find any pain,

You might offer those areas your kindness,

Love,

And wishes for health and healing.

If during this meditation you become uncomfortable or experience pain,

You have a choice in how to respond.

You may choose to wait out the discomfort to see if it subsides or you may adjust your posture to maintain a feeling of physical ease.

If you make adjustments,

I invite you to see and explore with how mindfully,

Quietly,

And kindly you can make those movements.

Now I begin to offer suggestions in an effort to help you empty the mind.

Whether you experience an empty mind or not,

Use this time to practice relating to yourself with kindness,

Compassion,

And love.

Whether you experience an empty mind or not,

Use this time to relate to all thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Moods,

And other objects that arise in your awareness with peace,

Ease,

And a compassionate recognition that they are merely impersonal objects of your awareness.

For the duration of the meditation,

I invite you to calmly set aside all thoughts about the future,

All plans,

Worries,

And to-do items.

They are not needed for this practice.

Same with all thoughts about the past,

What you did,

What you wish you had done,

What others should have done.

None of this is needed right now.

However,

If such thoughts arise,

Calmly label them future-ing or past-ing and do not engage with them.

You can pick them up later,

But for now,

They are not needed.

Having let go of past and future,

We are left with the present.

In the present,

We find sounds,

Sensations,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Mood,

And possibly colors and shapes if we have our eyes open.

Whatever objects are being known,

Try not to identify with them.

Be aware,

But don't mistake them to be who you are.

We are our awareness.

We are not objects.

Awareness knows.

The eye knows it exists because it sees,

But the eye is not the colors and shapes that it sees.

In the same way,

Our awareness knows it exists because of what it is aware of,

But awareness is none of the object that it knows.

Be the awareness.

Know all else to be impersonal objects of awareness.

By compassionately remembering the impersonal nature of all objects,

We do not identify with or get entangled with them.

We patiently allow them to be as they are.

So let all objects of present moment awareness be as they are.

If you are ready to,

Try to also put down any self-views you have.

Set aside any roles you play.

A parent,

A sibling,

A mother,

A worker,

A boss.

For the time being,

These roles are not needed.

Gently set down the stories you tell yourself about who you are and what you are doing.

Any definition you have of yourself.

They are not important right now.

If such thoughts arise,

Then kindly label them,

Selfing,

Recognizing their impersonal nature,

And patiently leave them alone.

When you are comfortable,

I invite you to let go of all desires,

All stories of what you want,

Need,

And must have.

All stories of what you must avoid,

Dislike,

And cannot stand.

All relationships,

All attachments,

Letting go of craving and aversion.

If such thoughts arise,

Label them craving or aversion.

Recognize their impersonal nature and that these are not who you are.

Any desire and the one who desires set aside.

Be empty,

Empty,

Empty,

So there is no shape at all.

Everything that you can think,

Imagine,

Or experience,

Leave them to the side.

Everything that you have collected in memory,

Leave to the side.

You can pick it up again later.

No imagination at all,

No ideas at all for the time being.

These are not important.

Even your name and your age,

Leave it all to the side.

Just feel into the spaciousness,

Emptiness that is left.

You exist in the emptiness.

As you become empty of all these things,

Gently notice that you are still here.

Notice how even without past,

Present,

Future,

Selfing,

Craving,

Aversion,

And fixed views,

You are still here.

To be empty means to not identify with any thought or idea at all.

When you are empty,

Nothing can stick to you.

You are just a sense of space.

Still,

You know you exist.

Lovingly be with this emptiness,

This spaciousness,

This stillness,

This formlessness.

If you are not experiencing emptiness,

That is fine.

Just continue with whatever is present with as much patience,

Kindness,

And compassion as you are able.

If you need to take a break,

You are welcome to rest your awareness on your breath.

If you are experiencing emptiness,

Pay attention to this emptiness.

I am going to ask you some questions,

And I invite you to tenderly do your best to feel or intuit the answers from your direct experience.

As we take all the mental objects away,

Is something left that cannot be taken away?

In this spaciousness,

Does awareness remain?

Again,

Try and feel the experience,

The answer.

Can you remove your awareness?

You may find that even if you try to take awareness out,

It remains.

Patiently notice the truth of that in your direct experience.

What is the relationship between your awareness and this emptiness?

Again,

Don't use your mind.

Feel and use your intuition to answer,

And it's okay if no answer comes to you.

Calmly pay attention to the emptiness.

Is this emptiness an object?

Is it a mood?

Is it a feeling?

Is it information?

Does it have a boundary where it no longer exists?

Does it have a boundary where it no longer exists?

Feel it and just be with it.

Can it be sick?

Can it be depressed?

Can it ever be against you?

This emptiness,

Did you create it?

Let your direct experience and intuition answer these questions.

Does it have a beginning?

Does it have an age?

Does it have a beginning?

Does it have an age?

Was it created?

Was it born?

Can it die?

You are in touch with this now,

But has it been with you all along?

How much distance is there between you and this emptiness?

Can it be lost?

Can it fade?

Can it be hidden?

When you answer these questions,

You're answering questions about your fundamental nature.

Maybe you gained some insight into your nature of your true self during this meditation.

Or maybe you did not.

Either way,

Various wisdom teachers tell us our true self is aware,

Alive,

Uncreated,

Unborn,

And undying.

And undying.

It is the source of all form,

All energy,

All life,

And all love.

It is not separate from us,

But is always with us.

It is our deepest and truest nature.

It cannot be sick or harmed.

Just be with that for a moment.

For perhaps the first time,

Consciously,

You are becoming aware of your true self.

Forms come and go,

But the formless emptiness has always been.

Formless emptiness has always been.

Nothing can touch,

Hurt,

Or injure the empty awareness which we are.

The more aware of the formless we become,

The less we will be disturbed,

Confused,

Or upset by the constantly changing forms we interact with.

Of our mood,

Of thoughts,

Of feelings,

Of sensations.

Even the most powerful changes that take place cannot overwhelm the unchanging emptiness which underlies all form.

You don't have to try to be with the formless.

It is there already.

You only need to remember that,

And to respect that,

And be present with that when the ego is active.

Happiness,

Peace,

And love are the core of who we are.

Our ego confuses us about this.

Stillness,

Spaciousness,

Formlessness,

Emptiness reminds us of this truth.

My teacher in India,

Back in 2016,

Taught me this mantra.

Taught me this mantra.

So hum.

So hum that is.

I am not this body.

I am not this mind.

I am not the senses.

So hum.

So hum.

So hum shivo hum.

So hum shivo hum.

So hum shivo hum.

I am not this body.

I am not this mind.

I am not the senses.

Immortal self am I.

In this next few minutes,

I wish for you to bask in your own formlessness and where you find in the core of your being unconditional boundless love,

Happiness,

And peace.

Because this is your truth.

We live in the world where there are veils,

Where we seem to forget who we are.

And we think that the veils that we have are what defines us.

The limitations,

The roles and the different hats that we play,

Our past experiences,

Our memories,

Bounds us.

And so if we let them go for now,

Our hope is we can touch that glimmer of light,

Touching that part of ourselves deep down of who we truly are.

So hum.

So hum.

So hum.

So hum.

So hum.

I invite you to calmly feel whatever sensations you feel in your heart area.

Take a moment to offer yourself gratitude and respect for all that arose and your efforts to kindly,

Flexibly and skillfully be with it.

You may feel your heart space and try to feel the meaning behind the kind words that I will say as we lovingly share the merits of our practice with all people and all beings and all life everywhere.

All life everywhere.

We share any merits gained from this practice with all beings and all life everywhere.

May all beings and all life everywhere be free from suffering and misery.

May all beings and life everywhere abide in a deep and lasting peace.

May all beings and all life everywhere know the highest forms of happiness and be at ease.

May all peace,

May all beings and all life everywhere know their deepest essence to be joy,

Peace,

Compassion and unconditional boundless love.

May all beings and all life everywhere be liberated,

Fully liberated,

Permanently liberated.

Om Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.