In this moment – is there anything that could be amiss? If you thought of something, did you have to leave this perfect, quiet moment to go looking for it? Really, stop and be very honest with yourself. It’s actually super important for you to discover what the truth is for yourself. I already know the answer because I’ve done my own experiential research on the matter.
There never really has been a problem. There has only been a thought. There has never been a problem outside of you. It’s never been inside of you either. Your awareness is accustomed to paying attention to thoughts. Your mind likes to have something “to do.” If there is no problem, what then will be the purpose of the mind? It will be out of job – or so it thinks.
Believing that thoughts mean something about you, your life, your well-being is painful. From that perspective, thoughts are either for you or against you. You either like them or you don’t. They are either comforting or uncomfortable. They are, either way, attractive to the mind. Does this mean you are masochistic? No way. But the habit of your mind just may be!
Living life this way makes you susceptible to suffering. The mind’s content will continuously change. Being on the roller coaster ride of the mind is a living hell. Get off. Nothing that moves through your awareness has anything to do with you. You see, the mind thinks that it is you – but it is not. It’s a bit like a bird that sees itself in a mirror and begins to talk to itself. Luckily that old habit of identification with the mind is reversible – there is a way for you to stop talking to yourself in your head; to see into the mirror from a higher perspective. Your true nature is free, at peace and in a state of grace.
No thought has ever actually had anything to do with you, but ironically, every thought has some underlying sense of a “me.” It’s endless to try to work within the mind to change a thing in life. This is why even “positive thinking” and “affirmations” don’t always hold a sustainable result – they are still very connected to the underlying idea that you are your mind and even more painful, that you need to control it. Ugh.
One of the 4 Agreements says, “take nothing personally.” It’s not because you shouldn’t but because it is absolutely elementary to believe that anything passing through your mind and body belong to you in the first place. From one perspective – a very still, silent and clear one – you do not exist as a separate being from the Universal Flow moving through your mind and body. You conceptualize that “we are all One” and from that experience nothing that moves through could possibly have anything to do with a separate you – it just isn’t a possibility. It’s a slight, yet profound shift from a “me” having to achieve something to a resting back into the reality of what is. The same Universal Flow that is my consciousness is the energy that seems to be moving through and around me. It is part of me, yet not personal to me.
Yeah – it feels weird at first because the mind will constantly come up with infinite and clever ways to convince “you” that some part of the Universe is personal for you. In my experience, defending any part of this idea is adding to the suffering, destruction and sense of separation in our world rather than focusing upon the element of wholeness in our Universe.
You are that which is observing every thought, every breath, every moment of life lived through your mind and body. You are innocent, fascinated and curious. You are awareness itself. Your true self is not identified with thoughts, feelings or perceptions of the senses. As such, you are free. Unfortunately, this is just more highfalutin concept for the mind to feel really cool. My objective is NOT to add to that mechanism of error, but rather to set you free from it. Knowing is NOT the same thing as experiencing.
Is hearing about how chocolate tastes anywhere near like actually experiencing the taste? No. Worlds apart. One experience exists solely in the mind- in fantasy, the other giving a living experience what is. Some folks are very content to think their way through life – living only in the fantasy of a past and a future that are not at all present here and now. Some folks are far more comfortable dreaming about what could be rather than taking the risks involved with living in the perfectly wild and rich present moment – full of the unknown.
Some people are content to hear about chocolate, Paris, and internal freedom – to read about it and think about it. Some fancy themselves expert after having done so much mental research about it. This is a particularly tragic illusion as these folks have become some enmeshed in their mind that they believe their enlightening fantasies are actually the reality. Not wrong or bad, but a misplacement of attention on something but what actually is.
When attention is resting in what is there is absolutely no need to try, to achieve, to produce, to succeed, to become, to prove, to demonstrate. There is a resting – not a pretending to be calm and at peace. The experience of being deeply rooted in our true nature offers up absolute fascination with what is showing up through us. No pretense, no guise – just pure, authentic allowing of the divine to pour through. This is your birthright. Don’t settle for “knowing.” You are worth more than that.
Explore the following exercise to begin to experience a more selfless and problem-free existence:
Begin in a restful, seated position.
Bring attention to the breath – just notice that the body is breathing.
Notice that gravity is supporting and holding the body.
Notice that you are aware of the body. You are that which is aware of the body, the breath, the thoughts, the feelings, the sensations.
Begin to observe what is. Notice everything – every thought, sensation, noise, temperature in the room, the way the body feels where you are sitting.
Take the awareness wide. Notice the space in the room.
Let the awareness widen further- stretching all the way out beyond the walls of where you are, out into the city, past your continent, beyond the Earth, out into the Universe. See if you can find the edges of the Universe.
At the edge of the Universe, do the edges continue outward?
Rest here in the nothingness of awareness. Empty and full. Alive and still.
Notice that the body is breathing and that gravity is supporting the body.
Bring awareness to the back of the eyelids. Open your eyes bringing awareness back to the sense of sight. Notice the space in the room. Let the awareness stretch all the way out to the edges of the Universe again. Bring awareness to simply what is.
Let the essence of what is carry you throughout the day.
Winter Solstice Guided Meditation
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