Make no effort to meditate
Make no effort to not meditate
Make no effort to make no effort
Being is not something
One does
Being is what
One is.
-Wu Hsin
Love, compassion and acceptance are not acts that we do, but qualities that we are. The same is true of meditation. Meditation is not an action, it is literally the cessation of all actions, it is Awareness, the sense of Being, pure and uncluttered, open to and intimate with all that is.
The natural state of awareness is to be wide open, clear and vast. Life emerges out of this Aware Field. Awareness recognizes that all that exist is simply an expression and extension of itself. From that stance, Awareness turns away from nothing and resists nothing since everything is itself. Aware Presence is intimately open and one with everything that arises. Meditation is the art of consciously dropping into and becoming that aware field. When we get lost in a thought or a sensation, then we have simply referred back to the focusing habit of the mind and the expansiveness of Awareness has been veiled rather than staying open to the totality of our experience. When we are grabbed by a thought or an ache, everything else disappears. The felt sense of being the vast open space of Awareness seems to be lost, all the sounds, all the smells and the more subtle sensations in our body are also absent from our experience. Suddenly we become this thought, this ache, and forget the expansive reality of our Being.
We seem to have lost, except for small moments here and there, the ability to be present and open to all of life, not just one small aspect of it. To make matters worse, our focused attention is often put on the very things we find disturbing in our lives such as our constant pesky thoughts, our annoying neighbor, our traumas, our disappointments, our fears, our resistance, our discomfort and our desires. Is it really all that surprising that we are unhappy, stuck, lost and blind to our way home?
All we have to do is move our eyes away from what blinds us, step back, widen our focus and see that there is so much more to us and to life than previously believed, that home is right here and now, that we've, in fact, never left, but were blinded by the object of our focus. Not unlike being blinded by the sun when we look straight at it. We don't need to look directly at the sun to see it, the sun is everywhere, reflected in everything we see. there is no need to direct our attention on one point of focus, all we need to do is relax, ease back, rest in what is and become aware of our own spaciousness and ever present awareness. We realize that the warmth and light of our own Being, just like the sun, is everywhere. We Realize that we don't need to stare at the sun to feel its warmth and see its light, we can effortlessly loosen up and discover that warmth and light is everywhere and in everything.
In this type of meditation, we learn to take a step back, and to open our senses and our heart. In this form meditation we come back to our vastness and to the qualities of our Absolute Self over and over: boundless, present, aware, open, still, welcoming, authentic, primary and unaffected. You are That!
Live fully, live joyfully, live kindly.
And of course be free! Free to be as you are in all that you are and to
Experience this moment and the next in its completeness.
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