Stay Nondual Guided Meditation with Michael Taft
Streamed dwell on Mar 17, 2022
Introduction
Hey you guys, welcome to tonight’s guided meditation and naturally, we’ll even have a Dharma speak and a little bit little bit of Q&A. So all of that awaits you this night. Discover I’m carrying my most colourful, enjoyable, loopy shirt, which I actually like; I hope you prefer it too. It actually issues to me whether or not you want my shirt. I’m going to consider this rather a lot tonight, primarily based in your feedback, about my shirt. Anyway, the explanation I’ve the shirt is we’re going to work with some extra of what we have been working inside a earlier week, which is equanimity with confusion or equanimity with chaos. So regardless that to me it is a sort of concord, for others they could see that is chaos. So I assumed nicely, what’s my most chaotic shirt? So that is the chaos shirt. We’re gonna work with equanimity with chaos and confusion however otherwise than regular.
Meditation
So let’s start our meditation this night by settling into our sitting posture. So what I would like you to do is take your seat and, as regular, it’s finest should you’re–let’s see, myself in place right here–in case your knees are under your hips; it will get you sitting up good and straight. Be happy to additionally lay down or arise, no matter you need. However should you’re sitting down I would like you to sit down in such a manner that your decrease again is doing that good factor that makes your backbone sit up. And since you’re doing it sort of mechanically by having your knees under your hips, it doesn’t take lots of muscle energy to maintain your again upright. So we have now our backbone good and upright in a really snug manner. And simply sort of sway forwards and backwards like a tree, like a sapling in a wet breeze, proper? Saplings actually like wet, delicate, wet breezes, so it’s simply sort of doing this: it goes ahead and again and aspect to aspect, and ultimately, the younger sapling of our backbone finds that spot that’s simply completely balanced, that feels excellent. The Goldilocks spot of your backbone the place it’s simply floating upwards with nearly no effort. It’s nearly prefer it desires to simply, on this one spot, it simply desires to movement upwards in the direction of the sky, effortlessly.
As soon as we’re in that spot then we let our, for instance, neck and shoulders and arms and arms calm down. After which we’re simply gonna keep on this posture, we’re not gonna transfer in any respect, okay? You would possibly see, in case your eyes are open, you would possibly see me transfer each occasionally however that’s simply because I’m guiding a video and so I want to manage the pc or I must take a drink as a result of I’m speaking. But when I used to be meditating solely, I’d sit utterly nonetheless for the whole meditation and that’s what I hope you are able to do is sit utterly nonetheless. Not scratching your nostril, not, you realize, shifting your posture or making an attempt to, you realize, modify your neck. However simply relatively sitting good and nonetheless and feeling that stillness, okay?
So as soon as we’re sitting in that manner then let’s set our intention, why are we meditating? What are we right here for? So I’ll simply allow you to try this for a second. It actually helps to tune into our function. Typically we neglect our function after we come to sit down down. We simply know, ‘it’s time, oh it’s time to meditate’. We sit down, we begin meditating and we are able to’t even bear in mind what we’re doing right here, you realize? And that by no means results in a superb meditation. So what I’d such as you to do once you sit down is at all times be like, ‘okay, right here’s why I’m meditating’, or ‘right here’s, you realize… I’m now meditating’, is the purpose, proper? ‘I’m doing a factor, so I’m totally right here’.
Good. After which what we’re going to do tonight is, to start with, we’re going to do one in every of my favourite standbys, one in every of my favourite metaphors for meditating; we’re going to meditate just like the sky. So simply turn into the sky. Huge, open, completely clear, shiny sky, okay?
So what’s attention-grabbing in regards to the sky and why we meditate just like the sky is that there’s no, nothing bothers the sky. There will be planes flying via it, there’s every kind of birds flying via it, there’s noises in it, there’s clouds, there’s climate, there’s rain; however none of that bothers the sky. The sky is at all times unruffled, undisturbed, utterly peaceable and huge and spacious; there’s room for all the pieces within the sky. So I would like you to sort of think about or tackle these properties of spaciousness and room and of unruffledness. And this unruffledness doesn’t imply nothing’s taking place, every kind of issues will be taking place: every kind of thoughts climate, every kind of feelings, every kind of, you realize, emotions about this or arguments in your thoughts about that, or no matter. However none of that disturbs the sky. So it’s not that the sky has to don’t have anything occurring. It’s that the sky is so huge and so clear and so open that it doesn’t matter what’s occurring, that’s okay. So let’s sit for a short while just like the sky. And similar to the wind comes and goes within the sky, as you’re being the sky right here for a couple of minutes I would like you to simply deal with the breath coming and going.
So that you’re being the sky, you’re being huge and spacious and, in contrast to the sky most likely–you realize I’m undecided if the sky is a being or not–however we’re going to say we’re positively certain that we’re beings. And so we’re going to not solely be huge and spacious however we’re conscious, we’re conscious. And in that huge, spacious consciousness we’re merely permitting the breath to come back and go. Permitting the wave of the breath which is sort of a wind rising and falling, proper? In lots of languages, the phrase for breath and the phrase for wind is strictly the identical phrase. So simply let that breath come and go within the sky of consciousness. Let’s try this now.
Simply persevering with to relaxation because the huge, open sky of consciousness with the wind of the breath rising and falling, rising and falling effortlessly in consciousness. Now if you wish to and solely do that if you wish to, you may change your breath just a bit bit. You possibly can let the breath have longer exhales if that feels snug. You have got a daily inhale after which just a bit bit longer of an exhale. And I would like you to note the top of that exhale. Don’t drive it in fact, simply wait ‘until it occurs however when it occurs simply discover that it ends. And you could discover, relying in your breath–it’s totally different for various folks at totally different instances of day–however generally they’ll even be sort of a pause there. Like, the lengthy exhale will come to an finish after which there’ll simply be a second the place it’s simply sitting there earlier than the inhale begins. It may not, it is perhaps very quick, very seamless: finish of exhale then – [straight] into the inhale. However generally you do a protracted out-breath after which it simply rests there after which the inhale will begin. So I don’t need you to govern that. I do need you to, if you wish to–you are able to do lengthy out-breaths–however simply watch for the top, watch for the top, watch for the top. After which discover when it arises, and spot if there’s a pause or not and if there’s, the size of the pause earlier than the in-breath begins once more. Now we’re simply noticing, however I would like you to be particularly conscious of that. The sky, the thoughts is taking note of how the wind of the breath is transferring.
Keep in mind that the sky is huge, the sky is open, the sky shouldn’t be bothered by something in any respect. All of the issues can come and go and the breath, the wind of the breath, comes and goes within the sky. And we’re simply permitting that naturally, already current consciousness of the sky to note the breath. The wind of the breath because it rises and falls within the huge, open sky.
Okay, good. Now persevering with to easily be the sky, be the huge, spacious, open consciousness of the sky. Let’s swap our focus from meditating on the wind of the breath transferring via the sky, and as an alternative, we wish to focus now on the wind of ideas transferring via the sky of the thoughts. So ideas are merely transferring via consciousness and we’re conscious of them. We’re not staying utterly uninvolved in the way in which that we’d if we have been doing dropping the ball. We are literally meditating on them as an object however we’re staying uninvolved when it comes to the content material. So that you’re not getting caught up in pondering, however consciousness is conscious of the pondering. The sky of consciousness feels, notices, hears the wind of thought transferring, the wind of thought whistling within the sky. And so we’re truly meditating on our pondering. And to do that we deal with verbal pondering as just a few sound, ‘blah, blah, blah, blah’, or visible pondering, if that’s arising, is just a few lights altering. So we’re taking note of it however we’re not participating, we’re not getting caught up within the content material. So the wind of ideas is transferring via the sky of consciousness and we because the sky are unperturbed by the ideas and but we’re meditating upon them. That is taking the thoughts as path: we’re meditating on the stream of thought with out altering it in any manner.
Once more, merely letting the stream of ideas, the wind of ideas transfer via with out actually participating it. And but we’re nonetheless specializing in it, we’re noticing it, we’re listening to the wind however simply not manipulating it in any respect. Not making an attempt to have good ideas, not making an attempt to have unhealthy ideas, not participating with the ideas in any respect however merely specializing in them, letting them simply–let the winds go.
Now, persevering with to permit consciousness to meditate on the movement of thought, you could discover one thing attention-grabbing. Regardless that we’re probably not getting concerned in a deep manner within the content material or following the content material or pondering on function, you realize, pondering is simply ‘occurring’. So I would like you to note that ideas are merely occurring. The wind is blowing within the sky however there doesn’t, you’re probably not making an attempt to suppose: the ideas are simply taking place. And moreover, as we sink deeper into this you will discover one thing attention-grabbing and that’s, the ideas would possibly probably not, generally, make that a lot sense. There is perhaps incomplete sentences, there is perhaps garbled ideas. Typically it doesn’t even sound just like the language English, or no matter language you usually suppose in. Typically it’d sound like a number of streams of speak. It could actually get sort of bizarre in there. And what I would like you to do is to not attempt to drive it to make any sense. Let it’s as fragmented or jumbled or garbled or muddy, when it comes to the content material of the ideas themselves, because it desires. Don’t attempt to make it into logical chains of verbal pondering; enable it to be simply as, enable it to be nonetheless it’s truly exhibiting up.
That is a part of the chaos that I used to be describing. Typically the thoughts is kind of a bit extra unfastened and open and incomplete in a manner than we’re usually used to. So simply let it current the way it’s presenting.
Good. Now persevering with to simply relaxation because the huge, open sky of consciousness. Observing, conscious of the stream of ideas as they cross. On function simply enable your self to sort of gently discover the a part of pondering that appears probably the most non-linear, damaged up, muddled, incomplete, or jumbled in a roundabout way, and simply sort of enable consciousness to note that half extra. So there’ll be components which are, you realize, talking in common sentences and guiding you and pondering. However I would like you to go in the direction of the stuff that’s probably the most jumbled. And that is simply very, very gentle; you’re not jamming gears, switching between. You’re simply very flippantly permitting consciousness to be extra conscious of the a part of thought that’s much more non-linear, non-rational, jumbled, damaged up, muddled. And I would like you to simply meditate on that. And let it’s okay that there’s part of the mindstream that’s fairly chaotic, okay? So, and perhaps you’re solely noticing that a little bit bit, or perhaps you’re not even noticing that in any respect. So simply go together with what’s there. I don’t need you to alter the content material on function. Don’t attempt to change the way you’re pondering. That is nearly–sort of like, an instance can be, or a metaphor can be; should you have been listening to a tune and I stated, “I would like you to simply hearken to the bass guitar in that tune.” The remainder of the tune goes on and also you’re not making a bass guitar occur, you’re simply selecting out that one half and listening. So let’s pick the a part of the mindstream, the a part of pondering that’s the most, let’s say chaotic, and simply be okay with that; let it’s there.
Good. Now let’s come again to simply being the sky. Permitting the stream of ideas to maneuver just like the wind via the sky and permitting consciousness to note the whole spectrum, the whole big selection of each sort of thought. Not simply extra narrowly trying on the one band however relatively all of the ideas transferring like wind within the sky. Discover that we’re not making an attempt to alter them, we’re not making an attempt to manage them. The wind will get to blow no matter manner it desires; the various winds get to blow in no matter instructions they need and the sky shouldn’t be disturbed. The sky is conscious of the pondering however it’s not concerned within the pondering and it’s not disturbed in any manner by simply permitting the ideas to movement. That is our precise thoughts, that is what it does, that’s okay. The sky of consciousness has room, greater than sufficient room, for all these ideas.
Typically it’s simply so nice to let go of all management of pondering, all analysis of pondering, all critique, all making an attempt to make ideas at all times make sense or be good, or no matter. And simply enable the practice of ideas, or the wind, the movement of the wind of thought, to simply do no matter it desires and to not intrude with that in any respect. There’s a sort of huge aid in letting go of that management and letting go of that anxious monitoring and easily to let the ideas do what they need. You might discover that ideas simply occur. There are ideas with out a thinker, proper? No person’s truly in there controlling that. It’s simply taking place and consciousness is conscious of it.
Now let’s let go of that now and easily let go fully of monitoring the movement of thought and simply come into resting because the open sky, uninvolved with something. We’re simply conscious, broad conscious, huge, spacious, completely accepting. However not even monitoring the breath, not even monitoring the thought. If you wish to you may hold that kind of wind of the breath rising and falling within the background. However for probably the most half, we’re simply sitting doing nothing.
Typically after we’re simply resting as consciousness, doing nothing, we would like it to be a sure manner, we would like it to be peaceable. However consciousness itself is at all times peaceable. We wish it to make sense or have a sample however consciousness itself doesn’t want that in any respect. It’s huge, it’s spacious, it has room for all the pieces. We wish it to not be distracted or one way or the other not be full of upsetting feelings, or no matter. However consciousness isn’t upset. Any feelings can come up and it’s nice. So no matter is occurring proper now, simply let that be okay, simply let that be okay. Enable the sky of consciousness to simply let all the pieces be what it’s, with out interfering in any manner. And but completely accepting, not ignoring or denying, accepting all the pieces, simply as it’s.
Good. Now only for the final second of the meditation right here, the final minute or so, I would like you to, on function, to ship out this peace that you simply’re feeling. Any peace in any respect that you simply’re feeling, ship it out to the entire universe. Any sense of pleasure that you simply’re feeling, ship it out to the entire universe. Any sense of loving connection and caring about others, ship it out to the universe. And simply let your open coronary heart ship out open-heartedness to each different being in the entire universe.
We nonetheless have issues, we nonetheless have difficulties, we nonetheless have interactions, we’re nonetheless human beings with human issues and but we have now goodwill. We have now friendliness, we have now openness, we have now kindness and we’re sending it out to the entire world, leaning into the sunshine, because it have been. And simply radiate that now with as a lot real kindness and real caring and real openness and even playfulness as you may.
Good, so let’s finish the meditation there.
Dharma Discuss
Permitting your self to maneuver and stretch. If you wish to do a pleasant cat stretch, letting your fingers and toes and arms and ft, or paws because it have been, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch in a manner that feels very nice. Enable your physique to maneuver in no matter manner feels good. Have a drink of water or, you realize, scotch. No matter feels good proper now, and doubtless not Scotch–good, so–but when I did have Scotch I’d have some Highland Park.
So tonight is the complete moon and in reality, as we’re recording this, let’s see Pacific Time, so about 5 and a half hours from now the moon will likely be completely full. So proper now we’re actually feeling that full moon vitality. And it’s humorous, you realize, there’s totally different moods on totally different days. Immediately has a particular full moon really feel. And one thing that I talked about with a number of totally different folks in a number of totally different conversations at this time was the truth that: it was in regards to the ‘knowledge thoughts’. We have been speaking in regards to the knowledge thoughts. It was simply humorous, I didn’t deliver this up, it got here up independently in several conversations. So perhaps this was at this time’s full moon theme, who is aware of? However we have been speaking in regards to the knowledge thoughts. And the humorous factor in regards to the knowledge thoughts, or what in Sanskrit can be referred to as prajna; in, you realize, in Buddhism or Hinduism we’d discuss prajna which implies knowledge. Nevertheless it’s higher translated because the knowledge thoughts as a result of it’s not usually what within the West we’d consider as knowledge, which is like, you realize, realizing some sensible, deep shit about easy methods to cope with stuff. That’s not precisely what is supposed by the knowledge thoughts. What is supposed by the knowledge thoughts is that the a part of your thoughts that’s linear and rational and sort of put collectively is rather like this floor of the thoughts. It’s the uppermost floor of the thoughts. It’s barely one or two p.c of your thoughts, proper? It’s a tiny half that’s logical and rational and all the pieces is smart in a sort of regular manner. And we’d name that simply the common thoughts. However just under that’s, you realize, the dreaming thoughts: the unconscious, the a part of your thoughts that’s non-linear and non-rational and speaks within the language of metaphor and is in a manner, to speak metaphorically now, in a manner is at all times dreaming. And it’s humorous as a result of within the West we don’t actually, I don’t know, we don’t like that a part of our thoughts very a lot as a result of it doesn’t make sense in that ordinary, linear, rational manner.
After all, it does make sense in dream logic. It is smart in a metaphorical, related, symbolic manner. Nevertheless it doesn’t actually work in a linear, rational manner. And so, as a result of we within the West are so targeted and provides a lot consideration to and provides a lot credence to being rational and logical and linear, we don’t actually like this different a part of our thoughts very a lot. And so, as you do extra meditation on pondering, we’re taking the thoughts as path. However even should you, there’s alternative ways we are able to meditate on pondering, one in every of them would simply be common previous vipassana on ideas, you realize? Or as we did tonight, taking the thoughts as path, and simply permitting ideas as we sort of take note of them, and different methods too. As we meditate on pondering we discover after some time, you’ll discover that you simply’ve received this predilection to remain within the a part of pondering that’s clear, that’s linear, that’s following a sequence, that’s orderly, that’s rational. However you would possibly begin noticing, perhaps even to your dismay, you would possibly begin noticing that there’s an entire lot of non-rational, non-linear thought occurring.
So, once I say that, you may not have a concrete thought of what I imply. So to make it concrete I’d say, for instance, the ideas are damaged up; the ideas are garbled just like the language, you realize, is garbled. Possibly it doesn’t even sound actually like language, it simply appears like sounds, like phonemes. Like, generally it appears like many various trains of thought directly. Typically even when the sentences are full sentences they’re like, they don’t make any sense, you realize? Regardless that these are all completely professional English sentences, they’re not, they’re, they’re like a dream. They’re saying one thing that doesn’t actually appear to imply something. So there’s all these various things occurring within the thoughts.
As I stated, it’s like a dream, okay? Or like hypnagogia or hypnopompia, it’s dreamlike, okay? And so you could discover–you may not however you most likely will discover that you’ve a desire. You don’t like that half that’s sort of dream-like. You don’t like that half since you need issues to be clear. And so what we’re doing in these, after we meditate on thought, it’s essential to let the ideas be as unclear, as non-linear, as non-rational as they need. Simply allow them to do their factor, we’re not making an attempt to manage them in any manner. And the very first thing most individuals discover is like, ‘whoa it’s, you realize, it’s a little bit bizarre, there’s all… you realize’. However after some time, should you simply let it occur, you don’t attempt to management it, don’t attempt to drive it to make sense, don’t attempt to drive it to talk in correct sentences, or no matter. After some time, you’ll discover one thing attention-grabbing taking place which is that that feels actually good for some cause. It’s an actual aid, it’s an actual load off: take a load off, it’s an actual load off. Why is that? Why does that really feel so good? It feels so good as a result of we’re not controlling the thoughts, we’re simply letting it’s itself for as soon as. Simply letting it breathe straightforward, letting it take a load off, letting it do what it desires. As an alternative of continually making an attempt to whip it into some sort of synthetic form. ‘I used to be simply letting it’s’.
However should you work with it much more on this manner, should you simply sit with it, much more, it will get even deeper. It doesn’t simply really feel good, it should begin to do a humorous factor, a very attention-grabbing factor. You’ll begin to discover that there’s artistic ideas arising. Like, you all of the sudden have a brand new thought for a mission otherwise you all of the sudden perceive easy methods to do one thing in a brand new manner otherwise you all of the sudden can have options to issues arising with out you having tried to make an answer occur. You weren’t sitting there desirous about that however an answer to some drawback in your life will simply come up. So there’s a sort of artistic problem-solving factor that simply begins to occur. Now you’re not making an attempt to make that occur. That is after we’re completely simply letting the thoughts do no matter. And it’ll simply, each occasionally, you realize, not on a regular basis however each as soon as… nicely, tremendous artistic ideas, problem-solving ideas will come up.
Now don’t cease your meditation to jot down these down, in the event that they’re necessary you’ll bear in mind it. Simply let it go and afterwards you may write it down. So there will likely be that degree of, you realize, artistic problem-solving. However then should you proceed to work with, you realize, taking the thoughts as path, meditating on pondering, letting the ideas be no matter they wish to be, it should go even deeper. And also you’ll begin to discover you might have perception into your self, like your character and why you do stuff. You’ll have perception into different folks, what they really need, what’s their deal? What’s occurring with them? That may be actually, actually – particularly when it’s about ourselves – it may be generally disagreeable. Possibly you don’t wish to see that about your self however it is going to be deep, it is going to be significant. So that you get insights like, sort of like psychological insights into your self and others. And you may’t say why essentially. It’s not like, ‘oh, I all of the sudden perceive this about myself and because of this I do know that’. Once more, it’s simply offered as a fait accompli; it’s like increase, right here’s this perception. However once you go to work with that perception it should ring true, it’ll truly work.
So we have now sort of this artistic drawback fixing after which we have now these psychological insights. After which much more deeply we have now insights in, nicely, non secular insights. Insights into the deepest questions on life: who am I? What’s the that means of life? That sort of stuff. It is also, these solutions aren’t logical, they’re not rational, they don’t make that sort of sense. They make sense on this different manner, the dream logic, this non-linear, open-minded sort of sense. And all non secular traditions, particularly mystical or meditative traditions, actually agree on this level. It’s like, that kind of dreaming thoughts, the deep thoughts or what we’re calling the knowledge thoughts speaks this different language, the language of metaphor, the language of dream. However you’re going to search out as you simply enable the thoughts to try this, these very deep, non secular insights come up each occasionally. Not simply artistic ideas like, ‘oh I discovered my screenplay’, and never simply psychological ideas that are deeper, like ‘oh I all of the sudden get this actually clear understanding, a deeper understanding of, you realize, why I try this factor generally’. However each occasionally we’ll get even these deepest sort of solutions to the questions on life.
In order that’s prajna, that’s the knowledge thoughts and to get there you must enable the thought course of. Once more, whether or not it’s visible thought, the pictures in your thoughts, or verbal ideas, the phrases in your thoughts, you must let it simply do no matter it desires. As a result of should you management it then you definately’re forcing it to be this sort of linear, rational factor, okay? So it’s tremendous necessary to grasp that we would like the thoughts to, a minimum of throughout meditation, have this sort of actual freedom, actual acceptance, actual openness. I’m not saying that you simply present up for work and begin babbling or, you realize, making non-linear statements. I’m saying, in your personal meditation you enable the thought course of to simply do no matter it’s going to do, in no matter manner it desires to do, and never management it. And also you’ll discover it has this very deep, very highly effective, and even actually, truly lovely feeling once you try this. It feels actually, very nice and it’ll have a robust impact in your life.
So, you realize, that is intimacy with our personal thoughts. That is, you realize, the other of what we usually do, which is, you realize, there’s stuff we don’t wish to take into consideration, stuff that’s too scary to come across, stuff that we don’t wish to cope with and we sort of lock it away within the basement of the thoughts and we keep up right here. However what meaning is we’re at all times listening to the monsters within the basement and we’re afraid of our personal thoughts, proper? And that’s not a pleasing state of being. We wish to be mates with our personal thoughts, we wish to be intimate, that means actually, actually know deeply our personal thoughts. And to try this we have now to love open the cage door on the basement and let the monsters in and make mates with them, make them tea and have some conversations with these monsters. And generally, particularly in the event that they’ve been in there a very long time – they’ve been locked away a very long time – at first, that is perhaps actually scary and so we solely do it, you realize, perhaps a little bit bit. However ultimately, you’ll notice that every one the monsters are simply you they usually’re your pals and you may speak to them, proper?
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