10/28/2024
Awakening to the formless awareness
A guided meditation
~~~
Welcome, everyone.
Very lovely to be
and to be together
without knowing what we are
without any personal stories
about ourselves
without the past
meeting freshly!
This mysterious
experience of being
the experience of being aware.
In this moment
there is no time.
And it is in this timeless moment
that we meet each other as One.
There is a simplicity
a certain innocence
and one could say
a purity
to meeting each other
as One
as Oneself.
Knowing without knowing.
A knowingness which
does not rely on the mind
which does not rely on the past
which does not rely on memory.
Because that which is real
is not in time.
It is not a mind narrative
not a recollection.
So for the duration of this meeting,
we invite ourselves
to be this formless space of awareness
a self-recognition.
Because the light of awareness is shining.
It is shining this moment:
I know I am
and
I know I am aware.
Everything else is a coloring
of this knowingness
a coloring of this awareness.
Various thoughts appear in awareness.
It is awareness taking on
the form of a particular thought
or a bodily sensation.
It is awareness
taking on the form
of a sensation
from itself to itself.
The dance of Shiva.
Ripples on the surface of the pond.
The reality of all forms
the reality of all thoughts
all memories
all perceptions
all sensations
is this formless I/awareness.
The formless aspect
the non-phenomenal aspect
the noumenal.
Awakening to this formless reality
is nothing else but
this formless reality unveiling itself.
There is no personal doer
or a personal knower
or a personal knowingness.
Because a person is
an appearance on the screen
on the screen of consciousness.
The person appears
as images
as thoughts
memories
bodily sensations
beliefs…
They appear and disappear.
Whatever appears
disappears.
It is a time event, a mind event.
The reality of an event
is not within the event
it is the formless awareness
formless consciousness.
Like in your night dreams
you overlook that you are dreaming.
So you believe yourself
in the night dream
to be a character in the dream
a personal character.
Overlooking that you are
the dreamer of this character
and the dreamer
of all events in your dream.
You overlook that you are the dreamer of the mountains
of the hills
the rivers
the oceans.
You are, in fact
the creator and perceiver
simultaneously.
You awaken from your night dream
and in a flash
you realize that you are that which is real
and not the character
that you imagined yourself to be
in your dream.
Similarly, here in the waking state
we are not the character
which we dream ourselves to be
which we imagine or believe
ourselves to be.
And it is in this waking dream
that we are awakening
from the belief and feeling
to be a limited personal self.
Awakening that you are not a form
which you perceive
that you are not the beliefs.
You are not defined by the beliefs
that you hold about your true nature.
You are the perceiver
of those beliefs
you are the beholder
of these beliefs.
But these beliefs are so transparent
so elusive.
Except that
we hold on to them
hold on to our identity
to our beliefs about our self
our stories and narratives
about our family
our tribe
our culture
our personhood.
As we can hold on to this identity
to these beliefs
we can also let them go.
In this moment
not to be somebody
not to be a character
a historical form
not to be an object
in time and space.
Because you are the beholder
of time and space
not its subject.
You can turn your attention
inwardly
to the source.
So you can go through
the veils of identification
as if behind the veils in a way
to the formless realm of awareness
which is borderless
edgeless
free from any identity.
And in that freedom
you are nothing and everything.
Nobody and everybody.
Beyond the impression of birth and death
beyond the me-patterns
beyond the sense of limitation.
Free from any grasping.
So the light of awareness
can shine
unveiled by any beliefs.
Beliefs in personhood
free from limitations.
Consciousness
recognizing itself
directly
without a need to shine
onto any form.
Without creation.
And the freedom to create
because freedom is absolute.
What a wonder to be aware!
To perceive
to perceive a thought
to perceive the world
What is that?
What is it?
The mind thinks it knows
but it doesn't know.
It is just an object
a form
a vibration in the field.
Knowingness belongs to the field
and not to the perceived vibration
which we refer to as mind.
What is the essence
of anything you perceive?
What is its reality?
How can you answer that question?
Can you answer it with the mind?
The mind of language
the mind which is conditioned
the mind which belongs to the herd.
Can that question be answered via the past?
Can it be answered in time?
Because we are not interested
in a narrative
in a dissertation about reality.
Because the mind
is the mind of dissertations.
Do we need to go
outside ourselves
in order to
answer these questions?
No need to go to our teachers
our parents
our culture with all their beliefs.
We've already inherited
the beliefs of our culture.
Long ago.
Has it led us to causeless peace and happiness?
Or has it led us to more and more pursuits
resistance, and seeking?
And the sense of lack and fear.
It is said that
we are that which we seek.
We are the peace
the love
the freedom that we seek.
What is the meaning of these words?
Experientially
What is the hidden secret?
We are interested.
And this interest is very beautiful.
It's our interest.
My interest.
