[audio:MM-Naked-Awareness.mp3]

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

As in most all of our practices, we will be sitting or lying down in conscious wakefulness- concentrating, purposefully attending and non-judgingly observing. Once postured to meditate, it’s best to keep things simple and start with your breathing- feeling it as it moves in and out for at least a couple of minutes to settle into our being still and calm. When ready- gently expanding your awareness. In this meditation, we shall inhabit “choiceless” or “naked” awareness. Here & now there shall be no real “object” of awareness. We are simply & directly watching things unfold in our conscious awareness using our breath as an anchor to tether our direct attention to the present moment.

Again, don’t worry if your thinking mind begins to drift here and there depending on the currents and winds moving in the mind- for at some point the anchor line will become taut & bring you back. This may happen a lot early in your practice and when it does simply bring your attention directly back to the breath- and refocus it.

So moment by moment, if you care to- just allowing the field of your awareness to be so open that’s its like the sky- it’s just boundless. And this quality of awareness is actually native to the mind- the mind’s natural state. True nature is boundless- and knowing- and also spacious in the sense that it can hold anything. It doesn’t take up room by itself. It can hold thoughts or feelings, sensations in the body- and these can be either painful or not- anxiety producing or not. From the perspective of the awareness, it doesn’t really matter. It’s like a mother holding her child- and in the holding of awareness, there is comforting & acceptance- be comforting.

For now, we are simply resting in this “choiceless”, vast field of awareness that lets everything come and go naturally. Whatever arises in the present moment becomes the transient object of our knowing,  and of our attending- and best we can not being carried away by anything. Not taking things personally as we sit or lie here- being the knowing- being the spaciousness… moment by moment.

Allowing the silence itself to be infinite- and the stillness to be enduring… seeing and touching the feelings, thoughts, and sensations as they arise in our awareness- compassionately touching them in our awareness without feeding them so they simply self-liberate without really going anywhere- or without taking us down stream.

The method of no method… we are simply being aware and being awake in silent illumination of choiceless awareness- like an empty mirror reflecting whatever comes, and not clinging in our direct attention. When it comes it comes- when it goes it goes. As such, we stay in the receptive, empty, spacious, knowing quality of awareness that gives us this whole other dimensionality of being… in which to live- in which to be touched- and to touch- and in which to come to our senses- and to wake up to who we truly are…

Comments