Along a personal Spiritual Path,
the self-inquiry of one’s ‘True Nature’ must be contemplated.
If there is some part of ‘us’ that is eternal, or at least
goes on somehow after this life… just what would that be…?
Consider that whoever “we” think ‘we’ are
can be deduced by negating the obvious,
in Buddhism it’s called ‘neti-neti’ not this, not that…
so,
“we” are not our bodies, they die and decompose.
‘We’ are not our brains, that’s just part of the body.
‘we’ are not our ‘mind’ or thoughts, just more ‘brain stuff’.
We often take ourselves to be our egos and our preferences, likes & dislikes…
~ ~ ~
Far too often when life has a way of throwing too many obstacles our way,
we may begin to identify with those unfortunate circumstances.
We will mistake our True Being as the pain and suffering we seem to endure
seemingly far more than our share.
This becomes a distraction to finding peace and a major hinderance
to achieving spiritual insights.
Embracing a Spiritual Path with an earnest strive to deepen one’s meditation practices
will go along way to liberating much of the unnecessary pain and suffering
that it inherent in life.
Finding the volition to actively change the dead end road you may be on
towards a Path of Liberation is the best choice one can make for themselves.
~~~
Transcending the ego and our psychological baggage is key
to attaining a balanced psychological outlook
and imperative in deepening one’s Spiritual Practice.
We could consider ourselves to be our conscience…
however
the ‘non-dual unified conscience’ spiritual traditions
point out a deeper perspective…
And that leads to boundless awareness.
And…
the to the question of ‘who’ is aware?
and where is the ‘part’ of “us” physically located… that is aware?
Read on for those Insights.
As you experience all the sense organs in present moment awareness…
Become aware… of being aware.
It can be noticed that beyond our ego and our projection of
who we think we are,
lies just pure awareness.
Notice that the only constant in our normal states of conscious of
Waking, sleeping and dreaming…
is awareness.
We can train our brain to point it’s attention to wherever we choose.
Attention is something we control, and with it,
our sense organs can report back what it experiences.
Attention brings the brain to focus on the subject we are interested in.
Along with the sense organs reporting to the brain, the brain always adds it’s
filters, biases and past experiences to color what our attention is focused on.
Awareness does non of that. It is simple …. ‘Aware’.
The goal of advanced meditation is to remove the conventional thinking brain
that ‘we’ believe to have a separate ‘self’ that is in control.
Once we dissolved the mistaken identity of having a separate ‘self’…
all that’s left is the Awareness of Boundless space.
It is the Bliss that feels like a big relief…
This “un-conditioned” happiness is our True Nature.
Consider this simile for our True Self:
Like a movie projector’s image on the screen,
No matter how real the fire looks, the screen is never affected.
This is a general idea of our True Self.
Our True Divine Eternal Self was never born, will never die…
And like the movie screen,
Is never affected by the drama that plays out in this ‘here & now’.
In Dzogchen, our True Nature is experienced as ‘Rigpa‘.
One that abides in Rigpa
experiences a Samadhi like Bliss that deepens with practice.
This is taught through the teachings of the ‘3 doors’…
The door of Stillness opens the door to inner Silence,
which combines into the Boundless Bliss of Rigpa.
~ ~ ~
Sit in a meditative posture.
Take a series of deep diaphragmatic breaths.
Allowing the breath to become slow, deep and long…
Then gradually remove the deliberate control of the breath
and allow you body to just breath on it’s own, naturally.
Simply maintain awareness of your breath.
You are now, not the ‘breather’,
but simply your natural boundless state of pure awareness.
Stay with this awareness as you notice your body becoming still.
Let this stillness take you away from all your concerns.
Once this inner stillness is deeply established, it will open a door to an inner Silence.
In this inner silence, monkey mind thoughts that normally bombard your awareness
will lose their incisiveness.
You begin to have the feeling that this inner silence is so sacred, that you can just about hear the wordless whispers of Wisdom flowing through your being.
Just let it be…
Allow the feeling of your being flow like boundless spaciousness.
This is very close to the True Nature of your Being.
On the Path to Enlightenment…
Don’t be concerned about that final destination…
Enjoy the Journey…
Allow it to unfold in each ‘ever-present moment’ of your life.
So,
onward to Boundless Bliss we go.
Please continue on to:
Becoming Like A ‘Virtuoso’ In Meditation – Part 4
