Chapter 3

The Deep Heart

Meditation

when the meditator disappears there is meditation

the unveiling of the heart happens unconsciously or by conscious intent

  • they actually go hand-in-hand

often suffering may mean we let go of who we think we are

we can voluntarily disrobe or be forced to strip

one way or another we have to let go of our allusions, it is much easier if we cooperate

requires trust rather than control to navigate

we have both pushed and pulled towards unveiling

  • avoid suffering and to know the truth

meditative inquiry

  • what is it I really want
  • don’t go to your mind just allow the question to be just listen sense and feel
  • check for inner resonance
  • what do you imagine you will gain by acquiring the objects that you are seeking
    • I find the right partner I will feel
    • if I have children or grandchildren I will experience
    • I have good friends or belong to the right community I will feel
    • I have the right job or career I will be
    • I have enough money and own a home or have a nice car I will be
    • if I have better health I will
    • if I eat enough delicious food have great sex or travel to exotic places I will
    • if I work hard enough I will finally
    • if I’m at the right place at the right time in the future I will
    • if I discover my soul’s purpose I will
  • then ask yourself is it true that what I seek is not already here
    • the strategic mind may be stunned by this question
    • you will master life’s curriculum much easier if you follow your hearts answer

as intention clarifies attention focuses

the object never fulfills its promise

path of natural contentment rather than a part of willful renunciation

Happy for no particular reason

The conditioned mind cannot accept unconditionally

It always has an agenda even if it is well hidden

we gain our freedom by seeing through the illusion of the critic

what we resist persists

are you willing to be your experience just as it is even if it never changes

meditative inquiry

  • are you willing to accept your experience just as it is
  • think of a troubling issue
  • am I willing to accept this just as it is
  • strategic mind will answer an honest no
  • if the answer is no try asking the question this way
    • Is there something in me which already accepts this just as it is
  • remarkably the deep heart loves what is
  • it has no timetable for change and infinitely patient kind and compassionate even if you never change, it still loves you unconditionally
  • a mother’s love for its child comes closest

the direct path

  • which us what this book is about, accentuates the clear and immediate understanding of one’s true nature by directly enquiring and sensing into what we really are
  • much like a spring that has been unplugged
  • the greatest challenge in following a direct approach is remaining on intellectual level, people can think they realise something when they really haven’t and become stuck in an arrogant view while the deep heart remains dormant.

the progressive path

  • however also has its challenges will become caught up in endless seeking of improvement overlooking and postponing an inherent freedom and joy that is always available

Stephen Bodian Beyond Mindfulness is a good book to take this discussion further

Mediations

  • Focused
  • Open

Focused

  • places like attention in a particular object the breath an area of the body center of the chest or belly
  • Purpose of this focused approach is to quiet the mind to relax the body and to observe subtle changes in one’s experience

Open

  • this invitations is to simply rest in open awareness
  • at some point we realise this open boundless awareness is who we really are
  • when you become aware that your attention has wandered simply bring it back to your breath and your belly
  • simply rest and be as you are, resting in awareness as awareness and you are not trying to change anything.
  • let your thoughts feelings and sensations simply be there
  • no one trying to reach a particular state or make something happen
  • noticing all experiences come and go
  • thoughts and words images memories as well as sensations inside and outside the body, while awareness remains throughout it all
  • as we notice this unchanging background we open and relax into it
  • at some point we realise this open awareness is who we really are
  • when the meditator disappears there is meditation
  • it invites us to see that there is no one doing anything not even meditating the illusion of an apparently separate observer falls away.
  • no one is observing and nothing is being observed
  • we see that thinking is happening but no one is thinking
  • hearing and touching occur without the discrete hearer are or toucher
  • strange as it may sound to realise we are no one and to drop the fiction of separate self is a true freedom
  • fascination with states only leads to bondage and dependency
  • true meditation appears spontaneously when awareness is not being manipulated or controlled
  • in true meditation we are aware of awareness not focused on objects
  • as you rest into stillness the mind becomes free of control
  • silent abyss beyond all knowing
  • abiding in primordial awareness is to abide as primordial awareness
  • if we feel we are in it there is still a subtle duality
  • our true nature is not a state we trying to achieve but it is who we truly are regardless of our experience

 

146 comments

  1. Thank you Stephen. This was an important and helpful chapter for me. “The conditioned mind cannot accept unconditionally.” Oh my….

    And “Are you willing to accept your experience just as it is?”….. sometimes…

    My dad died three weeks ago and much of me seems to have dived deeply and tenaciously into my little self, holding firmly to human conditions. Interesting to notice.
    See you all soon.

  2. The thing I know about meditation for myself is things go smoother when I meditate regularly. Also I sleep better. I am in a triad group with the TWT training and we all commented on the fact that we were sleeping better even though our lives were still full of “stuff”. It seems that a regular space for meditation allows for digestion so that we are not waking up at 3am in the morning with a stream of worries… We have all committed to 1 hour meditation a day for the next 2 years as part of the TWT training

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