Meditation – Beyond personal identity
09/01/2024
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Transcript of the Meditation
Hello, everyone. Lovely to see you and to be together as this one one reality, one consciousness.
Not as separate personality, not as entities from the past, but just as presence, this effortless presence.
So if we could welcome ourself as this presence.
Meaning to simply be, without engaging the mind in the past and the future.
To allow this universal expression to express itself, whichever way it chooses to, inviting us to the peace, the causeless peace, that which is not subject to time and space, not subject to the events in the world, in the body, in the mind.
As peace, we are one. The body mind is not engaged in fear, worries, and concerns.
And as presence, there is no need to hold on to any identity, any personal definition.
So welcome your experience effortlessly without any resistance, without any effort, without any goal.
The gentle breath… whatever thoughts appear to you, all is well.
You are not what you imagine yourself to be. You are not defined by feelings and sensations.
They appear to you in the open space of awareness, which is your very being, your reality.
It is formless, invisible to the senses; this Presence, this awareness, which knows itself.
You know yourself as I, Presence, Being.
And you know yourself as aware, effortless awareness.
There is no need to add anything. Forms appear to you, thoughts, sensations, but they do not define you.
They do not refer to your reality, which is objectless, formless.
Although waves appear on the surface of the ocean, their essence is water, which is the essence of the ocean. The ocean is not defined by the waves.
Similarly, events that appear to you within the body, within the world, within the mind, they are fleeting.
There is no need to hold on to them and make a personal story. There is no need to weave a personal narrative that we hold on to.
Be empty handed. Try it out.
One could say that everything which appears to you has some definition.
The body, thoughts, the world, mountains and rivers, small ponds and large lakes, the 10 year old body, the 20 year old body, 40 year old body, everything which appears to you has some definition, some form, certain phenomenal aspects.
But you don’t. Because you are not something which you perceive.
It is that which is and knows it is.
It is that which is aware and knows it is aware.
Not something you perceive phenomenally. So we can gently and softly relax these tendencies to define ourself in our own thinking, in our own feeling state, in our relationship with others,
To be childlike, not knowing fresh moment by moment, available for the discovery in this moment, that these words appearing… Out of out of what? And to what?
There is this magical aspect to creation, because the source is right there. In every drop of water in the stream, there is the source.
The origination, the origin of the stream is the source, gurgling freshly.
And our experience is similar in that it is not a continuation of a a previous event.
There’s a freshness every moment, fresh unfolding, completely free from the past. It is birthing moment by moment.
But habitually, we are addicted to the narrative, the me story, and personal aspect, time and space, birth and death…
What is going to happen to me tomorrow? My goodness, what’s happening to me right now?
This addictive narrative, which, at its core, has this blind belief in consciousness being limited and personal, that I am a body mind, while in fact, body mind appears to you.
You remain undefined by what appears to you. Think of the wide open sky. It’s undefined by the clouds.
No matter what shape and color, size, the cloud may appear, the wide open sky remains undefined.
But somehow we hold on to a personal identity. We are not stupid. We do it because we believe it’s important to do so. It’s important to be somebody.
It’s a matter of survival. We believe and we shield. It’s a matter of survival to hold on to being somebody, somebody good, healthy body, a wealthy life.
And in a way, it is true at the relative level. Makes sense, because the body mind is wired for procreation and survival.
But, also, we’re endowed with this capacity to contemplate truth within the dream, within the waking dream, this capacity to explore:
Am I that which I feel myself to be?
Am I that which we imagine, I believe myself to be, or am I this formless, aware presence?
The pivotal question, which opens new doors, the doors of freedom and liberation from the illusion of separation, the unhappy dream, the unhappy aspect of the dream, because the dream can be sweet, more or less.
So we trust our understanding.
The understanding that I am not the form which appears within awareness.
It’s crucial understanding, liberating understanding. And then to live the exploration of this understanding, to invite this understanding to flourish, to mature, to ripen in our life, in our body, in our mind, in our relationships.
Not to be repeating the old patterns, the old belief structures. We’ve done enough of that.
What is it to be free from time and space?
Obviously, the body mind is subject to time and space: Food, shelter and clothing, the aging of the body.
What is it that is beyond that? It’s a beautiful question from myself to myself, from the self to the self, from consciousness to consciousness. Knocking at the door, God’s door.
God knocking at its own door, but there is no door.
It’s fascinating: no door.
But we can meet each other without images. We we can explore that, at least.
How do we meet each other without images? Like a do like a newborn, a fresh meeting, no personal image of myself or the other, no projection, nothing being carried on from the past, dragging corpses. No need to drag corpses.
Every moment is fresh. Every moment carries God’s whisper.
Okay, if there are any questions, please make sure to unmute yourself.
