# Meditation [[Rupert Spira]], [[2022-12-02]] Hello, everyone lovely to see you all welcome. Just allow your experience to be exactly as it is from moment to moment. Without attempting to change it in any way. Allow your thoughts to come to your attention. And ask yourself the question in what do my thoughts arise? Anything that arises or appears must appear in some kind of medium. In the same way that an email appears on a screen, or a cloud appears in the sky. So simply allow the flow of your thoughts. It doesn't matter what the content of your thoughts is. But don't focus on them. Just become aware of the medium within which thoughts arise; ask yourself the question: what is that? Whatever our thoughts arise in must itself be devoid of thoughts, it must be empty of thoughts. It is on account of its emptiness that there is room for thoughts to appear within it. Just as it is on account of the emptiness of physical space that physical objects are able to appear within it. 05:11 That in which our thoughts arise and exist, and that into which they vanish when they disappear... is like a vast empty space, not a physical space, but an aware space, a great openness. And this Openness, being inherently devoid of thoughts is silent, it is still. So understand, but more importantly, feel that your thoughts arise in this great silence, this aware Silence. Just as the screen on which a movie appears, is motionless. In spite of the fact that the characters in the movie are moving. Likewise, this Aware Openness in which our thoughts arise is itself, silent; in spite of the fact, that our thoughts are, as it were, noisy. And just as the screen remains motionless, whether the characters in the movie are moving or not, so this great aware silence, remains, silent; whether thoughts are present or not. You know the words, the silence we speak of here. The great stillness is not the absence of thought. It is the great silence that prevails In both the absence, and the presence of thoughts. 10:13 In other words, this Aware Silence, the Great Stillness is not a state of the mind. It is the nature of the mind. Irrespective of whatever states the mind may be passing through. And it is for this reason that in this approach we make no attempt to control or discipline or even focus the mind. On the contrary, we go directly to the stillness that lies just behind the mind, so to speak; within which the activity of the mind, thinking in this case, takes place. This does indeed have an effect on our thinking. No, but this change in our thinking is a byproduct of our going directly to this great silence. It is not a prerequisite, for it. Don't touch your mind. By which I mean, don't try to control your thoughts. Notice that wherever your thoughts take you, whatever the content of our thoughts, they always take place in the context of this great silence. However agitated or disturbed our thoughts may be, they are always bathed in this silence. Now the the danger of speaking of this silence, this stillness, this aware openness... The danger of visualizing it as, or likening it to a space is that we tend to objectify it And anything that we objectify, we have to stand apart from it, as a subject as a separate subject. Try to forget the word stillness, openness, awareness. Forget the image of space. Be Knowingly this vast silence. Bring it so close that you cannot objectify it, or name it, or visualize it. It is what we are, not something that we know. Simply be knowingly this silence. Allow any feelings or emotions that may be present to come to your attention. See that whatever the content of these feelings, they arise in you. Not you a body or a mind, but you this great silence. Simply be knowingly this aware silence that allows the feelings to arise and exist within it. Don't try to know this silence. The only way to know this silence is to be this silence knowingly. Notice whatever sensations of the body may be present, the tingling of our face, our hands, our feet. They arise in the same vast, empty aware silence. Notice that if you are lost in thoughts, feelings, sensations it is only a small step, a tiny step from there into the great stillness; it is not even a step. There's no distance from the movie, to the screen. There's no distance from a cloud to the sky. But, as a concession to one who has temporarily lost themselves in thoughts, feelings, and sensations we may say, take the small step. Out of this bundle of thoughts feelings and sensations that we believe to be ourself, into this Great Silence which is our essential nature. We are free either to identify ourselves with this bundle of thoughts, feelings, and sensations or to know and feel ourself, as this great silence. If we choose the former, our experience will be mostly agitation and sorrow. If we choose the latter, peace. If we allow ourselves to become entangled with thoughts, feelings and sensations; identified with thoughts, feelings, sensations, then we feel I am sad, I am lonely, I am upset. I am ashamed, I am afraid, I am anxious, and so on. If we feel that we are this empty, aware silence all we can say about ourselves. Is I simply am If we are depressed we might say I am silent being I am naked being unqualified, unconditioned. Untouched by Experience. Intimately one with experience. Not aloof, or distant. One with experience, but free from experience. And therefore I am at peace. This abidance in being as being this, self-abidance this is the practice. If we can call it a practice that all other practices are a preparation for. This abidance in being, in the great silence of being is really a non practice. It is what we are not what we do It is for this reason that Ramana Maharshi has said the purpose of all practices is to bring an end to all practices. Ultimately all practices, all religious and spiritual practices, culminate in the great silence, simply being. The Silence of the heart, that underlies and pervades the agitation of the mind. As we begin to taste the peace and the quiet joy that are the inborn nature, of our self of our being our impulse to go out into the world, to go out into objective experience in search of them, in search of peace and happiness, that is, begins to diminish. We begin to find peace and joy where they really belong. In being; they are the nature of being. And the seeking impulse begins to wind down in us as a result That pre-verbal energetic impulse, that has ruled most of our lives, our actions, our relationships, and so on; it begins to wind down. We begin to stay home, so to speak. Not lose ourselves in the drama of experience; it doesn't mean we don't engage in the drama of Experience. We still continue to do so, whatever that might mean for each of us. But we don't lose ourself in it. And above all we don't invest our desire for peace and happiness in it. We have found a place of peace in our self. A Great Silence. The fact of simply Being, or being aware. We no longer allow our being to be entangled in, or colored by or qualified by the content of experience. We keep our being sacred. After all, our being divested of the qualities, that it derives from the content of experience, is not really our being, it is Infinite Being. God's Being. 46:36 In the orthodox Christian tradition they refer to praying without ceasing. This does not mean a repetition of words or thoughts in our mind. It means staying in constant communion with the silence of being. Remaining as that abiding as that in the midst of experience. Feel that not only your own thoughts, feelings, and sensations appear in this great silence, but feel that the entire world arises in the same silence. Feel that the physical space in which the world appears is an image in the mind. Of the great stillness, in which the world, and the space that contains it, appear When you look at any object in the world such as a tree, or a mountain or a bowl, feel that its stillness is an emblem, a symbol of the real stillness in which the world is immersed. Feel; see that the object shines with being. Its stillness points towards that being it exudes simply being In religious language, for the devotees amongst us: every object shines with God's presence, Infinite Being. Don't control your thoughts or feelings. Let them go wherever they want to go. They never leave the great stillness. They are immersed in it, permeated by it. Great Stillness itself. The fact of simply being itself never goes anywhere, never does anything. Never seeks anything, never resists anything. When we find ourselves lost in the content of experience, all that is necessary is to sound the divine name once in our mind – I am. The I am is a portal, a doorway that leads us from the sorrow and the agitation of the mind into the silence of the heart. Maybe I am is like the front door of our home, through which we pass out of the busyness of the street into the peace of our home, presuming that our home is peaceful. When we begin, we seem to go back and forth. From the agitation of the mind, from the agitation of experience, to the silence of the heart. But in time we begin to be established in this silence, as this silence and experience loses its capacity to take us away from the silence. We begin to live there, we abide in that as that. We take this silence with us wherever we go. Again we begin with, we find this stillness in the background of experience behind the mind or beneath the mind, so to speak. But in time increasingly, we find it not just behind experience, but in the midst of experience. Like a tortoise that takes its home with it, with it, wherever it goes. And can stop at any moment, and withdraw its limbs. And so we take our being with us wherever we go, we take the sanctuary with us, the sanctuary of being with us, wherever we go. And in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we can just turn towards it and it will take us into itself. At this stage, we should feel that we are doing absolutely nothing. Simply being requires no effort whatsoever. It is what we are, not what we do. Just remaining as we are. Abiding in being, as being... for the mystics and devotees amongst us. It is referred to in the Christian tradition as the practice of the presence of God Just pray, without ceasing. 01:12:00 It is also the ultimate surrender, or the ultimate devotion. Because we have let go of everything that defines us as a person, the thoughts, images, feelings, memories, and so on. And we simply stand naked. We stand as naked being. Just as one who is sick. Just as one who is sick, feels that their entire experiences is pervaded by their sickness, or one who is in love feels that their entire experience is pervaded by love. So one who is established in being as being feels that their entire experiences saturated with this silence, pervaded by stillness. Just as the movement in a film is pervaded by the stillness of the screen. If I am thinking, I am. I am upset, I am. I am lonely, I am. I'm excited, I am. if I am sick, I am. I'm depressed, I am. I am is like a beacon that shines in the midst of all experience indicating to us the place of peace. It is like a lighthouse on a stormy sea that indicates to a sailor the place of safety, the refuge. Allow the I am to shine through all experience. The shining of being. The midst of experience. For the devotees amongst us, the shining of God's presence. Okay, let's let's leave it there, sweet to be with you all thank you