You are the silent stillness /
meditation
You are the silent stillness.
Like a mountain, you are unmoving.
Nowhere to go.
Nothing to do.
Not seeking anything.
Simply aware.
Aware of all that is.
Aware of all that is, here and now, you can never be aware of the past, or of the future.
They do not exist, only as thoughts and memories.
Memories are also thoughts.
A silent, still mountain, thoughts form and evaporate, just as clouds on a mountain peak.
Clouds are not the mountain, any more than thoughts are you.
Belonging to you, you have mistaken them for you.
But you do not mistake your fingers, arms, or hair for you.
They belong to you, but they are not you.
Let go of this case of mistaken identity, you don't need it anymore.
It no longer serves you.
In fact, it never did.
How can a memory of the past serve you?
Already passed, it is as if it never existed.
How can an idea of the future serve you?
The future will never arrive, it is not real.
Only this moment is real, only here and now exists.
Look, look for yourself and see that you have been mistaken.
Mistaken in believing memories and ideas are real.
Still they will come.
That is the nature of the mind.
To generate thoughts.
Just as hair must grow and fall, so thoughts will arise, and fall.
There is no intrinsic reality, other than what is here and now.
Look, turn your attention inwards, change the direction of where you place your attention, from out to in, perhaps for the first time in your life.
Turning inwards now, contemplate, “Who Am I?"
Keeping your attention only inwards, don't ask the question in your mind, hold it lightly, it is a signpost for your looking, not a mental question, designed to point within, an aid to your clear seeing.
Clear of outer attention, attention turns in to its own source.
It has nowhere left to go, and must return to its natural settling place, awareness, the source of all things, where all phenomena arise, and fall.
As the I of the question “Who Am I?” fades away, you are left at the source of Being, pure Awareness.
No thought can function here.
Mind cannot work it out.
Mind has no place in this meditation, it will not serve you here.
Instead, rest lightly, as a bird on a leaf, weightless, without intention, simply rest, at the source of Awareness.
Resting here, you have not lost anything, only the belief that you must reside constantly, continuously in thought.
Free of thought, rest here a while.
Thoughts will come and go, arising and falling, you will barely notice them.
You are not your thoughts.
You are aware of that now.
Aware of, but not placing attention on your thoughts, you are at ease, resting at the source of being.
Pure Awareness.
That is all that is here now.
This is who you are.
Free of thought, you are aware of thought.
Free of belief, you are aware of belief.
Free of feeling, you are aware of feeling.
Free of emotion, you are aware of emotion.
Free of pain, you are aware of pain.
Resting only as the open sky like nature of pure Awareness, you are yourself.
You haven't gone anywhere.
You do not need to leave here to become yourself.
This was always here, ever present.
Now, bringing your attention gently back outwards, notice your body.
Noticing your body, you are not your body.
It is your body, it belongs to you, it is not you, you are greater than this body.
Vast, boundless, unlimited, sky-like awareness.
This is a truer description of you, the truest.
You have discovered your true nature, your natural state, as pure awareness, from where all phenomena are perceived.
How can there be any trouble here?
Being awareness, you are aware of all things, trouble arises in you, and it will also fall away in you.
Everything but awareness changes.
Constantly.
But the root of your being, pure awareness is unchanging.
Unchanging, it is without colour, name or form, indescribable, imperceivable.
This perfect, imperceivable awareness is the ultimate perceiver, perceiving all things.
Unchanging, eternal, boundless.
The world changes in you, not around you.
Events are perceived in you, not happening to you.
Nothing ever happens, it is simply that your mind gives form to phenomena, connecting them, it's what it does.
But it has no substance.
What the mind presents is not evidence, not fact, it is simply perception, mistaken by the mind for a solid reality.
This all perceiving awareness is eternal, it does not sleep, or wake, it was never born, and it does not die.
It does not even belong to this body.
It is vaster than that.
Yet this body arises in it, was born in it, and will die in it.
Can this all-perceiving awareness perceive itself?
It is pure perceiving.
Can a knife cut itself?
Can an eye see itself?
Can this awareness be aware of itself?
It is simply aware.
Don't take my word for it.
Discover for yourself, looking, gently resting your attention at its source, awareness itself, and see, can this perceiver of all things, perceive itself?
When you first asked the question “who am I?”, this is where the question was pointing to.
It is a placeless place.
Places occur in it.
Nameless, names occur in it.
Formless, forms occur in it.
This is who you are.
Welcome home.
Welcome home to yourself.
Rest here a while, silent, still, not looking, simply rest.
Enjoy this freedom from looking and asking and thinking, enjoy this peace.
(Silence)
Rest here, you are home.
This is your sanctuary.
This is not a sanctuary you need come and go to, you are always here.
This is the root of your being, your essential nature.
All activity of mind and body, arises, and is witnessed, here.
Rest here, you are home.
(Silence)
Gently, as you bring your attention out once again, from its source, become aware of your body, allow it to gently move, fingers, toes, legs, arms, whatever it needs, allow it.
Opening your eyes, bring your attention gently out onto the world of phenomena, becoming aware of your environment, the physicality of the chair, the vastness of the sky, the spaciousness of the air in between them.
Bringing your attention to your hearing, listen.
Hear your heart beating, and know you have a body, but that you are not a body, just as you have a car, but you are not a car.
Take care of this body, but do not mistake it for the centre of the universe. It is not.
Bringing your hearing attention to the environment, hear the wind in the trees, a distant bird call, the rumbling of the ocean, far away, and know that this hearing is happening in you.
There is no single sound.
There is no single event.
There is no single object.
Aware of all things, you know this now.
Not with your mind, but with your essential being, pure awareness.
You are total, complete, boundless and perfect.
Perfect in this moment, and in every moment, nothing can ever be out of place for you, nothing can ever be wrong for you.
If you begin to believe such a thing, realise that it is a thought, a story constructed by the mind, and it is your choice, your freedom to choose whether to give it your attention and belief, or not.
This is your freedom.
This is the ultimate freedom.
This freedom is who you are.
As you move from this place now, and go about your business, remember this.
Remember who you are, that you are always free.
You can change little in the phenomenal world, but greater than that, you can choose where to place your attention, and at any given moment, you have the eternal freedom to return your attention to its source, and rest here, as pure awareness.
It will not prevent you from living life.
In fact, you do not live life, you already are life.
You are life.
Knowing this, now you can really live.
You are life, and you are free.
You always were, you were simply mistaken, believing that you were bound.
Only the belief that you are bound can bind you.
Only the belief you are suffering, causes suffering.
Arise from this meditation free, and at peace with yourself.
Peace is your essential nature.
Vast, like the sky.
Fluid, like water.
Silent and still, like a mountain.
Nothing to do.
Nowhere to go.
Just like this.
Live your life like this.
You will not suffer.
This is the end of all suffering.
This is peace.
May your discovery of your own true nature as peace itself, bring peace to those around you, and to the world.
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ॐ Om shanti shanti shanti, let there be peace amongst all beings, let there be peace, let there be peace. ॐ