~~ True Meditation Has No Direction ~~

[Guest]

Very profound read:

http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=960

True Meditation Has No Direction, by Adyashanti

True meditation has no direction or goal. It is pure wordless surrender,

pure silent prayer. All methods aiming at achieving a certain state of

mind are limited, impermanent, and conditioned. Fascination with states

leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as

primordial awareness.

True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when

awareness is not being manipulated or controlled. When you first start to

meditate, you notice that attention is often being held captive by focus on

some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions, memories,

sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and

contract upon objects. Then the mind compulsively interprets and tries to

control what it is aware of (the object) in a mechanical and distorted way.

It begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past

conditioning.

In true meditation all objects (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories,

etc.) are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should

be made to focus on, manipulate, control, or suppress any object of

awareness. In true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness; not

on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself.

Primordial awareness is the source in which all objects arise and

subside.

As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive

contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more

clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An attitude

of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the

presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural

condition.

As you rest into stillness more profoundly, awareness becomes free of

the mind's compulsive control, contractions, and identifications.

Awareness naturally returns to its non-state of absolute unmanifest

potential, the silent abyss beyond all knowing.

[Guest]

http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=750

That Which is Looking, by Adyashanti

Only when you turn attention to awareness itself, there isn't anything

behind it. That's what returning to the source means. It means that

nothing is next. There's nothing behind it. With a thought there's always

something behind it. There's always the awareness of thought. So

awareness is behind it. With a feeling there's always something behind

it. With the conditioned tendency there's always something behind it.

There's always awareness behind everything that's perceivable.

Everything that's thinkable. There's always something behind it: namely

that awareness. Spirit. To 'look within' doesn't mean to look for

something really amazing to happen. To look for the states of

consciousness to change. That's not what look within means. Have any

of you looked within like that? I've spent so many hours looking within

that way - not thousands, tens of thousands of hours looking within. And

I was looking ... the same way we look outside. You know, like we're

looking for something. And so you look inside. It's a great teaching, but

then what do you do? You tend to look for stuff. Look for really groovy

spiritual stuff to happen. Right? It's the same looking. It's not really

different than looking for a million bucks, or a hot looking guy or gal or

success. It's just looking for inner stuff. And there's a world of inner

things and experiences, just like there's an outer world of things to look

for. But the inner world, it's not any more real or significant then the

outer world. So to look within doesn't mean that, to look within in a way

that you're looking for something. Looking for a treasure. It means to go

to the root. And the root is the looking itself. To turn within is to turn to

that which is looking. So that we find out for ourselves that there isn't

anybody that's looking! Looking is looking. There isn't someone there

called 'me' that's behind awareness that's aware. Awareness is aware.

It's the opposite: I'm not aware; awareness is aware of me. And this is

quite a shock when you really come upon it! This is really 'one without a

second' as Ramana (Maharshi) used to say. That the self is one without

a second. Without a second means: nothing behind it. No deeper return

to go to. You've returned to your natural state.

In Zen we used to call it

'taking the backward step.' We (generally) want to take the forward step:

to pursue, to seek, to find. But the backward step is very simple ... return

to what you are. Till that flash of recognition dawns, that awareness itself

is what you are. Just like the flash of lightning in an empty sky - a

spontaneous flash! The easiest thing in spirituality is for it to become

complex, instead of simple. But this is a very simple thing which is why it

can penetrate so deeply. So quickly. So immediately. --Adyashanti

[chzS1ngh]

i agree ji,

from my experience of Simran and meditation, wonderful things occur when i am not looking for something, when i am not desiring for anything...as soon as i 'want' something...or 'expect' something, the meditation is lost...

one needs to surrender to His will...all is in His hands only...i/we cannot acheive anything...complete surrender...then unlimited possibilities open up on their own accord.

God Bless Ji