June 28, 2023
The Ocean, the Drop, and What You Are
El océano, la gota y lo que eres
This session explores the metaphor of the ocean and the drop to point toward the nature of identity and awareness. Through meditation and dialogue, the teacher examines how the sense of a perceiver is itself a thought, how identification with familiar emotional patterns covers a deeper fundamental suffering, and how peace and identification are mutually exclusive. Students investigate the relationship between sound and perceiver, the pull toward familiar problems, and what lies beneath habitual identity structures.
meditation
The Ocean and the Drop
An invitation to notice how the sense of being a separate self is created, and to feel into the boundless awareness you already are.
dialogue
When Noise, Feelings, and Thoughts Arise
A student expresses gratitude for a meditation that addressed their earlier question about what happens with noise, feelings, thoughts, and images during practice.
dialogue
The Ring and the Gold
A student describes a striking insight during meditation: the question of whether a sound and its perceiver are truly two separate things, or one and the same. The teacher uses the metaphor of gold and a ring to point toward what lies beyond the duality of experiencer and experienced.
dialogue
The Perceiver Is Also the Projection
A student asks about the nature of the perceiver, and the teacher explores how identification arises from what changes slowly, and how even the sense of a localized perceiver is itself a projection.
dialogue
The Suffering We Choose and the Suffering Beneath It
A question about the difference between habitual emotional patterns and a deeper, more fundamental layer of pain that those patterns exist to cover.
dialogue
The Drive to Land Somewhere Solid
A student describes the overwhelming discomfort of not being able to grasp what lies beneath familiar emotional patterns, and the teacher encourages her to stay with the raw sensations rather than retreating to the safety of known problems.
teaching
Closing Words
A brief expression of gratitude and gentle guidance on honoring what has arisen during shared practice.