What Veils Reality
Lo que vela la realidad
A meditation that invites you to gently question who you are, peeling back the layers of thought and definition that cover what is already here.
What Veils Reality
Noticing what drives us
One of the fundamentals is to notice what is driving us.
And in meditation we can look at things more closely and directly.
There are habitual drives and patterns that we choose because they help us.
And so in a sense, in meditation, we want to look at the reality of things,
and a part of us doesn't want to see the reality of things.
The invitation is to trust that seeing the reality of things will get us what we truly want.
Take the invitation to trust that what we're looking for is never missing.
It is always here, but it is veiled.
The doorway is the question: who am I?
What we are is already here.
It cannot be found tomorrow.
Exploring current experience
Explore your current experience.
Notice openly what is happening.
There are sounds, sensations in the body, thoughts, images.
Images we perceive through the eyes and images in the mind.
The mind mirrors perception and sensation.
The mind reflects on reality, interprets, names, gives shape and form.
So there is sound, and the mind hears words with meaning.
There's a bird singing.
The sound appears and the mind just maps "bird singing."
All knowing of sound as a bird song is a reflection in the mind.
All knowing of sound as a voice is a reflection in the mind.
The definition of I
And in all this reflecting and thought, something is created.
We define what we are.
The mind creates a definition of I and makes it known.
It is this definition, the sense of knowing who and what I am, that veils reality.
And so the question "who am I" leads to uncovering this veiling.
Asking the question
You ask, who am I?
Notice that any answer is a thought.
Keep asking and looking. Who am I?
It is an offering.
The question is asked, offered, for the answer to be given.
Then notice the answer comes.
It is known as a thought, an image, a concept, a memory, a belief.
All of this is received by what we are.
Peeling the layers
Slowly we peel the layers of the definitions of knowing.
This peeling can be uncomfortable.
We might notice compulsive grasping into thought, holding on to something that seems stable.
Permanent.
The more we look, the more we notice impermanent change, constant flickering, movement.
In every aspect of our experience.
Notice the flickering of our attention back and forth into a thought, a memory, an image, a fantasy.
And instantly back to the sense of a known subject.
Turning to the breath
Bring your attention to your breath.
Notice the sense of intimacy.
How the breath happens as if the whole universe is causing the movement.
You might notice even for some moments a settling, an openness.
Sinking into being.
A slowing down of the compulsion to grasp and define.