The True Nature of This I
La Verdadera Naturaleza de Este Yo
An invitation to look closely at what we actually mean by "I" and to let mystery, rather than thought, reveal what is here.
The True Nature of This I
You can leave your eyes open or closed, if you prefer.
There's no specific guideline.
If you're trying to decide, you could just explore how it feels.
It's very common for meditation to be with eyes closed, but it's really not necessary.
The goal of meditation
We will revisit one of the central aspects of meditation.
The goal of meditation, if any, is mystery.
To be in constant relationship with mystery.
The experience of mystery is aliveness,
wonder,
excitement,
vulnerability.
And to know ourselves is to know mystery.
And this is not anywhere else but here and now.
Mystery is already here,
veiled by our beliefs.
Thought and reality
Right now there is activity in thought,
and thought has the capacity to make things appear as known.
The cat sits on my lap and immediately I know what a cat is, what it's doing.
The subtlety is, if we know that to be thought,
we can harness the value of thought
but not confuse it with reality.
Reality is infinite,
mysterious, always moving and changing,
everything appearing empty and full.
What is the reality of a cat, or of my own body?
All I know are sensations, perceptions, and thoughts.
Letting thoughts be thoughts
As we see, observe thinking,
there's no need for it to stop.
It only has power over us when we believe thought to be reality.
Let the thoughts be thoughts.
Sink deeper.
Perceive beyond thought.
Sink into sensations,
the flowing waves of constantly shifting and changing sensations and perceptions.
Nothing stable
Notice there is nothing stable.
There's nothing in our experience that is permanent and stable.
Everything in constant flux, movement.
When something craves, looks for a center,
the mind constantly makes an image of self.
The sense of time, the center "now."
The sense of place, the center "me."
Notice that.
Notice how it appears constructed of images, memories.
The true nature of reality
Nothing needs to happen.
Let the universe be as it is.
Here we are not interested in changing reality.
We are doing that all the time.
What is the nature, the true nature of reality?
What is the true nature of what I am?
What you experience as "I," that which "I" points to, self, being: what is it?
The longing beneath confusion
All turmoil, all of it, comes from a confusion here.
There is a longing, a deep heartache, a restlessness.
We're searching for something out there in life, in experience.
The cause of this heartache: the confusion about the true nature of this "I."
What am I?
Who am I?
Let all your energy burn into this question.
Notice that every answer to that question is a thought.