05) Be Here & Now; Beyond the Thinking Mind - Meditate Now
Audio Version - Guided Meditation
Written Transcript of the guided meditation
I guess as a prelude to the meditation "Be Here and Now beyond the Thinking Mind", very classic, I was just taking a shower and I was observing the thinking mind. It's so fascinating how we can do what we do throughout the day, and not really be there doing what we're doing, just kind of going through the motions, and then the mind is off in the past or off in the future. It's amazing how much the mind isn't here giving attention to what is happening. Naturally, such things like taking a shower could be a fantastic meditative opportunity to extend the love to what you are, and just be present with yourself.
Not that that's wrong or bad to be thinking about past, future stuff, that's all fine, but there's a beauty in just being aware that that's happening, and then having the option to bring more presence to what you're doing. Because naturally, that's what the mind is going to do, it's going to move from past to future, and when it does that, it introduces anxiety, stress, frustration.
Start of Guided Meditation
Healing Opportunity
The healing opportunity to all of those things is to come home and be present with yourself, be present with those you're with. Let's just allow ourselves to be here. Wherever you find yourself. It's a great opportunity to connect and be together. We can honor and celebrate the reality of right now.
We'll just check in with the breathing, and just realize that the breath is happening — let's just notice that.
For me, it's always a little bit fascinating to connect with the breath and realize, "Oh, this is always happening...” — in and out, in and out.
We can recognize that this breath is happening on its own. It's not something you do, it is something that can be allowed.
In the same way that the breath moves in and out, you'll find thoughts that come and go.
We can take a moment to just discern the difference between the life that's happening here right now, and the life we imagine to be happening in the mind — just discern.
I can see myself thinking about this, that, and the other, but I can also see that what I'm thinking about isn't actually happening right now.
This time together is an opportunity to honor the reality of life, of this moment. So we extend to ourselves permission to come home.
We extend to ourselves permission to not chase the thinking mind.
We can recognize that if ever there is fear and anxiety, there is a focus on thoughts that look to the past or look to the future.
We recognize that there is a lack of presence of simply being here.
We're not looking to judge ourselves for that, we can just acknowledge it. It's like saying, "Oh yeah, here I am."
Just be here; No worries
Again, the invitation is to just be here.
There's nothing to figure out. There's nothing missing. We're just being.
In the same way that the breath is effortless, we can recognize an effortlessness in just being.
If you find that the mind wanders, and your attention gets captured by thought, no worries. You can just say, "Oops", and come home.
I invite you to see that there doesn't need to be any judgment in getting lost in thought. We can just see that it's happening. And at the moment you see that it's happening, you become more present, and if you start judging yourself, you become more lost.
It's like recognizing the adorable nature of our capacity to get lost in the mind — no worries, it
We can celebrate a profound simplicity in just being. We can recognize that in the reality of life, in this very moment, there is a simplicity.
We can also recognize that this simplicity is always here. We just don't see it as we are focused on the mind's complexity — no worries.
It's quite powerful to recognize how we can start chasing thoughts and we start feeling pains of inadequacy, we start feeling pains of inadequacy, we start feeling scared.
However, we can just come home, just be here.
There's a profound sort of magic in just being. It's a magic that the mind often doesn't understand. The mind might think it's boring, the mind thinks it's not helping you get what you want in the future. But there's a profound healing quality in allowing yourself to just be.
Within you is this capacity to allow life to be life; to allow the noises to be the noises; to allow the sensations to be the sensations; to allow thoughts to be thoughts.
We don't need to turn them into something more with our imagination.
We can gently allow them to be what they are.
As we rest in this space, we start to connect more with the reality of what we are, beyond the thinking mind, beyond all the ideas about yourself, beyond all the pictures.
We can rest in that effortless nature — the truth of what we are.
You start to recognize, "Hey, maybe everything's okay, here, right now".
We start to see how adorable our confusion is, how adorable it is that we get lost in the mind when there is this wellness that's present right now.
The Truth of What You Are
I just invite us to recognize that our difficulty in being human is simply an innocent misunderstanding.
We think something's happening that's not really happening, and we get scared of our imagination — and that, my friend, is super cute. It's okay.
It's okay because, in the reality of life, there is this wellness that holds us, that allows us to get lost, gently waiting for our return.
There's no expectation that says, "You shouldn't get lost." — That's silly. It's okay because you will. Welcome to being human.”
But we can recognize where our home really is. The reality of this wellness in the present moment is always with us, it's always been there, it's here right now, and it will be there forever.
Naturally, the mind says, "But what about this? But what about this? What about this?" All of which isn't here right now.
This, this, and this, is the mind's imagination, something to fear, something in the way of what you only think you want tomorrow. But what you really crave is the truth of right now — the truth of what you are.
Thanks for hanging out with me. Now, go play.
