Guided Meditation: Awakening Beyond the Limits of Self [Episode 57]

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

It seems on the surface that we're this body and mind and brain, we're this individual who was born at a particular time, and has lived through certain experiences, developed certain abilities, has certain gifts and capacities, and certain limitations and weaknesses.

We're a growing person who has this lifespan, and maybe even again, has future lives or previous lives maybe. Some of us might believe that. I'm agnostic, I think so. You know, anyone who tells you they know that for sure, take it with a grain of salt. But anyway, the point is that we take ourselves to be a time-bound, temporal being, with a history and a future. And again, it's not that that's not part of the story or part of the picture. But when we let go of our attachment to that, when we learn how to make room for the unknown, it's possible to discover a very different dimension of who we are.

Spiritual awakening is about coming into alignment with what's really true, what's really so, and how things really are.

In terms of identity, the question is: Who are you really? Who and what are we really?

It seems on the surface that we're this body and mind and brain. We're this individual who was born at a particular time and has lived through certain experiences, developed certain abilities, has certain gifts and capacities, and certain limitations and weaknesses.

We're a growing person who has this lifespan and maybe even, again, has future lives or previous lives. Some of us might believe that. I'm agnostic, I think. Anyone who tells you they know that for sure, take it with a grain of salt.

The point is that we take ourselves to be a time-bound, temporal being with a history and a future. Again, it's not that that's not part of the story, not part of the picture. But when we let go of our attachment to that story, to that picture, when we learn how to make room for the unknown, it's possible to discover a very different dimension of who we are.

When we spiritually awaken, we discover what's been called our true nature, our Buddha nature. We discover enlightened consciousness. We discover that we are something so far beyond this limited self that we thought we were, that we're this vast, infinite consciousness that is sacred beyond comprehension.

We begin to experience ourselves as this unlimited power and energy, this creative intelligence, this limitless love. We discover that the very energy, intelligence, and love that gave birth to this whole cosmos is, in fact, our own nature. It's none other than who and what we are.

Living Without the Story of Self

The miracle of spiritual awakening is not just that we can discover this or have an experience of it. It's that if we can learn how to live without imposing limitation, without imposing our self-story, our limited identity, our self-concept, if we can let that go and then step into action and engage with life without that rigid structure, without imposing this rigidly held conceptual self on the world, we find that we are still a human being. We are a self. We are a person who is now alive in the world.

But we're now expressing this boundlessness, this freedom, this creativity, this energy and power and love and wisdom and strength and fluidity and resilience and responsiveness. We become awakened consciousness animating a human body.

We're still experiencing being alive, but we're now limitless consciousness experiencing being a person, having a body.

Some people fear that this seems really impersonal. What about all the things that we think are valuable about the personal, like love and care and concern and values and connection?

But see, none of that goes away. It all just gets liberated to be fully expressed.

We don't care less about the particulars. We care much more about the particulars because now your infinite nature, the infinitely deep caring, is powerfully invested in the highest possibilities for life, for human relationship, and for the evolution of this world.

Now all of that is of utmost importance, and it's not constrained by your limiting beliefs about yourself or your limiting beliefs about your capacities or what's possible.

The Unlimited Potential of Human Life

The greatest power in the universe is now alive as a human being, unconstrained by habit and limiting belief, the small identity that says, "I'm good at this," or "I'm not good at that," or "I have this much energy," or "I have this much time."

If you look at what self-concept is, or a self-story, it's just a set of limitations.

If we let go of all that limitation, all that rigidity, we become fluid and dynamic, free.

Free to love, free to care, free to give, free to respond fully in each moment, unconstrained, unbound.

This is the potential of human life. This is the potential of every single human life.

Just take a moment. Think about the whole world. Imagine all the billions of people in the world freed from their limiting stories, limiting ideas, limiting concepts. Freed.

Just a liberated responsiveness, a caring, loving, wise, intuitive, creative, strong, powerful responsiveness, no longer worried about the ‘me’ in the middle of it all. Just alive. Love and wisdom animating the whole human race.

I'm not saying that's about to happen or that there's any hope of that happening in our lifetimes. I'm a student of evolution and cultural evolution and human development, and I understand the complexities that we're dealing with as a species to even get to some basic higher level of humaneness, let alone fully enlightened humanity.

But my point is, you can see what I'm saying. It's not impossible. There's no reason why it couldn't be that way, other than a lot of habit energy, individually and collectively.

And what a world we would have if we did.

But to whatever degree that can happen on a larger scale, just come back to your own life, your own consciousness, your own being.

What about that?

Could you do that?

Would you be willing to do that? To let go of the need to know yourself and see yourself in order to make room for a mystery that you can't know or see, to begin to animate you in your life, to live?

Because what I'm talking about means living in the unknown, relinquishing the need to know so that a mysterious consciousness, power, and presence that's who you really are can come forth and come fully alive.

So for a moment, just allow yourself to be here, awake and present, conscious, more interested in the unknown than in the known.

Letting go of every idea, and especially every idea about yourself. No need to see the self. No need to know anything about who you are or what you are.

Just being as you are.

Guided Reflection: Looking Beyond the Story of Self

I want to invite you to settle into your meditation posture.

And we're going to, in a simple experiential way right now, see if we can notice who we are that's not a concept, that's not constructed.

I want to invite you to bring to mind your concept of yourself, your story about yourself.

Let's look at what that's made of for a moment.

Let's just begin with what we might simply call the felt sense of self.

When you think about yourself, when someone calls your name, there's the sense of "this is me." It's the feeling of being me that's personal, the personal feeling of being who you are.

Often there's a little bit of pride in ourselves or our accomplishments, who we are, how we feel about ourselves.

Sometimes it's a bit negative. Sometimes we have a kind of negative self-regard. We say, "Oh, I haven't done so great in life," or "I've made a lot of mistakes," or "I'm not who I want to be," and there's a bit of negativity in our felt sense of self.

Or sometimes it's a bit of both.

But what I want to bring your attention to right now is the awareness that is aware of that sense of yourself, that felt sense of self.

So there's this felt sense of self, and then there's the awareness, the consciousness, that feels that, that senses that, that's able to be aware of that.

Just rest in the awareness that's aware of this felt sense of self.

And notice that the felt sense of self is just a feeling. It's just a cluster of feelings.

But you aren't that felt sense of self.

You are the awareness, aren't you?

You're the consciousness, the awareness that's aware of those feelings. But you're not those feelings. Those feelings come and go. Awareness is always here.

Allow yourself to be the consciousness. Be the awareness that can notice your felt sense of self.

So we're not trying to change your felt sense of self. We're not trying to negate your felt sense of self.

This is just about noticing that that sense of self isn't you. You're the one who's aware of it.

The felt sense of self is just an object in consciousness. You are the subject, the consciousness that is aware.

Observing Your Self-Concept

Now I want to invite you to bring to mind your story about yourself, your self-concept.

It's different from the felt sense of self because it's made up of a life story, the things that you've emphasized and drawn out of your life to make up a good, coherent story about who you are.

Just look at that story for a moment, holistically.

Not every little detail, but the kind of picture in your mind, a concept, an image, a self-image, a self-concept. It's about how you see yourself.

Often it has to do with your career, your family, the things you've invested your time and energy in.

Maybe if you're athletic, it has to do with seeing yourself as an athlete who's good at a certain sport. Or if you're an artist or musician, it might be tied up in the art you do or the music, being a performer, whatever.

It's made up of the things we've devoted our time to and become accomplished at, the skills, the relationships that we've invested in.

Often our self-concept has negative components, or we have a negative story about ourselves as someone who's failed at this or that, who hasn't lived up to our own expectations or the expectations of others.

Just look at your story about yourself, your fundamental self-concept, your self-image.

I'm smart. I'm not so smart. I'm strong. I'm weak. I'm valuable and important. I'm not very important, not very valuable.

Just look at that general picture. Not all the little details, just the general picture of the self, the general story, the concept, the image.

It includes what you value and believe.

We're in a very politically polarized time, with a lot of energy around that right now in the world. You might include that too, a very strong sense of belief and values around how the world should be operating right now, how our government should be, who should be in charge.

And the invitation, again, is to bring your attention to the awareness that is aware of these stories, this self-concept, this self-image.

There's all the ideas that make up your self-story, and then there's you, the awareness, the consciousness that's aware of those ideas, that's aware of this image, this concept.

Just be the awareness that can observe your self-story, your self-image, your self-concept, but is not those ideas.

Resting as Awareness

And now, letting go of any attention on your felt sense of self or your self-image, your self-concept, just allow yourself to simply be this consciousness, this awareness.

What you're aware of changes from one moment to the next. Feelings, sensations, and thoughts come and go, all objects arising within consciousness.

But you are simply being the consciousness, the awareness within which all of these things come and go.

Allow yourself to gently let go of the meditation.