Mindfulness Meditation

[Bentinho Massaro]

Hello Bruce,

If you have any sort of difficulty with the suggestions I gave you, feel free to ask here.

The sound you are hearing is most probably what is known as the Nada sound, or tone. It's also called the primal sound vibration. It's very common among meditators to occasionally hear this sound when meditating. It does not mean much in itself though, so there is no additional sign or meaning attached to hearing this tone, it just happens. My advice to you would be to let it happen and simply continue to relax and recognize awareness. It's most valuable when it does not distract you and you simply remain at ease and in that state of "let-go" in which you let every sensation come and go without clinging to any of them and without trying to derive meaning from them.

Love,
Bentinho.

[bruce39]

Hi Bentinho:

After reading through some of the posts on this board I think I am doing something fundamentally wrong. You say that you ideally remain a witness all the time, even during your daily tasks and talking to people. I've been trying this and I can't do it even for a short time. For example, if I am talking to a colleague or giving a lecture and if I try to witness (or observe) myself, then I can't have the conversation anymore. i.e. I can't think what to say because my mental faculty is caught up in watching. Maybe the mistake I am making is that I am witnessing myself using the mind and not awareness? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bruce

[Lightbringer]

Hi Bentinho:

After reading through some of the posts on this board I think I am doing something fundamentally wrong. You say that you ideally remain a witness all the time, even during your daily tasks and talking to people. I've been trying this and I can't do it even for a short time. For example, if I am talking to a colleague or giving a lecture and if I try to witness (or observe) myself, then I can't have the conversation anymore. i.e. I can't think what to say because my mental faculty is caught up in watching. Maybe the mistake I am making is that I am witnessing myself using the mind and not awareness? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bruce

If I may, I get the feeling that you are mistaking witnessing as an action when in this context it is really a non-action. Witnessing is really a stopping of an action you've done unconsciously for many years which is engaging every little thought, emotion and feeling. Enlightenment is not about doing more but realizing how much effort we put into DOING things that are detrimental. If you try to witness you'll get caught up in it. It's like thinking about walking. See how long you can think "Left foot here, right foot there" before you take a tumble. This is because walking is effortless. It's only when you try to DO it (rather than directing your intention then letting it happen) that things go awry. Similarly enlightenment is our natural state which we complicate with all these additional things we do. If you can direct your intention and then let things happen in all aspects of life then the result is a similarly effortless existence. You'll be living a life of doing rather than trying to do.

But that is a little ways off (as far as you see fit). For now, effortlessly witnessing as opposed to DOING witnessing will teach you these principles through experience.

[Bentinho Massaro]

Hey Bruce,

Lightbringer is right. We cannot demand to remain the witness or all we will be doing is engaging in that thought-process.

It's all about relaxing. Like when we stretch the elastics of a bow, ready to shoot the arrow at something, the bow is full of tension. now we can go on our entire lives switching our target, our focus, our point of view, but the key is to simply relax the elastics. Relaxation is key. Relaxation not necessarily of the body, but relaxation of our minds, of our ideas, of trying to achieve things, relaxing our tendency to cling to whatsoever...

All you need to 'do' bruce is something that is, indeed, a non-doing. Simply repeat your moment of non-doing, in which you consciously relax all efforts. In that moment of being without direction, of being without any particular focus, you will recognize that you are present. You will recognize that you are in fact aware.

This moment of relaxed recognition of the presence of awareness, is the authentic experience of enlightenment. It is awareness becoming aware of itself. Really enlightenment is nothing special. It's not non-human in any way. Enlightenment is completely natural and you can have many moments of (temporary) enlightenment. These moments will grow longer and more obvious in time and through your commitment to relaxed looking/being.

So at first this moment won't last very long. The thing is that we should not try to make this last much longer, or we'll be engaged again in a cultivated, contrived thought-process. Forget about witnessing, what is there to witness? You don't need to witness anything. All that you decide to witness, you were already aware of right? How else can you try to witness something... You have to be already aware of that something being there. So you were already witnessing even before you tried to witness! Awareness already witnesses everything that you encounter and experience. Nothing escapes its eye. You don't have to imitate that consciously or through thinking about it.

It's about discovering the authentic moment of self awareness in which you become aware of your own presence as awareness.

Once you become more and more familiar with this, you start to be able to see when you are trying to witness and when you are actually being relaxed as awareness. Only then, only once you can say with confidence when you are truly relaxing and letting everything go/be and you are just relaxed as the looking, without trying to look. Only then can you naturally commit yourself or dedicate yourself towards maintaining this relaxed awareness for longer periods.

But that time will come automatically if you simply repeat that moment of relaxing all focus. Don't focus on anything in particular, just relax and notice awareness being present right now.

This moment at first will feel very subtle and almost unimportant and non-powerful. But over time this moment will show you many things and relief you to great ends.

Just relax, and awareness is right there...

Witnessing is not something you can do. Witnessing is simply the looking aspect of awareness which is always already happening. Even when you are unaware, you can know at any moment that you have been unaware. So what is it that was there all the way, knowing that you were unaware? You see awareness is always naturally here. We cannot not be aware.

So do not try to witness or you'll only create a sense of separation between a seemingly existing observer and the world that it observes. Both are One. Just relax and notice the presence of awareness.

Again and again...

Love,
Bentinho.

[seekingpresence]

Bentinho - Can you post the links to the sister site that has information on mindfulness meditation? I found the links on the forum before but since reformatting my computer, I've lost them. And the information provided on the site was very helpful to my pursuit of mindfulness meditation.

With Love and Appreciation,

Seekingpresence

[Bentinho Massaro]

Dear Seaking Presence,

I am not sure what website you are referring to, but if you say sister-website, I think of this one:

http://www.yoga-mind-control.com/mindfu ... ation.html

If this was not the site you mean, let me know.

Love,
Bentinho.

[seekingpresence]

Dear Seaking Presence,

I am not sure what website you are referring to, but if you say sister-website, I think of this one:

http://www.yoga-mind-control.com/mindfu ... ation.html

If this was not the site you mean, let me know.

Love,
Bentinho.

Yes that is the site I was looking for. Thank you so much Bentinho!!

I appreciate your help

[alexdestin]

There seems to be a contradictory tension there for me, which is resolved when the concept of surveillance is making in conflict situations. In such situations, however, change its nature to move from the spontaneous joy of a concentrated effort. I guess what I am saying is that when it comes to the joyful exuberance of life, the mind is a wonderful thing.