We had our ninth Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss. We practiced a guided meditation, Exploring Inner Space, that instructor and author, Tara Brach, uses to touch pure awareness – the mystery of our true nature.
In Tara’s book, True Refuge, she encourages us to engage in a sincere inquiry into what she calls: “the refuge of pure awareness.”
In pure awareness we are no longer creating, defending or fortifying a sense of separate “self.” We’re free from our daily preoccupations and habits of mind, free from grasping or pushing experience away.
Tara describes how our conditioning often prevents us from accessing the peaceful spacious qualities of awareness. She encourages us to notice how often we’re “trying to figure things out” during a day and in the process we narrow our focus. When we undergo stress the focus becomes even smaller – often excluding other people and the world around us. She writes:
Our brain’s primary function is to block out too much information and to select and organize the information that will allow us to thrive. The more stress we feel, the smaller the aperture of our attention. When we’re hungry we obsess about food. If we’re threatened, we fixate on defending ourselves. Our narrowly focused attention is the key navigational instrument of the ego-identified self.
. . . If you notice how many thoughts are about yourself, you’ll see how the valve creates a completely self centered universe.
Ouch! After reading this I became increasingly aware of how so much of my thinking revolves around “I, me, mine.” Most of us can relate to this way of navigating through life – perhaps that is why we come together. Tara observes:
If we fail to wake up to who we are beyond the story of self, our system will register a “stuckness.” It’s a developmental arrest that shows up as dissatisfaction, endless stress, loneliness, fear & joylessness. This emotional pain is not a sign that we need to discard our functional self. It is a sign that the timeless dimension of our being is awaiting realization. We need both realms.
I don’t believe we have live as separate selves in a sea of others. My experience in circles of family, friends, yoga studios, meditation halls and even on the internet offers me many journeys beyond “my self.” I so deeply appreciate what I commonly encounter in these circles: a willingness to query and an extension of acceptance. Venturing into relationship openly broadens the lens I peer through revealing surprise. Surprise – something unexpected.
After practicing Tara’s exploration of inner space several students observed what a relief it was to be drawn from thought into inquiry. One of the very first instructions was “to be unwilling to judge yourself . . . to give whatever arises spontaneously, permission to be there . . . ” We can offer ourselves a more expansive life experience by living our questions, keeping our hearts and minds open in the present moment. Tara writes encouragingly:
If we can begin to realize the mystery within our own existence, our relationship to the changing world shifts. We can hold the personal sense of self more lightly. We don’t react so strongly to things not going our way.
She sites Sri Nisargadatta’s promise:
The inner spaciousness is always there, with its clarity, love, and innate goodness. It is like the sky that suddenly appears over our heads when we step out of the kitchen door after a harried morning and glance upward. The Self, like the sky, is ever present yet hidden by the ceiling and walls of our minds. In approaching the Self, it helps to have a doorway we can comfortably walk through, rather than having to break through the wall of thoughts separating us from our inner space.
You can find this week’s homework and other resources at: