Meditation & Stopping

What would happen if we just stopped? What would happen if we stopped trying to fix our bodies, stopped trying to fix the world? Stopped trying to figure out what we’re going to do a minute from now, an hour from now, a week from now? Stopped trying to piece this moment together in a more favorable way? Stopped trying to fix ourselves, much less fix others? 

All of this fixing is in the realm of the mind, which is looking for solutions within what we already know. What we already know is limited and has brought us to where we are right now. Furthermore, we could ask ourselves: is it true that there is a problem that needs to be fixed by you right now in this moment? 

What would it be like, instead of trying to solve a problem or fix something, to just be completely present right here right now with things exactly as they are? If anything needs to be done or said then it will be obvious. The mind doesn’t need to figure it out in advance.

Stopping automatically brings us into the now, which is where the mystery and the most blessed life reside. The doorway into the now, into the mystery, into the most blessed life is the body. Become fully present to what’s being felt without grasping anything, without pushing anything away. Bring the whole sensory experience into the folds of awareness: all of the bracing, all of the tension, all of the walls. Gather all of these things up into the folds of awareness, without trying to fix the body or the sensations, only bringing a very simple and innocent awareness.

Awareness is the solvent for these places where we’re bracing in our being, where we’re holding, where we’re not relaxed and these places are what keep us from sinking into the mystery of our true nature. At some point in our lives it was not safe to just express our true nature. Someone was always trying to fix us, so we forgot about our true nature which is naturally free and joyful. We began to change our behaviour to please the people around us and in adopting unnatural behaviors; tension began to build around this constructed self until at some point we forgot who we really were. And so now it’s time to take down these walls, to let go of the bracing and tensions and just let ourselves sink effortlessly into the silence and stillness of true nature  - which simply got veiled, but has never left us. 

Soften the belly. Notice where the breath is restricted and bring that into the folds of awareness. As the breath begins to open, energy begins to flow more strongly and we feel sensations around the throat and heart and solar plexus… bring that into awareness. Oftentimes we hold our breath to unconsciously restrict energy flow, to stop it from traveling to all of these hidden fearful places. The energy flow is only fearful in the eyes of the conditioned self. Notice that there is something here that is beyond the conditioned self that is fearless, willing to see everything; it will come back for every aspect of our selves that isn’t true or real, to dissolve it all in the fire of awareness.

So what would it be like to just stop and trust the natural ability of our awareness and our presence and this moment? There is a presence here beyond the boundaries of the body that has no gender, no age, no nationality, no profession, no possessions, no problems to fix; this is when we stop and where we land.