Meditation Coaching Sessions

1.  5 min
Introduction
Background on Self-Realization? and What is it?
What and Why the Direct Path to Self-Realization?
The “Highest Meditation” – Object-less Meditation.
The Direct Path as opposed to the Progressive Path.
What do we want to achieve?
What problems will we solve?
What would be a final outcome?

2.  15 min
Theme is around Awareness of Being!
What is Awareness?
Are you Aware?
Where do I go when I ask such a question? 
What is meant by “I”?
Simple metaphors to help you understand will be provided.
The “Space between two thoughts”
The “Train Station” Metaphor
The “The Room and its Objects” Metaphor
The “Two Fish in Water” metaphor.

3.  5 min
Loving Intention
Define a Private intention
What type of Intention should it be? 
How it should be intended?
How will I know it will work?

4.  15 min
Guided Meditation- using the exercises – Its silence for 15 min, with internet online.
Everyone eyes are closed.

5.  15 Min
Reflection – discuss and all share the experience

6. 5 Min
Conclusion
Recommendations
Next Session

7.  15 mins till end
Questions and Answers

Guided Meditation in beginning to understand what lies between two thoughts.

A series of simple practices to develop skills to increase the awareness of being, by reducing thoughts,  and mental chatter.

One simple  entry point for example, is to discover what lies between two thoughts, and then to increase the space between each thought.

Other Metaphors, and corresponding practices, also expanded on in further sessions, will presented that will help to understand what it means to be self-realized.

With continued practice the following benefits will grow in your:

  • Well-being is ensured, and your physiology improves.
  • Gradual increase of inner peace and feeling of love.
  • The feeling of separateness is reduced. 
  • Any one suffering “Anxiety” or “Depression”  for example, will benefit beyond belief if they persist with  the practices as outlined in the coaching sessions I present here.
  • Intelligence and Intuition comes from the “the awareness”  you are,  the “space” in between thoughts,  but never from thought itself. 
  • Power of manifestation increases
  • Synchronicity in every day events sometimes increases.

Every Guided Meditation we will practice,  we choose an Intention for a Higher Good. In this Meditation  we intend loving kindness support for some one who really needs it. 

With consistent practice, while doing your daily tasks its really important to just become aware of the awareness that you are, the space between your thoughts, and let it expand. Always allow your awareness to be aware of your thoughts, perceptions, sensations etc, be the observer and say “YES” I accept my my current state, no forcing,  allow all to  BE.  Once you become  aware of the experience of “Being Aware of Being Aware” it will transform your life as long as you persistently practice  the practices I outline in the coaching sessions. To go further your must then dwell deeper and nurture and understand what is the nature of this “Space” this “Awareness” that “I” am.

Though its very beneficial to practice meditation 30 mins every day, or more if possible, “Object-less  Meditation” I present here ultimately involves  being in meditation at every moment. To be the observer of all you thoughts, perceptions and sensations. Don’t dwell on thoughts that create fear and don’t server you. Replace them with the presence of “Awareness”

  • Its “I” Consciousness that is Aware,  not “I” the body/mind that is Aware.
  • There is nothing but Awareness 
  • We are made of Awareness
  • There is nothing outside of our experience
  • Space time and matter is what consciousness looks like when it refracted through the prism of our mind.
  • The laws of Physics are upgraded to Laws  Mind.
  • The Consciousness only Model of Reality
  • From childhood, and all other life, as well as for most of us,  and from a first  person perspective,  every day life experience outshines our being.
      But when awakened, or self-realized,  the awareness we are, the one only pure consciousness our true inner nature, our being begins to outshine our experience! 
  • What is enlightenment really?
  • Who am “I” really?
  • Why is it the way it is?
  • What happens to me in dreamless sleep ?
  • What does it mean to be unconscious ?
  • What happens to me when I die ?
  • Where are my loved ones when they die?
  • Is the ego necessary?
  • Why is there experience?

    Please send such questions in the comment section.
    Most can be answered within the framework on the “Consciousness” only Model ?

 

Session 1 – What is Awareness of Being ?

Session 1 - What is the Nature of your Being?

What lies between two thoughts? In this Introductory (Beginners) Guided Meditation Session we explore using simple metaphors to understand what lies between two thoughts, and set a foundation to understand where we go when we ask “Am I Aware?”. 

A series of simple practices to develop skills to increase the awareness of being, by reducing thoughts and mental chatter. We use a series of powerful metaphors that helps our practice so we can  ultimately understand and feel  that it is “I” Consciousness that is Aware,  not “I” the body/mind that is Aware.

Session 2 – Becoming Aware of Being Aware

Session 2 - Becoming Aware of Being Aware

Deeper understanding and more  practices to understand the Awareness “I” am, hence  becoming freer from compulsive thinking, and thus increasing the intensity of love and and peace within us and around us. We begin to investigate why our Meditation practice is the “Highest Possible Meditation”.

We investigate the error most of us make by interpreting a blank state of mind for the presence of awareness. The Presence of Awareness is that which knows both a blank state of mind and a chattering state of mind.

We repeat the same practices with the help of the powerful metaphors from Session 1, and explore new metaphors to help.

Our attention towards the world arises from deep awareness towards an object, and the world.
This is compulsive in all of us, as we cannot direct our attention to our awareness easily as we will always fall and direct our attention to an object, and hence the world.

So, the highest Mediation is just “being aware of being aware” and it’s a process to NOT give attention to any object.

In some ways it’s the relaxing of our attention towards the world that can bring us closer to the experience of the awareness of being aware. All other Meditations involve focus on an object, such as mantra, candle, breath listening or playing music, doing what you enjoy, etc, but these are all objects in the world of form.

Meditation involving “being aware of being aware” does not involve focus on any objects, and hence why its called the highest possible meditation.

This is the Meditation model in Direct Path to Self-Realization as outlined in these Coaching Sessions.  We attempt to de-focus our attention to towards objects and look towards the experience of being aware of being aware.

Session 3 – The Constant Element in Every Experience

Session 3 - The Constant Element in Every Experience

The constant element, with varying intensity, is  present both in the waking world,  and in the dream world, to your surprise,  is also present in every other possible state, before birth,  dreamless sleep, under anesthetic, coma, and off-course after death.  

It must be clear  to every one,  surely, that the common element in every experience  is awareness or the knowing of our experience.

Every experience  is different but  the knowing or awareness of those experiences  is the constant same element.

Now ask yourself, is it possible  to experience the appearance or disappearance of awareness?

You may claim incorrectly, you were not aware before birth or in dreamless sleep, or under anesthetic, or any other unconscious state, you may also claim incorrectly, you have no awareness after death.

Its logical in those states the mind/body is not present to record the experiences in memory that could be recollected and reflected on.

If you are confused its because you are in the conditioned state of believing “I” the body is aware and equate your experience and your body as awareness.

This is a false paradigm, the illusion, the ego.

Its “I” awareness that is aware. 
Its consciousness that conscious.

If awareness disappears, then what is it that is present and aware to experience the apparent disappearance of awareness? Awareness.

To claim legitimately that awareness dies/disappears, something would have to be present to experience its disappearance.

Off course it must be awareness.

We are that awareness to which such an appearance would occur.

In Religious circles this Awareness, the true “I” is GODs Presence, or Brahman.

Session 4 – Your Body and the world is an Image in your Mind

Session 4 - Your Body and the World is an Image in Your Mind

When we experience our Body and the World,  it is always through thought,  perceptions,  (the senses) to sensations (emotions/feelings) and hence its just an image in our mind.  There is nothing outside of our experience only the Awareness that contains it.

We have been conditioned to think or feel that  “I,  the body/mind, experiences the world.”  This is the Illusion, the “Fall” of Humanity or the Egoistic stage of our evolution.

If we understand the previous guided meditation sessions it should have become clear from the metaphors presented  and practices that:

It Is “I” Awareness, the  (The Knowing Presence Within Us)  that experiences the body/mind and the world.” 

Its no coincident thought out history  the following quotes have surfaced from Saints and Sages!

“Deluded people don’t realize that their own awareness is their true self. They keep searching outside.
Buddha  –  600 BC

The Kingdom of God is within You” & “I and the Father are one
Jesus Christ – 33 AD

Although you appear in earthly form, Your essence is pure Awareness. You are the fearless guardian of Divine Light.“  
Rumi – 1200 AD

“When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation.”
Ramana Maharshi – 1940

“Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.” 
Baba
Muktananda – 1980

All the above quotes directly or indirectly show us our body/mind/world is an image in our mind.

When we look closely at our experience of the body/mind/world we find that it is made only of sensations, thoughts and perceptions and that all sensations, thoughts and perceptions are inseparable from Knowing Presence. 

We have already seen from our own intimate, direct experience that there is no boundary to Knowing Presence and we therefore have no experience of anything outside of it.

Note: No Laws of Physics are broken in Science! The Laws of Physics are just ultimately  Laws of Mind. 

Session 5 – All Times Take Place Now

Session 5 - All Times, Past and Future Take Place Now

When understanding the nature of Awareness, we realize it is totally present and infinite. We will discover that 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 (together with Space and Matter) is a result of the one Consciousness (Pure Awareness) filtered or refracted through our Mind/Body.

Time is  a product of mind/body processes, and its only through memory and thinking that we create our personal illusion of time. The one Awareness we share refracted through our body/mind gives us the collective synchronization experience of time.

The Laws of Physics, that dictate how evolution unfolds are always experienced in the now.  Even when we recall them from memory or from learning it is always in the now.  So these Laws, such as the  law of thermodynamics, entropy etc., are just “Laws of Mind” on how consciousness unfolds through the topology of the body/mind.

Let’s consider what  it means to be unconscious to help us understand, a little.

We consider unconsciousness as being an experience such as dreamless sleep, being under anesthetic, or in a coma or any experience where there is no thoughts to be reflected on after such an experience.

If we are unconsciousness for 6 hours, or 3 years, and then wake up, it appears 6 hours or 3 years went in instant. This is clearly what we experience.  During dreamless sleep, as an example, there appears to be no Awareness or No Knowing to recall after waking.

But how do you know there was no Awareness or Knowing during dreamless sleep?
How can you depend on the mind to tell you about an experience during which it was not present?

No memory was recorded while you were unconscious, the mind  was not present to record any information, that you can later recall on  awakening . Hence it would feel like you have traveled into future,  or lost time.

Because we are conditioned to identify mind with our  awareness we think when we disappear Awareness will also disappear.  This is the grand illusion!

Time is a difficult concept to wrap your head around, and I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg about the nature of the experience of what we think time is.  For novelty and curiosity sake we will also explore in the simplest child like terms, Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity just to help you understand its nature to some extent.

Know only if necessary that being present, living in the now, with minimal thoughts,  of past and present  is the best advice to take, if you wish to ignore the mind twisting concepts. a little

Session 6 – You are Made of Awareness

Session 6 - You are made of Awareness

The “Consciouness” only model of reality (Idealism, Non-Dualism) is explained here through a series of metaphors, meditation practices and evidence from the world of science.

We will discover what is “Consciousness” ?  by coming to terms with the following:

Consciousness is that in which all experience appears.
Consciousness is that with which all experience is known.
Consciousness is that in which all experience is made of.

To Clarify or Summarize:

“Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.”  
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Greatest Misconception in Human History

The Greatest Misconception in Human History

The greatest overlooked and most Misunderstood Message in Human History.
I guess its worst then two fish in water, swimming, asking each other, “where is this water your talk about? we can’t see it or feel it, or sense it, we don’t believe it exists”. The fish are always looking in the wrong place, other fish think the existence of any water is an illusion, some are killing and dissecting other fish looking for the water, others want to believe in it but don’t see it, and can’t find it.

So, to Understand consider the following, even if it is oversimplified.
I am aware of my Thoughts (T)
I am aware of my Sensations (S)
I am aware of my Perceptions (P)
Call these experiences TSP, they are what gives the experience of the common waking world.

What is the common element in all these experiences? 
It is Awareness!
But furthermore, before I am Aware of TSP, I am also aware of my own Awareness!
Awareness’s primary experience is to be and know itself.

How do I know that I am?
The “I” that I am is aware that “I” am.
My being is an aware being.The “I” is Pure Awareness it is Self-Aware, it is self-luminous, it illuminates itself, and It knows itself by itself, through itself, in itself, as itself.

Awareness is your primary experience that you cannot deny.
We overlook it because it has no objective quality. We are immersed in the world of objects, and our attention to TSP veils us completely, and worst still some of us believe we are just TSP.

This is the Great Misconception, or the Pre/Current Egoistic stage of Human Evolution.
Your body/mind at birth, during your lifetime, and after death is never Aware (obviously after death it is in ashes or decayed, so it cannot be Aware). No object is Aware.

Its “I” pure awareness that is aware independent of mind/body and TSP.

The Implications
The implications of this take a long time to verberate and understand. It may even cause stress, annoyance, disbelief or even fear. Some will give cynical materialist reactions, like its only chemicals in the brain. Others give complete ignorance to the subject, ignoring it, or maybe silence for some. Some give a “woo woo” response if there is one.

Basically, Our Awareness does not need to take the shape of the body/mind (TSP) to know it itself, and Pure Awareness is refracted through body/mind to give us our conscious experience, our common waking experience.

The constant element in every experience
The constant element in every experience, is the experience of Being Aware of Being Aware. We are made of Awareness, and this Awareness is primordial, it predates us and post-dates us and the universe is made of it. There is only Awareness, the knowing of our experience, “The I AM”.



Understanding and feeling its nature and presence is the challenge.
Searching the literature and taking a comprehensive world view we see its been around since 2600 years ago, from the experience of Buddha, to the experiences of Jesus Christ , to experiences of every single Saint and Sage, Christian and not Christian throughout history and to Philosophers, Meta-Physicists, to Psychologist, to Clairvoyants, to NDE’s, to Science from to Quantum Physics, Einstein’s Special and General Relativity, to the “Hard Problem of science, leading to the “Consciousness Only Model of Reality”, together with all experiments, all our experiences, anecdotal or not, to only mention a few things, the tip of the iceberg, the puzzle is still in complete, undeniably, Awareness is primordial, and the Direct Path to Self-Realization and Love, is becoming clearer as blue sky.

Not necessarily through a religious angle, as the original messages seem to have evolved like “Chinese Whispers” to new meanings unrecognizable from the source. These evolved religious teachings some say are polluted with human ego, dogma, blind belief, and ritual.

Whereas the Direct Path I believe comes, instead from our own experience , from logic, from science, from experiment, from observation and most importantly from Meditation.



What is the “Hard Problem of Science” ?
When you look out into deep space, deep time and deep structure, you don’t find consciousness at all. (Remember the two fish metaphor above?)
Consciousness is a huge problem for science. And yet it is the one thing that none of us can deny.
We are conscious; we have experiences.
David Chalmers, philosophy professor at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, calls this the “hard problem” of science.  Others may call it “The Hard Problem of Consciousness”

What is the “Consciousness Only Model of Reality” ?
The current world paradigm is  slowly shifting away from Physicalism (Materialism), currently passing through the pantheist stage, (Pantheism) undoubtedly  still a form of Materialism, but a step  in the right direction,  and ultimately its concluding to us that the  model of reality known as the “Consciousness Only Model” (Non-Dualism/Idealism) is the most desirable model of reality.

Materialism: Consciousness and the Awareness is proposed to be local, brain produced, hence chemical reactions only,  and evolves when matter and information evolve into more complex  brains.

Pantheism: Proposes that all mater is conscious, the universe is conscious, and less complex matter like atoms if you like is basically  proto-type conscious, and  hence minimally conscious, the building blocks of higher consciousness. 

Idealism/Non-Dualism: Proposes that reality is totally mental. That there is only one Consciousness coming about from one Pure Absolute Awareness. This is favored model of reality as it brings the observer as central and makes sense of  a lot of Quantum Theories stranger  than fiction concepts, such as Entanglement, “Spooky Action at Distance” supported by experiment. It further supported by lots experience, anecdotal evidence, philosophy in history, just to mention a few things. 

Some quotes throughout history that give us a hint!

𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐡𝐚 – 𝟐𝟔𝟎𝟎𝐁𝐂
“Deluded people don’t realize that their own awareness is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.”

𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭 – 𝟑𝟑𝐀𝐃
“The Kingdom of God is within You” and “I and the Father are one”

𝐑𝐮𝐦𝐢 – 𝟏𝟐𝟔𝟎
“Although you appear in earthly form Your essence is pure Consciousness. You are the fearless guardian of Divine Light.”

𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐭 – 𝟏𝟕𝟗𝟎
“Space, time and matter are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality.

𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢 – 𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟎
“Who am I? Not the body, because it is decaying; not the mind, because the brain will decay with the body; not the personality, nor the emotions, for these also will vanish with death.”

𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐤𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 – 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟎
“Earth, Moon, stars and Sun revolve inside me”
“Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.”

𝐄𝐜𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞 – 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟐
Was Jesus the son of God? Yes. But so are you? You just haven’t realized it yet.

𝐑𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚 – 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟓
“It’s the light of awareness that renders or illuminates all experience knowable! And this ‘knowing’ is our self, aware presence. In other words, all that is ever experienced is our self-knowing itself, awareness aware of awareness.”, 

 

 

Meditation For Children, Our Experience

Meditation with Children, Our Experience -

Start to to help them understand and practice some stillness.

With two lively daughters aged 5 and 8 who are super active and can’t stay still at all, I constantly encourage the concept of “Stillness” for at least 5-10 mins every day, specifically first thing in the mornings.
This may involve listening for noises and discovering what these noises are. In all cases its important to make it simple and fun, with no strict rules about doing Meditation at any time.

For Example:

I may say to them “I think I can hear a frog outside, or maybe is a tiger!”.  

They then try to discover if that’s true.

They then may respond, “Dad you’re silly, it’s just a Bird”.

Practicing similar games has enabled them to sit still for at least 5 mins and play the game willingly.
I believe it’s a good start to deeper awareness and mindfulness, if practiced frequently.

Birds Chirping
Playing a YouTube video of “bird song for 5-10 mins”, or similar, but different each day has also worked.

Have a listen to:
Birds sounds / Birds chirping / Birds singing.
Crestvideos, Published on 29 Apr 2013

Simple Seated Yoga Nidra
What works well and is powerful, is to teach a simple short-seated Yoga Nidra to your children.  This begins by sitting still, closing your eyes and starting to think of your toes, wiggle them, and then relax them, then go to your feet wiggle them, then relax them, then your legs, and repeat, naming as many parts of the body that they know about, wiggle it, and then relax it, all the way to your arms, then head, neck, face, ears etc .etc., arriving and finishing by placing your hand on your centre heart, on your chest. Great start for body awareness, and stillness naturally happens in everyone, even in children as young as three.

Have a listen to: 
3 Minutes Body Scan Meditation – Mindfulness For Kids
Fableflye -The Whole Child
Published on 11 Apr 2017

Kids learn by watching Adults
Furthermore, and most importantly, children learn by watching their parents. When their Parents practice meditation often, they learn the “Meditation Word” early on. They then know it’s an important part of life and will eventually follow the trend. I believe this to be the most important action that will affect the whole family, and always for the better.

Continue doing what kids like doing
Of course going on outings, encouraging outside play, bush walking and outdoor adventures, is assumed and practiced as often as possible.

Please share and add your experience or any suggestions into the comments below.