At The Movies: Taking Our Seat As Pure Awareness

ZenFriend
ZenFriend
Jul 23, 2017 · 3 min read

“There’s a great bumper sticker (perhaps you’ve seen it) that reads: Don’t believe everything you think. This good advice points to an insight that is cultivated through meditation: You don’t have to respond to that chattering voice in your mind, that never-ending stream of thoughts. You don’t have to get caught up in the whirlwind of its dramas. Instead, you can learn to observe the thoughts in your mind in a similar way to how you might watch a movie.”

- Elizabeth Reninger, from Meditation Now

Taking Our Seat As A Physical Body

To “take our seat” in meditation can refer to the physical posture that we assume, i.e. how we arrange our bones and muscles. It can useful, for instance, to sit in a way that allows the spine to be in its naturally upright position. And if we’re sitting on the floor, crossing our legs can help create a sense of being well-grounded and stable. But it’s also important to understand that meditation doesn’t require any specific physical posture. In any physical position that you happen to be in (sitting, standing or lying down) it’s possible to meditate.

Taking Our Seat As A Mind With An Upright Attitude

Taking our seat can also refer to having an upright attitude — an attitude of openness, curiosity, enthusiasm, energy, patience and perseverance. In the same way that we can sit with the physical body in an upright position, we can bring our mind — our mental-emotional attitude — into an upright position. This sets the stage for a productive meditation session, in the same way that tilling and fertilizing the soil of our garden sets the stage for the blossoming of beautiful flowers.

Taking Our Seat As Pure Awareness

Most fundamentally, taking our seat refers to abiding in and as our “natural state” of Pure Awareness. When we’ve taken our seat as Pure Awareness, the appearances of self and world arise within the “space” of Awareness in the way that images appear on a movie screen. Though the images come and go, the “screen” of Awareness remains — and is wholly unaffected by the shape or color of any of the images.

From our seat in and as Pure Awareness, we can see more clearly the arising and dissolution of perceptions, sensations, thoughts and images (i.e. the phenomenal content of the movie-mind). We can choose to remain simply as an observer of these perceptions, sensations, thoughts and images — like when we’re watching a movie — rather than identifying with these phenomena, and being drawn into their drama. We’re able to distinguish — within our direct experience — between (1) the non-phenomenal “space” of Awareness; and (2) the phenomenal contents of Awareness (viz. perceptions, sensations, thoughts and images).

And we realize — a la the bumper sticker mentioned above — that we don’t have to believe everything that we think, which is a great relief — and nurtures a sense of spaciousness, freedom, playfulness and ease.

Taking Our Seat As Pure Awareness Doesn’t Take Time

We also come to understand that meditation in its deepest sense — what we might call True Meditation — is not a “state” that comes and goes. Rather it is our natural state –- the aware presence that is the background of all experience: a “dimension” beyond time and space. So technically it requires no time at all to take our seat as Pure Awareness! The paradox, however, is that oftentimes practicing a specific meditation technique — which appears to happen “in time” — supports us in knowingly abiding in/as the timeless nature of who we are essentially.

For support in explorations such as these — and a way to connect with like-minded friends — check out the ZenFriend app and online community!

Peacefully Yours

ZenFriend

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