Inner Work

For the week of July 6, 2009

Allowing All As Is

(Part 2 of 9 in the series: Stages of Becoming Conscious)

Having established ourselves, at least temporarily, in a state of sensing our presence, we move into a practice that can be described easily, yet profoundly affects the whole of our life, the whole of our spiritual path. That practice is letting go, non-doing, accepting, relaxing, not just our body, heart, and mind, but our very self.

In meditation, after sensing our presence, we do nothing. We just sit. We give up trying to shape or manipulate our inner experience to achieve some state. We do not even do non-doing. We just sit. For that time, we set down the burden of being who we think we are and doing what we want to do — or think we should do. When any thoughts arise, we let them come and we let them go. When emotions, physical sensations, sights, or sounds arise, we let them come and we let them go. We do not even intentionally observe or pay attention to what’s going on. We just sit and do nothing. We do not try to be the one who is doing nothing. We do not be anything at all. We allow our life and experience to be as it is and as it changes, effortlessly. We release our grip.

Perhaps we grow tired, nearly falling asleep. So be it. We just sit, allowing the tiredness and sleepiness to be as they are, to unfold naturally. The fact that we have preceded the allowing practice with establishing a robust sense of our presence prevents the letting go from lapsing into an ordinary dreamy reverie. Something more is there. Eventually we find that, like all other things, the tiredness and sleepiness pass, leaving us alert and relaxed with our selfing selfness diminished — no experiencer, just experiencing. No one who is letting go, no one who is accepting, no one who is rejecting, just the ever-changing contents of the field of awareness.

This relaxed letting go allows our sensitive energies to settle into their place, to form the natural foundation for consciousness. The experience of our body, our mind, and our emotions flows vivid and rich. And our attitude of allowing it all to be as it is removes the hooks, the stickiness that usually sweeps us away with the stream of experience. The layer of sensitive energy stands smoothed and ready to receive and reveal consciousness.

The practice of letting go also trains us in a deeper way by preparing us for a different experience of who we truly are. It shows us we are not our thoughts, our body, our emotions, or our habitual patterns of acting and reacting.

For this week, in your meditation, after establishing a full sense of your presence, practice doing nothing, not becoming attached to the content of experience, not manipulating, and not even trying to observe or to be.

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