Transcription
Now you're looking at man sitting on a chair or on the screen, the amplified version of the man sitting on the chair, and you might be aware of the totality of the room peripherally. You're aware of the totality of the room also. All this is part of your visual perception right now, and that's fine. So they are your your attention, your f the focus of your attention is there.
And now my suggestion is, uh, as you as your attention is focused on the vis visual perception, at the same time, can you be aware of yourself? As I've said before on various occasions, this does not mean you fall below thought. You rise above thought. You fall below thought when when you're halfway towards sleep. You're so tired that you can't think anymore. And to approach sleep feels quite nice. You can't remember your problems anymore and your history. And you're moving towards sleep. And it's delicious. Sleep beckons you. But you're falling below thinking.
The same happens with many kinds of drugs that temporarily can free you from the, well, we could call it the self, the mind-made self. Certain drugs can temporarily free you, but you don't rise above thought. You usually fall a below thought. There are certain other types of drugs that are used in a particular setting, in a sacred setting, that certain drugs that have been used for thousands of years in religious or spiritual ceremonies. That's a different matter. I can cannot say much about it because I have never experienced that kind of thing. So I don't like to talk about something that I have no direct experience of.
But so-called recreational drugs that are not that are taken just to uh experience moments where the ego is absent or in the background. Um, that for some people can be those, especially those people who are very much burdened by their mind. The continuous torture of their mind. When they take the drug, they can get a little space of freedom and can relax for a while without the torture of their minds. And so you have a little smoke. Life is good. It's so good. And you even start laughing perhaps. It looks as you super looked at superficially. You look as you had suddenly become enlightened. But you haven't. But it can get you give you a little glimpse of what is possible when you become free of thought.
But dependency on these things usually means that you begin to move below thought more and more. And that is a state to totally different vibrational frequency, a state of diminished alertness rather than heightened alertness. Whereas the state of presence is a heightened alertness, but also a relaxed alertness. There's no tension in presence.
So here's a very simple little practice. I call it practice, but at some point it becomes second nature and then it's not a practice anymore. When you look at something, anything, or use other senses too, but let's for a moment talk about the visual sense. You look at something, for example, now you're looking at man sitting on a chair or on the screen, the ampl amplified version of the man sitting on the chair, and you might be aware of the totality of the room peripherally. You're aware of the totality of the room also. Or this is part of your visual perception right now, and that's fine. So they are your your attention, your f the focus of your attention is there.
And now my suggestion is, uh, as you as your attention is focused on the vis visual perception, at the same time, can you be aware of yourself? No, the question is, what self? I don't mean the historical self, the person, not that self, but a deeper self, the the presence of you, the being of you. Can you be aware of that and at the same time still have enough awareness left to perceive everything? So then you have You're aware of two things. You're aware of the perception and you're aware of yourself as the perceiving consciousness. You can sense that there is a presence and the perception is happening in that presence.
That is easier in certain situations, in some situations and in others. Is perhaps relatively easy here, here and now. But in your daily life, often many things are going on that and they all demand, desperately demand your attention. And then of course, it's not easy to practice also being aware of yourself as a perceiving presence. The phone rings and this and then somebody comes in and have you done this? No, not yet. Everything demands your attention. Your devices, they make noises. Bing bing, something's coming in. So you you completely losing yourself in the externals, uh, like it's continually being drained of energy, of losing it, a leakage. And then you people then become totally unentered. Uh, there's no point of rest in them at all. They they're completely all over the place. And many people live like that every day. And unfortunately, even young people these days, children, because they interact so much with these devices have very short attention spans. Reading a book would can become difficult because nothing is happening. You have to keep your attention on it. God, I can't do that. What's the next thing that I can lose myself into? Horrible thing. Um, a huge danger for human consciousness that we are facing. It's it's been bad enough even without the devices that we have. But now we have invented these devices. They amplify many of the dysfunctions of the egoic self that were already there even before, but now they become amplified.
Yes, the devices can also be used for more helpful purposes, for more consciousness. They're certain. You could listen to echole on your device and become present, but then put it away so that you don't get dependent on it. And then you don't need anything or anybody, but it's your. So this is a wonderful practice, uh, to be used in association with sense perception. So now I'm talking about the visual because for most humans, the visual is a predominant sense perception, followed by auditory, followed by either taste or tactile sense perceptions. But you can practice with any sense perception.
You can practice with taste. For example, anything that you perceive. Here's a glass of water. And as I taste the water, tastes good. Can I be aware of myself as a perceiving consciousness without which there would be no sense perception? There must be a consciousness that makes the sense perception possible. And so that consciousness incarnates into the sense perception, so to speak. Um, the sense perception arises by created by this consciousness. You wouldn't perceive anything without the consciousness behind the sense perception. So become become aware of yourself as the awareness behind the sense perception that makes the sense perception possible. And that is a and so you practice that.
Auditory also. This is when you listen to any kind of sound. Natural sounds are particularly helpful. Bird song or hearing the the wind in the trees or or the the sea, the noise of water, any kind of water. Um, and so you listen to the noise, give it attention, but not 100% of your attention. Some attention is kept back and remains on the attention itself. Attention becoming aware of itself as the attention because you don't need to totally be in that thing. So you practice with relatively simple things, um, natural things. Perceive natural.
But visually, tactile, there's also the sense of smell. You can there's a a breeze there, certain if you there may be a certain scent in the air of nature or whatever it may be, and then you also perceive that. Um, you might even be, um, able to perceive a moment with all senses engaged. It's very rare, but it's possible that this you can taste, smell, touch, auditory, visual. So you're totally, every all the senses are alert, but behind it is a perceiving consciousness, and that gives you and that is the point of a point of rest, a point of stillness. You're centered within yourself. You're rooted in being. Rooted in being.