Infinitive Awarenes and Intimate Awareness practice

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Christopher Robin said, “'What I like doing best is Nothing.'
'How do you do Nothing,' asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.
'Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, "What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?" and you say, "Oh, Nothing," and then you go and do it.
It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.'
'Oh!' said Pooh.”   

"Pooh!"
"Yes, Christopher Robin?"
"I'm not going to do Nothing any more."
"Never again?"
"Well not so much. They don't let you."

 “You live in illusion and appearance of things.  There is a reality, but you do not know this.  When you understand this, you will see that you are nothing.  And being nothing, you are everything.  That is all.” –Kalu Rinpoche

We can practice experience that we are nothing, by sitting quietly then silently reflecting upon these questions: 

·        First, silently reflect upon how would you describe yourself?

·        What would it feel like to throw all those labels away? 

·        Who were you before you first had your heart broken? 

·        Who were you when you were when you were just born? 

·        Who are you without the filters of your past experiences?

I was reading a story about a doctor who had a transformative experience delivering a child.  He said that a woman came to the ER in the throes of childbirth, and he shifted into gear to help her have this child.  Initially, he said that he felt like the expert, the one who was going to save her and her baby.  Then, minutes later, the baby came out, and as the doctor suctioned the baby’s mouth so she could breathe, she opened her eyes, and looked up at him.  He said that moment of knowing he was the first person she had ever seen gave him such a sense of awe and wonder.  He realized that he was no longer the expert saving someone, but simply a fellow traveler on this journey of life.

Each of us here are fellow travelers on this journey of life.  We are here in this moment together, sharing this experience, in fact, co-creating this experience. Jack Kornfield goes on to say that emptiness is contagious, by letting go of the filters and illusions, we are encouraging and inspiring others around us.  It is often said that we are not trying to be Buddhists, but rather Buddha, and each of us are capable of being a Buddha, an awakened bundle of energy and inspiration. 

So, together we are creating this experience of emptiness, the luminous void.  Getting comfortable resting in the silence, going beyond the mind chatter that often distracts us and is often responsible of this illusion of a self and a world based in such a limited way by merely our past experiences.  Meditation support the experience of getting comfortable with nothingness—even to begin to see the vastness and spaciousness that is created by doing nothing. 

There is no place to go—here it is right now.  He ends the chapter by relating Isaac Newton’s view of the world:

“To myself, I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me” 

We can practice experiencing each moment with childlike wonder, and with this practice, the vast unknown does not have to be a source of terror, but the potential for awe and wonder.

Guided meditation:  Infinite Awareness and Intimate Awareness Practice