Relief From The Restlessness

Direct your mind inward and allow it to contemplate its primary quality, which is simply knowing, being aware. This faculty of awareness-which is mindfulness in its pure state-illuminates all thoughts and all perceptions. It is a constant and fundamental quality of the flow of consciousness. You can experience it even in the absence of thoughts and mental images. Try to identify this primordial aspect of all experience, and then let your mind rest a few moments in this nondual awareness that is clear, lucid, and devoid of concepts and discursive thoughts.
– MATTHIEU RICARD

Hay House – Daily Meditations – August 12, 2012 – Heal Your Life

What a love collection of words.  How to find relief from the restlessness of living life on the Earth?  Going deeper to find the ground of being and truth of who we are.  Who Am I?  One of the oldest spiritual questions known to man.

Meditating for long periods of time has challenged my inner restlessness on a mental and physical level.  At the ashram, we sit with a thin rug, so adjusting to using my core/back muscles, stretching my knees, opening my hips, finding the balance point, so I can relax into the posture and narrowing my mind wandering have all been part of the path again.  I don’t get frustrated when my mind pulls something up on the rolodex that appears out of alignment with “spiritual” thinking.  I just view it and then move on–acknowledging it but not getting caught in the web of analysis.  When my body gets fatigued in one position, I shift but I don’t get caught in the distraction of it–I just adjust and move on.

After only 24 days of meditating, my body and mine are adapting remarkably.  I can have my legs folded in a cross-legged position for longer periods of time with more comfort, but if the pain sets in then I move them to the side with the focus on my spine straightness. My mind doesn’t want to stay involved in the distraction of the outer sounds as my soul is pulling me inward.

At this point, the vessel is both the mind and the physical boundary of the body, so I try to embrace and work with both as partners on the path while I move to unveil the presence of the soul.