One-hour guided nondual meditation by Michael Taft

Meditation sequence:
1:30 – Posture guidance
3:57 – Rousing bodhicitta
5:17 – Shamatha with an object (breath) and guided relaxation
21:14 – Dissolving on the outbreath
40:47 – Shamatha without an object
50:43 – “Just look!”
55:40 – Return to shamatha without an object

1:01:46 – Dharma talk etc., lasting about 30 min.

If the things we experience in meditation have any relevance at all, then they should be evident to us directly. It’s something like the old Philip K. Dick line, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” In other words, the answer to all your meditation questions, life conundrums, spiritual problems, and so forth is directly evident to you. It doesn’t matter whether you know the “correct” answer or not. Just look for yourself, right now! That is the pith instruction for this meditation, and—if you decide to use it that way—for life in general.

After getting focused and spending some time in the unsupported concentration state (i.e. Shamatha without an object), Michael guides viewer through a series of inquiry questions. You will not find the correct answers to these questions in your memory, nor through thinking about them. It’s like being asked if it’s raining outside. The best way to answer the question is to open the drapes and simply look for yourself, not to look it up on an app.

Too often we take the stance that spiritual teachings and meditations are about learning the right answers and then remembering them and being able to regurgitate them on demand. This is just brain-washing, and doesn’t represent insight. Insight comes from looking (-sight) inside (in-) directly. As the Buddha said, “see for yourself.”

Michael strongly emphasizes the phrase “just look!” over and over to encourage you to cut through the timidity, the hesitance, the desire to “do it right,” the need for answers. To cut through the addiction to the thinking mind, and the need to rely on linear rational conceptualization. Just look! Now!

Contribute to making more of these videos: https://patreon.com/michaeltaft

Related