Guided Nondual Meditation by Michael W. Taft

Streamed live on Dec 30, 2021

Okay. So let’s begin our meditation. Now as usual what I’d like you to do is take your

meditation posture and tonight I’ll just say, instead of going into all the details, I’ll just say; sit up nice and straight in a way that feels really comfortable and let the rest of your whole body relax. Okay. Just sit up nice and straight if you can. Don’t lean your back on the back of a chair but just sit up straight allowing your back to hold itself up in a way that feels really nice and allow the whole rest of your entire body to simply relax.

We’re going to do some extended relaxation type stuff tonight different than usual, a little bit different anyway. And instead of saying, “what I would like you to do–if you want to–it’s okay to do this relaxation part lying on your back,” it’s best if you do that with your knees elevated or a pillow under your knees so that your lower back is flat on the floor. However you do it, you can also do it in shavasana, you know corpse pose from yoga or whatever. But we want to really kick off this final meditation of the year. We want people to get very, very, very relaxed. And remember the other side of this, besides the relaxation, is staying real alert. So even though you’re getting real relaxed I don’t want you to get foggy or sleepy. So if you get foggy or sleepy, open your eyes or even meditate standing up because it’s very important that you don’t go into a dream or get drowsy. No matter how relaxed we get we want to stay a real alert.

Okay. Now that you are in whatever posture you’re going to take, let’s set our intention and also connect in with our resource. But tonight we’re going to mix connecting with the resource to the relaxation we’re doing. Okay, so we’re going to do that part together. So let’s just start with the intention where you remember why you’re meditating, what is the goal, why are you doing this at all. You might want to say, “hey, I want to connect with my own innermost wisdom and compassion and help to make the world a kinder place,” something like that. Who knows, but that might be one of your motivations some of your intention for your meditation. So I’ll just be silent for a moment while you connect in with your motivation for meditating, whatever that is.

Okay. Good. Now what we’re gonna do is; I want you to bring up a visualization, like we do very often in here, and this is part of our resource building, we visualize things that are powerful, helpful, transformative things that help us in essence get into the right headspace to do the meditation. Tonight what I’d like you to visualize–like we do visualize sometimes–is a beautiful sun, right? Like the sun in the sky. And I want you to visualize this sun in front of you, and it’s very warm in a pleasant way, not too hot very, very pleasant and also extremely beautiful, the color gold of the light is like a ghee candle, if you’ve ever seen the flame of a ghee lamp, not a candle, it’s a ghee lamp, it burns butter, right? And clarified butter, which is ghee, the color of that flame is this very, very exquisite golden hue. And so this sun in front of us, this three-dimensional spherical brilliant sun has this very, very beautiful soft golden hue. Okay, so picture that now in front of you very, very clearly.

And as usual this sun represents our own deepest Buddha nature, the fact that we are all already enlightened bodhisattvas and so we’re going to take on some of the properties but we’re going to really dwell on particular properties. So we’re going to do this in a different order than normal, okay? So I want you to first see a ray of light, a beautiful ray of light coming from this golden sun and hitting you in the lower belly, right? This hara region of your lower belly, the lower dantian. It’s like an energy spot you can feel. It’s like a couple inches below your navel and it’s a couple inches inside. It’s really easy to notice once you get the sense of–there’s a spot in there that just feels like a nexus or something. And so the energy coming from the sun this beautiful golden energy is pouring into the lower belly and it’s filling you with a sense of liveliness, a sense of awakeness, a sense of play and spontaneity, but mainly just health, and strength, and vigor, right? It’s really lively, this is the liveliness spot and so you’re feeling that energy pouring into your body, pouring into your body making you feel energized, awake, healthy, genki, right? Ready for anything, bushy-tailed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed is what this spot does. Okay, so feel that now, take that in and really notice that on the in-breath that energy gets even stronger and on the out-breath it kind of suffuses through your body.

Good. Now while that continues to happen, that beam of that ray of light from the sun keeps pouring into your lower belly, another beam comes into your forehead and you feel this ray of light bringing wisdom, and clarity, and confidence, right? It’s bringing wisdom, and clarity, and confidence and you feel this very strongly, very deeply. It’s quite clear. It’s quite clear, you can see that tremendously clearly, and you feel the wisdom, you feel the confidence. And again the whole field of the mind brightens, and clarifies, right? So your deepest, wisest, most intelligent mind comes forward beaming from the sun, the sun of our own already existing enlightened wisdom. And again we’re feeling that come in on the in-breath and then suffuse through the whole body the whole being on the out-breath.

Good. Now this is the part we’re going to really focus on tonight; a third ray of light comes, the other two are still going, but a third ray of light comes into your heart and it touches you in the most sensitive, private, deepest part of your heart, right? The heart of hearts as we sometimes say, right? In your heart of hearts. And you really feel that ray of light from the sun touching you deeply. It’s not hitting the front of your chest in an armored way and you’re kind of guarding against it, no, you’re wide, wide, wide open and the ray of light comes into your chest and begins to fill your heart with kindness, and caring, and compassion, and love and you feel very deeply that this sun of enlightened wisdom in front of you is beaming a kind of complete unconditional acceptance to you, right? It loves you. It wants the best for you. It sees your highest qualities, your best qualities, your highest aspirations. It sees only the best in you, only the good in you. And it’s really the light from this ray–it’s really highlighting all the very best things within you. And you really feel that love and that acceptance and it’s allowing you to kind of glow with a feeling of being loved, and being cared for, and being accepted, and being mothered.

On the in-breath you feel yourself taking more of that in. This is like perfect mothering, right? It’s not like, whatever–no matter how good our human mother has been, they will always have their flaws. But this is perfect mothering. This is Buddha mothering everything just right, everything unconditional, everything just about kindness, just about caring, just about protection, just about wanting the best for you and seeing who you really are, seeing what you really need and just filling you up with that sense of being seen, and cared for, and loved and on each out-breath that just suffuses your whole being, not only your whole body but your whole mind, and your whole being, right? You really feel that sense of being tremendously cared for, tremendously seen, totally understood. So feel that now.

Okay. Good. Now continuing to allow these three beams of light to come into your body, into your mind, into your being. Let’s begin doing our shamatha with an object. We’re going to be meditating on relaxation so we’re not–usually we meditate on breathing while allowing the body to relax–tonight we’re going to meditate on the relaxation itself and the breathing is part of it but our main focus is the relaxation.

Okay, so what I want you to notice here is that the three beams now converge into one beam, just a beam from the sun of enlightened wisdom that’s still shining in front of you. And this beam of gold and yellow light into the heart and that contains all the wisdom stuff from the mind and all the healing energy stuff from the belly, but it’s mainly the love, and the kindness, and the caring in the heart. And so it’s one big beam into the heart. Okay and this beam now is–because it feels so good to feel so cared for, you can start to relax. 

And so I want you to allow this radiant light that’s glowing in your heart now to begin to fill your face and head. So the muscles of the forehead relax, and the eyes relax, and feel them suffusing with this energy of being cared for, energy of kindness, energy of love, energy of being understood. Your cheeks, your lips, your chin, your tongue, your scalp, the whole head–even on the inside–your whole brain, your whole nasal passages, everything in the head is suffusing with this golden yellow light of being loved, and being cared for and it’s just like causing everything in the head to relax, and to let go, and to feel ease, and peace. 

And I want you to not focus on the things that aren’t letting go, focus on the things that are letting go, things that do feel good, the things that feel pleasant, that feel relaxed. And the tension just drains away more, and more, and more, and more, and more as you notice clearly that areas of the face and head are feeling more gentle, more relaxed, more open, more at ease, and also more awake. And on the in-breath you feel more of that golden yellow light filling the head and causing peace, and ease, and openness, and acceptance, and kindness, and love to fill the entire face and head. And then on the on the out-breath, you feel that growing stronger, right? On the out-breath the relaxation, the relief, the openness, the kindness, the love grows even stronger. So let’s just do that with the head now for a moment or two.

Good. Now let’s imagine this light coming from the sun in front of us, the sun of enlightened wisdom beaming into our hearts. And now it’s radiating up and not only filling the head but it’s filling the neck, and the throat, and the shoulders, that whole collar region in front and in back, and even all the way inside. And all the tension there just melts like wax melting in a candle, and it all just drains away, it drains out. And instead, the neck, and throat, and the shoulders fill with this delicious glowing light of kindness, and caring, and love, and being accepted, and being understood, and being completely seen. And so all the tension in the throat, all the tension in the neck, all the tension in the shoulders just relaxes and drains away. And on the in-breath you feel you can even visualize more and more of this gold and yellow light filling the neck, filling the throat, filling the shoulders all the way inside. And everything relaxing more and more deeply. And then on the out-breath, it lets go even more completely. 

With each out-breath it relaxes more totally, it relaxes more fully, it relaxes more completely so that not only your face and head but now your throat and neck and shoulder region is glowing and releasing in the light of this tremendous kindness, love, caring and nurturing. 

Good. Now on the next in-breath the light begins to fill the arms, and hands, and fingers. They’re filled, they become yellow radiant sunlight. They’re glowing with a radiant peace. All the tension drains away. They become limp like wet noodles and they fill with golden light and all the tension drains away and they begin to feel relaxation. All the knots in your arms, all the tightness in the wrists and the hands, all that just drains away. And instead, your arms and hands and fingers feel that very touching presence of kindness, of caring, of being seen in a positive light, being nurtured, being cared for. You really feel that mothering energy just loving up your face, your head, your neck and throat, your shoulders, your arms and your hands. And on the in-breath, even more light comes in, and you feel more relaxation spreading through the body, and on the out-breath it gets even stronger in a very pleasant way. 

This sun of our own enlightened wisdom is just beaming this energy into the heart and then the energy suffusing the body, this energy of love, this energy of kindness, this energy of relaxation, and release, and letting go. Just like you’re a baby in the arms of this bodhisattva mommy, this Buddha mommy, who’s holding you and caring for you as deeply and completely and totally as it’s possible to be cared for. So just let go into that now and notice how it’s possible to just simply drop now into a much deeper place, a much deeper relaxation, a more total letting go, layers of letting go, deeper, right? When you just open up. 

And the beam from that radiant sun of wisdom and love comes more completely into your heart. And then on the next in-breath you notice your whole chest region, your whole upper back, even your belly, and your lower back region, the whole trunk and torso is suffused with this radiant light, this golden light of love and kindness, and all the tension drains away. And you feel, on the out-breath, this kind of tremendous letting go of tension in the body. You feel a tremendous sense of love filling your heart. It’s kind love, it’s really sweet, it’s really caring, it really sees you, it really understands you, it really wants only the best for you, and it’s nurturing every little best thing about you in every possible way and everything else just drains away. And you feel the whole trunk of your body just releasing and opening, and releasing and opening, and releasing and opening, experiencing a kind of mother Buddha love that you’ve never experienced in your entire life before, it’s deeper, and purer, and more total, and it allows your whole torso, your arms and hands, your neck, your upper body, the whole upper body and the head to just release and open, and be filled with this radiant light of love and kindness, to be filled with this golden glow of health and joy and compassion. 

And again it’s so sweet, and so real, and deep, and kind, and open that it allows you to just drop even more deeply now, to just drop now into like a very, very open place where you’re just almost like simply a ray, a body of golden light and more and more of this golden sunlight fills your whole pelvic region, and your legs, and your feet, and your toes. And you feel all tension, all tightness, all discomfort draining out of your legs and feet and toes. And on the in-breath even more sunlight of golden love comes into your legs and feet and toes and on the out-breath they become more and more suffused with this kindness, infused with love, infused with caring, infused with a sense the body is accepted exactly as it is. The entire body is accepted exactly as it is. The entire emotional body is accepted exactly as it is. The entire mind is accepted and loved exactly as it is. The whole, your whole being is loved and accepted and cared for and even cherished, utterly cherished exactly as it is. 

And the impact of feeling so much caring, and so much connectedness, and so much understanding and so much kindness just changes your entire being, your whole body, your mind, your emotions, everything into a body of radiant golden light. And on the in-breath more golden light fills the body and then the out-breath it grows even stronger and you feel any last vestiges of tension just draining out of the body and the whole body feels like it’s made of light. It feels good. It feels energized. It feels relaxed. It feels like everything is just perfect in the body, just that wonderful feeling of everything being just right, and loved, cared for, kind. 

And as you fill up your gas tank of love and kindness and caring, you begin to notice that your body of radiant golden light is starting to glow even brighter, starting to glow even brighter, and on the in-breath it takes in more light, and then on the out-breath it glows brighter, and then on the in-breath it takes in even more light from the sun of radiant wisdom in front of you, and then in the out breath it glows even brighter. And now, on the next in-breath, the sun of the radiant wisdom in front of us actually enters us, it comes in and fills our whole body so that our radiant body of golden light and this radiant sun of golden light are just one golden light. So let’s just breathe with that now for a while together, letting this radiant light fill our body and then actually radiate out further from us. Now feeling that love, basking in that kindness, steeping in the caring and loving.

Okay. Good. Now what I want you to do is notice that this radiant body of golden light centered in the heart is just effortlessly glowing and spreading this sense of Buddha mother love, kindness, caring, connection out in all directions. Okay, and I want you to begin to radiate this love and kindness towards–we’re going to begin with the people right around us, the people in your life closest to you, the people who are your loved ones, your family, the animals who are your loved ones and family, people who are in your inner circle. And I want you to just picture this radiant golden sweetness and kindness beaming out from you in all directions and individually see each person and/or animal or whatever kind of being they are, see them touched by this golden light of Buddha love, mother Buddha love, kindness and caring and it makes them tremendously happy. See their faces happy or their tails wagging or whatever. See them as radiant, joyous, healthy, happy, filled with peace and joy. 

Okay, so this radiant love of the Buddha heart within you, the mother Buddha kindness love heart within you–see it affecting all the people around you and just keep feeling it in yourself. Don’t let this get fraught or difficult in any way, just see it as just pure you, just want the best for them. You just want them to be happy and healthy. You just want to help them to thrive. Anything that makes them joyous, that’s healthy and happy, makes you joyous. And then the joy of that radiant love and kindness just grows and grows, so see all the loved ones around you individually becoming utterly impacted, utterly loved by this radiant light now. Now this radiant delicious golden light of love and kindness and caring is so overjoyed at our loved ones also feeling joy, feeling love, feeling caring and seeing them happy, seeing/thinking about them doing well, that we glow even brighter even more golden even more loving even more completely caring and kind, wanting what’s best for everyone, wanting what’s best for each being in the world, seeing them doing their best and rejoicing in that. And actually taking action to take care of them, to help them to do even better. 

So that our entire body now is not body shaped. It’s like a sphere or a globe of yellow light centered on the heart, tremendously large and now we are the sun of yellow light, right? We are the sun of this mother Buddha love. And let the sun radiate out now to your whole neighborhood, everyone in your immediate vicinity, all the animals, all the beings in your neighborhood. Just picture even all the plants, even all the insects, everything, even the water, and the air, everything becomes healthier, happier. The radiant kindness of your mother Buddha love fills them with joy, fills them with a sense of being seen, fills them with a sense of kindness and caring, fills them with a sense that they are appreciated for being just exactly who and what they are. Just allow this light of your heart, this light of the sun, this golden light of caring and kindness just radiate even more brightly, even more powerfully, even more beautifully. And allow it to just melt your mind, allow it to just melt any confusion, any struggle in the mind. 

And your whole mind just also turns to radiant light so that all that is filling the mind is images of beings becoming happy and healthy filled with peace and love and just filled up to the brim with this sense of nurturing and kindness and caring.

Okay. Good, and now we’re going to go really wide. I want you to notice that this feeling of love and kindness and joy and feeling cared for that you’re bathing in and also radiating out now spreads to encompass the whole world. So every human in the world, every animal in the world, every being in the world, even plants and trees, even the air and water, even the earth, even the sky, allow this radiant love, this kindness, this caring, the sense of really seeing how tremendously indescribably valuable each being is, how indescribably precious each being is and radiating out the sense of caring for them, loving them, really seeing them for who they really are and allowing the whole world to just bask in this radiant kindness of Buddha love. And remember you’re a being in the world too so you’re continuing to just open more and more deeply, to be suffused with this love, and your mind is just melted, it’s just absolutely melted into radiant glowing yellow light of compassion and kindness and caring. 

Good. And now let this loving kindness and caring and beautiful golden light spread out to fill the entire universe and all universes everywhere, bringing kindness caring love compassion to all beings everywhere.

Good. Now notice that in the light of this mother Buddha love there’s no boundary anywhere, right? This radiant light of mother Buddha love pervades all space. Nothing can block it. It radiates everywhere. And then also notice that this radiant golden light of Buddha love, Buddha compassion, Buddha caring has been here since beginningless time and will be here forever. It didn’t start anywhere. It will never end. It’s simply eternally present and present everywhere.

Good. And then notice that this light of Buddha kindness is present everywhere and therefore doesn’t really have a center, even though it felt like it’s radiating from our heart, it’s actually located everywhere and radiating through the entire universe and so it doesn’t really even have a center, or we could say everywhere including our heart is the center.

Good. And notice that your mind is melted and opened into golden light. All thoughts, all imaginings, all emotions, all sense of personality, even the sense of doing anything is just dissolved into golden light. And this golden light is very soft, very gentle and notice that this golden light is present everywhere and at the same time a single point of it is glowing incredibly brightly in the center of your being, a single point of light glowing in a vast space of awareness. This light is pristine, this light is perfect, this light is beautiful, it’s kind, it’s loving, it’s caring, it’s wise, it’s clear, it’s filled with life, it’s filled with energy, it’s filled with playfulness and spontaneity.

Just be with that light now, be that light now. And now noticing that even that light itself is in some ways empty and yet there. Just like thoughts and feelings are empty but there. Personality, the body, it’s empty but there. Time and space, the world around you, people, beings empty but there. There’s a real sense of connectedness with everything. No boundary between ourselves and anything else, a real sense of the nobility and dignity of every being, almost indescribable preciousness of every being and even of the world itself, of water, air, sky, of mountains and trees, of the land. Really feel that now and at the same time feel its dreamlike quality, its tremendous ephemerality as we bring this final meditation of the year to a close.

Let’s just spend a moment dedicating ourselves to appreciating our life, appreciating all the other beings in our life, appreciating the world, the fact that there is a world to be in. Appreciating all the beings, appreciating all that we have and really feeling that now. And then we can bring the meditation to a close very gently, still feeling relaxed, still feeling open, feeling suffused with love and kindness and caring and allowing your body to move and stretch and feel good. The body likes to move. Allow the body to move. Maybe have a drink of water.

Dharma Talk

And so what I’d like to do tonight is instead of—the meditation was its own teaching—instead of just repeating everything I said in the meditation or having you ask questions, instead what I’d like to do tonight is have everyone who’s still with us, all 32 of you in this experience tonight I’d like you in the chat window to bless everyone, just talk about your love and your kindness and caring for everyone in the world. So each person because if we could do it and go around one at a time in a room we would say please you know speak of your love and your joy and your blessing for the world but instead I’d just like you to type it in the chat window each one of you. And then we’ll all just read those together. Okay so please go ahead. And it doesn’t have to be long. It just has to be heartfelt. This isn’t about being articulate or being poetic it’s simply about speaking from the heart, speaking truth from the heart and if you’re watching this video doing this guided meditation later, even years later please in the comment window make a comment about kindness and caring for other beings, all the other beings in the meditation, all the other beings in the world, the world itself. Just share with us some heartfelt blessing now.

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