This week’s meditation is adapted from a book by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj entitled “I Am That”, and is the essence of his entire teachings on self awareness / enlightenment. According to Maharaj, if you can simply keep the thought and feeling of “I am” at all times, the rest will follow naturally.

The first part of this week’s meditation is the following: for 10 minutes twice a day (once in the morning and once in the late afternoon or early evening) sit comfortably with your eyes closed and simply repeat the phrase “I am” in your mind. If other thoughts come, and they most likely will, just let them be... Watch them passing like clouds across the sky. Don’t try to block them or deny them, but don’t become attached to them or actively follow a train of thought. When you catch your mind wandering, gently bring it back to “I am”. Try to keep the feeling of the inner body simultaneously as the feeling of “I am”.

The second part of this meditation is to keep the “I am” thought repeating in your mind throughout the day as a living meditation. Life these days is very busy and draws you quickly out of yourself and into the world - I find it helpful, therefore, to have little reminders to bring me back to myself... Like post-it notes stuck up around the house, or a gentle beep from my phone every 30 minutes or so. Whenever you see or hear one of these reminders, simply start repeating the “I am” in your mind again and continue with whatever you are doing.

Maharaj has the following to say on the matter:

“Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought ‘I am’. The mind will rebel in he beginning, but with patience and perseverence it will yield and keep quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part.... Reject all that does not go with the basic fact: ‘I am’. The ideas: I am born at a given place, at a given time, from my parents and am now so-and-so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on, are not inherent in the sense ‘I am’. Our usual attitude is of ‘I am this’. Separate consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’, and try to feel what it means to be, just to be, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’.”

Wishing you a week of beingness!

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This is an adaptation from one of Eckhart Tolle’s exercises.

This week, set a reminder on your phone or computer to go off every hour (if you can) or at least 5 times in your day. When it does, take one minute to connect with your inner body (explanation below). To put this in perspective, for those of you resisting the interruptions to your day, this will only take 5-10 minutes out of your entire day ie less than one smoke break!

How to connect with the inner body:

Close your eyes and hold up your right hand. Without any movement or wind etc, how do you know that your right hand is still there? Your brain will want to come up with all sorts of logical explanations – ignore it. FEEL that your hand is there. In this way you are connecting with the inner life within your body. Now, keeping your eyes closed, feel your left hand, then your feet, and eventually extending this feeling throughout your body.

To feel the whole body might take some time and practice, so don’t feel disappointed in yourself if all you can feel is the one hand for now. In feeling even the one hand you are drawing your attention away from the external world and into the internal. Ideally we want to feel this to some degree all the time. That way we will not get lost in the world of objects, or in the constant antics of the mind. The world and the mind will still be there, and you will still be able to function in your life and job, but you won’t have your full attention lost in it. That is the point.

If you are struggling to get the feeling and not sure if you are on the right track, you can try the following: Standing with your legs slightly apart and your arms hanging loosely at your sides, bounce gently on your heels, letting your whole body hang loose and move with the bouncing. Do this for a minute or two and then stop and close your eyes. You should feel a tingling throughout your body, and this is basically the feeling that you are looking for when connecting with the inner body.

Once you have the hang of connecting with the inner body as described above, you can start feeling it without closing your eyes and extend this more and more throughout your day. Other great times to practice are standing in queues at the bank, when you’re stuck in traffic (yes, only once you can do it with your eyes open!), while you’re watching tv, while chatting on the phone....

Try this every hour for the next week, and then try extending it throughout your day.