.
For meditation, another important thing is what we call
"the four liberations."
The first is "primordial liberation."
Primordial liberation means —
we're already liberated from the beginning.
We don't need to be liberated again.
For example, for meditation,
the most important thing is awareness,
and awareness is with us all the time,
no matter who you are or where you are.
Awareness is more than thoughts,
emotions, and feelings.
Awareness is like the sky,
and thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and memories—
all these are like clouds.
No matter what kind of cloud comes,
it doesn't change the essence of the sky.
Whether there's a beautiful or an ugly cloud,
a blue sky with the sun shining —
or dark sky with a hurricane in the night,
it doesn't change the nature of the sky.
The sky is always free from the beginning.
That's the primordial liberation — we're already free.
And the second is
what we call "self-liberation."
Self-liberation, in the context of when you meditate —
the awareness practice —
first, you've to recognize awareness
when you meditate,
that's the view.
You already understand, right?
Awareness means knowing.
You know what you're thinking, feeling,
doing, seeing, experiencing —
all of this is awareness.
When we meditate,
at first it's quite difficult to connect
with awareness itself — without a support,
so we can use a support like the breath.
The breath reminds us to connect with awareness —
breathing in and breathing out.
Eventually,
not only has the breath become a support for you,
actually, what you see, hear, sounds,
visual objects, smells, tastes, sensations, thoughts,
and even emotions — everything becomes a —
help to recognize awareness,
a support for your meditation.
So that's what we call, “self-liberation”.
There's no need to get rid of thoughts or emotions —
not even negative emotions, strong emotions,
or even the crazy monkey mind.
The monkey mind also becomes a support for your meditation.
This is self-liberation.
The third —
is what we call "direct liberation."
Direct liberation has —
more to do with the present —
and especially with open awareness.
When we meditate,
our mind is just being with awareness itself.
You don't need to use any object.
At first, you need to use it,
but eventually, you aren't using any objects.
Awareness is like the light, here, in this room.
In the space, there's light right now.
There's space between you and me.
Or between this video and you,
there's space.
And this space has light.
How do you see light?
You can't see light in space easily.
You need to see light on something.
Maybe you see light on the screen now,
or the light on my face.
Or you see light on the wall,
ceiling,
floor — or something like that.
At first, we practice awareness connected with an object.
But eventually, awareness is with itself.
That's open awareness —
to directly connect with awareness,
to directly connect with space,
to see the light directly.
There's no need to reflect the light onto something.
The fourth —
is "complete liberation."
The meaning is that,
actually,
everything — all phenomena — is liberated.
We all have this —
our fundamental great quality,
you don't need to look for liberation out there.
It's in you, out there,
up there, down there — it's everywhere.
It's liberated from the inside,
liberated from outside, and liberated in between —
that's what we call "pure perception."
Once you know this point,
everything's liberated for you — is easy.
Therefore it's called "complete liberation.”