after yesterday's conversation I felt I wanted to come back and check of my understanding is
actually correct I always had this feeling that I really understand everything really quite well
but after yesterday I thought well maybe there are a couple of things that I need
to kind of revisit and then check so um the university Perth if I trace myself
totally back lose everything that is not essential to complete laying there
being myself only and abiding there
from that place going out I always thought as in actively going out and looking but after our
conversation yesterday I feel it's more staying in avoidance and more like an opening up and
zooming out relaxing back letting in yeah so it feels a lot it feels a lot softer
rather than what I always presume to do was more active more and more doing yes in the in the
inward facing path as you say we we turn away from the objective content of experience we just go
back to ourselves and then in the outward facial of the object facing path we turn around so to
speak and we face again the objects of experience thoughts feelings Sensations and perceptions
it's it's barely active it can just be a a a contemplating of the objective content of our
experience in relation to our new understanding of ourselves as this open empty presence of awareness
it's not it's not really a doing it's it's more a contemplating
yeah it's staying in abidance yeah contemplating what actually comes yes to me yes you you let
let the objective content of your experience thoughts images feelings
Sensations and perceptions you let them come to you let them come in whereas previously we
we turned away from them yeah in order to recognize what we are prior to them yeah
okay so far so good I think um but then an extension of that process would be when we we
end our meditation session and we go out into a meal or a meeting or a walk or or you go back to
the office or whatever that would be an extension of the outward facing path because it would it
would involve um living one's entire life in a way that was consistent with this new understanding
so the the actual contemplation that we do in the yoga the yoga meditations would just be the the
first step yes of turning towards our objective experience and then the next step is actually out
in the world living out in the world and that that is obviously more active than just contemplating
the objective content of our experience can it still have that softer yes absolutely absolutely
yes because I've been kind of trying to see with the new understanding I felt like I got yesterday
how how that would feel to just walk around and and and be and it in theory there's no reason
why it should feel any different from sitting on your chair contemplating your thoughts feelings
Sensations and perceptions because actually at any moment of the day all you are doing
is being aware of thoughts feelings Sensations and perceptions yeah I mean imagine that you're
going for a walk by the river with friends are you doing anything other than being
aware of thoughts images feelings or if you're stuck in a traffic jam or at a at a business
meeting or with your family or taking a flight are you ever doing anything apart
from knowing your thoughts feelings Sensations and perceptions no but I think now I'm doing it
knowingly yeah yes but what I mean is that there's no real difference between sitting on your chair
quietly yeah in a in a so-called meditation session contemplating your thoughts let's
just call it thoughts and perceptions for ease of communication contemplating your let's say
thoughts Sensations and perceptions what's the difference between doing that sitting on a chair
and doing it while you're walking down the High Street or picking a meal it's the same all it is
is a flow of thoughts Sensations and perceptions so it's a really there's there's no there's no the
same thing it's the same thing ideally you want to feel the same when you're sitting in your chair
during your yoga meditation as you are when you're walking around living your life living
your life and really the idea would be to find absolutely no distinction between everyday life
and meditation yeah you may still choose to sit down from time to time quietly and close your eyes
but not in order to get away from everyday life because what you're experiencing with your eyes
closed sitting quietly on your chair is exactly the same as what you're experiencing when you're
in the supermarket queue it's the same yeah yeah what I felt at home when I was doing kind of
quiet meditation just that I actually preferred to have sounds around
because I I really like the meditation that you gave once with going from a sensation to
a sound and feeling that they all actually take place within the same space yes yes so
for me having lots of things going on around me while sitting quietly
actually helps rather than hinders yes so an extension of that would be just living your
life fully yes really everyday life should be considered an advanced yoga meditation
yeah that's lovely
in other words all of life it's either meditation with your eyes closed let's call that the inward
facing belt or it's meditation with your eyes open that's everyday life those are the only
two options as in meditation it's not what we do but what we are just just contemplating
your experience being knowingly the presence of awareness and recognizing that you are not only
that as the presence of awareness you are not only that to which your experience appears you are that
in which all the experience arises and you're not only that in which all the experience arises you
are also that out of which all the experience is made sometimes you know that with your eyes
closed sometimes you know that with your eyes open but it it in time there should be a feeling
of complete sameness yeah sitting I don't mean the content of your experience is the same but
the quality is is the same whether you're sitting quietly meditating alone at home with your eyes
closed or whether you're walking down the High Street shopping or going from having a meal with
friends or whatever it's the it's there's this they call it in Zen the one one taste
and The Taste is the taste of knowing because all there is to experience is the knowing of it it
doesn't really matter whether the the what the content of the experience is because even when
the experience is full of content there is still only The Knowing of experience and still just the
one thing the the one thing which is not a thing that you're knowing or Consciousness manifesting
itself ten thousand things yeah so then the the distinction between everyday life and meditation
there's no longer any distinction yeah it's only valid to make the distinction in the early stages
of our investigation when when we lose ourselves to the content of experience and then we have to
separate ourselves from experience come back to ourselves the presence of awareness and then we
make this distinction between our self-awareness and experience but at some stage that distinction
needs to be collapsed until there is just one thing yeah always the same thing the
uh it's essence never changes appearance always changes
okay thank you