EI Teaching 1:

Dear Friends,
In a few weeks you will be participating in an Enlightenment Intensive Retreat. If you haven't already been doing so, may I suggest that you initiate a daily practice of meditation. Even a short meditation for only 10 minutes a day can be of value. If you already do so, great. Stilling the mind will serve you well at the EI Retreat and in your daily life.

Keep your meditation simple. You could use the breath to focus your attention and simply stay open to witnessing reality or existence just as it is. Just as you find it. There is nothing complicated about observing what you are conscious of. Simple observance without trying to do anything about it is the way. Yes, you may want to close your eyes. That's OK.

Alternatively you can keep them open and simply observe. It can help to be in nature. Like watching a sunrise or sunset. Or the ocean or a tree or the sky and clouds.

Breathe, relax, stay open and witness.

If thoughts arise, just witness as if they were the clouds passing in the sky. Non-attachment. You need not try to make the thoughts go away. Simply bring your attention to witnessing what you are conscious of. Let go of any inner struggle or anxiety of trying to make anything happen.
Breathe, relax, stay open and bear witness to the play of consciousness.

The self enquiry meditation that we use at the Enlightenment Intensive Retreat is either 'Who am I?' or 'What am I?'

The self inquiry 'Who am I' or 'What am I' is ultimately NOT A QUESTION.

At first it seems like it is because the first stages of self enquiry are intellectual. And an intellectual 'Who am I?' enquiry demands an answer. But there are no answers to this enigma.

The Enlightenment Technique of contemplation on 'Who am I' is the same as the ancient Zen Buddhist traditions of meditating upon a riddle or 'koan.'

There are hundreds of Zen riddles such as 'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' The zen riddle is meant to collapse or implode the intellectual mind. It brings you to your "original nature that cannot be understood by logic, spoken by words, explained in writing or measured by reason," writes Hui Neng, an enlightened master who lived hundreds of years ago.

In the same way, the Enlightenment riddle, 'Who am I' has no logical or intellectual answer. It's fulfilment is you consciously directly knowing who you are. And that is not intellectual, it is DIRECT and absolutely subjective. It is your personal truth.

You will make more progress if you do not 'think' of the contemplative riddle, 'who am I', as a question. It is a self-enquiry. A wondering into the nature of your self.

Breathe, relax, stay open and bear witness to the play of consciousness as you open to the wonder of self.


with love

Yoah

Yoah Wexler, PhD
yoah@selffoundation.com