Awareness of Awareness

[TDW1995]

I've really been trying to implement Leo's Self-Inquiry video from last December in my practice lately.  He says to place awareness on awareness, but I'm having trouble finding this.  I realize that we are looking for formlessness, but how is this possible when all we interact with is form?  If I place my awareness on awareness itself, isn't that going to be another image or sensation?  How is it possible to place awareness on nothing, when it doesn't exist? 

[erik8lrl]

It is possible when the separation between awareness and nothingness merge into one. 

[TDW1995]

So until that becomes a realization, I need to put my awareness not on perceptions, but on the perceiver of the perceptions. 

[erik8lrl]

@TDW1995 Yes

[Raptorsin7]

@TDW1995 I'm not sure about the technique of becoming aware of awareness but if you're at earlief stages of self inquiry then a helpful technique could be to turn attention to the perciever or the one who is aware of sensations

[TDW1995]

And the perciever is not form.  So, whatever the perciever is, is the true self.

[Kalki Avatar]

@TDW1995 You can become aware of awareness either through authentic meditation or contemplation. Both are totally different. Authentic meditation become restful in itself (it creates sweetness and no focus is involved after entering such state) but it may only serve as a support for then contemplating. Contemplation involves concentration which is more potent, but because our minds are a mess and there is little clarity it will be hard to do. Im still learning self Inquiry and contemplation, they are tricky. 

Its better to build up your practices with baby steps. First presence practices. Then Breath meditation in order to become totally relaxed. Mixed with pranayama and wim hof. Then authentic meditation and lastly self Inquiry which is contemplating with a question that serves as a radar. 

Check out be as you are from ramana. Im that from sri nisargadatta and the book of not knowing from peter ralston (librarygenesis.com)

Those 3 teach on a whole new level. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Kalki Avatar

[TDW1995]

I understand that focus is extremely important in doing self-inquiry.  I've been meditating for four years.  I feel like I have a sufficient amount of focus to do this work, but I know that I will not do it perfectly.  I'm doing self-inquiry along with meditation, so I'm sitting down for an hour and a half each day.  I'm still trying to get in touch with what is perceiving, and it sure isn't easy. 

[Kalki Avatar]

@TDW1995 I don't mean doing meditation along with self Inquiry. I mean, to only focus on meditation until you stay in its state the whole day for the complete week. That the time you set apart for meditating and doing the mundane become one. You will be meditating while doing everything. After this happens, then self Inquiry and contemplation is more understandable since the knower will already know it self. By then you will have awakened deeper. But to then add focus by contemplation makes the seer to see itself and awaken even deeper. This is what I mean.

Book that teached me true "Meditation: The First and Last Freedom" Osho. 

If you have not read those 3 books i recommend you check them out for guidance and clarity of obstacles when enquiring. They are like keys to opening the doors that you have not seen. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Kalki Avatar

[Raptorsin7]

@TDW1995 Try a day where you just super charge your meditation and you basically meditate all day, with breaks to do whatever of course. I had one day where i meditated for like 5 or 6 hours plus 2 hours of yoga, and since then I feel like i'm so close to awakening. Before that I was pretty stagnant doing an hour of self inquiry every day. You have to break through with your meditation practice where you start to feel weird when you're not meditating. Early in my practice meditation was just this thing I did, and then i went back to my normal life. Now moments of mindfulness are penetrating my normal life over and over again to the point where I always feel a pull to meditate now.

[TDW1995]

So meditating until you feel extremely conscious. It's almost like I need to graduate from basic meditation until I reach the advanced stages (self-inquiry). This is what I'm sensing both of you recommend. @Kalki Avatar @Raptorsin7

[Raptorsin7]

@TDW1995 Think of it as a growth of the practice. If you can commit 1 or 2 days to 5 + hours of meditation you will get a better idea of what you are missing.

[Kalki Avatar]

@TDW1995 You can contemplate without doing any prior practice but it will be harder to go very deep if the knower is not awake on any level. That's why im reading the books, in order to know all the keys for when I get to that stage and focus on it only. 

Im not saying to meditate until you become very conscious. But until you awake by it. You will automatically know when you awake because you are the only real thing, by which you will know you are you. 

Its easy to get confused with so many practices. In the past I used to think I knew meditation by watching leo's and other gurus videos. This is not enough. Books have the truth written in front of you to tell you everything for it in order to work. Its like you are a blind man being helped to cross the street until you are no longer blind and can go by your own. Everytime you awake don't think its over. There are deeper levels to awakening. Even after enlightenment. Awakening just go on and on and on. 

See osho's book mentioned before. You can awaken by it if you do exactly everything written like a math formula. Ignore the methods, just read the teachings about meditation itself, unless you also want to learn a technique mentioned there. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Kalki Avatar

[TDW1995]

So what I'm thinking is set up a random day to practice an extended meditation session for like 5-6 hours (maybe do this once every so often). And for daily practice, meditate for at least a half hour each day and do a contemplative practice, such as the Neti Neti method. Not to diminish the power of the Neti Neti method, but it seems more basic than placing awareness on awareness at the stage I'm at currently. 

[Kalki Avatar]

@TDW1995 You can gradually do as you feel better. 

But its exactly cuz of this that I mentioned to focus only on one practice until awakening happens. To do meditation once and intense is not going to work very well. Osho explains this key as that meditation occurs after the observer gains momentum by starting the inner observation from the most obvious and easiest which is the body. Suddenly your awareness will have the power to understand thoughts and clear the space. Then emotions and finally the observer observes itself by grace. Staying like that is true meditation. By then awakening will have occurred. Breathing practices are very helpful before setting time to sit and only observe. 

Everything im saying is from experience. As to what my mentor once told me to focus only on one practice until awakenings begin. Remember that the mind loves to do many things simultaneously and believe is making progress. But, awakening is not of the mind, it is beyond it, another dimension that the mind can only imagine. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Kalki Avatar

[TDW1995]

So ultimately the whole goal of this work is to raise awareness to a sufficient level over time until awakening happens. In a sense, I may have been trying to shortcut this by placing awareness on awareness.