Andrew Cohen - Meditation - N° 4 - Transcending Duality through Surrender

So what we want to concentrate on is as always letting go of everything because the awakening to enlightened awareness is the result of letting go of the mind. It's often not an easy thing to do. But we get another chance to perfect our ability to let go. We never know when it's going to happen. It might be tonight or it might be the next lifetime. We honestly don't know when it's going to happen. But we need to be ready. Often people say, you know, I want to awaken to enlightened awareness. I want to know what enlightenment's all about. I want to know what God is. And then sooner or later they get a tap on their shoulder and they turn around and then it happens. And most of the time what happens is they the individual is completely shocked and they say, "I never I had no idea it was this big." And then I always say, "What did you expect? So if we want to know how big the absolute truth is, which is what this is all about, seeking for the absolute truth, if you want to know how big, profound, miraculous and unconditionally liberating the absolute truth is, we have to be willing to let go of absolutely everything in the way. And everything everything in the way is the interpretive process called the mind. The mind is constantly defining what's real. and what's unreal, what's true, what's false, what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad. And if we want to know what the absolute truth is in itself, we have to transcend all of duality. And we transcend duality by ceasing to make distinctions. And we can't stop to make we can't stop making distinctions with the mind. We stop making distinctions by letting go of the mind. Not the same thing. So don't try to stop making distinctions. Let go of the mind in its entirety and you will stop make distinctions because you won't be able to. And remember the reason we want to let go so profoundly, so absolutely, so unconditionally, and so radically is because we want to know what the absolute truth is in itself. I want to know what the absolute truth is in itself for myself within myself because I want to be free. And if there is an absolute truth, which there is, as all the greatest realizers have boldly declared, if there is an absolute truth, I certainly want to know what it is because I, if there is an absolute truth, for my life to make any sense at all, I must live in a perfect alignment or strive to live in the most perfect alignment possible with that absolute truth. That's what living the spiritual life in earnest is all about. So the greatest realizers have declared there is an absolute truth that exists realizable that's accessible. So to repeat, if there is an absolute truth and we're sincere, we wanted to come to terms with the human experience, it's imperative that we find out what that absolute truth is all about. The only way we can find out what it's about is through having that direct experience for ourselves. And the way to have that experience for ourselves of what the absolute truth is only comes by letting go of the mind in its entirety. The mind is a process. So if we want to know what the absolute truth is in and of itself, the way to find out is by letting go the process is called the mind in its entirety. And like I always repeat, letting go of the mind in its entirety is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. It means you really want to die to the known. It means you want to do so in a way that's radical and unconditional and ideally forever. Not I want to be free for a few seconds. I want to be free forever. I want to know what the truth is. So I want to know what the absolute truth is and I want to live in alignment with that absolute truth for eternity. It's a huge aspiration, profound aspiration. It's a noble aspiration and it's a dignified aspiration. But it takes it asks a lot from us, everything we've got. So take the risk of letting go of the mind, your mind, which is a process in its entirety, taking nothing with you. And then find out what happens. Find out for yourself what happens when you let go unconditionally, radically, and absolutely. You'll be amazed. So for this to work, for you to be successful, you have to trust yourself and trust in the truth itself. Whether it appears to you or not, trust that it exists. If you trust unconditionally, you open yourself up and you allow yourself to become vulnerable before the before the absolute truth. Nobody can do that for you. It's like metaphysically standing naked for the absolute truth that transcends life and death. Standing naked and empty-handed and unprotected, utterly and totally vulnerable means you put down your sword and you put down your shield and stop protecting yourself. You allow yourself to be seen. Trust is in in this process is everything is what makes everything possible. Remove all the reasons that justify a lack of trust. Give you no self no excuse not to trust. But if you want to know what the truth is for yourself, you have to pay attention. You have to look and see where is it and what is it. Pay attention. And as I constantly like to repeat, most of the time we're not paying very close attention to our own experience. We're participating in life, but we're doing it semiconsciously, endlessly distracted, rarely paying close attention to what's happening as it's happening. So if you want to know what the truth is, you got to pay attention. Nobody can do that for you. So pay attention with all of your heart, with everything you've got. This process is about seeing what's true, not doing anything about anything. This is about seeing. It's not about doing. So, because you don't have to do anything else except pay attention, you can give it everything you've got. Pay attention for yourself cuz you want to know what the truth is for yourself. This is something you discover for yourself. You become a powerful person because you because then you're standing in your own self seeing from your own self in the experience of inner freedom. only truly reveals itself when we're holding on to absolutely nothing. As the Buddha made clear suffering is a result of attachment and the end of suffering comes from letting go. So just let go without any excuses. ifs, ands, buts, or may just let go. Some people say, "How do I do this? You trust, you pay attention, you let go. That's how it's done. Anybody can do it if they want to, they really want to. Anybody can trust. Anybody can pay attention and anybody can let go. You don't have to be a special person to do this. You have to be a sincere person. You have to mean it. You have to really mean it. So trust, pay attention, and let go. No judgments, no opinions, no beliefs.