Andrew Cohen - N° 16 - LAST TEACHINGS - Dec. 24 _ Feb. 25

So it's very difficult at the beginning to let go of the mind, but you do it anyway. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard. It doesn't matter. So you see everything. Focus on nothing. Have you heard about non-duality? You understand non- duality, oneness. It means everything that exists and everything that does not exist is one. Everything that exists and everything that does not exist is the sum totality of all of reality is all one. Everything that exists, everything that does not exist is all one. When you able to cognize, see, feel, know directly the nature of this oneness, that's enlightenment. So we're always thinking about this or thinking about that. Lost here or lost there. So with the meditation and contemplation, we're trying to cognize the totality of reality beyond thought. So all you have to do is resist the temptation to identify with any thought without any self- judgment. So one more thing will help you is that uh whether thoughts appear whether they disappear it doesn't matter. If you have no relationship with the content of consciousness, which is thought, you're free. We're always having a relationship with our thoughts, right? I like this thought. I don't like that thought. This thought makes me happy. This thought makes me sad. This thought makes me frightened. This thought makes me feel excited. We have so many relationships with so many thoughts and ideas and beliefs. Correct? So mosh or enlightenment means no relationship to the content of consciousness. No relationship means not two. For a relationship how many do you need? Two, right? For a relationship you need two. So in vant they say the truth is not two. Not two means zero. So if you learn how to focus on the space between the thoughts, you begin to feel the zero dimension. The zero dimension is the feeling of being, vibration of being, the vibration of infinite space. And it feels very good. You feel free and happy, liberated. right from the very beginning doesn't take much time. So the secret in the enlightenment path is to let go of the mind. That's the big secret. It's an open secret. Everybody knows it but nobody does it. If you want to become an expert, you have to learn how to sit still for a long time. Be very still. and focus on the space between your thoughts. And don't listen to your mind. You're doing well. You're doing badly. This is right. This is wrong. This is good. This is bad. Don't listen to it. It's all garbage. It's not about what your what your mind thinks, what your opinions of your ego don't make any difference. Don't listen to what your mind is saying. Just focus on the space. Disregard the mind chatter core. You can see it but have no relationship to any of it. And you'll start to feel good. And when you start to feel good, you just follow the good. The feel the good feeling will take you all the way home eventually. If you go deep enough, you have to go deep enough. So the state of meditation, you're just simply paying attention and letting go. It's all you have to do. Pay attention, which means you're paying attention. You're not we're not wandering away. You're fully here paying full attention and letting go of everything. Holding on to nothing. It's all you've got to do. You have to become very good at it. Just pay attention and let go of the mind. Pay attention, let go of the mind. And you'll know you're pay you'll know you're letting go of the mind if you're paying attention. If you stop paying attention, you'll get caught up in your mind again. The reason you have to pay attention is to make sure you're letting go. And if you pay attention, you have all the power. And you have enough power to let go, don't you? If you want to. Even if your mind doesn't let go of you, even if your mind doesn't let go of you, you can let go of it. Understand? Like a dog, like a bad dog, your mind might not let go. It might be holding on to your leg but you let go of it and be very pay attention. Even if your mind did not let go of you, you can let go of it. So it really doesn't matter what your mind is doing. It only matters what you're doing. Whoever you are, it matters what you're doing. So if you assume the position of no relationship, no matter what seems to be happening, you'll be free. Whether your mind appears or disappears, it doesn't matter. If you're free, whether your mind appears or disappears, it's the same to you. So this whole process is very mysterious because we're looking for something that does that's not an object. Enlightenment is not an object. It's the nature of consciousness. So it can't be seen as an object. It's not an object that exists outside you. It's it's it's present all the time. But because it doesn't exist in any particular place versus any other place, it's everywhere and nowhere at the same time. So we the reason we can't see is we're always looking for objects. So we miss we miss where we always already are. So if you just keep letting go and paying attention, keep letting go and paying attention. Keep letting go and paying attention and focusing on not knowing the space between thoughts begins to open up. And as I explained to you before, the as the space opens up, you'll not be to start relaxing. You'll feel some letting go inside you'll begin to feel a sense of a good feeling, pleasant feeling. Then then suddenly just doing nothing starts to feel very good. And just paying attention feels very fulfilling. Not paying attention to anything particular, paying attention to everything and nothing begins to feel very relaxing, compelling. It's like, have you ever looked at a candle in a dark room? It's compelling, right? You can't stop looking at it. So, the nature of your unconscious, the same thing. When you start to discover consciousness, your own consciousness, you can't stop paying attention to it. It's completely compelling. That's more interesting than watching your breath, right? Remember yesterday I said consciousness delights in its own self-recognition. Remember so your consciousness and my consciousness delights when you recognize the nature of your unconsciousness. When you recognize the nature of your unconsciousness and I recognize the nature of my own consciousness. Consciousness itself delights in its own self-recognition. I'm being seen. Thank you. I'm being seen. Thank you so much. Now you can see me. I've been here all the time but you didn't see me. Where have you been focusing on objects? I've been here all the time and you didn't see me, but you're focused on the mind objects. So when you stop looking at the mind objects, sooner or later the self-evident nature of consciousness will reveal itself to you. You start to feel so happy because then you'll because then you don't have any having nothing, knowing nothing, and being no one begins to feel very attractive. I don't need anything. I don't need anyone. I'm already completely full, full of joy. That's what consciousness feels like. Feels good. When I met my guru, it took 10 minutes to go beyond the mind because it doesn't take much time. So if you want the thoughts to go away, you're going to suffer. And the thoughts have a will of their own. But if you have no relationship with them, they can't hurt you. That's the whole point. Remember, the meditation is training for life. If we can't handle our mind when we're sitting quietly, then we're not going to be able to handle it when we're living a busy life. Correct? So, we have to become an expert at handling it in this situation. This is training for life. Everything depends on your relation to your mind. So if you sit there and want the thoughts to go away, you're just going to suffer. But if you sit there and you don't mind if they come or go, you're free. Right? That's the point. So the foundation of the enlightenment position is being one with the way things are reality as it is. That's the starting point. You have to you have to feel okay with how things are right now. Completely okay. completely never not resisting at all. From there, we can change all kinds of things, but we first have to get to that point. We're fine with the way things are. That's the beginning point. Most people never even begin to get to the beginning point. Nothing's ever good enough. We always want things to be better now. A little hotter, a little colder, a little sweet, more salty. The no relationship position enables you to practice acceptance of the way things actually are now in all in all its imperfection. Father ego wants something always to be different. this isn't good enough. That's why we're never happy. So if you want to be ecstatically happy, you have to start with acceptance, being okay with how things are. And if when you begin to wake up a little bit, you start to come to an understanding of karma. And you start to see that things couldn't be any different than they are than they are than they are. as of karma. When we stop resisting that truth, things begin to change. It takes a lot of courage.