A guided 10-minute meditation from the Healing and Human Potential podcast that leads listeners through an embodied inquiry into "Who am I?" Rather than presenting concepts, the host invites direct present-moment sensing—counting toes, noticing shape, color, name, age, address—without using memory, then guiding participants to rest in spacious awareness (drop the 'I' and the 'am') and finally to reopen their eyes while maintaining that presence. The practice is explicitly inspired by Dorothy Hunt and emphasizes discovering the steady awareness underlying transient thoughts and identities.
Welcome back to the Healing and Human Potential podcast. This is a special episode where I'm going to guide you on an embodied inquiry into the truth of who you really are. And so, rather than giving you more concepts, this is an invitation to discover for yourself what remains when you question all your identities. It's a meditation inspired by Dorothy Hunt and let's dive into it now. So go ahead and find a comfortable position, gently letting your eyelids fall shut, taking a nice slow deep breath in through your nose, holding on the inhale, just sipping a little bit more breath in and releasing any tension or worries. Taking another slow deep breath in through the nose, holding on the inhale and releasing, letting go. And just become more present to the sensations that are still holding on in your body right now. Maybe there's some tension in your brow, your belly and just releasing it, Letting yourself really be held by the chair that supports you, the bed, wherever you are, and bringing your attention more fully present to this moment. Just leaning into what's actually here now, outside your mind, in your body, just feeling the aliveness that's pulsating through your hands and your feet, letting it expand in your awareness and just letting go, resting more fully in this moment. And I'll be asking you a series of questions that you're just invited to answer for yourself based on the experience that you're having right now without going to memory to find the answer. And so based on your present experience right now, how many toes do you have without relying on an image of the past to tell you, Just tuning into your direct experience in this moment, find out if you don't go to memory to tell you what's your address, Explore what's here and now to discover the answer fresh in this moment without going to the mind to tell you where were you born? Without referencing a past image to show you an answer, what shape are you? Do you have a shape without memory? We can find any shape from memory, but is it available to you right now based on your present experience, beyond the pattern of the mind, Projecting a past or anticipating a future just here now? What job do you have without memory? What color is your skin? What color are your eyes? All these ways that we've defined ourselves without the benefit of a past, are they here now? If you don't go to a memory to tell you what's your name? Do you have a name based on your direct experience right now? How old are you? When all these things aren't here because of not going to memory to tell you what's your Actual experience. Who are you? What are you? The answer won't come in thought. So instead of looking for an answer in the mind, just discover what's here behind the thoughts or in between the thoughts. All images, ideas and judgments of who you are are only passing stories that come and go. But what do they come and go? They're not actually here when you're not thinking them into existence. So who are you? When you're not referring to a thought to tell you what's piercing through your eyes right now, even with them closed, notice what's noticing without labels telling you who you are with a name, an occupation, an address, a shape or even gender. Without any of these ways we've identified ourselves. What's still here deeper than all of those? When all those fall away, what steps still remains? What's still present underneath all of them? None of us have the experience of completely disappearing. Some something's still here. This felt sense of I am not I am Joe or I am Sarah, just I am. Now drop the eye and drop the am. Be here as what you truly are. This awake, vast, spacious awareness. There's nothing you need to do to be more of what you already are. Just notice this peace and freedom underneath all the thoughts and identities. Perhaps you've felt, even briefly, what it's like to simply be this open space of awareness. And in a few moments, I'm going to invite you to very gently and slowly begin to open your eyes to take in the images of the world around you from this same vast presence. So often when we open our eyes, we start labeling things from our past conditioning. But whether the mind is active or not, there's a deeper, spacious awareness that's always available beneath the surface of thought. So go ahead and gently open your eyes from this place, letting in the sounds and the sights of the environment around you. And just begin to feel into your own experience how it's possible to be here even when thought, thought and memory return.
