Discovering the Unconditioned: A 20 Minute Meditation with Eckhart

The unconditioned dimension of consciousness. The unconditioned dimension to who you are. You. The unconditioned you. The unconditioned I. Which has nothing to do with your past. Or your physical body. Or your person or personality. And the unconditioned dimension is not something that you achieve because it's already here. Something you. Just something to discover here and now. Achievement. If you think in terms of achievement. And associate achievement with spiritual awakening, enlightenment, realization, or achieving the unconditioned consciousness. If you use the word achievement, or if that's the underlying assumption that it is an achievement. There's an implication that it's in the past because you need to achieve it. Sorry. There's an implication that it's in the future because you need to achieve it. There's something to achieve. You're pushing it away out of the present. And so you miss it again because you're trying to achieve it. And continuously, as long as you're trying to achieve that spiritual realization. Or whatever you want to call it. Then it's always one step away from you. Or a hundred steps, or 100 miles or million miles. It doesn't matter whether it's one step or a million miles. It's not here. That's the underlying assumption. And so you cannot discover it because you think it's something to achieve. And the thought that there's something to achieve in the future. Prevents you from discovering what's in the present. On other levels of your life, achievement is fine. It's good to achieve certain things, to learn something new, to bring something into manifestation, to create something, even to have goals. But when it's about finding out the deepest reality of who you are. The very foundation for your life, your existence. Then the idea of achievement is a hindrance. So the unconditioned dimension of consciousness is to be discovered. It is, one could almost say, hiding or concealed, covered up. Behind and in between your thoughts. Behind and even within all sense perceptions. And so to discover it, you need to find that space in your consciousness, in consciousness, where you're not thinking. So to stop thinking may not be the best way of pointing towards it. Although I might have used that expression a few times. To stop thinking again implies that there's some active doing involved. It might also make you believe that thinking needs to be forcefully pushed out of your consciousness. Which is not how it works. It's to discover that that space of not thinking is already there. Between when one thought subsides, before the next thought comes. There is a space of pure awareness without Mind activity. You can do it here, because this is a live meditation. Whenever I'm not speaking, which is part of the time here, be aware that I'm not speaking. So we have the gaps between one sentence and another sentence, between one word and another word. The moment you become aware of the gap, like now, you're not thinking. It's very subtle and very simple. And yet that's the most important thing in your life, to become familiar with that dimension. Conscious without thought, spacious still, but alert. Not the stillness of moving towards sleep, but alert stillness. So in daily life, become aware of that space, that inner space of alert stillness, as much as you can. Initially, you may need a crutch, so to speak. Something that helps you, for example, alert sense perception. Especially looking at something like the sky, which is spacious without imposing any thought on it, but being aware of the one who is looking. Whatever might be the sky, it could be other things too. You're looking at something at the same time you're aware that you are looking. Now, when I say you, it's not the historical you, not the person, but you as the consciousness. So there is a self awareness behind the sense perception, not the personality self, the essence self, which is formless. And because it's formless, the Buddha used the expression no self because he associated self with form. Anything that is, has a separate sense of identity. That's what Jesus pointed to. If nobody understood it at the time, not even for 2000 years afterwards. Deny thyself. There are other translations that would be more suitable. Look away from the self that what you usually consider yourself. Look deeper, recognize the ultimate unreality of the conditioned self. So becoming familiar with awareness or presence, pure awareness, pure presence in daily life, of course, here especially becoming familiar with just being present, as we know we can use your breath awareness to take you also out of thinking. Become pro present, feel. The inner body also can be a crutch or a portal into it. And then a time comes, and it may be now. Don't wait for it. When you can just go, step out of thinking without needing anything to help you step out of thinking. You can just go, okay, I'm not thinking now. And then you look around, wherever you may be, whether you are in surroundings that are pleasant, conducive to meditation, it could be, could do it there. Or whether you're in surroundings that are challenging, and you suddenly discover that the main challenge is not your surroundings or your situation, but your thoughts about it. And even at that moment, you can step out of thinking, which implies that you Accept that moment completely. Because the moment you step out of thinking, there's nobody there to argue with what is. Because arguing with what is, is thinking. The moment you step out of thinking, it implies there's complete alignment with the isness of this moment. You're not arguing with it anymore, which is totally futile, of course, which causes suffering, unhappiness. And suddenly the situation may still be challenging on a practical level, but it's no longer challenging on a psychological level. In other words, it doesn't make you unhappy anymore. You're not unhappy, not because you've pushed unhappiness away, suppressed it. No, it dissolved because it was created and sustained by thinking. So it's wonderful to discover, to discover in challenging situation that you can step out of thinking there too. And some people need a challenge to be able to be motivated to take that step out of thinking. They can't stand this unhappiness anymore and suddenly realize it's basically my thinking that's making me unhappy and not what's happening. And they step out of thinking. And for people who go through extreme suffering, let's see, erosion of the ego. That can happen in that way. Because the ego is identification with thinking. When you're not thinking, there's no ego. And if your life situation is so unpleasant that you can't stand the suffering anymore, then the unpleasantness, the challenging life situation, forces you, if you are ready for it, forces you out of thinking, whether it's through serious illness, serious loss, and so on. But I suggest to you here that you don't wait for life to force you out of thinking, but voluntarily step out of thinking. It's an evolutionary leap, that step. You jump out of thinking either because you can't stand suffering anymore, or if you are advanced enough, voluntarily. And this is why we're here, what's happening here. And even while you think, after a while you can notice that there's not a complete loss of awareness in the background, even while you're thinking. So at times it's wonderful to have these spaces of no thought. And it's vital, whether it's 5 seconds or 20 seconds or half a minute doesn't matter. That's the evolution of consciousness. That's the awakening. And gradually you no longer rely on thinking or your sense of identity, who you are, sense of self, which is always a fragile sense of identity, vulnerable, always lacking in this or that, never satisfied for long. And then the sense of self shifts to presence. You are essentially the presence, awareness. No form, no past, no future.