Demystifying Meditation: "Being"

Bottoms Up! Yoga & Brew • Meditation • iRest Yoga Nidra • Being • Kelli Hess

Whether you are brand new to meditation, or an experienced practitioner: welcome to the present moment! The time is always now. 😉✨

The first thing I try to do when introducing meditation to someone nervous, apprehensive, or totally new to meditating is to demystify this practice of intentionally “being”—to remove the idea that meditation is esoteric, mysterious, or for some reason beyond you.

What we are getting at is right here, right now: always with us in the eternal present moment.

In meditation, what are we getting at? What are we aiming for?

What can be described as elusive, complicated, or extraordinarily difficult can be quite simple when rightly understood.

While we can define enlightenment or awakening as the dissolution of the “self” merging into the knowledge of the “Self”, we can also catch glimpses of awakening by directly experiencing what has many names: Being, Consciousness, Presence, Awareness, or Witnessing.

“Being” is not something to do; “being” is what you already are.

To make the convoluted a bit more clear:

1) Notice your body in space.

How are you holding your body? Notice your posture, any unnecessary clenching or tension. Feel your body as pure sensation.

2) Witness the rhythm of your breath.

Back and forth, back and forth—the body breathing itself. Sense your breath as flowing sensation, observing the rise and fall of this constant action that continuously emphasizes the present moment—each breath rising and falling in this moment—never another.

3) Notice thoughts as they arise.

Observe all thoughts that emerge, dissolve, and continuously change—the chattering of the discursive, egoic mind. Notice any emotions, feelings, memories, images, any and all phenomena that bubbles up within your consciousness.

4) Pivot. Who or what is noticing you thinking your thoughts?

Well?

To understand pure consciousness, in a nutshell:

1) Notice your thoughts.

2) Again ponder: “Who or what is noticing you thinking your thoughts?”

Let me know when you have the answer. 😉✨

In a playful way of arriving at Consciousness 101, I highly recommend beginning your meditation practice with guided meditations, or listening first to explanations of what meditation is, and researching the many, many, many techniques that exist to not only understand “being” but to embody it; to simply be; to meditate on what meditation is in the first place: revealing your true nature of Being.

Particularly if you are brand new to meditation, it can be important to have an experienced teacher guide you through your first few practices.

Trendy Western posts about meditation these days often portray meditation as an activity with the goal of “clearing the mind”—and those who find their minds flowing with thoughts often feel like they are “doing it wrong.”

While there are certainly many techniques to help you achieve this understanding of your true nature—pure Being—my advice to new beginners is to simply practice the art of pivoting:

Instead of letting yourself get swept away by every passing thought, emotion, or memory that emerges—step back.

Simply witness.

Nothing to change or fix; just this—just witnessing.

In this way, you may skip a lot of the initial frustration some seem to have with meditation.

An analogy I once heard that may put this understanding of pure presence into better practice is to simply imagine your consciousness as the vast, open, empty-full atmosphere—the sky in which everything is arising, dissolving, and passing.

As you sit in meditation, you might begin to envision every thought, every emotion, and every memory like a cloud or the weather—clouds that pass by in your consciousness—(which is forever present, neutral and steadily watching all that comes and goes.)

As you witness all that constantly changes—your thoughts, your emotions, your memories, your feelings, your beliefs—you can always take a step back and simply witness.

As is taught in my personal favorite form of meditation, iRest® Yoga Nidra: all that changes reveals unchanging Awareness—spacious, non-judging Presence—a constant throughout all that changes.

If you are looking to move from conceptualizing about meditation to actually experiencing it, here are a few of my favorite practices and talks appropriate for all levels: