Letting things be as they are frees us from the suffering that piles up on top of difficult moments. Frank Ostaseski teaches this meditation to channel your curiosity.
Often we use words like enlightenment, liberation, and awakening. These terms feel far away to me, as if we are trying to accomplish something supernatural or transformative in our lives. I believe that the practice of meditation is about learning to become intimate with yourself and all aspects of your life. We can then bring the healing power of loving consciousness to what feels scary, sad, and raw to us. I prefer the word “intimacy” because it expresses the desire to be closer, to know that we already belong and are not separate.
For me, intimacy expresses what liberation actually feels like. In a way, it’s relaxed, easygoing, and normal. Liberation cannot be found anywhere else. It can be found here. That is why some teachings say that the path lies beneath your feet. When we examine our mental conditioning in an up-close-and-personal way, we begin to understand how we inflict suffering on ourselves. That is the true freedom of meditation. It’s not about helping us transcend or break out of the experience. It’s about learning to know our experiences intimately.
When we examine our mental conditioning in an up-close-and-personal way, we begin to understand how we inflict suffering on ourselves. And that is the true freedom of meditation.
Loving the past is just a memory, loving the future is just an illusion. The only place we can love, the only place we can truly be conscious, is right here, in this moment. Intimacy connects us with a deep sense of belonging. And this belonging tells us that we are no longer separate. And this helps us move beyond the small stories of our limited sense of self.
Meditation, like love, is intimate, and this intimacy is the condition for the deepest learning. Mindfulness and compassion are the cheapest, most available, and most appropriate tools we can use in almost every situation in our lives. But sadly they are often deemed inappropriate or shelved for a while. As a result, I believe many of us are living and working in great fear and pain. And I think we can do something about it.
A 12-minute meditation led by curiosity.
Let’s start really simple. Just pause. Pausing is an opportunity to not be swept away by the habits of our lives. Pausing is an opportunity to remember who we really are. Pausing is a way to awaken our mind, heart, and body to bring everything together in the present moment. Now, let’s take a short break. There’s no need to rush. Now relax. Just listen to my voice and you’ll realize how little effort it takes. Relax your body, mind, and spirit – Mindfulness manifests more easily when your mind, heart, and body are relaxed. So, pause. And relax. Now, it’s time to open. An open mind is characterized by a wide range of interests. open. You open up for just a moment and free yourself from limiting ideas about who you are and what you think is possible. Does your curiosity ever outweigh your criticality? Open. So I repeat it over and over again. Please pause. relax. open. And now please allow. Allowing goes beyond accepting us or rejecting us completely, beyond our hopes and fears. Rest only for the moments you allow. There is no special person, nothing special, and no special place to go. It rests by allowing again and again: pause. relax. open. And please forgive me. And now get intimate. This is a kind of communion with one’s own experience, a willingness to enter into the immediate circumstances of one’s life. It’s a kind of fearless receptivity, an attitude that welcomes everything and pushes nothing away. There is nothing between you and your experience. There is no subject or object. No, neither me nor others. Just intimacy. So I repeat it over and over again. Please pause. relax. open. Allow. Become intimate. Pause. relax. open. Allow. Become intimate.
