True Meditation: Discover the Freedom of Pure Awareness [With CD Audio]

by Adyashanti

Book Overview

What would happen if you were to allow everything to be exactly as it is? If you gave up the need for control, and instead embraced the whole of your experience in each moment that arose? In the 14 years that he studied Zen, Adyashanti found that most seasoned meditators had used the practice as "an end instead of a means to an end." What he ultimately realized was that only when you let go of all techniques--even the concept of yourself as a meditator--will...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591794676
• ISBN13: 9781591794677
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Sounds True
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Yes.

I teach anger management and depression classes for a hospital and have been looking for some meditations on CD to bring to class. I got this three CD set today, and went right to the meditation on the third CD called "Allow Everything To Be As It Is." I listened to it once to see if I could use it- because if it had any overt spiritual references I wouldn't be able to- and then took it to class to play for them. It worked out really, really well. I especially appreciate the wisdom and technique demonstrated in allowing the listener to let go of the meditator in the meditation. This practice makes so much sense to me. I imagine I will be back with more appreciation of this CD set after I have experienced the rest of it. It is just that I liked it so much, and my class liked the meditation we did so much I just couldn't wait to tell you!

Recognizing Non-duality in Meditation

If you're interested in opening up your meditation practice, drawing close to enlightenment, and seeing things as they truly are. . . this is the book. The CD included makes this an excellent training guide to "no mind"-fulness. Get it.

Profoundly Enlightning

The object of meditation for me is to find out what we really are, not what we 'think' we are or are 'taught' we are. To awaken to my true nature or being. I think the problem for me has been in the trying to get something, or to achieve something. As Adyashanti points out, True Meditation isn't about 'trying' to get anything. The problem is in the effort, the solution is in the letting go, "effortless effort". The quided meditation CD that comes with the book helps to develop that attitude. Interestingly, Adyashanti inquires "What Am I". It is a more profound question that the mind cannot try and grasp as easily as "Who Am I"? After all, were not looking for something that the mind can grasp. From page 50 "Thoughts come and go, but that which is witnessing the thoughts remains."

Meditation- effortless, choiceless, silent awareness

True Zen is about Waking Up and discovering the Truth of your Being, the Unborn, your Buddha Nature here and now, but for the most part Zen has become very rigid and institutionalized, often mistaking the finger for the moon it is pointing to. Adyashanti and his teaching style are a wonderful and refreshing exception to this as Adya's teachings arise spontaneously out of prajna, like the teachings of the ancient Zen masters of China. Wake up now! Adya's "True Meditation" seems to be based on the Zen practice of shikantaza, or just sitting and allowing everything to be as it is, and koan practice, which once was a spontaneous inquiry into Truth, but has become a formalized and ritualized practice that is not of particular value to the present day Western spiritual seeker. Adya has very appropriately modernized these ancient practices so they are very useful to anyone sincerely wanting to wake up without getting all caught up in some sect, religion or belief system. True meditation and meditative self-inquiry are like the two wings of an airplane. Both are needed if it is going to fly. The teaching here is so direct, simple and clear that it can be easily overlooked by those who are highly trained in one system of meditation or another, or those with complex belief systems about what it takes to wake up. If your intention is to simply wake up and discover what is true rather than learn a system or gather more information, then these CDs are for you. They are really all you need! "Our minds are surely gone when we see everything as God. Prepare yourself Mother Earth the inmates are loose the fools have broken free of their chains." (Adyashanti)

What is discovered when the "meditator" is dropped from meditation? Freedom!

This is a three CD set devoted to what Adyashanti calls "true meditation". In the first two CDs he describes what separates the meditator from the goal of meditation (the meditator!) and in the third CD he leads the listener in arriving at the goal of meditation through the dismantling of the meditator - he does this in three different guided meditations. In other words, he speaks to the "illusory self" the listener takes himself to be so that that illusory self is seen for what it is. Then in the 3rd CD he takes the listener "by the hand" and step-by-step leads him/her to what remains (consciousness) when the grip of the ego is loosened and finally dropped altogether. This loosening and dismantling of the ego is accomplished by the recognition and then dropping of the many ways in which the ego manipulates what arises within the mind so that the foundation of what one is stands alone and unobscured. There are many forms of meditation and Adyashanti briefly mentions the goals of some of these. But when it comes to discovering what one truly is Adyashanti assserts, and I agree with him on this, that one must realize and then discover directly for oneself that the impediment to the goal of Self-realization is the very one who seeks for that goal, the ego entity. It is this ego entity which gets in the way of "true meditation" and which obscures the natural state of awareness which is here always. One IS the natural state of awareness, and by no longer manipulating anything this is discovered directly. Adyashanti is brilliant in leading you to this discovery for yourself.