Freedom from Psychological Suffering


Magdi Badawy, 12-10-2023

Hello everyone.
Very lovely to be with you,
to see you, and to share this presence with you.

For the newcomers here,
just a little reminder that we start this meeting with a a brief meditation,
and then, you’re welcome to explore whatever questions you may have.

See if you can simply sit comfortably and, welcome yourself.
Meaning, simply be.

Turn your attention to just being.

Your mind cannot conceptualize being,
because presence is non-phenomenal;
it precedes the mind.

So do nothing.

Meaning, simply notice your experience
as it is, without engaging in any activity.

Thoughts may appear to you.

They appear within you.
You being this nothingness,
this aware nothingness,
this aware presence.

An emptiness which is fully effortlessly aware.

Bodily sensations may appear to you.
Vibrations in the space.
A certain tremore, a hum.

There is nothing you need to do.
All is well, as it is.

As this presence,
this aware presence,
there is nothing happening to you.

Because you have not yet appeared.

You don’t need to appear,
because you precede any appearance.

You don’t need to appear in order to be;
being is not being something or somebody.

Being IS
formless.

Invisible to the senses,
and yet undeniable.

You are undeniable.

Thoughts flow by,
Like a flicker.
A radiance, which appears like a flash.

But you,
the reality which hears these words,
you neither appear nor disappear.

And you know that deeply within your being.
You know,
your eternity,
your infinity.

You are watching the show
which appears from you and within you,
appears to you.

The images on the screen are defined;
nama rupa, shape and form.

Names, labels, shapes and forms.

But you,
the stream of awareness,
are undefined.

We will let things be as they are.
Notice presence,
awareness.

We usually carry the past
and project the future;
many stories and narratives.

You don’t need to do that for now.
Be like a leaf in the wind.

Carried effortlessly,
floating in the space.

You are the space.

When you are all the floating leaves,
the wind;
gentle movement, a gentle flow.
Like the breath.

Why do we suffer?
What is it that suffers?
Who is it?

Images and memories, thoughts.
Old stuff.

The past,
with all its interpretations.

And yet we don’t live in the past.
It appears to us as thoughts and sensations.

We are the Knowing aspect,
the perceiving aspect of
thoughts and sensations.

What your mind refers to as the past.

We never leave presence.
Presence is our reality.

And yet,
we play the game of defining ourself,
via thoughts and sensations.

We imagine ourself to be limited personal characters
in the dream, the dream of being.

We play the game of limitation, identification.
We take sides.
Most often, it’s not out of love and wisdom;
rather it is out of emotion.

We play a game of being guided by emotions.
And we experience the unhappiness,
which somehow we enjoy.

The juiciness of unhappiness.
The juiciness of complaining about our life.
The me-story.

What is this me that you are struggling with.
What is holding on to this me?
What for?

Certain sensations arise within you – awareness.
Which you resist and argue against.
And what for?
For whose benefit?

We do that, don’t we?

Imagine that this should not happen.
Things should be different.

Reject ourself as an image,
as somebody who is subject to conditions.

We overlooked it.
It is just mind stuff.

And what we project in the mind,
we experience in the body.

We overlook that what we experience in the body
has no significance from
the perspective of Awareness, presence, from
the perspective of reality it’s only freedom, peace.

Transparent presence.

But we rather entertain mind,
my personal problems.

Whose problems?
What is this personal self right now in this moment of being?

What is it which limits?

Only your belief, your agreement, your complicity.

Stubborn holding on to…
to what?

Thoughts
and stories
and narratives
and Ideas
and sensations,
which disappear as they appear.

The thought which appeared to you a second ago, where is it?
We don’t live in time.

There is an understanding,
an experiential understanding about that
which right now hears these words.

That which perceives,
is not perceived,
is not phenomenal.

Reality is nominal.
And there is one reality.
I, whatever that is which perceives is real.

And that which appears and disappears;
It is a manifestation of this reality, the dance of Shiva.

The ripples on the surface of the pond,
the reflection of the moonlight,
which in fact is the sunlight.

The source is beyond perception.
And yet no perception is possible without it.

Allow yourself to be not knowing.
No past, no future, no objective.

The radiance of being,
the radiance of presence.

All psychological suffering refers to
what you imagine yourself to be,
and not to what you are.

In presence,
as presence
the entire psychological structure collapses.

It collapses in aware presence;
that which you are.


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