At the later stages of awakening, when you have become freer of attachment to thoughts and stories, there is another practice that will become available to you.
When you awaken from deep sleep in the morning, there is a gap between the experience of no stories in deep sleep and the recurring stories you create in the waking dream. In earlier stages of Consciousness, you probably didn’t notice this gap. It just appeared that you woke up to who you are and what the world is, same as always.
But, as you become freer of your attachment and belief in these stories, you may begin to notice this gap. The practice is simply to stay here. Just don’t let the recurring stories of the waking dream in yet. In this way, you continue the thought-less, story-less, free experience of deep sleep into your waking experience.
Keep your eyes closed at first. The eyes often trigger the stories of the world and self more than the other senses. Notice the experience of freedom and bliss here in this gap, no thoughts, no stories, just great freedom and bliss.
As you sink deeper into this story-less bliss and stabilize here, open your eyes. What do you see? Everything is completely new. It is the same ceiling, the same room, the same walls, windows and pictures. And yet you have never seen them before. They are completely new. Without a story, everything is always completely new in each moment. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? You are seeing this world without a story about it.
If you like, practice this gap meditation every morning. Begin with brief five or ten minutes. You may like to increase this to an hour or more if you have the time. Or simply get up an hour earlier if that’s convenient. I usually begin my day with two hours of this gap meditation if I don’t have a particularly early appointment. It’s just too beautiful not to. Deep sleep has already started it. Why not continue it for a while when you are fully conscious? It’s a wonderful way to start your day.
At first it will be a little challenging to function in this way more than simply continuing to lie in bed. You won’t really feel any motivation to do anything else without a story other than just lie here in this great bliss. It is very much like Samadhi. The only difference is you’re lying down instead of sitting. But eventually you realize you can get out of bed, walk around, even make breakfast and begin your day. You will realize how many things trigger a story. You’ve lived your entire life as a story so this shouldn’t be a surprise. But at this stage of your awakening and freedom from stories, you now know what to do about this. You simply let the story go and return to this story-less state of presence, freedom and bliss.
Not knowing is a helpful part of this practice. It is natural. Without a story you know nothing. You have nothing to know. Knowing anything was always just another story. You only knew a story. So recognizing that you don’t know anything cancels out any stories that might arise.
Welcome to a life free of stories. Enjoy this great presence, freedom and bliss.
To see the entire Map of Consciousness – the Journey to Awakening click here.
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