Usually our attention is focussed on something we can objectify...our thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations, breath, the external world.
However, for now, let’s just close our eyes and allow our awareness to be vast and spacious in front of us, boundless behind, infinite on the sides, immeasurable below and limitless above.
Let your heart be as vast and spacious as the sky ...a vast open sky of all acceptance.
It is in this vast spacious, self-evident awareness that you are, that all perception takes place.... hearing takes place....seeing takes place, tasting, smelling, sensation takes place, even action takes place....breathing, eating, walking, bathing, writing, reading ...all of this takes place... They are all objects of your consciousness ....
The consciousness that you are illuminates and enlivens them all. They are perceived to change ...the consciousness that you are does not change ...ever. They are not really separate from your consciousness ....they arise and fall like waves in the ocean of Consciousness that you are.
Physical pain, physical discomfort is a sensation that is illumined and enlivened in the Consciousness you are. You can be totally present to it, without resistance, totally accepting of it ...when you are totally present to anything ....without any resistance, in total acceptance, what you discover is that you are there as a stillness, a witness to the discomfort ...you discover there is some dimension of you ...your consciousness, that is not really touched by it. This is a very exhilarating discovery....painful, uncomfortable at level of body-mind, yet exhilarating for you at another level.
And when you stop equating physical discomfort, physical pain or physical limitations with your self, you enjoy freedom...freedom from dislike and fear ....it’s a huge freedom.
The teaching of Vedanta points out that the consciousness you are is SATYA – and anything that is an object of consciousness is MITHYA....including physical pain and discomfort. Physical pain and discomfort are objects of our consciousness ...they have no power to affect the consciousness we are.
The secret to owning up this truth in our own being, is our non-resistance to life, our acceptance of both the ups and downs of life situations. What initially helps us to accept life as it is, is our understanding of Ishvara as the abhinna-nimmita-upadana karana, the karma-phala daataa....and our non-resistance to Ishvara....that’s the emotional evolution, the transformation that truly liberates.
Om Tat Sat