Spiritual Practices for Awakening and Enlightenment

Self-inquiry, focused meditation, and body practices deepen Awakening and foster Enlightenment.

### Three Spiritual Practices for Awakening and Enlightenment
* 🙏 The speaker shares three favorite spiritual practices aimed at **deepening Awakening** and potentially leading towards **Enlightenment**, emphasizing the **importance of such practices** despite some beliefs to the contrary.
* 🤔 The first practice discussed is self-inquiry, notably popularized by Ramana Maharshi, with the essential question being **"Who am I?"** and a preferred alternative inquiry of **"When am I?"** to help settle the mind and connect with awareness.
* 🧘 The second practice is focused meditation, which, despite some criticisms, has proven **transformative for many individuals**, highlighting the need for a **deeper and more intentional approach** beyond typical guided sessions.
* 💪 The third practice involves energy and body work, underscoring the **necessity of engaging the body as a portal to presence**, utilizing trauma release exercises and Qigong to address **stored tension and energy blockages**.
* 🌱 The speaker notes that subtle movements in Qigong can lead to **profound shifts in consciousness**, demonstrating the effectiveness of **gentle practices in spiritual development**.
* 📅 Future videos are promised to **delve deeper into each of these practices**, encouraging viewers to **like and subscribe for more content** on these spiritual paths.

Here are three of my favorite spiritual practices to help deepen Awakening and maybe even lead towards Enlightenment. Before I share them with you, please do subscribe to the channel and like this video if you feel so inclined. So, a lot of people talk about there being no need for practices of anything of any kind on the spiritual path because the recognition that our fundamental nature is awake presence is. I don't agree with that view. I do think that recognition is fundamental. I've spoken about that in another video. To me, that's Awakening, as it were. But I think that, in fact, I have no doubt that practices are important, even if some way down the line, let's say you do fully awaken and realize it was never you driving the practices in the first place anyway. The first one I'd like to talk about is self-inquiry. So, self-inquiry, obviously popularized best by Ramana Maharshi, Who am I? fundamentally. So, it's about self-inquiry. Who am I? I'm the neti.

nety process. I'm not the body. I'm not the mind. I'm not thoughts. I'm not memories. I'm not sensations. I'm not perceptions. I'm that which is aware of all of those things. And so the Ramana Maharshi question is Who am I? And obviously, that can be a bit problematic because saying Who am I? Who am I? can lead to the question, Well, I'm Simon. I do this for a job. I'm a dad, etc., etc. So, in terms of choosing a good self-inquiry question, my favorite self-inquiring question that I find most useful is When am I? or Where am I? after a period of short meditation to settle things down, going into that question, particularly When am I? Because as soon as the mind rises, you've missed it. So, you can only feel your way into the answering of that question. This is something Gary Weber talks about a hell of a lot. For him, it was Where am I? So, self-inquiry is very, very powerful. Number one. Number two, focus meditation. Now a

lot of people are of the view that Focus meditation misses the point because there's an element of subject meditator and object whatever you happen to be meditating on. Um, and I can understand that, but also having spoken to a lot of people, one of the people who I have no doubt has really been utterly, utterly transformed did it entirely through really focused meditation. And I'm not talking about a guided meditation on one of the apps or anything like that. I'm talking about really, really focused meditation. This is actually something I'm enjoying doing a lot at the moment, but there's a couple of mindsets. I don't like that word, but like outlook approaches that are really important, and I'll share that in a future video to really supercharge the focusing meditation power. So, that's number two, and then number three is energy and body practices. Um, we live so in our heads, we spend so much time sat in front of a computer. I think, you know, the body is a

portal to presence. We have to engage the body. So much tension, trauma, energy knots get stuck in the body. We have to use this portal properly. So, to me, just sitting misses an element of that. So, two things I really like doing: TR (trauma release) exercises, which really bring back an alive, pulsating energy to the body and release blockages. I find that really useful. I've done a video that I recorded with the guy who came up with it, Belli. But the thing that I find most powerful as well is Qigong. So, I do a grounding Qigong practice, and the difference is so subtle. The practice involves subtle movements. You'd think, Is this exercise? and everyone's so used to exercises that are doing, doing, doing—running and gym and blah blah blah—that something that's quite subtle, you think, What's that doing? But I'll tell you what, it's powerful. And I've done opening Qigong practices for 15 minutes and felt like, Boom, my consciousness is as wide as a room. So,

Yeah, that's it. Uh, I would say self-inquiry, focused meditation, and physical energetic practices like TR or Chong in particular. And I'm going to do videos about each of them individually, but those are three of my favorite spiritual practices towards Awakening and, dare I say, Enlightenment. Um, anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video. Please do like and subscribe. And as I said, I'll be back with a bit more detail on each of those three areas in an upcoming video soon. But for now, goodbye.

3 Powerful Spiritual Practices for Deep Awakening - Simon Mundie

Simon Mundie

Three Spiritual Practices for Deepening Awakening

Self-inquiry, popularized by Ramana Maharshi, involves questioning one's identity and awareness, with a focus on "When am I?" or "Where am I?" for deeper insight.

The practice aims to go beyond identifying with the body, mind, and thoughts.

Focus meditation is another important practice for settling the mind and enhancing self-awareness.

Focus meditation is often criticized for creating a subject-object dynamic, but it has been transformative for many.

The speaker is currently enjoying focused meditation and plans to share important outlooks to enhance its power in a future video.

Energy and body practices are also emphasized, as they help counterbalance the time spent in our heads and in front of screens.

Tension, trauma, and energy knots often get stuck in the body, making it essential to engage physically.

Trauma release exercises (TR) and grounding Qigong practice are effective methods for restoring energy and releasing blockages.

The subtle movements in Qigong may seem insignificant, but they can have a powerful impact on consciousness and overall well-being.

Self-inquiry, focused meditation, and physical energetic practices like TR or Chong are the speaker's favorite spiritual practices.

They plan to create individual videos for each practice.

The speaker encourages viewers to like and subscribe, promising more detailed content on these practices in the future.