Understanding Meditation: Experiencing the Natural State Without Thought Activity

The practice of meditation allows one to experience the natural state by focusing on awareness and moving attention away from thought activities.

### Living in the Natural State: A Meditation Perspective
* 🧘 The **Natural State** is always present, but often goes unrecognized due to our attention being elsewhere, typically **lost in thought activity**.
* 🧘 Meditation helps us shift our attention away from thought and towards direct experience, allowing us to notice the **truth of our being without conceptual overlays**.
* 🧘 "You have to think about it to be troubled by it. You have to think about it to be upset by it." This highlights the **power of thought in creating our subjective experience**.
* 🧘 The text emphasizes the importance of **"just doing what works"** in various aspects of life, such as physical health, mental well-being, and meditation practice.
* 🧘 Most people can't just do what works... when they go to do what works, **thinking happens**.
* 🧘 The speaker suggests that by consistently experiencing the Natural State, behaviors inconsistent with well-being gradually fall away as the brain **changes to reflect reality more accurately**.
* 🧘 "The brain is now beginning to reflect things as they actually are. Whatever is inconsistent with that gradually just falls away." This highlights the **transformative power of sustained presence**.
* 🧘 The text concludes by posing a fundamental question: "Do you want to **live in reality** or **in your head**?" This encapsulates the choice between being **lost in thought** or abiding in the **Natural State**.

your your uh your personality only exists as a thought activity. This is why in meditation we're focusing on being aware of the body breathing, not thinking about the body breathing, right? But just looking, just seeing, just noticing the body breathing, uh without the thought activity, uh so that we can begin to exp re-experience the Natural State, so that we're always experiencing that Natural State, but it goes unrecognized because our attention is elsewhere. We're always experiencing the Natural State, but it goes unrecognized because our attention is elsewhere, and when our attention is elsewhere, we believe in the world that that thought process is generating all the time, and we are living in that reality, even though it's nothing but a thought process and an appearance. And in that reality, we attempt to pursue the experience of being happy, content, satisfied, and peaceful, but we never succeed. It's impossible to succeed because you can't succeed in experiencing something that uh is uh a uh a function of a thought activity alone. It's a function of a thought.

activity alone. By practicing meditation, it gives us the opportunity to notice the truth. It gives us the opportunity to notice the Natural State. It gives us the opportunity to notice who we are without thinking about it, right? If you take anything that you're troubled by, and sit silently and still, and move your attention away from your thoughts about what you're troubled by, and sit in that stillness and silence, what becomes possible to notice is that you're not troubled by whatever you were troubled by. You have to think about it to be troubled, okay? So, this is you, that's a clue, right? You have to think about it to be upset, right? Well, if you don't think about it, does that mean that what you're upset about doesn't exist? No, it doesn't matter whether it exists or not, exists, doesn't exist for you, right? If it doesn't exist for you, does it exist? What's it? What's it?

what what what what's the difference whether it does or not. It doesn't exist for you right which means that the possibility for peace well-being and happiness is always available no matter what the circumstances are as long as you don't get into thinking about the circumstances because that'll cause you to go to hell that'll cause you to go to hell you know one of the things that I've experienced is kind of interesting you know if you do if you pay attention to what works right if you do some research on what works whether we're talking about your physical health what works as far as your physical health is concerned what works as far as your mental health is concerned right and your emotional health if you pay attention to what works right and you just do do that if you just do what it is that works right whether it's physical exercise or following a particular diet or practicing meditation right if you just do what works regardless of what you think regardless of how you feel about it regardless of what you think about it.

right if you just do what works, something interesting happens. You get results, right, right? But most people can't do that. Most people can't just do what works, right, right? They because what happens is when they go to do what what what works is not is not a mystery, right? If you what works in terms of what to put into this body, that works is not a mystery. What works in terms of how to have this body be as healthy as it can be is not a mystery. So the information is there, right, but the people's ability to use that information and do what works in order to get the result isn't there. So what's happening, right? Okay, so you know that going getting exercise every day is what works, right? But what stops you from doing it? Look at that. What stops you from doing it? You can have a healthy body if you do what works to have a healthy body, but what stops you from doing it? You can have a healthy body if you if you pay attention to what you put in your mouth.

right the science is there. The science is there, right? So why don't you have a healthy body? If you don't have a healthy body, what's happening? What's, you know, what's in the way? Conditioning, yeah, because you can know that going to the gym or working, getting exercise every day works, right? But when it's time to do that, right thinking happens. And when it's time to do that, thinking happens. And thinking is saying, Oh, you know, I'll do it later. And you think you thought that thought. And if you think you thought that thought, you're not going to argue with yourself. I mean, if you start arguing with yourself, somebody will have to put you in a lock ward, right? Most people directly and automatically believe what their thoughts are saying, don't they? Sure, yeah. So if I know that working out every day and getting exercise will have a, I will have a healthy body, right? But I believe what my thoughts tell me. I can't do it because my thoughts see. Obviously, the thinking activity is not interested in

well-being. If it was, it would be telling me to do what works to be healthy, wouldn't it? Yeah, but it's got another agenda. What's its agenda? Feel good, whatever, yeah. Its agenda is to be comfortable, comfortable, not to be inconvenienced. It's inconvenient to do what I don't feel like doing. It's inconvenient to do what takes effort when I feel like sleeping, right? And I'm living in the world of what's convenient. I'm living in the world of what feels good. I'm living in the world of what I like. I'm living in the world of what I agree with in terms of how I think, right? So, I'm living in that world, and most people are living in that world. So, obesity is a crisis in the world now because most people are living in the world of comfort. I want to be comfortable. I feel more comfortable when I have food in my mouth that tastes good. So, so what? So, this thought activity is living your life, this condition this

condition of considering yourself to be a physical body in a separate self is what's living your life, and it doesn't care about whether you're healthy. Doesn't care about whether you're happy, right? All it cares about is it continue to survive. It can continue to survive. We inherited that, right? Our brains, our reptilian brains, right? We inherited that from the from our species in the past, right, where survival was the number one thing, more important than anything, right, right? So it's still in the base of our brain, right, and as long as we're here, the operation considers us to be successful. It doesn't matter whether we're miserable, doesn't matter whether we're overweight, doesn't matter whether we're really in an unhealthy condition, doesn't matter whether we can't get along with anybody, right? The system considers it to be workable as long as we're still here, right? But that's why Plato said an unexamined life is not worth living because an unexamined life

is a mechanical life. It's an automatic life, right? It's a life that has no ability to be happy, satisfied, content, and peaceful. There's no ability in this. There's no ability in the life that's given by thinking to experience the truth, the natural. So, if you start to experience well-being, right, and your body is not consistent with that as you're experiencing the well-being, right, the behaviors that are inconsistent with that start to gradually drop away, right, so the brain changing, right, the brain is now, uh, the brain is now beginning to reflect things as they actually are. So, whatever is inconsistent with that, right, gradually just falls away. It stops happening by itself. So, one of the motivations that you may want to take on for yourself about this waking up process, right, is if you want to succeed in producing the results that you want to produce in life, whether it's having a healthy body or having relationships that work, right, then allow yourself to understand, uh, by continuing to be a student of the truth.

and practicing a practice that will allow you to have a direct experience of that reality right. You're on the way to experiencing uh an experience of well-being that will manifest itself physically, that will manifest itself in your relationships with other people. So that's a motivating factor, right? If you're serious, you know, that's what I say to a lot of my PS psychology patients. If you're serious about why you're here, right? If you're serious about what you say, about what you want, right? Then you'll start acting like that. And if you don't act like that, you're not serious, you just think you are, right? So a lot of people who say they're serious about waking up end up staying asleep, right? Because there are aspects of the being asleep that they don't want to let go of, uh, and for people who understand the concepts, right? Especially somebody who's in Dire Straits, right? If somebody's in a situation, a crisis situation like sailor Bob Adams, right? He was killing himself.

with alcohol, right? So, he was in a dire situation, right? And he knew that his life was not going to be a long-lived life if there wasn't major changes to the way he was behaving, right? So, because of that, he was interested in the possibility, right? So, you can become interested in the possibility, but that interest in the possibility is still occurring as a conceptual reality. It's still occurring as something that you're thinking about, right? But if it is the case that you're already there, right? See, that's the thing. That's the thing you really have to take on board and consider to be true, right? You have to have faith that that's true because you're not experiencing the experience of being what you are. May not be occurring for you yet because you're still attending to something else. The experience of what you are naturally, the natural state, may not be occurring for you right now because you're busy attending to something else, right? And the thing that makes things complicated

is you have to continue to attend to that something else to function in the world, don't you? Yeah, you have to continue to remember, remember your name. You have to continue to remember that according to the world, you are your body. You're separate from the rest of the world, right? You have to remember that, that's the game you're playing. You stop playing that game, they'll put you in a psych ward, right? But even though you're playing that game, you know you can wake up and realize that it's a game. You can wake up and realize it's an appearance. You know it's all an appearance. You appear to be a body, the sky appears to be blue, the Sun appears to rise in the east and go down in the west, right? They're all appearances. Is the sky really blue? Does the sun really come up and go down in the East and the West? Are you really a body? That's the thing that you have to do in order to start to walk this path. You have to start asking questions.

inquiry. You have to ask yourself, Wait a minute, I've been being this person and personality with story all my life. It hasn't gone so well so far. Every once in a while, it seems like I'm getting my act together, and then it falls apart. Hasn't gone well so far, right? So maybe I should reconsider. Maybe I have something fundamentally off. Maybe I'm making a fundamental mistake here about my sense of what's real and what I am. Maybe I'm making a fundamental mistake here. The teachings and the wisdom teachings and the practices say that I am okay. Well, let me take on the process of inquiring into the matter and looking to see, Am I who I think I am? Who am I? What am I? Let me look at that. Is there a self inside this physical body? Is the personality what I actually am? And can the personality continue to manifest itself without thought? That's an interesting concept. Can the personality continue to manifest itself without thought? If you move your attention away from the thought activity.

and simply allow yourself to be aware of the body breathing in the present. Eternal moment is there a personality there you know what the what the wisdom teachings tell us is that upon investigation what's false cannot stand up right so there is no actual evidence that you are physical body there's no evidence for it there's 100% evidence that you're not a physical body there's no evidence that you're a personality. The personality is a is a self-image it's a con self-concept right haven't you heard heard that word self-concept self-image right it's an image and a concept it's not real right there's no evidence that you are a person and a personality literally zero evidence that you are a personality there's zero evidence that there's a self there zero evidence and 100% evidence that you're not a personality isn't that enough isn't that enough to to motivate you to want to look into this a little further isn't that enough to motivate

you to want to sit still and be quiet and just pay attention, and see if you can see it instead of think about it right become a Seer. Wake up and become see or see things as they are, and when you see things as they are right, you won't have to waste a lot of your time thinking about things, and you can start to just respond to life. You can just begin to experience things as they actually are instead of thinking about it all the time and worrying about it all the time and remembering it all the time or imagining it all the time, you know that's where most people spend their entire lives remembering and imagining right, remembering the past and Imagining the future very little attention on what's happening in the present moment right, and that's the only real place there is so you have to ask yourself do you want to live in reality or in your head

Well-being does not come from thinking.

David Parrish

The Importance of Meditation in Experiencing the Natural State

Meditation helps in experiencing the natural state by shifting attention away from thought activities.

It allows individuals to notice the truth and who they are without overthinking.

By focusing on what works, such as meditation, it becomes possible to achieve peace and well-being regardless of circumstances.

The Challenge of Doing What Works for a Healthy Body

The struggle lies in the ability to take action based on the knowledge of what works for a healthy body.

The conflict between knowing what is good for the body and being swayed by thoughts that prioritize comfort and convenience hinders the ability to follow through.

This internal resistance often leads to a lifestyle that prioritizes comfort over health, contributing to the global obesity crisis.

The Impact of Viewing Ourselves as a Separate Physical Body

Viewing ourselves as a separate physical body is driven by the instinct for survival, prioritizing our existence over our well-being.

This perspective, inherited from our ancestors, can lead to a mechanical and unexamined life, devoid of true happiness and contentment.

However, by awakening to the truth and experiencing well-being, our behaviors and brain patterns can naturally shift, allowing us to pursue a life aligned with our desired results.

The Importance of Acting on Your True Desires

Acting on your true desires can lead to a direct experience of well-being and improved relationships.

Many people who claim to be serious about personal growth may still hold onto behaviors that keep them from fully awakening.

In a crisis, the interest in the possibility of change becomes a conceptual reality, but having faith in experiencing your true nature is crucial for it to manifest.

The world reinforces the idea of being separate from the rest of the world and having a distinct identity, but it can be realized as just a game.

Walking the path of self-inquiry involves questioning the fundamental beliefs about one's identity and reality, and examining whether the personality can exist without thought.

The Illusion of Personality and the Power of Living in the Present

There is no actual evidence that we are a physical body or a personality, with 100% evidence to the contrary.

The wisdom teachings encourage us to investigate this and to simply be aware of the present moment.

By living in the present, we can move away from constant overthinking, worrying, and imagining, and instead, start experiencing life as it truly is, allowing us to live in reality.