#268 Snippets of wisdom: Why and how to meditate.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

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Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.

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Agi Keramidas  0:06  
welcome to Personal Development Mastery podcast episode 268. This is the fourth snippets of wisdom episode. In this episode, I select my favourite most insightful moments from previous episodes of the podcast. The snippet of wisdom I chose for today comes from my conversation with Chess Edwards in Episode 81. Tess is a meditation teacher and spiritual guide. The conversation took place in November 2020. And it is one of my favourite episodes with many impactful moments and usable wisdom in the conversation. The snippet I chose to play for you today is about meditation. And the topic is of total relevance and timeliness to me right now. Because only a few days ago, I completed a 10 day silent meditation vipassana retreat. I hope you find this snippet of wisdom as insightful as I have. Here it is.

Chess Edwards  1:18  
I said, this is why I love what you do Agi. I love the fact that there's this podcast because what you're offering is you're offering the opportunity for somebody to have even exposure to another perspective. Yeah, some hear it and go. Oh, interesting. Don't really know what they're talking about. Another person hears it goes away. Whoa, whoa, hold on. That just that made sense that does kind of landed. So when it when is the right time? Yeah. You know, you already know the answer to that question, of course, right? It's when it is in. And so the best we can do is keep offering truth or possibility. And keep speaking to it as is lovingly and as often as possible. And those that that it feels right to at the right time. Will say ooh, yeah, I want to know more about that. And they'll start to bring themselves to that experience. But boy, the devotion is so necessary in the, in the discipline is necessary. I work a lot with people and I do you know, here in my in my home, people come and they'll book a couple hours with me and they'll walk out the door going back changes everything. Like my whole world just shifted. Wow, this is amazing. And I let them know I say, okay, great, walk out that door. But I can tell you for certain that unless you pursue a path of study, and devotion and discipline, it will not last. Because it's like coming out of a deep, deep, deep, deep sleep. If literally, you've been laying in bed sleeping, and somebody comes up and kind of wakes you up for a second, you know, smack you upside the head and wake you up. You may awaken for that moment and go oh my god, wow, I had no idea that this world existed this awake, where I was always in the dream. But you're groggy, you're not going to stay awake, you're going to so every meditation is an interruption of the habits of the mind, every meditation is a is a new moment of being a little bit more awake, then we fall asleep. We meditate again and we will wake up again. And then we fall asleep and then we meditate again and we wake up again. And if one is doing a meditation that is geared toward your actual self realisation, inquiry, who am I really? How do I come into the knowing of that? If that's what one's meditation is aligned with then with repetition, discipline, devotion, that self will awaken and then after a while, it'll stay awake, just the same as if I kept, you know, patting me on the cheek while you're asleep. After a while you'd go Alright, fine, fine, fine, I'm awake.

Agi Keramidas  4:16  
Let's assume that someone who is listening to us here is not very much familiar with meditation, or maybe they know a couple of things. So in a nutshell, what would you say that meditation is like a definition if you want and what what benefits should one expect?

Chess Edwards  4:38  
Beautiful? So in a nutshell, there's various types and purposes of meditation. The meditation that I teach, that I offer is a meditation of self inquiry. So it's a meditation that is designed to help one come into the knowing Think of their truth of their eternal nature. And so Meditation really is a moment to stop and feel into what is the self, beyond the mind. Prior to mind, beyond the mind, what is the self that isn't being thought, but it's the self that just is, and is always present. So meditation is the opportunity to stop and intentionally point one's awareness. Beyond the mind with the inquiry of what's there, who am I, when I'm not thinking myself into being with all my thoughts of worthiness and unworthiness of ability and not livability? If all of that were to stop even for five seconds, would I disappear? or might there be something there? That is called me? So meditation is an opportunity to interrupt the story of self. And discover the self that doesn't need a story that just already is.

Agi Keramidas  6:16  
You said about moments, you use the word moments? Can you expand on this? Because for me, and I suppose with others, so meditation more brings to mind that practice a lengthy practice rather than a moment, as you say, so can you expand on this?

Chess Edwards  6:35  
Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. So take a moment, if anyone listening and bring your awareness to the presence of your left foot. Okay, got it. Yeah, you didn't even have to look, you just intentionally stopped and said, I want to be aware of my left foot. And there it was, you didn't just grow a left foot? Yeah. So it was a moment. That was a meditation, to intentionally point one's awareness to something that is present. But simply tip typically not looked at, not felt into. So one of the meditation practices that I love and and in the in the gift that I've got for people, here's some of the guided meditations. One of them is a meditation about feeling into a self that feels good, a self that feels stable, a self that feels like it's not burdened by the ideas of self. And to give that up a metaphor. So for me, when I first started this work, I felt into a redwood tree. We have these beautiful trees in California, here in the United States that are called redwoods are just beautiful, giant, stable, majestic beings. And I would feel into that stability in that grace. And I'd feel into the feeling of what if I was redwood? What would that feel like? Oh, it feels like a nice, like a storm could come and the redwood goes, Okay, bring it on. I'm good, I'm fine. So I would feel into that. So in how this relates to moments is, I would throughout my day, and this is a practice that I invite, find a metaphor. I am an open meadow, I am a deep ocean, I am the clear sky. I'm a giant, I'm a stable Redwood feel, and I know what it feels like. And then throughout the day, what if you took 10 seconds at a time just to stop and take a breath and just like we pointed the attention to the left foot, take a breath and point one's attention to the feeling of grace. And seconds. That's it. Great. Ah, there I am beautiful and then go about your day. If one did that 20 times a day. That's 200 seconds. That's just over three minutes. And not only does it again, awaken, awaken, awaken the truth of self again and again and again and again. it rewires the brain. it rewires our sense of self we interrupt the habit, the pattern of identifying with our construct of self and allows us to feel into something that already feels whole and alive and strong and peaceful and loving. Do that 20 times a day. So a meditation can be a moment. It can be a breath or it can be sitting for an hour, sitting for two hours, or anything in between

Agi Keramidas  10:02  
Thank you for listening. You can find the full conversation in Episode 81. The link is in the show notes. If you got value from today's episode and you would be so kind. Take a moment and leave me an Apple Podcasts or Spotify review sharing how personal development mastery has made a difference to you today. Until next time, stand out don't fit in!

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