The Effortless Knowing
El Conocer Sin Esfuerzo
Discover how awareness already knows every sound, sensation, and thought without effort, and gently release the struggle to control experience.
The Effortless Knowing
Meditation happens on its own.
There is absolutely nothing to do.
As the distractions come,
something notices the distraction,
and in this noticing,
the distraction ends instantaneously.
This spontaneous arising of presence is not something we do.
All we do is sit and give it a chance to operate on its own, awaken on its own.
The wakefulness is already here.
Sounds are appearing, sensations, or felt thoughts are seen.
All of experience is known.
No effort is needed. No doing is needed.
You can recognize this truth right now.
Testing effortlessness
Hearing is effortless.
Sensing is effortless.
The colors and shapes in sight are known effortlessly.
And if you're not convinced,
you can try not hearing, not sensing.
When there are sensations, trying to not sense, this is an effort.
This is an impossibility.
When sounds are appearing, trying to not hear, this is an effort.
This is an impossibility.
When opening eyes, trying to not see is an effort, an impossibility.
And so right now all sounds, colors and shapes and sensations are appearing effortlessly.
And this effortless nature of the appearing is so fundamental,
so profound,
consciousness itself,
awareness itself,
knowing effortlessly.
Returning to the knowing
Keep returning,
keep noticing this most subtle knowing.
It's not an intellectual knowing.
It is not a knowing of thought or reason.
It is the knowing of consciousness itself.
Appearances, sensations, sounds being known instantly, effortlessly.
In this effortlessness,
you can also recognize the deep intimacy,
the vividness,
and the liveness of all experience.
Turning to thought
Now you can put your attention gently, notice thoughts,
thoughts in the form of inner dialogue, images.
All thoughts are reflection.
In imagination,
imagine sounds, imagine futures, imagine pasts, imagined selves.
Just narratives,
words,
images,
sounds,
concepts,
and all of that appearing effortlessly,
just like sensations, just like sight.
Well known and effortless.
And so if the thought appears that we do not like,
trying to not know the thought,
trying to not experience the thought is an impossibility.
It is effort, just like not hearing a sound that is appearing.
And why is this need for thoughts to not appear?
They come and they go.
Do you remember what thought you had yesterday, one you did not want?
Is it a problem today, or is there another problem today?
Forgotten tomorrow.
The wish to control
In the appearance of mind we can see the attachment, the desire for controlling experience.
What should be, what should not be.
Notice that now in your experience.
What is happening in thought,
what is happening in emotion,
what should not be,
or what should be different.
If only this or that were different,
then I would be at peace,
then I would be okay.
And the never-ending stream of this and that imagination,
endless,
infinite imagination.
But the effortlessness and release we are longing for is here already.
The root of the struggle
And the roots of this struggle, the control, is a sensation of fear,
a distrust.
The sense that this reality, this moment might have something dangerous or painful.
And as with sensations and sounds,
all sense of discomfort,
worries,
fear,
longing for something different,
all of that is also appearing,
known effortlessly.