Rest in Awareness

Every practice points to this. Before the breath, before the word, before the question, there is awareness itself: wide, clear, and already free. To rest in awareness is not to do something. It is to stop doing, and to find that what you were seeking has been looking out through your eyes all along.

OriginsThe Root of the Practice

The Dzogchen masters of the Nyingma school, tracing their lineage to Garab Dorje and Padmasambhava, call it rigpa, the direct knowing of your own nature. The Mahamudra tradition of the Kagyu school, descending from Tilopa, teaches the same resting: let go of what has passed, let go of what may come, let go of what is happening now, and relax. The Psalmist gave the whole teaching in one line: be still, and know that I am God.

The WayWhat the Practice Teaches

In the other practices you are given something to do. Here the doing falls away. You rest as awareness, not awareness of anything in particular, but awareness as your very nature, spacious, luminous, and untouched. Thoughts arise and dissolve in it like bubbles in water. There is no need to stop them or follow them. The one who rests is the resting. This is not a place to arrive at after long effort. It is the ground you stand on every moment, and the invitation is only to notice.

BeginHow to Practice

1. Sit in a relaxed, upright posture, with a soft gaze and a soft mind.
2. Take three deep breaths and release everything with the last exhale.
3. Do not try to think or to stop thinking. Do not control. Do not examine.
4. Let awareness rest in itself, like the sky resting in the sky.
5. If the mind gets busy, relax again, and the resting will return by itself.
6. Rest for short periods, many times a day, and let the sitting end naturally.

HarvestThe Fruit

A deep and stable peace that does not depend on circumstance. Practice and life become one stream. The one who was always seeking finds that the seeking has finished, and what remains is love.