BONUS: Meditation with Sam Harris

Hello and welcome to Stay Awake with Russell Brand. We do a quick meditation now, me and you, like you lead it. Sure. You want a five minute guide meditation? Or how long do you want to go? Let's do five. I'm all hot. You know, that kind of hotness when you've been in a studio a long time. You'll clammy. I've done all these shows, man. Yeah. Well, you get yourself worked up. OK, so you can do this. So I'm happy to be doing this with the crew at locals. You can do this with eyes open or closed. There's nothing no important difference there. So whatever is comfortable. Most people tend to want to close their eyes. But even in closing your eyes, notice that your visual field is still present, right? It's not actual blackness that you see with your eyes closed. You see this this field of shimmering iridescence. It is a kind of a sky like condition that you can stare into, right? The darkness of your closed eyes is is a space that you can recognize to be without edge, really, or periphery. I mean, the sense that there's an edge there or some kind of boundaries is a concept you're imposing on it. So just let your senses rest wide open. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. Feel your body. Resting in space. You'll gravity pulling you into your seat. And become aware of all the sensations. That reveal that you have a body. What you're calling your body. As a matter of experience in this moment. Is this changing cloud of sensation. There. Moments of pressure and tingling. And movement. And heat and cold. See if you can notice that that what you feel. As a body. Is a much more diffuse cloud. Of change in sensations. So see if you can relinquish the shape of your body. Right, you don't feel arms and legs and back. And shoulders. You actually feel these more punctate. Change in sensations. Just let the shape dissipate. And feel the pure energy. Of sensation. And again, notice the energy that appears in your visual field. Whether your eyes are open or closed. Color and shadow. Notice sounds. And just let your mind rest wide open as the space in which. Everything is appearing. All by itself. And the moment you notice that your mind has been captured by thought. See if you can notice the thought itself. Has another appearance in consciousness. What happens to it? Where does it go? [no audio] And again, just notice the next sound. Or sensation. Or visual impression. And this is something I wouldn't normally introduce in the first five minutes of. Meditation, but I'll introduce it here. Just so everyone has a reference point for where this is all headed. As you pay attention to sensations in the body and sounds and sights. And even the flow of thought. Most people start out sensing that. They're paying attention from somewhere. There's a feeling of being a subject. In the middle of experience. Now aiming attention. At sensations in the body. Or its sounds. Or its sights. Or even at thoughts and emotions. But this feeling of being a subject, this feeling of being a self. In the middle of experience. Is itself just an experience. There's only experience. As a matter of experience, there's only the totality of experience. And you're not on the edge of it. Looking in. You're not in the center of it. There is no boundary between that which is aware of experience. And experience itself. And the fact that it feels like there is one. Again, is itself another appearance. In consciousness. So what meditation is, is a practice. Is this the act of continually falling back into this prior condition. Of awareness. And eventually. There's no. Guarantee about when this happens in any individual's case, but eventually. You can recognize that awareness itself consciousness itself. That space in which everything is appearing. Doesn't feel like I. It doesn't feel like a subject. It doesn't feel like a self. It is simply. The condition in which everything is appearing. And. The sense that there is a subject in the center. Or on the edge. When truly examined. Evaporates. And so that is the freedom from self, the freedom from ecocentricity. There's often advertised. In traditional teachings about meditation. And I can take a long time to have that insight. And. Prior to that time. There's nothing to do but to stay on. The edge of that insight. Paying careful attention. To sounds. As sensations. And sites. And thoughts. And noticing that everything is appearing. All by itself. You can't pick the next thing you hear. Right. You can't. You don't know. What the next sensation will be that impinges itself upon consciousness. There's just this flow of energy. And. While you might feel like you. As the witness are on the edge of it. Or in the center of it. There is simply the flow of energy. Right. And you are identical to it. And so as you keep dropping back into this mere witnessing. See if you can become sensitive to. The fact that the. The feeling of self. The feeling of I is itself. An appearance. Right. It is a state. It is a wrinkle of some kind. It's a contraction of some kind. It's a state of energy. That's appearing in this same place. Where everything else is. Sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, emotions. Every contraction. Everything you can notice. Is appearing in consciousness. And you're identical. To the totality of this. Energy. And his underlying condition. So ultimately meditation is not even a practice you're doing. It can seem in the beginning like it's something you're doing. But. You're not actually adding something to experience. You are ceasing. To do something. This is less. Not more. The thing you're ceasing to do. Is be lost in thought. In each moment. Rather you're noticing thoughts themselves as appearances. In consciousness. And you'll begin to notice that the feeling of self. The feeling that there is a subject. In the middle. Or on the edge of experience. Is what it feels like to be thinking. Without noticing that you're thinking. You'll notice that thoughts kind of sneak up behind. And. The mind strangely becomes identified. With a piece of language. Or some imagery. And for that. For the duration of that identification. That is what the self is. It feels like something. To be lost in the dreamscape of thought. So if as I'm talking you might have thought well. This is supposed to be a meditation. This guy's never stops talking. He's talking. You're talking too much. Right. That. Thought. Is something that can be noticed as a mere appearance in consciousness. And to have noticed it arise. As an object of consciousness. Would be to have not been taken in by it. But. To be taken in by it to be identified with it is. Is the moment where the self. Gets manufactured. In each moment. So again all I all I would. Advocate and I'll now bring this to a close is. That you become. Increasingly interested in just noticing moment to moment. What it's like to be you. Notice how thoughts and sensations. And reactions. And judgments. And assumptions. And opinions. Arise. Moment by moment. All by themselves. And rest as that prior condition. In which everything is appearing. And that's. That's meditation or mindfulness. By whatever name. You want to call it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Happy to do it. Thanks Sam. Hey Sam's going to give free months of Sam's app. Waking up beautiful meditation. Very beautiful. I enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed the invitation to consider to. Challenge the idea or notice the idea that there is a periphery. That there is a center that there is a central experience. I like the. Implication. Whilst it of course remains a concept. That there is an original condition. That can be accessed. And I noticed that part of our conversation. In which you said. You're open to the idea that brain and mind might be distinct. I like this. Sam that was very. That was beautiful. It was a lovely conversation. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. It's great to see you again. I hope we get to hang out and maybe chat. Maybe roll around if we're both fit enough by then for such things. Yeah. I've got something to learn from you at this point. So congratulations on taking it as far as you've taken it. Thank you. Sam it's great to have this time together. Cheers. Thank you. Until next time. Until next time my friend. (gentle music)