Rest in Awareness

A short guided meditation that doesn't make things better, but provides a short and restorative break from them.

Here’s a funny thing that’s happened with Both/And.

My intention upon launching this project nine months ago was to feature both my political-legal-analytical work and my spiritual-meditation-psychedelics work. But as time went on, I’ve gotten particularly interested in the convergence of the two—where, it seemed to me, the news is better understood through the lens of the human mind and behavior. And so that’s where I’ve hung out for most of the last few months.

But that’s had the effect of making most of my newsletters politically focused, which isn’t quite what I wanted (or probably what some of you wanted).

I’ve also, if I can make myself the subject for a moment, been going through a bit of a dry spell in my meditation teaching. I still perceive and experience the benefits of meditation, but I haven’t felt like I personally have had much new to offer. I like what

Jeff Warren

is doing over on his Substack: asking folks what kinds of topically-oriented guided meditations they’d like, and then guiding them. In fact, I’d do that too, if he weren’t already doing it. It’s the meditation-teacher equivalent of saying “No, what would you like for dinner?”

I’ve also begun to question some of my more grandiose hopes for meditation—namely, that it can save the world by helping people to act more deliberately, to open their hearts, and to interrupt the cycles of rage and pain that often shape our public and private lives. Sometimes it does that, but sometimes it doesn’t, and I feel like the more mindfulness becomes accessible to more people, the less potent it is to do this deep work. It still reduces suffering, and, at least according to the Buddha, that’s the main point. But I admit, as I personally bounce from one terrifying and/or tragic political story to another, meditation can feel a little irrelevant. Even if I know objectively that it isn’t.

The one exception to this has been helping folks to deal with the polycrisis, whether the trauma of the war, or climate anxiety, or Trump, or what-have you. (In fact, that’s exactly what I did on Jeff’s Substack-Podcast.) That’s especially true because, having said eight months ago that I wasn’t that anxious about the 2024 election, I’m beginning to feel very anxious about it. I usually teach best when I teach from my own stuff.

So, I’m doing now what I often do in my own meditation practice: recognizing the feeling of “I don’t want to do it” as a sign that I probably need to do it.

The meditation in this week’s newsletter is one of my core personal practices: resting in awareness. There are various ontologies that elaborate on what that means (I wrote a book on one of them), but they aren’t part of this practice. Suffice to say that experientially, it’s possible to place the attention not on this or that phenomenon, but on the awareness of that phenomenon. That’s all—and if it isn’t clear, it may be after you give this practice a try. What I love about it is that it doesn’t try to change anything. The world spins on its axis, everything is falling apart, but you get a short break that, sometimes, can allow something profound to emerge.

And then go away again, as you get back to work or doomscrolling or parenting or whatever.

Here you go: