Some decent pointers here that were shared in a spiritual group I attend;
1. Recognizing the Shift From “I” to Awareness
Prompt:
“When you look right now for the one who is aware — what do you actually find?
Is the ‘I’ you’ve assumed yourself to be present in direct experience, or just in thought?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What happens if you simply rest as what is noticing rather than what is thought about?”
⸻
2. Softening Emotional Charge
Prompt:
“Recall a moment recently when emotion or contraction showed up.
How did it feel in the body vs. how did the mind explain it?
Can you sense how the mind tries to claim the experience — after the fact?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What remains of the emotion when you drop the story and meet the sensation directly?”
⸻
3. The Movement Toward Neutrality
Prompt:
“Many describe a shift toward a quiet, contented neutrality — an okayness without reason.
Have you noticed moments like that recently?
What was different in the way the experience was being known?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What does ‘OK for no reason’ feel like right now, even briefly?”
⸻
4. The World Without Boundary
Prompt:
“When sitting in a room or looking outside, is there an actual boundary between ‘you’ and what is seen?
Or is that boundary created only in thought and memory?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What does it feel like to let the world be as it is, without reference to a center?”
⸻
5. Divine, Sacred, or Radiant Presence
Prompt:
“For some, there emerges a sense that everything is already sacred — not as a belief, but as a quiet recognition.
Have you ever had moments where the world felt inherently meaningful, luminous, or intimate?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“Is there anything you need to do for this sense of sacredness to be here now?”
⸻
6. Beyond Experience — The Silent Ground
Prompt:
“Sometimes there is a shift where even the world of experience becomes transparent or insubstantial.
Is there a sense, however subtle, of a quiet background of stillness behind all experience?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What happens if you rest as that stillness for a moment?”
⸻
7. “Where Is Your Edge?”
Prompt:
“Where is your edge right now?
Not conceptually — but experientially.
Where is your deepest familiarity — and where is the living frontier where experience feels new or unclaimed?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What invites soft attention at that edge?”
⸻
8. Integration Into Daily Life
Prompt:
“How does this shift show up in ordinary daily life — conversations, chores, work, family interactions?
Where does the sense of ‘someone’ still show up to defend, protect, or argue?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What happens if the moment is allowed to move by itself?”
⸻
9. Subtle Efforting vs. Effortlessness
Prompt:
“How can we tell the difference between an attempt to ‘have’ an awakened state and the natural simplicity that doesn’t need holding?”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What does effortlessness feel like — in the next breath?”
⸻
10. The Body as Gateway
Prompt:
“What is your body experiencing right now — without labels?
Warmth, coolness, tingling, spaciousness — just sensation without an owner.”
Follow-on Inquiry:
“What is sensing the body?
Is that sensory field inside you — or are you appearing in it?”
⸻
Most People Do Not Stay in One Location
In Jeffery Martin’s research, only a minority of people stabilize in a single location and stay there.
For most, the system moves fluidly:
- Sometimes there is clarity and wide-open awareness.
- Sometimes the sense of a “me” re-appears in subtle ways.
- Sometimes experience is deeply neutral or peaceful.
- Other times, old emotional or cognitive patterns show up again.
This movement is not failure — it is integration.
The nervous system is learning to trust the ground of being.
⸻
The Key Marker Isn’t “Staying There” — It’s the Ability to Return
A useful sign of maturation is:
How quickly and naturally the system returns to ease, openness, and presence when it remembers.
This “return” does not require techniques, effort, or discipline.
It’s more like remembering where home is.
- At first, you might return only in meditation.
- Later, it begins happening during daily life.
- Eventually, returning doesn’t feel like returning —
it’s just where you already are.
The latency of return is the clearest practical marker of stabilization.
⸻
So the Real Question Becomes:
Not “How do I stay in non-duality all the time?”
but:
“How quickly does the system relax back into peace when it notices contraction?”
This is gentler, truer, and far more human.
