The Natural State Meditation
The natural state meditation is one of the simplest practices for accessing what you truly are. In Zen it is known as shikantaza, theme-less sitting, or just sitting. In Dzogchen it is the highest pinnacle of practices, traditionally only shown to students after years of ritual practice, mantra recitation, and deity worship and visualization. The practice is so simple in fact that it is often overlooked, under valued, or tossed aside before the shining of the true Self has a chance to break through the clouds of a distracted mind.
When you are ready, take a moment to find a comfortable posture in a quiet space where you will not be disturbed or distracted by anything. Begin to settle into your body, feeling your heartbeat and your breath. Take a few deep, slow breaths and on the out breath feel yourself letting go of any tension that the body might be holding onto. Your eyes may be open or closed. If they are open allow your vision to rest in a neutral space. Now allow your attention to rest freely. Do not make any effort to focus the mind on anything. Let the mind simply bring thoughts to the surface of awareness. As thoughts arise simply watch them from a neutral awareness. At first it may feel as though you are bombarded with wave after wave of thoughts. Feel no need to entertain them. Allow them to arise, and notice that when you choose not to engage with them they simply fade out of awareness just as they arose into awareness.
As you stay in this neutral awareness the gaps between thoughts will begin to widen, the periods of silence will begin to deepen. As thoughts return all you have to do is simply observe them from this neutral awareness. At first there will be a cyclic pattern. First come the thoughts, there is awareness of the thoughts, then the thoughts fade away and you are again resting in the silence of neutral awareness for a moment until a thought appears and the cycle continues once more. But as you stay with this practice you will notice a few things happen. One is that you are no longer a slave to the mental processes of your mind. You will notice that there is a distinction between thoughts and awareness. Thoughts appear and pass away, but the awareness remains. As you strengthen the ability to stay in neutral awareness you will notice the periods of silence deepening, and other qualities of your own self will begin the show themselves to you. The world of the mind has acted as a filter, hiding various aspects of who and what you are. But as you deepen into the neutral awareness you will become reacquainted with them. The quality of the awareness will begin to have other aspects to it. Thus far I have been describing it as neutral. Beyond that it can become luminous. Yes, literally you may feel and see light issuing forth from your own being. That is your own self, your own luminosity. You may feel this awareness to expand beyond the body, to become spacious, or to have no spacial limitations or definitions. The feeling of peace and then later, bliss, may be revealed to you. These are all aspects of who you are. As we let the mind rest by not engaging with thoughts, we can begin to explore all these other aspects of our own self. This resting in awareness is returning you to your natural state. Your natural state needs nothing added to it. It is already whole and complete. It is already free. You are that freedom.
As you explore this way of meditation you will inevitably encounter places in your body that have been holding trauma or repressed emotions. These areas will feel contracted and closed off. Energetically they may feel like static or numbness. They may feel cold or hot. They may feel dark and heavy. They may just feel like raw emotional pain. Encountering these areas in the body is a by-product of meditation, it means you have gone under the surface of thoughts and are now exploring the feeling body, or emotional body, where there are stored feelings, emotions and traumas waiting to be explored. Typically when I encounter these in the body during meditation I will transition to a more somatic form of practice and dive into them more directly to help clear them from the body. If you want to explore this subject more than please head on over here: Somatic Practice.
I routinely host meditations at my home with my wife in Canton, NC. Check the events page for upcoming meditations and kirtans.
If you’ve enjoyed this meditation here is a blog post about my discovery with this method: https://luminousawareness.blogspot.com/2025/08/silent-illumination-of-mind-seeing-with.html