Tag: non-dual meditation

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Combining your Witnessing with Tantric meditation

“You are not a drop of love in the ocean. You are the entire ocean of Love in a drop.”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article looks at combining your basic witnessing practice with a Tantric meditation form.
 
Tantric practice is also the subject of a new series of classes & sessions that I will be leading in May:
Starts Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Embodied Transformation – An integrative introduction to Tantric meditation
Starts Saturday, 10th May & then weekly, 5.30-6.15pm – Embodied Transformation – Saturday Tantric deep-dive meditation sessions
If you are motivated to come on this journey with me, you can do so live, online or via recordings.
 
In the spirit of the Ocean-you-Are,

Toby
 


Combining your Witnessing with Tantric meditation
 
Tantric meditation is a tradition of meditation originating primarily, but not solely in the east. It emphasizes the unity of body, sensuality, and spirit. In some of its forms it stops at the awakening of a sense of the Body-as Spirit. In it’s more complete forms it takes this sense of embodied spirituality,  merging it with transcendent consciousness to create the path to a fully awakened, non-Dual state. This article outlines a combination of basic witnessing with simple Tantra to supercharge your meditation, and your energy levels.
 
Deeper into Witnessing – Transcending and including
 
Basic witness practice is sitting in meditation as the observer self, detaching in a healthy way from the contents of your consciousness. You simply hold this position and practice watching calmly. Deeper witnessing involves developing the capacity to:

  • Transcend the content of your consciousness by witnessing
  • Simultaneously include and embrace that content in an unconditionally warm and loving manner

One analogy for this is that you witness like the sun, which shines its light objectively on the world, whilst simultaneously embracing it with its warmth.
 
Bliss and Love, your basic Tantric ingredients
 
Love and inclusion
 
Breathe into your heart and feel the natural, original Love there. Experience it as an embracing warmth and care that builds and grows as you breathe. Let your body soften to this feeling, so that it as you stay centred in Love. A nice object of meditation here is the Rumi line:
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
Altered to focus on Love:
“You are not a drop of love in the ocean. You are the entire ocean of Love in a drop.”
 
Bliss and transcendence
 
Breathe into your lower-belly, sacral region and sexual organs. Connect to the basic Bliss of your Life-force in the body. This is the basic bliss that, when activated biologically becomes sexual attraction, and ‘peaks’ in the experience of orgasm. Breathe and let the feeling of bliss build a bit in your loins. Then imagine this Blissful feeling rising as an energy from your sexual organs to the base of the spine, and then up the spine and back of the head to your crown. Feel a ball of light building above your crown, filled with transcendent Bliss and the freedom that comes with it.
 
Creating a Love-Bliss Witness
 
Bring the ball of transcendent Bliss down from your crown to your heart, where it merges with the inclusive, all-embracing Love. So, you have a feeling of Love-Bliss-Consciousness at your heart.
Now identify your True Witness Self as being Consciousness composed of these two qualities; Transcendent Bliss and an All-inclusive Love. With this set up you can then either:

  • Witness the content of your consciousness with this Love-Bliss Witness or
  • Rest in the ocean or sky-like experience of the Witness itself, enjoying the feeling of blissful ‘Fullness & Emptiness’

 
A final position here is then to practice viewing the content that you are witnessing as arising from the Ocean of your Bliss-Love Witness, not two things, but one thing arising simultaneously, which gives you an approach to a Non-Dual expereince.
Once you are familiar with the above practice, you can ‘short-cut’ sometimes by generating the Bliss in your sacral region, and then just feeling it rise-up directly to meet the Love in your heart. But going up to the crown and then down again has the initial advantage of mixing the Bliss with the freedom of higher levels of consciousness available at the crown.
 
Related reading: Sky & sun, freedom & fullness
Re-awakening to your Bliss
All you need is Love – Contemplative Non-Duality


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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Prajna – Seeing things from all angles & none

“Prajna is awareness that does not break reality into opposites. When you are feeling broken-apart by the world, it is a place you can return to, finding wholeness instantly”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

The meditation processes I describe below are part of the ongoing theme of Non-Duality practice that I have been writing about the last few weeks. The beauty of them is that they are simple at the same time as profound. Have a go at developing your prajna!

If you enjoy the article, we will be meditating on this topic in both the  Tues/Weds class  and the Saturday deep-dive sessions. I invite you to join us either live, online or via the recording!

In the spirit of prajna, 

Toby

 


Prajna – Seeing things from all angles & none
 
Dualistic or conceptual reality
 
From the point of view of the Madhyamika Buddhist meditation school, confusion and suffering derives at its root from what is called dualistic-appearance. Dualistic appearance is basically what happens when we conceptualize. Conceptual thinking and feeling does two things:

  • When we see an object or person (or belief etc…) we then throw our idea of the object on top of the object itself, so now there are two things appearing to us, not just one. This is one reason why it is called dualistic appearance.
  • Secondly, we see the world in terms of opposites, polarities, or dualities, for example good and bad, higher, and lower, better or worse, nirvana (freedom) and samsara (bondage).

Dualistic appearance sees the object together with our idea of the object, and then we conceptualize the object in terms of its opposites.
For example, let us say you or I meet a female primary school teacher. The first instant you see her, you will see her ‘as she is’. In the next moment your mind will start throwing concepts on her based upon things like:

  • Your experience of primary school
  • Your assessment of teachers
  • Whether she is your child’s teacher or not

You will start making assessments in terms of opposites:

  • She’s a better/worse teacher than my primary school teacher
  • She is polite/rude
  • She is admirable/contemptible
  • She is superior/inferior to me

Of course, using these dualities well is essential for navigating the world effectively. But it is also this same duality that prevents us from seeing the world as it is, from seeing reality from an Ultimate or Absolute point of view, and that creates all sorts of sufferings and problems for us.
 
Seeing dualistic appearance / Pranja – Dropping dualistic appearance
 
In our own self-enquiry, we can start to look for and see the processes of our own dualistic appearance. We can watch how we ‘throw’ our ideas onto people and things, and box them into polarities. This is a very interesting and powerful practice in itself. We can then practice dropping our ideas about what we are seeing, and try to encounter things as they are, in a singular, non-dual manner. One way to do this is to practice the ‘mirror mind’ method that I outline in a precious article. You imagine that your awareness is a mirror, simply reflecting back what it sees without adding or subtracting to it. This non-dual way of viewing the world is called prajna, or wisdom.
 
 
Seeing things from all angles and none
 
Another complementary technique to mirror mind that you can use is explained by Ken Wilber in his article on ‘Five Reasons You Are Not Enlightened’. I’m just going to quote it directly below, as it is very clear:
“One little exercise I use to get into a state of pure awareness without any conceptual operation is to: Ask yourself how do you feel physically? So, you start to get a sense of how that is. How do you feel emotionally? How do you feel morally? How do you feel mentally? Now how do you feel from all those angles at once?
As soon as you hear that question, there is a silence in the mind, a quiet, there’s no immediate answer that comes up. And that is because you have an awareness that is not conceptualizing and not feeling. It’s just pure, unqualifiable awareness. And that is an example of prajna, or being in pure awareness without concepts. And so, remaining in that state sooner or later allows you to have a realization of Ultimate Reality, where emptiness and form are not two. Where samsara and nirvana are not two. Because it is an awareness that does not break reality into opposites. And so this type of awareness is the fundamental practice of the Madhyamika, and in many cases Mahayana schools of Buddhism”.
 
Related reading: Mirror mind meditation
Dualistic Appearance – What you see, and what you think you see


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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Mirror mind meditation

Dear Integral Meditators, 

The meditation below is one I have been using a lot recently, its great for developing both witnessing forms of meditation and as a gateway to non-dual experience. If you enjoy it, I invite you along to both of these programs: 

Tues/Weds class series starting this week Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice, and the deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions beginning on Saturdays.

First session is on the mirror mind!

In the spirit of the reflecting, 

Toby

Mirror mind meditation
 
Context for the meditation

Mirror mind meditation is a way of developing competency in two particular domains; witnessing meditation and non-dual meditation. These two types of meditation are characterized by the fact that these two states of consciousness are always present, so the technique is really all about learning to recognize them, and then drop into them resting in this recognition.
In a certain way you could say that witnessing and non-dual meditation are the deepest and most profound meditations you can do. But the nice thing about them, and the mirror mind method is that even if you are a beginner, you can get a good experience by doing them. You can meet them on the level that you are at and have a good result!

The technique

Sitting comfortably, start by centring yourself in the present moment. Begin to notice what is coming and going within your field of awareness:

  • On the sensory level in terms of environmental sounds and feelings within the body
  • On the level of mind in terms of thoughts, images, memories and their attendant emotions and moods
  • The spaces or gaps where you are simply ‘aware of awareness’

As you observe, notice the part of you that is observing or witnessing what is coming and going. Be this witness observer, noticing that when centred in it, you drop into a space of ‘merely observing’, or bare attention.

Now imagine your observer is a mirror sitting within your heart space (middle of chest). I sometimes like to visualise it as one of those silver, reflective disco balls. All it does is reflect back what it sees, exactly like a mirror. It doesn’t:

  • Interpret
  • Comment on
  • Identify or dis-identify with
  • Or name

any of what it sees. It simply accepts it, like a mirror reflecting whatever is in front of it. The totality of all that comes and goes within your awareness is simply accepted, mirrored. Nothing more nothing less.
So, you just drop into this mirror mind state, witnessing and reflecting that which arises. Whether your awareness is sensory, thought-based, feeling-based, empty, you just mirror it in your mirror mind!
 
A final stage moving into the non-dual

If you stay with your mirror mind for a while, you will notice that, although your awareness starts to become unified and singular through the mirroring, there is still a subtle gap or duality between the observer (mirror mind) and the observed (content of consciousness being mirrored). So, a final stage to the meditation is to then let the mirror mind melt into whatever arises, so that there are just ‘things arising as they are. In this state there is no observer or observed, there is only ‘just this’. It may take a while to get to a point where this last stage feels tangible or do-able, but when you are ready for it. It is an important final step in the sense that it takes the meditation from a witnessing state to a fully non-dual one.
 
Related reading: Watching and then dropping the watcher

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com


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Non-Dual meditation & Organismic reality

“Imagine the Earth as an Organism, Life as an Organism, & then your Self as that Single Organism”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article is an overview of several different types of non-dual meditation, and then a way of meditating on non-duality that I find to be very effective both for beginners and more advanced practitioners.

Do check out the Tues/Weds class series starting this week Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice, and the deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions beginning on Saturdays, these are meditations for growing your Bliss, Freedom, Big Wholeness Big Love & ‘Always Already’ wisdom!

In the spirit of Organismic reality, 

Toby

Non-Dual meditation & Organismic reality

Non-Dual meditation is really the ultimate form or meditation, I mean this in two senses:

  • Firstly, it is the highest or deepest realization you can attain in traditional meditation (although of course, being non-dual, it transcends ideas of ‘higher’ or deeper’)
  • Secondly, within the meditation traditions it is the final statement about the ‘ultimate nature’ of reality

 
Here are five summarized approaches to non-dual meditation

  1. In the Madhyamika Buddhist approach to non-duality, the method is seeing and then letting go of conceptuality. If you see how concepts get in the way of meeting reality ‘as it is’ then you can move beyond them into unity consciousness
  2. In the Yogacara school of Buddhism, the problem is seen to be objectivity, seeing things as objects outside of yourself, rather than all a part one singular unity (These first two, Madhyamika & Yogacara I spent a lot of my years as a Buddhist monk studying extensively)
  3. In the Tibetan Dzogchen school, the challenge is the illusion of time. There is a big emphasis on realizing the one Singular and Eternal NOW moment, with objects in the moment seen as ‘ornaments of Spirit’, the one appearing as the many.
  4. In the Vedanta tradition, the problem is described as ‘seeing many selves rather than One-Self. Peel back our layers of self-identity we discover the one I Am Presence within self, the ‘Big I’ (I-I) that lies behind the small i.
  5. Christian contemplative meditation identifies the issue as ‘living in separation’ (the original sin). Living in separation consciousness gives rise to fear, a type if experiential self-contraction, which keeps us from experiencing the Love of God/Love of All. The emphasis here then is the practice of Unconditional Love as a path to Union with the Ultimate reality.

 
In my up-coming course on Non-Dual meditation, I will be covering all of these approaches in some depth. What I want to do here is give an experiential taste of non-dual meditation though what you might call ‘Organismic reality’ or experiencing Life and self as a singular organism.
 
Step 1 – Meditation on your own organism. Sitting with your body, notice how it naturally appears as one thing, , a single totality. Now imagine zooming into a single cell in your body, notice it appears as a single cell, but from your perspective as the whole body, you can see quite clearly that it is a single unit within a larger reality, a small self that is really part of one larger, ‘bigger self’.
Step 2 – Coming back to your body, notice how it appears separate from its environment and from other bodies, separate from the rest of the Earth. Now zoom out so that your consciousness includes the whole of Planet Earth, a single Unity. Experience this natural ‘One Earth’ feeling of Unity, be it.
Step 3 – Now go back to your body awareness, but feel it to be a part of the bigger, singular body of the Earth, like a cell in the body of the one Planet.
 
Imagine the Earth as an Organism, Life as an Organism, Your Self-as-that-Single Organism
 
Your physical body is a single cell in that Organism, but you in the deeper sense of your true-identity are the One Organism of Life and the Planet itself. Take this feeling of Self as the Earth, Self as the total Organism of Life. Feel and experience your actual Self as the One Life behind all of life on earth. Be that Singularity, that Non-Duality.
 
I hope you enjoyed this window on Non-Duality, and I invite you to come on the Non-Dual journey with me over the coming weeks!
 
Related reading: The world as an organism

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 


All upcoming classes & workshops
 

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Saturday February 8th, 15th, 22nd, 10-11.40am – Mindful Life-skills for Teenagers – a three module course

Starts Tues 11th, Weds 12th February, 7.30-8.30 pm – Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice

Tues 18th, Weds 19th March, 7.30-8.30pm – Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology