An Enlightenment Practice: The Empty Room

Warrior’s Path S.P., Kingsport, TN–I received an email the other day from a reader who had recently had a satori experience and was asking for advice on what she should do now.

Since satori experiences are indicators that the Personal Self is weakening, I offered the following “empty room” practice.

More below the break…

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for sharing your glimpse. I hope it has “stuck,” but in case it hasn’t I’d like to offer a little practice to help you re-condition your way of thinking about yourself. Because of some phrases from you email, I hope this little visualization helps:

I’d like you to imagine yourself as a large, empty room. It’s a plain, boring, empty room. No carpet, no windows, no tile, no paintings or photos on the walls. Just a big empty room.
As your thoughts come up, try to see them as someone else’s voice–a disembodied voice–echoing in You-As-The-Room.
Think of yourself not as Michelle, not as a person with family, friends, or problems, but as the empty room in which those things sometimes appear inside You-As-The-Room.
Try to go about your day like this. As you see things, feel things, taste things, think things–see them as arising inside You-As-The-Room.
Nothing that you see, nothing that you hear, nothing that you think, not even the Michelle-story is You-As-The-Room, just stuff that appears inside of you.
Finally, as your mind starts shouting, “I’m getting it! I’m getting it!,” hear those thoughts as just another disembodied voice arising inside You-As-The-Room.
Let it all go. Watch it arise. Watch it fade. Notice that You-As-The-Room just watch and allow.
If you feel that invisible, shimmering, living energy that I often call “Her,” let that go too. Feel Her, but don’t hold onto Her.

Practice this as often as you can. The more often and the longer… the better–as what you are doing is re-training your mind to see your identity–who you really are–in a way that is much closer to the Truth.

The Truth of course, is when you realize that You are the room–but without the walls, floor, or ceiling.

Practice the above for a few days and let me know how it goes. Let me know how you feel.