We weren’t born with a restless mind. We arrived in this world spacious, open, and untouched – like awareness itself. So how did that vast clarity become a chattering “me”? What silent shift pulls us from our natural wholeness into the frantic monkey mind? In this episode we explore the invisible turn of awareness where heaven is forgotten and the monkey mind is born. And more importantly, we explore how meditation can unwind that process from the very start and dissolve the source of suffering at its root.

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Aware, Awake, Alive on Amazon

Have you ever wondered why your mind refuses to sit still—why thoughts surge, swirl, and rehearse themselves as if on an endless loop? The answer isn’t mysterious or psychological jargon. It comes down to one simple, ancient habit: the mind’s impulse to grab hold of fleeting appearances and turn them into solid realities. In the very moment the mind turns nothing into something, the monkey mind is born. But once we see this mechanism clearly—truly catch it in the act—we hold the key to dissolving restlessness at its source and opening into the spacious, luminous awareness that has always been our true nature.

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Aware, Awake, Alive on Amazon

Behind the restless flow of thoughts lies a vast, silent field of awareness – the natural mind that precedes and sustains all experience. We live mostly within a fragment of this wholeness, mistaking our conditioned patterns, stories, and identities for the entirety of who we are. Meditation, when understood in its deeper sense, is not simply a technique to calm or improve the mind but a doorway to directly recognize the luminous consciousness from which all mental activity arises and dissolves. When we cease trying to fix or follow our thoughts and instead rest as awareness itself, the veil of confusion thins, serenity expands, and the essence of our true being reveals itself – clear, boundless, and ever-present.

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Aware, Awake, Alive on Amazon

A question that all meditators confront is how to stabilize the qualities we experience in our natural state – serenity, spontaneous realizations, freedom from conditioning, and a natural simplicity and ease. These qualities often appear only as fleeting experiences, easily disrupted by the pressures of daily life.

In other words, we tend to know them as temporary states, not enduring traits. A state is transient, a trait is stable. The work of meditation is the transformation of momentary states into abiding traits, so what was once a passing glimpse becomes a resilient way of being.

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Aware, Awake, Alive on Amazon

We are born with a simple, clear, and open awareness. Yet, this pristine consciousness is short lived. As we navigate life, our experiences – linked to external approval or criticism – progressively reduce our scope of consciousness to limited ways of perceiving reality, ingrained habits, and automated reaction patterns.

Unbounded curiosity, exuberance and awe, novelty, and spontaneous creativity give way to the ordinary, known, and mundane. Our lives become conditioned, molded and contracted by the weight of accepted norms and a subtle system of praise and critique. What once seemed expansive and open is replaced by a seemingly “functional” existence, as the natural vitality of an expansive life fades into the background. Join me in discovering how we find our way to home to a natural freedom from the known.

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Aware, Awake, Alive on Amazon

We have all experienced moments of circumstantial calmness – whether through a relaxing walk in nature, immersion in art and beauty, or through music, yoga, intimacy, meditation, and other such events that can calm mind and body. These moments offer a respite from the overactive mind, afflictive emotions, and daily challenges. We seek out these desirable circumstances, valuing them greatly.

However, all circumstances are impermanent. They may last moments or longer, but their nature is transient. In time they will pass. Why? Because all phenomena and experience are transitory. When circumstances change so does our mental state – more calm, less calm, no calm, or back to our usual stress. Circumstance-based calmness, while pleasant and helpful, is fragile and fleeting. Join me in this Podcast to explore how circumstantial can be replace by a pervasive and stable serenity.

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A peak experience is a fleeting moment of profound inner peace, harmony, flow, and oneness. It’s T.S. Eliot’s image of children playing innocently in the apple tree, Wordsworth’s moment of splendor in the grass, or you and I “lost” in nature, wonderment, exuberance, beauty, art, intimacy, dance, or, music. It’s when the music, the playing, and the musician become one.

Most individuals have had a peak experience, but missed its meaning. What on the surface appeared to be a pleasant moment was in actuality a precious glimpse of one’s true nature. Join me in this discussion and practice

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Shantideva, a famous 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk, shared with us a very wise realization: "All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself. All the happiness in the world comes from seeking pleasure for others." When we desire that others be free of suffering and attain happiness, we swiftly lose our ego-based-self-cherishing and self-centeredness. In that precise moment a spontaneous feeling of peace, connection, and contentness, no longer obscured by our personal “I,” reveals itself from the center of our being. It may be brief, but if we catch it we will know it by heart.

Please join me in this discussion and the special practice of Tonglen, Sending and Receiving.

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www.elliottdacher.org
Aware, Awake, Alive on Amazon