Big Mind Guided Meditation

You can try the Big Mind process on your own.  Begin by speaking from the series of voices in the manner described below.  After you’ve completed the series once, you can get the same effect from a shortened version of the practice, described at the end of the series.

Ask to speak to the voice of the Controller within you.  Then identify as the Controller.

“Now I am speaking as the Controller.  I am no longer the self.  As my name implies, my function is to control.  If I could, I would control everything and everyone.  I’d control my thoughts, my actions, my emotions, my feelings, my behavior, as well as others’.  I would control the whole world if I could.  This is my job, and I’m just trying to do my job as best I can.”

Now the Meditator asks the Controller, “May I ask your permission as the Controller to allow me to speak with some other voices within the self?  Since you are the best at controlling all the other voices, would you also give me clear, direct access to each voice that I ask to speak to?  And I would appreciate it if you would keep all the other voices silent, so they will not block my clear channel to the voice that I ask to speak to.  May I now speak to another voice?  I’d like to speak to the Seeking Mind.”

"I am the Seeking Mind.  I am very valuable to the self.  I am the one who brings the self to meditation, I am the one who is always seeking to become quieter, happier, and more peaceful.  I am the one seeking to find bliss and liberation.  I am never content.  There is always further to seek.”

Meditator: “May I now speak to the Non-seeking Mind?” 

“I am the Non-seeking Mind.  I don’t seek.  I am absolutely content and happy with what is.  I have no desires or cravings to be other than how I am right here right now.  I am pure awareness, emptiness, spaciousness.  I witness and observe things just as they are.  I have no judgments or problems.  I am the mind of nirvana, the mind of complete liberation.  When I am sitting in meditation, I have no goals and no aims.  I have nowhere to go, nothing to do.  I am total peace.”

Meditator: “May I now speak to Big Mind, please?”

“I am Big Mind.  I have no borders, no boundaries, no limits.  I am unborn and undying, without beginning or end.  I am all things, and all things are manifestations of me.  I make no distinctions between self and other, you and me.  I am the mind of nirvana, absolute peace and freedom.”

Meditator: “I can easily see Big Mind as the antithesis of the self.  I can see Big Mind as one end of a line, and the self at the opposite end.  If that line becomes the base of a triangle, I would now like to speak to the Apex of that triangle, which includes and yet transcends the self and Big Mind, or the Seeking and the Non-seeking Mind.”

“I am the Apex.  I am Big Heart, I am compassionate action.  I am that which is beyond seeking and non-seeking, beyond the limited self and limitless Big Mind.  As the Apex I have complete freedom to seek or not to seek, I have choice; I have flexibility.  I can move freely between these two states of mind.  From here I do not seek enlightenment nor do I try to get rid of delusion.  I do not try to put an end to thinking and I do not favor not-thinking.  I have no preference for one over the other.  I am total freedom, and complete peace of mind, functioning perfectly and harmoniously in every moment.  I act from wisdom functioning as compassion.  I am the True and Unique Self.”

After you have done this for the first time, you can use a simpler practice.  If you already have a regular meditation routine, begin by assuming your usual posture.  If you’ re new to meditation, find a comfortable upright position (sitting in a chair is sufficient), take a few deep breaths, and relax.  From your relaxed meditation position, ask the Controller, “May I please speak to the Non-seeking Non-grasping Mind?”  Then identify as the Controller by saying, “Yes, I am the Controller, and you may now speak to the Non-seeking Non-grasping Mind.  OK, now, sit as the Non-seeking Non-grasping Mind.”

Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi, is the creator of the Big Mind Process and author of Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding YourWay, four other books, and numerous DVDs.  A recognized Zen Master in the Soto and Rinzai Traditions, he is the founder of Kanzeon Zen International Community and abbot of the Kanzeon Zen Center, Utah.  He has been teaching Zen throughout the U.S. and Europe since 1979.

For further information visit the website www.bigmind.org.