Guided Meditation Videos on Nondual Awareness by Michael Taft
Here is a series of twenty three meditations on what I call nondual awareness, or what I here call vast, spacious awareness. If you want to learn the basics of nondual meditation, just do these twenty three guided meditations in order, and listen to the talks afterwards.
Most of the meditations are an hour long.
If you want to learn more about nonduality, you can start here.
These nondual meditations were streamed live from my class at the San Francisco Dharma Collective. The sound is sometimes quiet or has glitches because of the live streaming. As the weeks go by, we slowly solve some of the issues, so the volume gets louder and the glitches fewer.
These videos are all from before the pandemic, when we were meeting in person. Since then, I’ve been broadcasting my pirate nondual signal from my meditation bunker in an undisclosed location. If you want to catch up with the latest videos (there are at least 75 more than appear on this page), check this out.
About Nonduality
What does it mean for a meditation to be “nondual”? In the simplest way of describing it, it means that we are dropping the sense of being an observer. In other words, instead of me over here, observing that thing over there—which is a spatial relationship constructed in the mind—we allow space to collapse and let go of any sense of being an observer.
What happens is pretty amazing. When the observer vanishes, so does the sense of the object-ness of the thing being observed. To put it another way, when the self is not a thing, no thing else is a thing either.
So instead of instead of me over here, observing that thing over there, there is just “observing” happening. It’s a very distinct and unusual type of experience at first. As we learn to let go of dualistic meditation, and drop deeper and deeper into nonduality, we realize that—rather than being something strange and rare—it is actually the fundamental ground of consciousness.
Watch these videos and do all the meditation to get a sense of this.
Befriending Your Mind
Let Go of Grasping
Discovering Sky-like Mind
The World Is Inside You
Awareness Has No Center
Directly Investigating Awareness
Allowing Vast, Open Awareness to Do Vipassana
Three Vehicle Investigation
Dissolving into Vast Spacious Awareness
Awareness Aware of Awareness
Mahamudra Vipashyana on the Moving Mind
Nondual Metta Practice
The World as Dream
The Fox Wedding
Vanishings into the Void
The Lion’s Roar
Turning the World Inside Out
Dropping Out of the Machinery of the Mind
Meditating Down the Stack
Awareness Seeing the Sense of Self
The Inconceivable
Emptiness, Emptiness
Emptiness of Thought and Feeling
Contacting Nonduality
Having done all of these meditations diligently, you will have a much better sense of what is meant by nondual awareness, and how to begin to contact it.
Even if you are deeply involved in vipassana practice, I recommend doing some of these nondual awareness meditation practices every once in a while to open things up, loosen your mind a bit, shake out the dust and cobwebs, and freshen things up.
What do I mean by “vast, spacious awareness”? Nothing other than nondual awareness, buddha nature, tathagatagarbha, rigpa, the ground of being.
There are jillions more of these nondual meditations presented one-by-one on the blog page of this site. Please feel free to use them, and let me know about your experience.
Also, if you enjoy these meditations, feel free to contribute to me making more of them here: Michael Taft on Patreon
photo of cranes by Michael Taft
Great series! Btw, the first sentence says there are 21 meditations, but the second sentence says there are 23?
Yes, the list keeps growing.
Thanks for posting this content, I’ve been working through them one by one and it’s been a game changer for me. I’ve just finished ‘The World as Dream’ and… wow, very effective! I’ll be working through the rest, hopefully everyday if possible. Cheers (I was introduced to your blog via the Lee Mack/Neil Webster podcast btw)
Thank you for these meditations, I’ve just finished them all. Likewise they’ve really helped me establish a deeper practice after years of fairly superficial success. I also discovered this due to the Lee Mack and Neil Webster podcast.
You’re welcome, Ben. There are many more on my Youtube channel.
Thank you for these. I’m enjoying them in New Zealand. Also hear about you through Lee Mack and Neil Websters podcast!
I have just started listening to your sessions and like others they are a game changer for me. I am having truly amazing experiences, thank you so much for sharing them online and thanks to Neil Webster @ican’tbelieveitsnotbuddha for introducing their listeners to you.
I learnt TM meditation years ago and let life get in the way of never ever doing it consistently and properly. I rediscovered my desire for meditation through Lee Mack and Neil Webster’s light hearted podcast. Which in turn led me to here. And I’m glad it did. I’m 4 sessions in and am enjoying it. Looking forward to completing the series.
Hi . I’ve been trying to meditate every morning for about a month for 20mins before work. I first started by googling how to meditate! so did my own version then have followed some guided meditations – Mooji and have an app – Down Dog Mediation that have been great. I discovered you too via listening to Lee Mack and Neil Websters podcast. That was a great chat you had with Neil. It’s put my mind at ease about whether I’m on the right path or whether I’m meditating properly.
I’ve been trying your longer meditations at the weekends and feel the benefits for hours afterwards. Your discussions have really opened my mind to different ways of thinking, feeling. seeing..
I’m a teacher and daily meditation has really reduced my stress levels, made me sleep better and be more productive. It’s made me more relaxed with everyone I interact with at home, at work, walking the dog, in the supermarket!
Thanks for sharing, Dave. So glad to hear it!
Think there might be a link missing on “If you want to catch up with the latest videos (there are at least 75 more than appear on this page), check this out.”