13 - What Lies Beneath

B-RAD with Brad Toews

Guillaume Néry is a record-breaking freediver. In his fascinating TED Talk, he explains the life-transforming experience of the freedive. His diving adventures challenge the belief that we can only go so far and give a new meaning to the religious phrase, "born again".

Néry's diving experience teaches us about what lies beneath. So too does meditation.

I'm a newbie meditator but I've been practicing meditation for a couple years and I'm acquainted with three different meditative states.

Fixing your mind on an idea, phrase, or an object in the room is like the energy-saving swimming technique of treading water. Holding yourself in place, economically and efficiently. Being here.

A state of mindfulness, a non-judgemental observation of thoughts and feelings, is like the motion of steady swimming. Graceful and directional movement across the surface.

Transcendental meditation is going down, falling into the ground of being, a deeper layer below our conscious and subconscious mind. It's a freedive without the physiological effects of crushing pressure and nitrogen narcosis.

In my own transcendental meditative practice, I've experienced a reality not found at the surface of the waters; what I can only explain as a reverence humming deep below the top layers of my life.

I'm not a freediver, but I want to dive into the depths of the ocean that is my heart.

If like Rumi says, our heart is the size of an ocean, we need to understand the ocean is the entire thing, 100%. The surface, the width, the expanse, the layers beneath, the depth, the bottom. The ocean fills it all, every crevice, every expanse.

Sometimes we're called to step into a boat. To go on a journey across the surface, to take a leap of faith and sail toward the unknown horizon.

And sometimes, like Guillaume Néry, we're compelled to dive beneath, because life is calling us into the depths. To discover that untouched and powerful reverence humming within us.

Join me in this episode as we explore the ocean of our heart. As we leave the shore and then go deep to find out for ourselves that what lies beneath can sustain all that which rests on top.

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