Listen as John Astin introduces his series of short "experiential inquiries."

by John Astin

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Discover John Astin&rsquo;s unique approach of "experiential inquiry"&mdash;and examine what lies underneath the words and concepts we use to label experience.</span></p>

Beyond Concepts

Full Meditation

Introduction

Let all prior knowledge and understanding fade into the background.

Refer to Nothing

Relax any effort and "feel into the texture" of your experience.

What Is Experience Made Of?

Discover the limits of language as you explore the sensations in your face.

Reality—Virtual, Actual, Both

Look into your direct experience and notice how everything is always changing.

The Indescribability of Experience

Try to find a dividing line between your skin and the rest of the world.

Boundaries

See how everything appears and vanishes in an instant.

Everything Slips Away

Discover how experience "cannot be collapsed into any description or category."

Presence

Notice how this moment is inescapably present, no matter what happens.

Resting as the View

Let go of any attempt to control attention and allow the mind to be as it is.

No Distractions

Feel how experience "shapeshifts" and never holds still.

Drifting Toward Reality

Shift your focus from the "content" of experiencing to the greater "context."

The Miracle of Perceiving

Notice that presence is happening, all by itself.

Everything Is Present

Drop all labeling of experience and notice how everything is equal.

Beyond Hierarchy

Feel the "swirl of sensations" of your body and see how there are no boundaries.

Wide Open

See if you can find a place where "you" end and "the world" begins.

The Borderless Field of Being

Feel "the energy of life itself" and make no effort to alter or control it.

Expressions of Energy

Encounter the world anew, as if you've never been here before.

We Have Not Been Here Before

Notice how "time" is an abstraction—a product of memory and thought.

Time

See how "the more carefully we examine things, the less coherent they become."

The Bottomless Well of Infinity

Look and feel what is presently happening—and contemplate what you are.