There’s a blunt-force approach to becoming more present, focused and getting beyond your mind.
Silent meditation retreats, dark retreats, even running ultras… you sit in discomfort, confront the mind and hope you can hang on long enough to come out the other side.
It can work, but it’s not always that pleasant.
And if you’re not careful, as happened to me, it can actually encourage the ego. You develop this sense of, “I’m strong enough to withstand this.”
Which is rather funny, because the whole point is to be forgetting all about yourself.
There’s another way.
It’s a bit of a ninja approach, in that you make it as pleasant as possible. No need to manufacture discomfort or confront the mind.
With a tool like Ascension, you can head directly beneath the noise, and the mind settles and behaves as a byproduct.
Presence, ease and an enjoyable practice. Something you’ll actually want to do because it gives you so much.
You don’t have to fight your mind to go beyond it.