Inhabit the State Through Direct Experience

An assumed state becomes the channel of awareness when it is lived as present.

This requires a careful distinction. You can think about being supported, picture a future in which everything is secure, or repeat a sentence about trust. Each is a representation appearing within awareness. The practice concerns the manner of being from which those representations are known.

Enter the field of consciousness by recognizing the awareness already present. You do not have to imagine crossing a boundary into a hidden place. Notice that thought, bodily sensation, sound, and the space around you are already being received.

Remain there, with your intention Godward.

Now allow the chosen state to take the form of direct, felt presence. Suppose the state is being sustained by the Father. Let the body stop arguing for a moment that it must earn the right to exist. Notice the support of the chair, the ordinary movement of breathing, and the room available around a thought. Let the senses remain open within the intention of being held.

You are inhabiting an orientation while meeting what is actually present.

The sensory channel can include hearing, seeing, touch, smell, and taste. Use the sounds already arriving, the light already present, the contact of feet with the floor, or the taste of a meal. Let these be received through the state you have chosen. There is no need to manufacture a future room, imagined praise, or an inner movie.

If the state is dignity, notice what it is to receive a sound without immediately making yourself small. If the state is steadiness, feel how a movement can be completed without rushing to escape yourself. If the state is sufficiency, allow the present moment to be received without immediately converting it into a deficiency.

These examples describe ways of entering. Their words can be left behind once their meaning is directly available.

An assumed state is deeper than a passing mood. Sadness can be present within steadiness. Uncertainty can be present within devotion. The state concerns how experience is held and where being is directed; every feeling does not need to be replaced.

This also keeps the state from becoming an idol. You do not worship a particular sensation or demand that it remain unchanged. You remain available to the Father while allowing that quality of being to shape how life is received.

When the mind begins describing the state, notice the description. Offer it while remaining Godward, and return to direct experience. The same movement applies when an image appears or a sentence starts repeating itself.

The channel becomes familiar through repeated inhabiting. Familiarity gives it continuity beyond the meditation seat.