Night Rest: Live Sleep Meditations 3

This edited live recording is the 3rd in the series 'Night Rest'. A weekly series of meditations created especially for those about to retire for the evening, or for those wishing to relax at the end of the day. This particular meditation is the relaxing experience of being in the open field of silent awareness.

Each unique in the series opens and closes with the centreing tones of 'tingshas'. Each meditation unfolds slowly and naturally, with long pauses, gentle guidance, and spacious silence — supporting the nervous system to relax the mind and body, making them ideal pathways for relaxing at the end of each day, or for playing as you go to bed.

There is nothing to achieve and no need to stay awake.
Simply listen, rest, and allow sleep to arrive in its own relaxed time.

You may fall asleep during the meditation, or rest quietly in awareness. Both are perfectly welcome.

Transcript

Let's bring the focus totally to the breath. So in your own relaxed rhythm, Take a long deep breath in. And this incoming breath will fill your lungs, So a long deep breath. Now at the top of the breath, Pause for a moment, And then exhale. Then at the bottom of the breath, Pause again, Then breathe in again, A long slow deep breath. Now as the energy from your breath passes into the body, Feel the energy as a lightness that moves through all areas of the body, From your head down through your neck, Down your back, Your arms, Your hands, Down through the lower back, Your thighs, Your calves and down to your feet. So each breath is visualized as this flow of energy that enters into your lungs and then effortlessly expands and flows through all parts of your physical being. And as this natural cycle continues, The body becomes fully relaxed. Just let go of all areas of your body. And probably feel yourself sinking a little deeper, Wherever you may be sitting or lying. Your eyes are closed, And you're breathing in and out through your nose. Now by following the breath, And by following it move through the whole body, You're keeping your focus on that which is not thought. Anything to do with your day, Now that you are back home, You've left all behind. Any energy from your day is being let go of through each breath. As you consciously make the choice to bring the body into relaxation and your thoughts to stillness. Now any thoughts that do arrive, It's perfectly fine. Thoughts are not any issue whatsoever. You focusing on them is the discipline that's required to learn to let go of any attachments to your thinking. And a very easy way, An effortless way to do that is to treat thoughts as passing clouds. And as each cloud passes and fades, What remains? The still vastness of the sky. Or you could think of those thoughts as the appearance of a wave on the surface of the ocean. And each wave, After it has an appearance, It recedes back into the stillness and quiet of the ocean itself. Now whatever thought may arise, It's only a word. It has no independent authority or power. It's simply a word that appears. And we have the power to ignore them. Thoughts don't control us. We control thought. We use the mind when we need to in our working position, But now we've finished for the day. We are home. We're relaxing and the thoughts of the day are no longer required in this space. We're now consciously choosing to focus on our calm inner presence. An inner vastness where the personal identity of me is not present. This is before the thought of a me or mine or them or they. And any thought that arises is temporary. We bring our focus back to a vast stillness that's being increasingly felt throughout the body. So slowly mind begins to let go. The space that we are now experiencing is not something that we've entered into and it's not the space we're going to leave. We're simply consciously recognising again the very silent essence of our essential nature. We're conscious now, Now that the mind is quiet, We can now be present in the fullness of our own inner reality. In this field of presence there is nothing to be, Nothing to do. We simply let go. This stillness is the dynamic presence of our self-awareness. The unborn essence of our being. And to come back into the recognition of this infinite presence is so simple. When we let go and we're fully open, We can fully relax. And this sense of stillness is not bound by any physical sense of understanding of a body or mind. It is timeless, It is eternal. And here we can simply be. We're not wanting to become anything. We're allowing our own inner wisdom to be fully present and for that to appear in whichever form it chooses, Without us looking or expecting anything. We are here in the now and present. We're focusing on the field of presence before thought, Before a sense of doing. And this spaciousness of awareness, All that appears, All that we interact with in the world, All of it is a temporary appearance within one's conscious awareness. We ourselves are the silent, Unmoving background, Observing all within the field of an outer existence. And all within it is temporary, Including our physical being. But the foundation of all is the silent, Empty stillness of our inseparable awareness. Still, Open and free. And the breath is the tool we use to take us deeper and deeper. Nothing to do. Nothing. Just be here.