A choiceless awareness meditation.
In this meditation we learn to trust our mindfulness practice and see that a choice of where to rest the attention is always there.
Knowing we can come back to our anchor of breath and body.
Begin by settling yourself in awareness of your surroundings.
Make yourself comfortable and warm and sit in a way that allows you to be relaxed and alert in your body and mind.
Take some initial full breaths and once settled begin to bring your awareness to your anchor.
Perhaps your breath or your body.
Feeling the rise and fall of your body as you breathe in and out.
Steady and settled.
Letting all other experiences you may notice.
Perhaps sensations in your body,
Sounds in the room,
Thoughts or feelings subside softly as you gently return your attention to your breath.
And take some time here to steady yourself.
Having settled on your anchor you can now expand your mindfulness to the stronger waves of experience that arise.
Perhaps it sounds.
Let go of your attention on the breath and body and turn towards the sound with the same kind attention you gave to your breath.
Perhaps naming it,
Hearing,
Barking,
Whatever it is.
Noticing when the sound has passed or you're at ease with it and then gently returning your awareness onto the breath or body once more.
And in the same way you noticed sound now let your self stay with any other thoughts or sensations in the body or emotions that come to you.
Simply noticing them,
Shifting your awareness to acknowledge them.
Perhaps naming them as you did the sounds.
Sadness,
Tingling or planning and noticing them kindly and in full awareness.
And now choosing to bring your awareness to what you feel best in this moment.
From the breath and body anchor to the waves of other experiences that come and go.
Seeing them,
Sensing them and letting them be with gentle interest.
Maybe naming them and returning your attention gently back to the breath once more.
Sometimes more than one thing may arise.
No matter.
Simply notice one thing at a time.
Perhaps naming it gently and then when it passes return to your breath.
Begin to see that you can have this choice.
Using your anchor you can acknowledge any experience as it arises.
Pleasant or unpleasant.
Maybe naming it and letting it pass once more to return to this moment,
This breath right now with kind awareness of whatever is here.
Steady embracing all.
Knowing that as you learn to give space to whatever is arising inside you with greater equanimity you can begin to go with the flow.
Even if you're experiencing storms of anxiety or pain,
Sadness or anger or confusion or most of all at these times you'll come to know that by giving these feelings space they will gradually diminish.
Now withdraw from choiceless awareness and come back to the breath.
Feeling the whole body as you breathe in and out.
Feeling the whole body rising on the in-breath and falling on the out-breath.
And when you're ready slowly open your eyes,
Wriggle your fingers and toes.
Perhaps take a stretch and be thankful that you've given yourself this time.
Thank you.
