10-Direction Perception
The purpose of this meditation is to use the sensation of space, the felt quality of spaciousness, to realize who you are as Boundless Awareness. This is a whole different vantage point to live from. Feeling the space within and all around you connects you with a feeling of presence, energy, and Awareness itself. It is the basis of feeling alive and connected with each other, all of Life, and beyond. As we feel space gets wider and wider around us, we begin to sense the vastness of this space, and beyond that, the Boundlessness of Awareness itself, within which and from which space and all perceptions, states, and experiences arise.
Transcript
The purpose of this meditation is to use the sensation of space,
The felt quality of spaciousness,
To realize who you are as boundless awareness.
This is a whole different vantage point to live from.
Feeling the space within and all around you connects you with a feeling of presence,
Energy,
And awareness itself.
It is the basis of feeling alive and connected with each other,
All of life,
And beyond.
We begin by feeling into the space of the body and the permeable boundary of the skin.
As we feel space wider and wider around us,
We begin to sense the vastness of this space,
And beyond that,
The boundlessness of awareness itself,
Within which and from which space and all perceptions,
States,
And experiences arise.
In this practice,
We feel space in ten directions.
Awareness can localize into a felt experience of each direction,
Like it can localize into,
Embody,
And inhabit any thought,
Feeling,
Mindset,
Or focal point.
Awareness permeates every moment of experience as the one who is having the experience.
We simply don't recognize and attend to awareness itself.
We attend to that which is perceived,
That which is known,
And forget the perceiver,
The knower.
We are so accustomed to paying attention to the content of experience,
To our thoughts,
Feelings,
Information,
And tasks,
That we forget who we are as awareness itself.
So,
In this meditation,
We awaken sensory awareness of space as a means to realize awareness itself.
We prime this experience with posture cues,
The felt sense of different spaces and qualities of feeling in the body.
Let's begin by sitting comfortably upright,
With your hands resting cupped in your lap,
And the tips of your thumbs touching lightly.
Lightly close your eyes.
Take a moment to check in inside.
Notice how you feel right now.
Check in with your body.
Scan down through your whole body,
From your head down to your toes.
Are there any points of tension?
What does it feel like to be you right now?
Sense the felt quality of being you.
What is your inner feeling state?
Bring to mind your intention for your practice.
Why is this important to you?
Consider dedicating your practice to the peace and well-being of all beings,
Through knowing who we are as awareness.
Now,
Feel down into the sensations of contact with the ground underneath you.
Awaken sensory awareness of the feeling of being seated,
And the feeling of support under your seat.
Soften and relax down into the grounded presence of the earth underneath you.
Feel into your hands and fingers.
Awaken sensory awareness here.
Soften and relax your hands and fingers,
Releasing any tension in your hands,
Your arms,
And your shoulders.
Feel the quality of soft openness in your hands,
Arms,
And shoulders.
Allow your neck and head to soften and relax.
Soften and relax your torso.
Check in with your posture,
And allow your spine to be drawn gently upright.
Notice the felt quality of sitting upright.
How does it feel when you sit more upright?
You might feel more awake,
Alert,
Intentional,
And empowered.
Tuck your chin just slightly to gently lengthen the back of your neck.
Lightly close your lips,
And soften and relax your tongue.
Feel the quality of softness and relaxation in your tongue.
Smile,
A subtle smile of soft openness.
Allow this felt sense of soft openness to relax your jaw,
Your face,
Your eyebrows and your forehead.
Allow this soft,
Open quality of smiling to wash down into your heart.
Feel into the quality of soft openness in your heart.
Allow your heart to soften and open even more.
So you feel an easeful warmth here.
Allow yourself to be present in this soft,
Warm quality of open heartedness in your heart,
And soak in this warmth of soft,
Open heartedness.
Feel this radiant smile expand from your heart out to every cell in your body.
Feel the whole space of your body saturated with the warmth of soft openness.
This natural,
Effortless quality of softness,
Warmth,
And openness.
Feel this soft,
Warm openness in the pores of your skin.
This permeable membrane that connects what feels like inside from what feels like outside.
Feel the soft openness of the pores of your skin,
Through which your skin breathes.
Feel your skin breathing in the space around you,
And breathing out into the space around you.
Now,
In this natural,
Soft openness,
We're going to use space as a way to connect with awareness itself.
First,
With your eyes closed,
And your gaze directed straight ahead,
Become aware of the space behind your eyes.
From this space behind your eyes,
Gaze way off into space in front of you.
Forward out into infinity.
Keep unfolding space into space.
Feel into space unfolding into space.
Open space unfolding infinitely in front of you.
Pull your gaze back into a single point right in front of you,
Between your eyes.
It's still space.
It's simply space right in front of you.
A space close in.
You can zoom out into space,
And you can zoom back in.
Now,
Shift attention to the back of your skull.
Rest back into the space at the back of your skull.
It's still space.
You are simply aware of this space here at the back of your skull.
You might feel an energy,
A tingling presence in the back of your skull.
Now,
Drop attention down into the space of your heart.
Feel the space here.
A soft,
Open,
Warm space here in your heart.
Now,
Feel the space behind your heart.
It's still space.
You are just aware of the portion of space that is behind you.
Become aware of this space extended infinitely behind you.
The felt quality of space behind you extending farther and farther.
Pour space into space behind you.
Now,
Come back in and feel the presence of this space just behind your back.
The space touching your skin in the back.
Just like in front,
You can zoom out into space and zoom back in behind you.
Now,
Center again in the space of your heart.
Feel the aliveness of this space.
Feel the connection of your heart down through the perineum.
And feel the connection from your heart up through the top of your head.
Feel this central channel,
This core space of your body like a river of light flowing with the quality of soft,
Warm openness.
We're going to orient from this central core space.
From this core space,
Feel forward.
Feel from the central channel forward into the space in front of you.
You might feel as if you're being drawn forward into the space in front of you.
As this space in front of you is energized with attention,
With presence,
You might feel as if this space has more weight,
More energy,
More presence.
Feel the presence of the space in front of you.
Feel as if you are pulled forward into this space while staying anchored in the central channel.
You can feel a magnetic pull of the space in front of you.
Now,
Return attention to the central channel.
And feel a pull into the space behind you.
Pour energy and attention into the space behind you.
Rest back into this space.
Feel how this space now has more weight,
More presence,
More energy.
As if it's pulling you back into this space.
Feel this weight,
This pull of the space behind you.
And now,
Come forward again into the space of the central channel.
And now,
Feel pulled into the space on the left.
From this orientation in the central channel,
Feel the pull into this space on the left.
Feel how this space now has more energy,
More weight,
More presence.
You can feel this,
This presence of the space on the left.
It's as if all the other spaces are empty and this space is now full.
Because you're now directing attention to this space and feeling its presence.
You can feel this.
It's palpable.
And now,
Come back to the central channel.
And feel the pull of the space on the right.
Pour attention into the space on the right.
Feel the pull of this space.
Feel the presence,
The energy,
The weight of this space.
Feel as if it's pulling you to the right.
The right side now feels full.
It's amazing how you can feel this.
You can feel this fullness on the right now.
Now,
Come back to the central channel.
And feel the pull into the left front corner.
And feel the energy,
The weight,
The presence in the left front corner space.
This space is now full.
And now,
Come back to the central channel.
And feel the energy,
The weight,
The presence in the left front corner space.
And feel the pull into the right rear corner.
Pour energy and attention into this space.
Feel the energy,
The weight,
The presence of this space.
Feel the fullness of this space.
It's amazing how you can feel this space.
How you can fill it up or feel the fullness of it simply by guiding attention into it.
And now,
Come back to the central channel.
Feel this column in the core.
And feel the pull into the right front corner.
Feel as if you're pulled into this space.
Feel the weight,
The presence,
The magnetic pull of this space.
You can feel it.
Feel the presence in this space.
Now return to feeling the central channel.
And feel the pull into the left rear corner.
Pour energy and attention into this space,
The left rear corner.
Feel the magnetic pull of this space.
This fullness of space in the left rear corner.
And now,
Return again to the space of the central channel.
It feels good to feel the presence of the central channel.
It's like a home space,
A core space of soft,
Warm openness,
Ease and flow,
Connecting all the spaces to the core.
And now,
Feel drawn upward,
Drawn up through the central channel.
Feel as if you're being pulled upward.
Feel a magnetic pull upward into the space above you.
A vast,
Open space above you.
You're being drawn up into this space.
Feel the energy of this space.
Feel yourself uplifted into this space.
Feel this quality of being uplifted,
Drawn upward.
Feel the quality of openness,
Of lightness in this space.
This space above has a unique felt quality,
Like the clear,
Bright,
Open sky.
Rest as this clear,
Bright,
Open space above.
Now,
Allow the energy of this space to pour down,
To pour down like a river of light,
Down through the top of your head,
Down through the central channel.
Down through your heart.
Down through the perineum.
Pouring down into the space under you.
Down into the space of the earth.
Feel yourself flowing down into this space.
Feel the quality of this space.
This space has a different felt quality.
It's solid.
Feel the quality of this space.
The weight of it.
The feeling of firm support here.
Rest down into this space.
Notice how you can feel it.
You can feel the quality of this space.
The grounded,
Supportive,
Still presence of this space.
Now,
Sink down and rest back,
So you're resting down and back into vast space.
Feel out in all directions at once,
All the directions we've already felt into.
Feel out in all directions to the boundaries of this space.
Let go of any sense of boundary.
Beyond that,
Rest as vast,
Boundless space.
You can feel it.
Vast openness.
The felt quality of vast openness.
Vast fullness.
Everything is included in this space.
All-inclusive space.
Everything's included.
Everyone's included.
Everything,
Everywhere,
All and yet full at the same time.
A feeling of absolute freedom and luminous oneness.
The space itself is aware.
The space is awareness in the guise of space.
Space is a formless matrix through which awareness knows itself by feeling itself as space.
You are awareness itself,
Feeling itself as space.
Rest down and back as the vast,
Boundless space.
Now,
Let go beyond space.
Rest as boundless awareness within which and from which everything,
Including space,
Arises.
Let go and rest as boundless awareness prior to space.
Let go and rest as boundless awareness prior to time.
Simply now.
Beyond and prior to anything,
It feels almost like nothing at all.
Awareness without form or content.
Beyond any qualities.
Here.
Awareness.
Here.
And now,
Feel vast,
Boundless space arising within awareness.
Feel the fullness of this space.
The openness.
The luminosity of it.
The presence of it.
Everything that arises,
Everything that is,
Arises from,
In,
And as awareness in space.
When you realize yourself as boundless awareness,
You realize,
As awareness,
You can localize into any space of experience.
So,
Now,
Feel the space of your body as an expression of this vast space.
A localization of this boundless space.
There's no separation between this body and this space.
Feeling the body is simply a way of focusing,
A way of attending to the space as a locality,
A place within vast space.
The felt sense of your body is simply a way of attending to this space in a localized way.
Your body is not separate from the vast space.
It's just focused attention to a small space,
Within the vast space,
By awareness itself.
There is no separation.
There is just shifting of attention.
You can zoom attention out to the whole space,
And there is vastness.
And you can zoom in,
Localize attention,
And feel this small space you call your body.
What you call the body is simply a way of localizing attention.
Awareness attends to itself in different ways.
Awareness can attend to itself as vast and boundless,
Or feel a little portion of itself as this body.
Now,
Very slowly,
Very slowly begin to open your eyes and maintain this sense of local space within vast space.
With your eyes open,
Feel the vastness.
Zoom out and zoom back in.
Feel the localized space of your body.
Feel this presence of awareness as space.
What if you could move through life with this sense of boundless awareness,
Noticing yourself and everyone and everything as arising within,
From,
And as awareness.
We are all one as awareness.
Awareness attending to itself in different localities and relationships within space.
Now,
Feel the top of your head,
This localized space.
Feel your hands in your lap and your feet on the ground.
Here,
Notice how you feel now.
Take a moment to record the quality of this feeling in every cell,
So you remember it,
Bring it with you,
Share it with others,
And can return to it anytime.
As you move through life,
When you have a thought,
You are just attending to a thought space.
Feelings,
Too,
Arise in space.
Awareness is aware of itself in many different forms and spaces.
As boundless awareness,
You can embody,
You can inhabit,
You can experience anything.
Any thought,
Any intention,
Any feeling,
Any mindset,
Any perceived other,
Simply by attending to and resting in that space.
It's all a matter of what you focus on and how you relate to that.
You can experience being happy,
Sad,
Empowered,
Powerless,
Or any state at all,
Simply by attending to and resting as that.
You can know what it's like to be anything or anyone by attending to and resting as them.
You can do this while maintaining boundless awareness itself as an all-pervasive,
All-permeating background,
Beyond any particular experience or form.
Every expression,
Every thought,
Feeling,
And experience is this boundless awareness,
Aware of itself through the various forms it embodies and plays in.
You can come back to this meditation again and again to deepen this recognition and realize you are vast,
Boundless awareness,
Knowing itself through this play of localization and form in space and time.
Boundless awareness is a whole different vantage point to live from.
What would it be like to move through life as boundless awareness,
Playing compassionately in the worlds of form?
Take a moment to write down anything you'd like to remember from this meditative experience,
Including any important cues,
Insights,
And inspirations.
Well done.
