Preparing for this practice by getting settled into a comfortable meditation sitting position of your choice,
Establishing a posture of upright alertness,
But still with a sense of ease.
And when you're ready,
Placing your attention on your breath.
Breathing in.
Breathing in.
Moment to moment awareness of the sensations of breathing.
Following every moment of the in-breath and every moment of the out-breath.
Perhaps noticing the turn at the end of each breath,
Turning from the in-breath into the out-breath,
And of course the out-breath turning into the in-breath.
Maybe noticing the expansion of the chest,
And then the release,
Or the rise and fall of the stomach as you breathe.
Perhaps widening your awareness here to include the sense of the body as a whole,
And of the changing patterns of sensation throughout the body.
You may find that you get a sense of the breath throughout the body,
As if the whole body were breathing here.
And if you choose,
Together with this wider sense of the body as a whole,
And of the breath moving to and from,
Include awareness of the more local,
Particular patterns of physical sensations that arise where the body makes contact with the surface underneath it.
The sensations of touch,
And pressure,
And contact,
Of the feet on the floor,
And the hands wherever they rest.
As best you can,
Holding all of these sensations,
Together with the sense of the breath and of the body as a whole,
In a wider space of awareness of physical sensations.
Remembering the breath is always here for you during this meditation.
If at any time you feel the need to re-anchor yourself,
Feel free to go back to your sensations of breathing.
And now,
When you're ready,
Shifting your attention to sounds,
Bringing your attention to your ears,
And the sensation of hearing,
Allowing your awareness to open and expand your receptiveness to sounds as they arise,
Wherever they arise.
There is no need to go searching for sounds,
Or listening for any particular sounds.
Instead,
As best you can,
Simply open your awareness so that it is receptive to sounds from all directions as they arise.
Sounds that are close,
Perhaps from within your own body,
Or in the room,
And sounds that are in the distance.
Open to a whole space of sound around you.
Be aware of obvious sounds,
And of more subtle sounds.
Aware of the space between sounds.
Perhaps aware of silence.
As best you can,
Be aware of sounds simply as sensations.
Rather than thinking about sounds,
Or labelling the sounds,
Instead,
As best you can,
Tune into the actual sensory qualities of those sounds,
Such as the pattern of pitch,
Loudness or duration.
Whenever you notice that your awareness is no longer focused on sounds in the moment,
Gently acknowledge where the mind had moved off to,
And then return the awareness back to sounds as they arise and pass from one moment to the next.
When you are ready,
Let go of the awareness of sounds,
And refocus your attention so that your object of awareness are now thoughts,
As events in the mind.
Just as sounds arose and passed away,
So too do thoughts arise in the mind in just the same way,
Noticing when thoughts arise,
Focusing awareness on them as they pass through the space of the mind and eventually disappear.
There is no need to try and make thoughts come and go,
Just let them arise naturally,
Seeing thoughts as clouds floating across the spacious sky,
Perhaps noticing any feelings or emotions,
Pleasant or unpleasant,
That are attached to these thoughts,
Just noticing,
Maybe noting their emotional charge,
And notice any body sensations attached to these feelings,
So if any thoughts bring with them intense feelings or emotions,
Pleasant or unpleasant,
As best you can,
Note their emotional charge and intensity,
And let them be as they already are.
If you find that your feelings or emotions are quite intense,
Perhaps taking a chance to notice if there are any physical body sensations attached to these feelings,
Maybe noticing a sense of wanting to push away our thoughts or feelings,
See if you notice any of this going on for you,
And when and once you have noticed this,
See if it is possible to come back to the breath and a sense of the body as a whole,
Sitting and breathing,
Using this focus to anchor and stabilise your awareness.
And now when you're ready,
Letting go of any particular object of attention like the breath,
Sounds or thoughts,
And let the field of awareness be open to whatever arises in the landscape of the mind and the body and the world around,
Seeing if it's possible to simply rest in awareness itself,
Noting whatever arises from moment to moment,
That might include the breath,
Sensations of the body,
Sounds,
Thoughts or feelings.
As best you can,
Just sit completely awake,
Not holding onto anything,
Not looking for anything,
Having no agenda whatsoever other than embodied wakefulness.
Moment to moment awareness of whatever is here for you,
Body sensations,
Sounds,
Thoughts,
Feelings or emotions,
Just noting whatever is here from moment to moment.
And if your mind wanders off elsewhere,
Just take the time to notice where it went off to and perhaps refocus your attention on your breath to re-anchor yourself if you like.
And then when you're ready,
Widen your awareness once more to include whatever arises in your body,
Mind and world around.
Moment to moment awareness.
And as we begin to bring this practice to a close,
Just spending another couple minutes focusing your attention once more on the breath.
And so when you're ready,
Allowing your eyes to open.
