For Open-Eyed, Open Awareness

A secular (non-religious, non-spiritual) open-eyed guided meditation. Using the physical senses as primary anchor, we find more interest is given naturally to what's really here, what's really worth shining our awareness onto. As we tune into present sensations, each sense lands us furthermore into our bodies as we relax naturally. We can then move from a place with less 'buzzing' - from a more rested location within.

Transcript

Let's start out with what you notice.

Don't try to reject anything.

Don't try to get rid of thoughts.

Don't try to be quiet.

Silent your mind.

None of that.

There's no actions that you're taking.

Just find your seat.

Sit.

You're now in meditation.

Observe what's happening.

What do you hear?

What thoughts are happening?

What judgments are happening?

Maybe you can note those things.

I hear my fridge.

I hear some people playing outside.

I just sat down.

I have thoughts of what I need to do later.

I have thoughts of,

Do I have time for this meditation?

Am I doing it correctly?

You're not stopping any of that stuff.

Just allow all of it.

What do you notice?

Allow the world to come flooding in.

Amidst all of that,

You're breathing.

Breathing is happening.

What do you notice about breathing?

Can you feel a slight bit of air coming from your nostrils around your upper lip there?

Can you feel your diaphragm,

Your belly,

Your chest moving slightly up and down as you breathe in and out?

Remember,

We notice those things.

We notice the sensations of breathing,

The physical sensations that we happen to notice.

There's no wrong or right.

We don't reject other things that are coming in.

Maybe you still have thoughts.

Maybe you want to adjust in your seat here.

You're not incredibly comfortable.

Maybe it's cold.

Maybe it's hot.

All that stuff is still happening.

You don't push it away,

Right?

Just see if you can settle your attention on breathing the next in-and-out breath.

Place your attention on it.

Can you become aware of your seat,

Where you're sitting?

Can you become aware of the sensations,

The feelings of your body against the cushion,

Or the ground,

Or the chair,

Whatever it is that your body's touching as you sit?

Where those points meet,

Can you bring awareness to that point?

Not to change it or get some reward when you find it.

Just become aware.

What do you feel as you bring your attention to the awareness of sitting,

The sensations you feel where you're connected to the chair or wherever you're sitting on?

Can you become aware of other physical sensations?

Maybe your skin against the sleeves of your shirt,

Your jacket,

Your pant leg,

Whatever clothing you're wearing.

Your skin against that clothing.

Can you become aware of that?

There's no incorrect way of doing such things.

Just whatever awareness you can bring to that sensation of feeling.

That's fine.

You don't have to compare it to your awareness yesterday,

Or last time you meditated.

Just right now,

What awareness do you have of feeling,

Sensation?

Can you become aware of hearing?

What do you hear?

I hear a distant siren.

I hear the slight hum of my fridge.

Maybe you hear a fan,

Air conditioner.

Notice if judgments and thoughts come in about those things.

Like if you know you need to replace the filter on your air conditioner.

The second you hear it,

You go,

Ah,

Dang,

I gotta get get to that task.

You're not rejecting that task when it comes up,

But just notice it.

Whatever baggage comes with noticing,

Don't change it.

Don't attack it.

Don't have to do anything about it.

Just note it.

Ah,

There it is.

There's that task.

You can even label it thinking.

And then return to the center point of awareness that you're trying to focus on,

Whether it's feeling or hearing.

What do you hear?

Become aware of your entire vision.

Not just the phone,

Not just whatever you're looking at or seeing directly,

But relax back into a wide awareness of what you see.

Without flicking your eyeballs around to look in those places,

What do you see at the edges of your eyesight?

You can even do this with eyes closed.

Open or closed,

What do you see at the edges of your eyesight?

Find those edges and see if you can stretch those edges just a bit more.

Again,

You relax back into a wide open big sky,

Like you're looking at a cloudless blue sky.

You're not looking for a cloud or a star or a plane.

You're just relaxing back.

How could you see the whole thing?

Ah,

There's my eyesight.

Without straining to see a thing,

Eyesight is happening.

Vision is happening.

Now,

What do I taste?

What taste might I have in my mouth?

Maybe it's coffee or toothpaste or morning breath,

Whatever it is.

Just become aware of it.

Become aware of what comes flooding in with it.

If you haven't brushed your teeth,

Maybe there's a bunch of thoughts about needing to brush your teeth or judgments about your bad breath.

Maybe you want more coffee.

Maybe you wish you could have a sip right now.

Those are all thoughts that come after noticing,

Awareness of taste in your mouth.

Just bring attention to whatever it is that you taste.

Label it.

Note it.

Be with it.

Once more,

Taste.

What do you taste?

It happens in an instant.

The second you notice,

The millisecond you notice,

Taste your mouth,

There's a signal,

And there's thinking and observing and checking in.

What is that?

What do I taste?

Judgments and thoughts about it.

Again,

Don't reject those.

You don't get rid of those,

But you don't have to go off on a story right now.

What do you taste?

Just note it.

Now,

What do you smell?

Could be strong smells.

Could be kind of nothing.

Could be,

As you breathe in,

Try to take little short nasal breaths.

Try to get a real taste of,

Taste of the scent,

If you will.

Get a scent of that,

Whatever you're smelling.

And in the first instance of smelling,

What is it?

Just notice that.

There's nobody taking a report card.

There's no wrong or right about what you smell in your experience.

You're just tuning into the awareness of smelling.

That's all.

What do you smell?

Now,

Relax back once more.

What do you notice in this instant,

Regardless of what sense?

What do you notice?

What are you aware of?

And you just sit with it.

You're not reporting back to me.

You're not telling me.

There's no wrong or right.

There's no checking in with yourself if you notice the correct things or incorrect things,

Or if you need to adjust.

Notice all that,

If that's happening.

You desire to do it right.

Can you notice that?

Relax back into your vision.

See what is being seen.

Without looking,

Relax back into a wide,

Blue,

Open sky.

What do you feel?

Clothes against your skin?

Sensations of breath at the navel?

At the chest?

The breath just comes and goes without your input.

The same as thoughts.

What do you hear?

And where are you in that hearing?

Can you locate the center of hearing?

It's right where you are.

And what do you taste?

What do you smell?

Whatever position you're in,

See if you could stand up a bit straighter.

Sit up a bit straighter.

Just a tall spine,

Not a straight spine.

Just pull lightly,

Gently from the top of your head,

Like a gentle marionette string.

Let's just follow the breath for a few breaths.

You don't reject thoughts.

There's no bad thoughts.

There's no wrong or right.

You have the emotions and mood that you have today,

And that's okay.

Place your attention on the physical sensations of breathing,

And see if you can just follow it for a few breaths.

Begin to penetrate your meditation,

And you feel you are lost in thought.

Return to the breathing,

The sensations of breathing,

And if that's not the loudest,

Most present move for you,

Use one of those other anchors,

Your other senses.

Can I listen?

What do I hear?

Notice how it snaps you back.

It stops the thinking.

It ceases the story.

Just tuning into hearing.

Listen.

Tune into sight.

Remember,

Relax back into the big,

Wide,

Open sky,

And taste.

What do you feel?

And have you been breathing?

Notice how the attention of breathing is kind of already there.

You just tune into an attention that's somehow already on breathing,

Right?

When you place your attention on one of these sensations,

One of these five senses,

Breathing,

You notice it's a bit of a flow that's already underway in the conscious awareness,

The flashlight.

The flashlight of your awareness kind of diverts to that sensation.

It's a way out of our stories.

When we sit down to meditate,

We become aware that we're thinking.

We become aware that we're caught up in thoughts,

And we're trying to do this and trying to do that,

And we sit down with the intention that we can stop those thoughts.

We just stop those thoughts and just be peaceful and calm.

That isn't what we're doing in meditation.

We're just tuning in to the most important thing,

Which is the present moment.

We don't need to make thoughts bad.

We don't need to make whatever we were doing before meditating evil or bad or incorrect,

Because that isn't true.

But when we intentionally sit down to meditate,

We are training.

We are teaching ourselves to return to what's really going on,

To return to the present moment.

In the stories,

They begin to unwind themselves in the background.

We don't sit down to be silent and quiet and reject thoughts.

We intentionally sit to notice what's really going on,

And then we consistently return to the truth of what's really going on.

So once more,

Place your attention on breathing.

Hear what you hear in the room you're in.

See what you see.

Smell what you're smelling.

Taste what you're tasting.

Feel the physical sensations of your seat,

Of your clothes,

Of your body.

We'll end with one word.

Allow.

As you allow whatever it is that's happening,

Bring some movement to your fingers,

Some gentle slight movement to your toes.

Notice where the breath is at in your body.

Maybe move your neck a little bit as you return to this room.

A slight smile on your face as you allow.

Now go about your day and allow who and what you really are.

You don't need to change.

You don't need to reject parts of your actual experience.

Merely allow.

There's an intelligence that at all moments is attempting to come through.

You mustn't change a thing.

You must simply allow,

Allow it to come through.

Namaste.

I wish you well.

We'll see you next meditation.

Cheers.