Welcome.
I wanted to give some time to explore,
Talk a little bit about and meditate on a very subtle but profound difference between awareness and open awareness.
This is something that you can awaken to on a deep spiritual path but knowing the difference is also essential to transform your relationship with pain emotions and how you respond to circumstances in your life.
Let's look at it from a meditation perspective.
Quite often when we meditate we do one-pointed meditation.
This is when we give our mind one thing to be aware of,
To rest our attention on and by resting our awareness on that one thing it allows our body and our minds and our whole system to calm and relax.
So we meditate on the breath,
The body,
The ground or even something else,
Maybe sound.
But even though just being aware of one thing does help to calm the body and mind there's still a kind of duality to it.
There's still a sense of being aware of something.
So in that case it's me being aware of my breath or me being aware of the ground or the sound.
So in some sense you're still creating that duality,
That separation of everything which is not how the true nature of reality actually is.
In essence everything is all interconnected and fluid.
So anyway after some practice and meditation you can begin to drop that duality,
Drop that sense of being aware of something and allow awareness to become open,
Spacious and actually your mind can open out into pure awareness itself.
It's like the sky.
You can be aware of the sky itself,
Aware of the clouds moving through,
Aware of the wind,
Aware of the weather or the color of the sky.
But at some point you can simply drop noticing the phenomena within the sky.
And actually expand out and become the sky itself.
Emma Chodron has the saying,
You are the sky,
Everything else is just the weather.
How this helps us in our daily lives is that clouds or the weather do not affect the sky.
Just like emotions,
Pain etc.
Don't need to affect how we are,
Our sense of being,
If we can remain spacious and open like the sky.
Our true nature is vast and unchanging and awake like the sky.
While thoughts,
Emotions and all experiences are merely temporary weather passing through.
So becoming connected to or getting to know this vast and the spaciousness encourages non-identification with temporary mental states and whatever is going on within your life,
Allowing you to embrace the calm within the chaos.
In the meditation together what I'll do is guide you through these two different types of awareness.
First we'll do some one-pointed meditation,
Being aware of our breath,
Being aware of the body,
Being aware of the ground and then gradually we will allow ourselves to become more spacious and open.
Opening into that spacious awareness itself.
Here we are not being aware of anything specific but rather allowing everything arising to be there and move through.
Just like the weather.
So as we begin the meditation allow yourself to find somewhere comfortable to be.
Maybe you're on a meditation cushion,
Maybe you're in a chair,
If you need to lie down that's also okay.
Allowing your body to be relaxed and natural.
Allow your breath to flow in and out naturally.
Nothing to control,
Nothing to change.
Being aware of how your belly,
Your ribs,
Your lungs expand and contract as you breathe in and out.
Allowing yourself to be curious of the sensations you feel as you breathe.
We're not trying to create a certain mind state.
We're not trying to empty the mind.
We're not trying to bypass anything.
All you need to do for now is just be aware of the belly,
The ribs,
The lungs expanding and contracting with each breath.
Anytime you become distracted there's no need to judge yourself or get frustrated.
Just simply let it go,
So leave it be and very gently bring your awareness back to notice your breath again.
Just that one job to do,
You can let everything else go.
Now shifting your awareness slightly,
You're paying attention particularly to your out breath.
Notice how each time you breathe out there's a natural release and relaxation in the body.
So now we're just being aware of the out breath and really following the whole length of the out breath down,
Allowing your body to relax with that.
As my teacher Rob sometimes says,
At the bottom of the out breath you could have the sense that your awareness very gently sticks to the ground for a little bit before it rises up again with the in breath.
Now taking your awareness down to your sense of ground which might be a chair or a bed or a cushion.
Becoming aware of the sensations you feel where your body meets that ground.
Noticing the weight of your body resting on that ground and how that ground holds and supports your whole body.
Still with each out breath allowing your body to deeply relax into that ground.
Now from that ground moving your awareness up into your body.
Gently scanning around the body to notice all sensations and feelings around the body.
There's nothing specific that you need to be noticing.
Just being aware of what's there right now,
Whatever you notice.
And now gradually allowing your awareness to expand out a little to encompass the whole of your body.
Seeing if you can have a sense of your whole body at once.
Not to worry if you can't,
Just notice what you notice.
Allowing whatever is there to be there.
As it is.
Maybe as you rest there you notice a sense of vitality in your body.
Sense of aliveness.
Let that open out and expand as much as it wants to into the whole body.
So as we relax and settle we're still being aware of something.
Aware of the breath.
Aware of the body.
Aware of sensation and vitality in the body.
But gradually that awareness is starting to expand out a little.
As you rest in the space of your body,
Allowing everything to just be as it is.
You can allow that awareness to expand out even further.
Becoming aware of the space around you.
Noticing if your awareness goes out to something in that space.
Rather seeing if you can just be in the space of your body,
Feeling centered and grounded.
Or being aware of the space around.
Allowing your awareness to expand out.
As you breathe you could have a sense that your whole body is breathing.
Like your skin is permeable.
As my teacher Rob also likes to say.
So as you breathe your whole body breathes.
And this can kind of gradually start to soften the separation,
The solid line between you and the space around.
It can almost be like the space within starts to connect or be one with the space outside your body.
If you notice yourself trying too hard or you get distracted.
Not to worry as you notice it,
Just leave it be and gently return to your breath again.
Allow your body to relax into the ground again.
Resting in the body.
And gently,
Slowly,
Allowing your awareness to expand out.
Keep breathing.
Keep relaxing.
Keep letting go.
Breathing with your body.
And slowly allowing your awareness to become more spacious and open as you breathe.
Until you maybe have the sense that you become that spacious and open space.
You become the space between your body and the space around you.
You become the space between your body and the space around you.
You become the space between your body and the space around you.
You become the space between your body and the space around you.
You're slowly opening out and becoming that open spaciousness in which everything just moves through.
We don't need to attach to anything.
We don't need to get entangled with any stories.
We don't need to resist anything.
Just allowing.
As we come towards the end of this practice,
I hope that it was manageable for you and wasn't too challenging.
If it was,
Don't worry.
It is a practice that you can come back to many,
Many times,
Over and over.
You slowly deepen into it.
And honestly,
The more that you can connect to this open spaciousness,
The more automatic that connection becomes.
The more that you will find that you can just allow feelings,
Emotions,
Thoughts,
Etc.
In your life,
To arise and move through without disturbing your sense of inner peace so much.
Hope you enjoyed the practice and hopefully see you soon.
