Spacious Awareness So allowing yourself to find a nice comfortable position in your bed.
Doing any final adjustments to release tension.
Anything you need to do to let go of worries of the day.
Letting the belly be soft and perhaps taking a few deep breaths just at your own pace.
So filling the lungs and then relaxing the body.
And seeing if you can come to a place of stillness in the body.
And for this practice today we'll be doing an open awareness practice.
This is sometimes called big sky meditation or spacious awareness.
And to do this practice we'll simply be opening up the awareness to all of our senses.
Just noticing anything that arises in your experience.
We can still use the breath as an anchor point but just holding the breath very loosely.
Allowing your awareness to visit whatever arises.
Whether it's a sound or a sensation in the body or a feeling or a thought.
So in this style of practice there's no such thing as a distraction.
Everything you become aware of can be your object of meditation.
But we can start by grounding in the breath.
So connecting with your anchor spot.
Either at the belly or the chest or the feeling at the entrance of the nostrils.
And turning into the subtle sensation of breathing.
Noticing when you get lost in thought and for now just coming back to the breath.
Starting to sharpen the quality of focus awareness and concentration.
Feeling the in-breath and feeling the out-breath.
Now starting to open up your awareness into the spacious awareness.
Noticing whatever arises.
Noticing sounds.
Seeing if you can tune into the raw quality of the sound.
Just the texture.
Or perhaps opening up to any other body sensations.
Noticing where your body comes in contact with the mattress beneath you.
Or becoming aware of any pain or discomfort in the body.
Also noticing any thoughts or feelings or emotions.
For all of these experiences see if you can rest in that open awareness.
Understanding that your awareness is like the vast blue sky and all of these experiences or sensations are just like clouds floating through the sky.
But no matter how cloudy it gets the blue sky is always there.
Whatever arises in your experience let it come.
Noticing it but not grasping empty it and not pushing it away.
Letting flow through the space of your awareness.
As if your awareness were the vast blue sky.
Nothing to hold on to.
Nothing to push away.
Letting all experiences come and go.
Just watch yourself breathe.
Feel the feeling of peace and calm.
And just relax.
Just watch yourself breathe and feel the feeling of relaxation.
Good night.
You
