The human design is hard-wired for perception in order to survive.
There are five basic senses helping us to perceive and understand the world around us.
And there are others such as balance,
Movement and a sense of time.
This meditation is to increase our awareness of the fundamental five,
The senses of sight,
Smell,
Taste,
Sound and touch.
So finding a comfortable position,
Using cushions to support your posture and taking a moment to gather yourself from where you've been and what you've been doing and bringing yourself as fully as you can to the present moment.
Taking a few deeper breaths,
Allowing your belly and abdomen to expand and slowly contract.
And now letting the breath find its own rhythms as you relax into this meditation.
Using the breath as an anchor as you breathe in and out,
Allowing yourself to be guided by my words as best you can.
Beginning with the sense of sight,
Closing and then opening the eyes with the intention of seeing.
No strain,
Just opening the eyes and seeing what there is to perceive in the space around you.
Rather than looking for an object to see,
Simply allowing yourself to see.
The eyes relaxed,
The gaze soft.
Just perceiving,
Seeing and knowing what you are seeing with the sense of sight.
Quite relaxed.
Good.
Now let's sharpen the focus to see a particular shape or object clearly.
Defining now with your focus sight any colour,
Shape,
Dimensions.
Noticing as you do so the differences both in your eyes and your mind between these two ways of seeing.
And now closing the eyes again,
Gently letting them fall rather than shutting the eyelids.
And with the eyes now closed,
Using a soft and open sense of seeing without lifting the eyelids.
Noticing any colours and shapes behind the lids.
Noticing any movement or morphing and changing.
And now resting the eyes a moment,
Relaxing them.
Eyelids still gently closed.
Paying attention to the area around the eyes as you breathe in and out,
Relaxing the whole eye,
Eye socket,
Eyebrow as you breathe out.
Relax now.
And if you are comfortable with the eyes remaining closed,
Moving our attention now to the sense of smell.
Odour comes from molecules that stimulate the receptors in the nose.
As you breathe in through the nose,
Notice any smell or any aroma that is known.
It may be strong,
It may be subtle,
It may be hardly or almost not there.
Delicately testing the air you breathe through the nose for the traces of smell.
Perhaps allow yourself to be aware of the smells from your own body or the clothes,
Soaps,
Shampoos that are around you.
Perhaps smells in the rooms or the space that you're in,
Perfumes of the garden or nearby trees.
Or maybe discerning,
Not straining,
Just discerning.
Some think that can't be recognised.
Or maybe discerning nothing right now,
But just sensing the air as it flows in and out of the nostrils.
Awake and aware to any aroma that may appear.
Moving our attention now to the sense of taste.
As you do so,
Remembering to allow around 5% of your awareness to continue to rest on the breath during this meditation.
Using the breath as an anchor to help return you to where you want to be when the mind is distracted by thoughts or one of the other senses.
Research suggests that 80% of taste comes from our sense of smell.
The brain receiving this information from the same type of receptors in the mouth that there are in the nostrils.
Bring your awareness now to any sense of taste present in your mouth.
Allow the tongue and the mouth to move gently as you taste.
There may be a taste from your toothpaste or molecules from the last meal you ate.
Maybe a slight taste of something that is unrecognisable.
Or no taste discerned at all.
Over the next days,
If you care to,
Try eating the first mouthful of your meal with an awareness of taste and of taste and smell.
Moving our attention now to the sense of sound.
Soundscape is a word that was coined by a Canadian musical composer using the terms hi-fi and lo-fi soundscapes.
Generally hi-fi is in terms of sounds and pauses allowing for perspective to be present and lo-fi in terms of continuous and overlapping sounds where perspective is lost and there is only presence.
Hearing sound is part of our design.
When a sound happens,
Hearing happens automatically.
No effort required.
In the space or room that you're in right now,
Notice what sounds are appearing.
Try to be simply aware of sounds rather than listening for them.
Allowing sounds to come and go.
Noticing sounds inside and outside of the space that you're in now.
Noticing any sounds that you hear in the background of this recording,
Recorded as it is,
In an outside studio with windows open.
Noticing the gaps in between the sounds.
Just staying present as best you can.
Present with the silence.
Just noticing the sounds and the spaces between the sounds as they appear and disappear.
And perhaps over the next days taking time to sometimes just be aware of and sit with sounds or sounds and silences.
Moving our attention now to the sense of touch,
Sensations.
The largest organ in the body,
The skin,
Houses the sense of touch.
Touch is a collection of senses including pressure and pain,
Heat and cold.
Research shows us that touch is fundamental to human wellbeing.
So let's start by becoming aware of the touch of our body against the chair or cushion we are on.
The hardness or softness,
Warmth or coolness.
Tires of pressure,
Perhaps around the buttocks or shoulders.
The touch of arms against the body,
The hands resting on the thigh or side.
The temperature of the skin,
Differences in temperature between your body and your feet or your hands.
And now let's move the sense of touch,
Of sensation inside the body.
Allowing your awareness to scan down from your head through your neck,
Shoulders,
Chest,
Stomach,
Pelvis,
Thighs,
Legs,
Feet,
Hands and arms.
Just gently scanning for any sensations that you can notice.
Allowing rather than searching.
Just feeling what there is to feel,
Maybe something and maybe nothing.
Noticing sensations,
Perhaps staying with the sensation and noticing how the sensation morphs and changes as you observe it.
Taking a moment to ease any tensions you find in the body.
As you breathe in and as you breathe out,
Relaxing and releasing and noticing the changes in sensation as you do so.
Returning now to the breath.
As you breathe in and as you breathe out,
Allowing the opening of all the sense doors.
Anchored in the breath but noting smells,
Sounds,
Taste,
Touch.
See what there is to see behind the eyelids.
Not minding if thoughts appear and when they do and if you choose.
Simply returning your attention to where you've chosen it to be.
Noting the sensations of the breath as the air moves in and out of the body and open to whatever is being experienced at this moment and this and this.
And as this meditation draws to a close.
Listening to the gong until all the resonance has disappeared before gently
