So as we begin,
Just see that your initial entrance into meditation happens lightly.
Much like when you would drop into sleep at night or wake up in the morning,
That there's a slow,
Gentle approach to what's happening.
This being very different than plunging in and trying to get something or somewhere.
But you just simply realize that you can relax,
You can open,
You can breathe a little deeper.
There's room here,
In other words,
There's room,
There's space.
There's space for you to stretch your being out.
There's space to take in more of your experience internally as your emotions,
Your thoughts,
Your sensations in your nervous system,
And also externally,
The external environment.
That it's,
Let's say,
Opportune to open right now.
Open to the sound of the bird.
Open to the feel and flow of your breathing.
You open to the space of this room,
To my voice.
And in opening,
You're not trying to direct yourself.
You're not trying to take yourself somewhere.
You're not trying to lead this.
You're becoming a passenger.
And you're a relaxed passenger at that,
Which means you don't need to be pushing your foot into a false brake on the floor.
But you're riding.
You're riding,
You're riding your breath.
You're riding the flow of sensations.
You're riding the content of your mind.
You're riding the atmospheric changes,
Sounds,
Smell of incense.
You're riding,
But you're not immersed in them.
You're not stuck.
You're not trapped.
Because you're not stuck or trapped,
There's a lightness and openness that you can feel.
Good.
And undoubtedly when we sit in meditation,
When we sit silently and still,
There are the waves,
The residues of past experience in the form of feelings,
Thoughts,
Sensations in the body,
And impressions.
But see these for what they are.
Residues of past experience rippling into your present moment experience.
But don't identify.
Don't latch on.
Just watch these ripples,
Watch these waves come through now and again.
Like any good wave does,
It has a momentum and energy and it exhausts itself.
So it's not your task to do anything about these residues.
Just to watch them come and fade.
As you acquaint yourself with the skill of watching these residues arise and fade away,
You recognize that there is another presence here.
There's something here in which those thoughts,
Feelings,
Sensations are coming and going.
So our meditation is to collaborate with that space,
To be that space,
To be the space in which everything is arising and in which everything is fading,
But to remain as the space.
You hear a siren,
A bird,
A cough,
A footstep,
The feel of your own breathing,
A thought in your own mind,
A sensation in your body.
And everything is just happening within an open space.
As you give your attention more and more fully to this space,
You realize that the boundary between inside and outside begins to fade.
Notice with space,
There's no need to control anything.
There's no need to make anything happen one way or another.
Space just allows everything to pass through.
It doesn't prevent and it doesn't hang on.
Just be that space.
And as this space,
Notice that your biological functioning goes on without a hitch.
Your senses still operate naturally.
You can use your mind if you need to,
But everything feels open,
Spacious,
Vast.
And as you give your attention more and more fully to this space,
You realize that the boundary between inside and outside begins to fade.
And as this space,
Notice that your biological functioning goes on without a hitch.
And as this space,
Notice that your biological functioning goes on without a hitch.
And as this space,
Notice that your biological functioning goes on without a hitch.
Notice that within this space,
The spaciousness,
All is well.
Just right.
Perfect.
And space itself is perfection.
Undisturbed by any thought,
Feeling,
Sensation.
Uncontaminated by anything from the past.
Uncontaminated by anything from the past.
Uncontaminated by anything from the past.
Uncontaminated by anything from the past.
Notice that when you center in on a thought or feeling or sensation or some memory,
It's as if you depart from that space to become finite,
Fixated,
Small,
Narrow in your vision.
As you see that happen again and again,
Recognize that just as easily,
More easily,
You could remain spacious,
Open.
You're not obligated toward your thoughts,
Feelings,
Or sensations.
They're there,
But you can leave them alone.
Uncontaminated by anything from the past.
And as space,
Nothing can harm you.
Nothing can trap you.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
Nothing limiting you.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
As space,
There's nothing fencing you in.
