Welcome.
Go ahead and find a comfortable seat in a chair or on a cushion.
Sit with your spine tall and neutral and your shoulders relaxed.
Let your palms rest in your lap or on the thighs in a way that helps promote relaxation in the shoulders.
With your eyes closed or with your gaze low at the ground ahead of you.
Breathe slowly and quietly in and out through your nose.
Bring all of your attention to your breath.
Let each exhalation be at least as long as each breath in.
We call this simple practice breath awareness and it's a way in which you can anchor your mind into the present moment.
Go ahead and let the breath settle you into all of those qualities you'd like to experience.
Calmness,
Steadiness,
Spaciousness,
Ease and flow.
Continue to focus on your breath with about 25% of the effort of your mind.
Zero in on the breath but with an intention of allowing it to come and go without it being too rigid.
With another part of your mind,
Notice whether or not you are still paying attention to the breath each time you find that your mind has wandered.
Shift your focus back to the breath.
So this other part,
This second part of the mind acts as the witness or the observer.
It's aware of the breath but it's also aware of the broader field of experience.
The witness is not too active,
Not too dull but just right.
Doing what it does best.
Witnessing.
It's the awareness that tells you when the mindfulness has stopped.
It's the awareness that guides you back to mindfulness.
It could be described as a vast presence and when you slow down a little bit in life,
It tends to make itself known.
Just continue in this way,
Watching the breath and noticing when your attention on the breath has drifted off.
Just bring it back.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Looking at nothing in particular.
With each breath,
See if you can softly look out through the peripherals of your eyes.
Broaden your vision and sense yourself expanding beyond the realm of the body.
Then there is a third part of your mind and this part is beyond the witness.
You could say it is the witness witnessing the witness.
This vast mind looks lovingly upon you as you look lovingly upon the breath.
This witness can watch and witness all things occurring in and around you and remains perfectly unaffected.
This mind is not physical in any way and is not attached to the things of the phenomenal world.
Follow for a moment and allow your gaze to expand,
Allowing the sensation of moving further back deeper into the origins of awareness.
You may even choose to ask,
Where is or who is the original witness?
Or,
What is my true mind?
Without grasping concepts,
Enter the spaciousness of mind.
When thoughts arise,
Neither cling to them or try to push them away.
Simply breathe,
Resting in the spaciousness of awareness.
In Zen literature,
It has been said that one can only discover their true nature when they are willing to draw both body and thinking mind.
Look into your own mind and you will discover who you truly are.
Infinite without beginning,
Without end.
That spacious,
Infinite,
Expansive awareness is you.
Infinite in its ability to notice,
Infinite in its ability to see,
To feel,
To listen,
To feel.
Keep resting in this sensation of spaciousness.
Open awareness.
Just be.
When you feel like the mind has gotten small again,
Closing in on one train of thought,
And distraction,
Return the mind to the breath.
Become the observer.
Then allow the breath to broaden your field of awareness until you reach the felt sensation of open spaciousness again.
And there you rest.
Then exhale not knowing who you are.
Now,
.
.
