Open To This Moment

During this practice there will be an invitation to shift attentional focus to various sensations. There will be guidance towards focusing on the breath, the soundscape, body sensations, thinking, rising emotions, and turning to open periods of lightly guided open awareness.

Transcript

Welcome.

In doing this practice of sitting,

We are developing the capacity to open and become more fully present in our own life.

We are setting aside the usual doing of our lives and allowing ourselves to simply be being right here,

Right now.

And so begin to feel yourself shifting to notice this moment,

To take inventory of how you are right now.

How are things?

How are you meeting this moment?

Settling into your seat,

Perhaps on a chair or the floor a cushion,

Sitting dignified but not stiff,

Allow your body to become still and arrive.

Allow your body to be held by the earth and the room around you.

Taking this time to be in a way is taking a stand in our life.

It is a willingness to be with things as they are without judgment and with patience and steadiness.

When we're able to be with things as they are,

We're able to discover how things are really happening,

Which is often quite different than what we thought was going on.

We can use this mindful practice to develop our knowing that we can be just as we are.

There isn't any need to change anything at all.

We are fully intact as we meet this day.

This willingness to be with ourselves no matter what is happening is a powerful and a potent way to tap into the fullness of our lives.

The desire to see things as they are is a way to be fully alive in each moment.

Allow your attention to drop into the breath,

Riding the waves of breathing,

Doing what you can to remain with the breath in,

The breath out,

Resting in awareness from moment to moment and breath to breath.

Notice where you feel the breath most brightly.

Is it at the nostrils,

The back of the throat?

Is it the pressure in the chest?

Or maybe you feel it most strongly in your belly.

Choose one of these places and allow it to be an anchor.

As you breathe in,

Know that you are breathing in and breathing out.

Know that you are breathing out.

Noticing what the next breath is.

Not needing to change it.

Being with this breath right here,

You might notice that your mind wanders or starts to tell a story,

Thinks about things that have happened before or worrying about things that are going to happen in the future.

This is a moment of mindfulness.

We are awake to the moment and there's no need to judge yourself.

Just come back to the anchor,

Recognizing that no two breaths are the same.

What can be known about this breath?

The depth,

The shape,

The qualities.

Bringing open curiosity as we begin to know this moment as it is.

Settling into the body the support around or under you.

Notice the upward energy of the out breath moving up.

Notice the energy of the inhale moving down,

Down in your body.

Notice these two energies.

If at any point you are moving towards overwhelm,

Making careful supportive choices to take good care of yourself.

You might open your eyes or move around.

We have all of the choices available to us.

Feel each breath,

Never having held this breath before,

Not trying to change anything,

But gently riding the wave of each breath,

Returning again and again to this one breath.

We don't have anything that we are trying to accomplish.

Breath by breath.

This possibility to know this breath right here.

Breathe in.

The pause before the out breath begins.

The breath out.

The space between the next breath.

The possibility of guiding the breath like a boat riding a wave going up and dropping back down.

Is there any part of your experience that you can soften?

As you notice the breath coming in and out of the body,

You might also notice sensations.

Start to shift your attention to all of your body,

Your whole body,

Making this now your anchor.

Your attention coming back here again and again.

You might notice that the mind is drawn to some parts of the body and not to others.

You don't need to change this,

Just notice allowing awareness to stay open whatever amount possible to the whole body.

Fully awake,

Fully present,

Just knowing your body in this moment.

Knowing you are alive,

Accompanying yourself in your own life.

Being right here,

Right now,

Attending to this moment and feeling this breath,

This breath alive within you.

The breath always with us.

You might notice that there is an ever-changing nature of sensations in your body.

You might notice how sensations rise,

Persist for some time,

And then fade away.

Notice whatever is here,

Whatever is rising,

Whatever is present.

The whole body sitting,

Breathing,

Knowing this breathing,

Knowing this sitting,

Knowing this body.

As you sit here with your body breathing,

You might notice uncomfortable sensations or pain in the body.

We might choose to shift the body to move and stay present with this movement.

Another way is to bring your attention to make your object of awareness this place of pain or this place of discomfort.

So bring your attention here to get to know it in a non-overwhelming kind of way.

We think we know what this pain is,

But what is in this moment?

Is it shifting or steady?

Is it hot,

Cold?

Does it vibrate?

You can stay here as long as you like,

And if you need to shift your attention,

You can always come back to any anchor or perhaps today to the breath,

Allowing the breath to be refuge,

Opening awareness again to all of the body,

To all of the breathing body.

Observe the contact points.

What are the hands resting on?

Your chair arms,

Lap?

Whatever they're touching,

What does this feel like?

Is there pressure,

Temperature,

Tingling,

A sense of aliveness,

And shifting our attention to sound,

To the soundscape inside of your body,

Noticing any internal sounds that you might hear,

Breathing,

Swallowing,

Digestion,

And shifting attention to external sounds.

What sounds are here?

Not trying to name the sounds.

Notice the quality of each sound,

High,

Low,

Steady,

Intermittent,

Loud,

Medium,

Soft,

Buzzing,

The pitch,

Close,

Or distant.

Each sound,

Notice what's here.

Note how they arise,

Letting all sounds come and go.

Just as a sound comes and goes,

We don't have to go looking for a sound,

Just allowing it to arrive,

Arrive to the ears,

Giving way to hearing,

Not listening for anything,

Just hearing sound and space,

And sound and the space between the sounds,

Resting in the silence,

In the space between the sounds.

Notice being drawn towards certain sounds and away from others,

No need to act upon it,

Just hearing,

Noticing,

Hearing.

Just as these sounds come and go,

We don't have to go looking for a sound,

Just as these sounds come and go,

So do thoughts.

Thoughts will come up,

And if we feed it,

Might they stay,

But if we don't,

Thoughts likely fall off,

And so turning attention to thoughts,

To thinking,

Being curious about thoughts,

What can be known about thoughts,

Not getting tangled up in them.

Thoughts often arise like a sound does,

Arising and fading.

What is it like to stand by and watch thoughts emerge,

Persist,

And fade?

Watching thoughts without getting carried away with them,

Allowing individual thoughts to rise and let them pass by,

Not held on to.

Some thoughts come up again and again,

And some fade quickly,

But thoughts are sticky.

We can get caught up,

And while we catch ourselves in a narrative,

A memory,

Or a plan,

Just come back to observing,

To watching.

Allow thoughts to arise,

To be felt,

Recognized,

And for some people,

Watching the thought will allow it to fade off,

And if there are no thoughts,

Resting and just waiting in the space at the mousehole of the mind,

Just waiting for the next thought.

You Thoughts can come and go.

Thoughts don't need to be believed,

Just noticing that they are there.

Sometimes this is an impersonal thing,

Noticing them all,

All your thoughts to whatever degree is available.

As you're watching thoughts,

You might notice that thinking stirs up emotions.

You might turn towards what emotion is here now,

Whether that emotion is steady,

Whether it ebbs and flows,

Does it give rise and way to another thought?

And as your mind wanders off,

Just gently returning to where we are,

In this case noticing emotions,

Noting the interplay between thoughts and emotions.

Just noticing thoughts and emotions as they arise.

Some of the thoughts might be quite compelling.

You might have been here before and recognize this.

You might get wrapped up into a story.

When you wake up from that moment,

You notice it,

You know this is happening.

We come back to an anchor,

Back into our body.

Without judgment,

Come back to your breath,

And then come back to watching thoughts and emotions rise.

Just watching.

Being in this breathing body,

Noticing thinking,

Not needing to get tangled up,

But just noticing and knowing that the mind thinks and emotions rise,

Persist,

And fade.

Noticing in a way of not getting so caught up in it.

Writing the wave of thoughts and emotions,

The space in between.

Sitting here in this breathing body,

Noticing thoughts,

Noticing when emotions accompany them.

You you you you might rest or go to a thought,

A body sensation,

A sound,

An emotion,

And when something rises you can turn your attention towards it as an observer and stay.

Stay with it as long as it lasts.

You might notice stillness,

Quiet.

In this open awareness,

We explore resting without an anchor.

If this feels too open,

If you feel lost or adrift,

That's quite normal,

But if it feels overwhelming,

We can come back to an anchor.

There is this possibility to build then curiosity and to try open awareness again.

Staying with whatever is coming up in this moment,

Not choosing a focus.

Allow the attention to notice whatever arises.

You might notice the sound of a feeling,

A memory,

A breath.

You're able to return to your anchor anytime,

But choosing no anchor for a while,

Allowing the mind to rest and move to whatever focus is natural,

Allowing attention to be boundless,

Open,

Open to whatever arises,

Allowing the quality of our awareness to be choiceless,

Cultivating the presence of self,

A quality around how to be present,

Not seeking,

Not pursuing,

Not rejecting,

Not embracing,

But more like a mirror reflecting back whatever is here.

Awareness is like the sky,

Vast and open,

And events in the body and mind are like clouds or even fireworks,

But the sky is unaffected by these fireworks,

By these clouds.

It's able to hold the sunshine,

The night sky,

The stars,

The clouds,

The storms,

The open blue bird day.

Awareness can hold it all,

Allowing whatever is here to rise,

Persist,

And fade away,

Open like the sky,

A dark cloud,

A passing plane,

A twinkling star,

Fully present to whatever shows up.

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Reviews

thank you for your kind guidance.