Awareness Of Awareness

This mindfulness-based meditation works with a layering of present moment awareness. The practise uses breath awareness, body scanning, sound awareness, internal mental awareness, and finally, the awareness of awareness practises.

Transcript

Find yourself a comfortable seated or lying position.

You can be seated cross legged in a chair or lying on a bed,

Yoga mat for ground.

Whatever position you choose,

Just make sure it's a position that you can stay in for about the next 15 to 20 minutes.

Once you've found that body position,

Just gonna work through three deep conscious breaths accentuating the exhale.

As we exhale,

We're just gonna imagine any tension,

Pain,

Frustration from the day just dissipating out of the body into the ground,

The beds,

The chair.

We'll start with that first breath in through the nose.

Inhale deeply for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhaling for six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale nose for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale mouth or nose six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

One more time.

Inhale nose for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Now just return to your normal breathing.

Let the air move in and out through the nostrils naturally,

Finding a little hard to breathe through the nose.

Just blow the nose a few times and return back to the practice.

We're gonna start this awareness building practice with the ends of the nostrils.

So what you'll do here is just taking your index finger of your left hand or your right hand and just gently lick the end of the index finger and just dab the end of the nostrils.

So it's just enough to make the end of the nostrils a little bit moist.

And then once you've done so,

Bring your attention back to the nostrils,

Back to the air as it moves in and out.

Now you'll notice as soon as you wet the nostrils a little,

It's a lot easier to follow the movement of the breath in and out.

As you inhale,

You'll feel the breath is a little bit cooler.

As you exhale,

You'll feel the breath is a little bit warmer.

Even as you inhale,

Feel that little bit of movement of the top lip as the air moves across on the inhale and the exhale.

Try not to augment the breathing or change the way you're breathing.

We're working primarily with awareness here.

So I just want you to observe the way that you're breathing without manipulating it.

Every time your mind wanders,

Which it naturally will,

Just bring your attention back to the nostrils,

Back to the air,

Moving in and out.

And still keeping that awareness of the breath,

I want you to draw your attention to your body.

We're going to work with the weight and the shape of the body.

We're going to bring your attention to the crown of the head.

And as you move downwards through the body,

You're going to move in about two to three centimeter increments,

Left to right,

Right to left,

As you move through the body.

As if you're scanning the body and creating a 3D picture of the body.

Let's move through that gentle scanning,

Become aware of areas of sensation,

Areas of numbness,

Areas of pain,

Warmth,

Cold.

Again,

Try not to manipulate what you're feeling,

Just become aware of the body at this current moment.

Still let the breath move in and out naturally as you feel through the body,

Head to toe.

Feel the sensation of the clothing against your skin,

The pressure of the ground,

The chair,

The bed.

Feel the weight and shape of the head balanced on the shoulders.

If you've already reached the bottom of your scan,

You can reverse that direction from the ground up,

Back through towards the head.

Again,

Working through in that two to three centimeter increments,

Left to right,

Right to left.

Finish the scanning direction you're on,

Be it moving up or moving down.

Now just feel the sense of the whole body,

The weight and the shape of the whole body as one unit.

Maintaining that awareness of the breath and now this awareness of the weight and the shape of the body.

We're going to move our attention externally to any sounds around us,

The sounds of cars passing by,

The wind,

Birds,

People walking,

Talking,

Animals or it may just be still and silent.

Whatever sounds you're observing,

Just let them come into your awareness without trying to change them or manipulate them.

Also have that awareness of the body and the breath in the background.

That awareness of the body,

The breath,

The sounds,

Just letting them come into your awareness and letting them come and go.

I want you to draw your attention to your mind.

The eyes are closed,

Become aware of any imagery behind the eyes,

Become aware of any thoughts as they come and go.

Again just observe the thoughts or the imagery in the same way that you observe the breath,

The body and the sounds.

Just letting them come and go without any need to change them or manipulate them.

Just observe the movement of the mind,

The winds blowing around leaves,

Blowing across water,

Constantly changing shape,

Texture,

Content.

Here I just want you to let go of the attention on the body,

The attention on the breath,

The attention on the sound,

The attention on the internal movement of the mind.

I want you to start to draw your attention to your awareness itself.

We're reflecting our attention back onto who is observing the breath,

The body,

The sounds and the movement of the mind.

Draw your attention in the direction of what is aware of the breath,

What is aware of the body,

What is aware of the sounds,

What is aware of the movement of the mind.

Sometimes this awareness is referred to as a mirror.

Reflects everything it comes in contact with,

Remains unaltered despite what it reflects.

It doesn't discriminate between good,

Bad,

Light,

Dark.

It just observes and reflects without being changed by what it observes and reflects.

If there's no images,

The mirror is still there.

If there's images,

The mirror is still there.

The mirror or the awareness is constantly awake,

Present,

Stable and unaltered despite what comes and goes.

I'll just try to rest now in this natural awareness.

I want to take the practice a little bit further.

You can slowly open the eyes.

You might have the gaze slightly down.

Again,

Keeping the eyes gently open,

Continue with this connection to that awareness.

Now we have a little bit more input from the external world,

The objects in front of us,

The images,

The room.

We can still keep this connection to that awareness despite more objects in our attention.

Resting in this natural attention,

I'm going to make the sound syllable R.

We're just going to hold it for our full out breath.

At the end of that out breath,

Just hold the breath empty for a moment.

Rest in that natural space created from the sound syllable.

Inhale,

Return to normal breathing.

Just try to take a moment to rest in that natural openness that expands,

Maybe even a moment where the mind drops a little,

No thinking or movement for a few seconds.

Take a deep breath in for R.

I'll close the practice with the dedication.

Adding the practice to all beings.

May we create less suffering for them.

May they be relieved from their suffering.

Seeing the Tibetan dedication,

Just rest your mind on that gentle intention for all beings to be happy,

Free from suffering.

Rest in peace.

Reviews

Amazing guided meditation .. very powerful and great way to bring yourself back into your body when feeling disconnected .. thank you 🫶🏻

Lovely.

This is an excellent meditation for those who are interested on moving beyond the breath.

Wonderful and deep awareness practice. A great tool for taming the mind. 💜

Nice meditation!