A meditation for non-judging.
On busy days coming to your cushion or chair for mindfulness practice can be yet another thing to do,
Another thing to tick off.
And whilst it does take some of that doing mode to bring yourself to practice it's once we're here that we can check our attitude.
There's what we are doing and there's how we are doing it.
So in this moment choosing a position embodying ease and alertness for yourself,
Choosing for yourself whether your eyes are open or closed.
Allowing yourself to settle in.
Perhaps at first allowing the field of awareness to feature the soundscape.
Always here presenting itself in the form of sound and the spaces between sounds.
Noticing everything without exception.
Recognizing the tendency to label and judge sounds as pleasant or unpleasant.
And then seeing if you can drop below the label to the raw sound itself.
And of course if and when there are thoughts that make their way in,
Letting them be known because awareness can include the knowing of thought.
And expanding the field of awareness whenever you care to to include the air.
The air caressing the skin.
The air that carries sound.
The air that is the breath.
So an awareness of the body breathing itself.
Not trying to change the breath.
Simply watching the breath breathe itself.
Noticing too if there's thoughts around the breathing.
We can naturally allow our field of awareness to include not just the sensations associated with breathing or the touch of the air on the skin but any sensations and all sensations in the body right here right now.
The moment you recognize that you are or have judged is the moment you bring awareness to it.
It's now in your conscious mind.
It's crossed over from the subconscious to the conscious.
In that moment your perspective has changed.
You might perceive yourself as standing aside from the one who judges.
More in your center.
From here you are witnessing your judgment and the subsequent reactions.
And you now have a conscious choice over your next actions.
Do you persist with judgment or do you respond calmly with compassion and openness to whatever is here?
And in this moment with the field of awareness expanded this far we have sounds and the spaces between sounds.
We have the breath and we have the air and we have sensations in the body.
That's a lot.
It's all happening in this one moment.
Just allowing it all to be present without separation in this moment.
To rest in awareness of the experiencing of it.
Of it all.
Sitting and breathing.
Feeling and hearing and knowing.
And why exclude thinking since it's going on anyway?
So allowing the field of awareness to expand even further.
To include thought.
The thought stream.
The bubbles of thought.
And any emotional currents or whirlpools that may arise in the mind or in the heart.
Accompanied or unaccompanied by images and thoughts.
Memories or imaginings.
And just allowing ourselves to rest in this awareness.
The bigger basket that holds it all.
Let's see if it's possible to behold judging without judging.
Or to behold judging of judging without further judgment.
Right now whatever you can see,
Whatever you can hear,
Whatever you can feel.
Can the listening and looking and feeling free itself of thinking complications?
Allowing whatever is here to appear,
To unfold and disappear without any need to interfere.
Judgment comes and goes.
The judgment of judgment appears and disappears.
No need to hold on to anything in the mind.
And now in one last jump let's allow the field of awareness to expand infinitely.
To allow the mind,
The heart to be boundless.
Hugely spacious.
As big as the sky itself.
No beginning and no end.
No boundary.
No center.
And rather than focusing on anything in particular,
Just allowing the quality of our awareness to be choiceless.
Not seeking out anything.
Not pursuing anything.
Not rejecting anything.
And not featuring anything.
Resting in awareness itself.
In the choiceless,
Boundless,
Vast,
Spacious quality of awareness itself.
If sound predominates in some moment then sound is known.
If thought follows on the sound then the thought is known as thinking now.
If in the next moment sensation arises in your lower back or in your knee and pushes forward in the field of awareness for a moment that is also felt,
Seen,
Known.
And neither pushed away nor pursued.
Neither condemned nor praised.
Even if we become irritated or vexed this boundless and accepting field of awareness embraces irritation,
Grief,
Joy,
Anything and everything.
Pain,
Discomfort,
Agitation and boredom.
Peace,
Calm.
Nothing missing.
Nothing extra.
Simply resting in this non-judgmental choiceless awareness.
Thoughts arise.
They are met with mindfulness.
Seen and known in their arising like bubbles coming off the bottom of a pot.
You watch them burst on their own.
Nothing for you to do.
Resting in awareness.
Attending with sounds,
Sensations,
Sensations,
Impulses,
Perceptions,
Thoughts and emotions.
All coming and going in this vast,
Kind,
Compassionate,
Accepting and inclusive spaciousness.
With no centre,
No periphery,
No agenda,
No preferences.
Just this.
Resting here.
Nothing happening.
Nothing special.
Simply life expressing itself and knowing it.
Mindfulness can perhaps point us toward a new way of seeing ourselves.
One in which we are trying less and being more.
Meditation has no goal other than for you to be yourself.
The irony is that you already are.
