Welcome to this meditation on experiencing the body beyond the physical.
I chose this topic because so often in our day-to-day lives it feels like the body is separate from the rest of the world and that is because the world is perceived through the body and so we identify with our bodies.
When we say I am,
Even if we have meditated for many years,
We still refer or think that the I that we refer to is in some ways physical.
And of course it is,
But that is not the totality of the I.
So in this meditation we will explore this,
Our actual experience of the body.
So make yourselves comfortable.
You can breathe in a bit deeper and whenever you are ready you can close your eyes.
And just notice what is happening here now for you.
Notice the sensations in your body,
Notice the sounds around you,
The temperature of the room.
The amount of thoughts running through your mind,
The speed at which they move,
Without trying to change anything.
Everything is perfect as it is,
We are just noticing.
And now take some time to connect to your body.
Focus on the breath.
Maybe notice areas of tension and let the tension go as much as you can with every exhale.
Maybe focus on the sensation under your feet or of sitting on a chair or lying on a bed,
The weight of your body on those.
And now focus more on the detail,
On the temperature of the breath as it goes in,
On the temperature of the breath as it goes out.
And now focus more on the space between inhale and exhale.
On the space between inhale and exhale and exhale and inhale.
And then focus on an area of tension and neutrally just notice how big an area does it cover.
Is it light,
Is it heavy?
Does it come and go,
Is it constant?
If you had to give it a color,
What color would you give it?
And if it changes as you notice it,
Change with it,
Stay with it.
The body is incredibly intelligent and it knows how to auto-correct itself.
It knows when it is in balance and when it is not in balance.
So it constantly seeks that balance.
And just by being with it,
By accepting things as they pass through it,
It naturally finds that balance.
Now so far in this meditation we have used the mind to create a picture of the body and its sensations.
So now we are going to try to let go of what the mind knows of the body.
And a way to do that is to imagine that you are a newborn baby.
And your current experience is the first ever experience that you've had.
And I will use a concept here but stay with me,
Focus on one of your hands and lift it so that it doesn't touch anything.
Now go back to being a newborn baby and feel this hand,
This experience for the first time ever.
Let go of what the mind thinks about it.
We are going to the raw experience of hand.
Without a superimposed image of physicality.
And what is your experience here?
To me it is just like a sensation,
An energy that floats in emptiness.
Once again let go of what you know of hand and just be with the raw experience.
And do the same with your other hand.
Lift it so that it doesn't touch anything.
Remove all labels that the mind has given on this experience.
And feel it as it is.
We can continue this exploration by going to what we call feet.
And noticing that feet and floor are also concepts superimposed on our actual experience.
In our actual experience there is just two sensations,
One on each so called side.
But there is no floor,
No feet,
It is just one sensation.
This is the experience when you let go of the image of a foot on the floor.
When you stay with the raw experience.
And you can continue this up the legs and up the arms.
And recognize the whole body as a sensation,
As an energy floating.
Without superimposed concepts the lips,
The eyes,
The upper body,
The arms and the legs are just sensations that we are aware of.
Both coming together as we adjust through the fullankind of this experience.
You can notice that the sensation of breathing,
The breath coming in and out,
Is even stronger than the sensation of hand.
You can see the sensation of breathing,
The breath coming in and out,
Is even stronger than the sensation of hand.
Some call this the light body or the energy body.
And it is the actual experience of the body beyond what the mind labels it.
Of course it is very useful to label different parts of the body,
And even to experience it as physical and solid.
But it is important to know that the true body is not physical.
And most important of all,
That our true self is not limited to the body.
That our true self does not share the limits and the destiny of the body.
That our true self is not limited to the body.
In fact,
Every sensation in the body is pointing to this state of pure being which lies behind it,
Often veiled.
And when we are simply with what is,
Then there is no separation between our body and the world.
Everything happens here in me,
In my awareness.
Such an experience is the first step towards realigning the body and the mind.
The mind with truth with your true self.
Our essential self is unaffected by our thoughts and emotions and sensations.
It remains constant.
It is itself pure peace,
Pure bliss.
And it resists no experience.
And nobody will re-inforce the whole of our beauty.
Let's slowly begin to come back by refocusing on the breath.
On the arms,
The legs,
The body.
It's apparent physicality.
But remaining aware of what is true,
What is real beyond the appearances.
Let's slowly begin to come back by refocusing on the breath.
And whenever you are ready,
You can open your eyes and come back to the room.
Let's slowly begin to come back by refocusing on the breath.
