Hello and welcome.
This is a guided meditation inspired by our cartoolies A New Earth.
So the first thing to do is to find a comfortable seated position where your spine can be straight and relaxed.
Allow your hands to rest gently on your thighs or in your lap.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
As you breathe in,
Feel the life energy entering your body.
As you breathe out,
Feel yourself settling more deeply into the present moment.
There is nowhere to go,
Nothing to achieve.
Just this moment,
Just this breath.
In this meditation,
We'll explore the wisdom of presence.
The space where true consciousness arises beyond thought,
Beyond ego,
Beyond identification with form.
Now bring your attention to your body as a whole.
Feel its presence.
Can you sense the aliveness within you?
The subtle energy field that animates your physical form.
Notice any sensations arising,
Perhaps warmth,
Tingling,
Pulsing,
Or subtle vibrations.
These sensations are doorways to presence.
Now scan your body slowly from head to toe.
Not analysing or judging,
Just observing with friendly awareness.
Notice how your body feels from the inside.
When thoughts arise,
And they will,
Simply acknowledge them and gently return to the being in your body.
The body is always in the now.
By giving it your full attention,
You anchor yourself in the present moment.
Now bring your attention to your breath.
Feel the air moving in and out of your body.
Notice the sensations of each inhalation and exhalation.
You don't need to control your breathing.
Simply be the witness to this natural rhythm of life flowing through you.
Feel how each breath happens by itself.
The body breathes.
You are simply aware of it happening.
When your mind wanders,
As it inevitably will,
Gently guide your attention back to the sensation of breathing.
Each return to the breath is an awakening to the now.
Notice the space between the breaths.
A brief pause at the top of the inhalation and the bottom of the exhalation.
These spaces are pure consciousness,
Free from thought.
Now expand your awareness to feel the inner energy field of your entire body simultaneously.
Feel yourself as a field of vibrant aliveness.
This inner body is your gateway to being,
To the unmanifested,
To the formless dimension within you.
This inner body is your gateway to being,
To the unmanifested,
To the formless dimension within you.
As thoughts arise,
Allow them to come and go while maintaining awareness of your inner energy field.
You are not these thoughts.
You are the awareness that perceives them.
Feel how this inner aliveness is not separate from who you are.
It is your essence,
Your true nature,
Beyond name and form.
If you notice areas of tension or resistance in your body,
Simply bring your attention there without judgement.
Your awareness is like a light that dissolves tension.
Feel the boundaries between inside and outside beginning to dissolve.
Your body is not a solid,
Isolated entity but a field of energy in constant exchange with everything around it.
Now while maintaining a subtle awareness of your inner body,
Allow your attention to include the activity of your mind.
Watch your thoughts as they arise without judging them or becoming involved in their content.
Like clouds passing through the sky.
They come and they go.
Notice the tendency to identify with these thoughts,
To believe I am thinking them rather than thoughts are arising in consciousness.
Can you sense a presence that is aware of these thoughts?
This presence is your essential nature.
Consciousness itself.
When you notice you have become lost in thought,
Simply return to being the witnessing presence.
Each moment of recognising that you are lost in thought is a moment of awakening.
Now,
Let's rest in stillness,
The background of all experience.
Beyond the content of your thoughts and sensations is a field of alert stillness.
Can you sense this stillness?
Even as sounds,
Sensations and thoughts continue to arise?
This stillness is not the absence of sound or movement.
It is the underlying space in which all phenomena appear.
Rest in this awareness.
You don't need to do anything.
Simply be the space in which everything happens.
Rest in this awareness.
You don't need to do anything.
Simply be the space in which everything happens.
Feel how this stillness is not separate from you.
It is what you are at your core.
As we begin to close our practice,
Recognise that the awareness you've been resting in is free from the constructs of ego.
The ego,
Our identification with thoughts,
Emotions and stories about who we are is not our true identity.
It is a mental construct.
When you are present,
You access a dimension of yourself that is prior to and beyond the ego.
This is what Thole calls the flowering of human consciousness.
The recognition of your essential nature as awareness itself.
This awareness is not something you can understand with the mind.
It is what you are when the mind becomes still.
As we end this meditation,
Remember that you can access this state of presence at any moment of your day.
It doesn't require special conditions.
Only your willingness to shift attention from thought to the aliveness of the present moment.
Slowly begin to deepen your breath.
Gently wiggle your fingers and toes.
When you are ready,
You can open your eyes.
Carry this sense of spacious awareness with you as you continue your day.
Each moment we are alive is an opportunity to choose presence over identification with form.
Thank you for your practice.
I send you my love.
