We start this meditation by finding a comfortable stationary position,
Adjusting all the key parts of our body,
Allowing our breath to move naturally,
And then taking a few moments to generate a truly positive,
Truly compassionate,
And loving motivation for this practice.
Coming back to our highest spiritual or psychological aspirations related to our practice and our contemplative life in general.
One example of such a motivation is the aspiration,
Through liberating my own mind,
May I bring the greatest possible happiness to all sentient beings.
And so,
Having established that as our motivation for this specific meditation,
We bring our attention to the body and the tactile sensations in the body.
The whole array of somatic experiences arising in this vast field,
Throughout this entire field,
Or in any of our body parts.
At this stage,
We practice concentration by withdrawing our awareness into the domain of the body,
By pulling our awareness away from our thoughts,
Or mental images,
Plans,
Memories,
And so forth,
And equally from sounds,
And visual forms,
And smells,
And tastes,
Focusing our attention on the tactile sensations,
Any and all.
It can be the sensations in a specific body part,
Or the whole tactile field.
But what's important is that we're zeroing in,
Focusing on this specific domain of experiences,
Still breathing naturally and observing.
For the next stage of this practice,
Associated with insight,
We start discerning.
We pose a specific question,
And we look at our tactile experiences through the lens of that question.
In this case,
Empirically,
On the level of our immediate experience,
Discerning to see whether something is true or applicable,
And the quality that we are exploring in this case is sometimes referred to as the third sign or mark of existence,
Selflessness.
So,
The question here is,
Are any of these tactile experiences,
Inherently,
From their own side,
Mine?
Is there anything from their own side that makes them seem like they belong to a specific person,
Like they are associated with a specific person that is me?
And so that's what we're exploring,
Moment by moment,
With curiosity.
Our awareness tethered to the flow of tactile sensations,
With a part of our mind discerning whether these sensations are inherently mine,
Or whether they are simply sensations,
Not any ones in themselves.
In this practice,
We're not trying to come to just one conclusion that we would then stay with as a type of conceptual understanding.
Instead,
We're continuously discerning,
Continuously checking,
And therefore,
Slowly,
Slowly,
Undoing the knots of reification,
Or grasping,
Undoing the knots of incorrect perception with regards to the nature of these experiences.
But while doing that,
We are also allowing our mind and body to rest in a state of restful equilibrium,
Not getting tense,
Not holding the breath,
Being relaxed,
But curiously discerning,
Curiously intelligent.
And then releasing the process of discerning and exploration to simply rest in the awareness of sensations,
Observing them,
Resting with them.
Then stepping back from the concentration on the body and the tactile sensations to simply rest in a state of open,
Radiant awareness.
And then taking a few moments to mentally dedicate the energy of this practice to the aspirations and goals with which we began.
Then introducing some movement to the body and concluding the practice by inviting the bell.
