Open Awareness Seated Practice

There are some long stretches of silence on this seated practice, all the better to drop into your own awareness. Gently led through several 'focus points', you are guided to train your awareness in a deliberate way, notice when the mind wanders, and bring it back gently to the object of focus once again. Then you will spend some time 'opening your awareness' to whatever arises, simply being with and noticing what arises.

Transcript

In this meditation,

We will be cultivating our ability to move attention from object to object and exploring opening our awareness to whatever this moment contains.

It's best to give your full care and attention to each moment and let go completely of the question of time,

Letting the sound of the bell at the end tell you when it is time to end the sitting.

Until then,

Making the commitment to yourself to simply bring the same quality of moment to moment attention to each moment you encounter,

Honoring it as the only moment you are alive,

The only moment you can embrace.

And so embracing each and every moment in mindfulness as best you can,

No matter what thoughts or feelings,

Sensations or impulses,

Judgments or perceptions you might encounter along the way.

And also,

As best you can,

Establishing and maintaining throughout the sitting an erect and dignified posture with the head elevated on the neck and shoulders,

The chin tucked slightly down,

Letting the posture you adopt embody a wakeful and calm receptivity and a discerning awareness,

Whether you are sitting in a chair or on the floor.

Sitting so that your posture itself embodies taking a stand and affirms an ongoing commitment to wakefulness and presence,

Sitting with the stillness and presence of a mountain moment by moment,

Breath by breath.

And so,

Simply giving care and attention to your breathing,

To the full duration of the in-breath and the full duration of the out-breath,

Moment to moment,

Breath by breath,

Not looking for anything to happen or for any special state or experience,

Just cultivating a willingness to hold the present moment in awareness,

To ride the waves of the breath,

Opening to each new moment without expectations,

A continual letting go of the past as each new moment emerges into the present,

Simply noting the wandering mind when you notice it and then returning your awareness to this moment in time exactly as it is.

I'm yourbie.

And now,

Just shifting your awareness to the sensation of the breath at the belly or with the feeling of the air passing by the nostrils if you prefer.

If your focus is the belly,

Feeling it expand on the in-breaths and recede on the out-breaths.

And returning to the belly and its movements whenever the mind is carried away,

Simply noting where the mind went and coming back to the belly and its movements.

And similarly with the breath at the nostrils,

Using the stretches of silence to carry on the practice on your own.

And now,

Just shifting your awareness to the sensation of the breath at the belly and its movements.

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Checking to see if your mind is on your breath right now,

Either at the belly or at the nostrils.

Tapping on your eyes,

You can see that your mind is on your breath right now,

Either at the nostrils or at the nostrils.

Tapping on your breath,

You can see that your mind is on your breath right now,

Either at the nostrils or at the nostrils.

Tapping on your breath,

You can see that your mind is on your breath right now,

Either at the nostrils or at the nostrils.

If and when you feel like it,

You might try expanding your field of awareness around your belly and around your breathing to include a sense of your body as a whole,

Sitting here.

Not simply sitting,

But sitting knowing that you're sitting completely in your body,

Fully with this in-breath,

Fully with this out-breath.

Tapping on your breath,

You can see that your mind is on your breath right now,

Either at the nostrils or at the nostrils.

Tapping on your breath,

You can see that your mind is on your breath right now,

Simply with this out-breath.

It's not unusual to experience some pain or discomfort the longer you sit in stillness like this.

Or you may experience feelings of boredom or annoyance or of impatience and agitation.

Or you might run into fantasies or memories or other moods or feelings such as sadness or fear or anger.

These and other mind states can easily carry you away from your resolve to simply observe the unfolding of all your present moments,

No matter what they bring.

When this happens,

As an experiment,

See if you can expand the field of your awareness,

Making it more inclusive so that it is capable of holding,

Containing any experiences of any kind that arise at any time.

Cradling them all in awareness,

As if you were putting them into a big pot of mindfulness and letting them just cook here over the fire of moment-to-moment awareness.

Breathing with them and remembering above all that you don't have to do anything with them.

The practice is just to observe what is present and to look deeply into what is happening in any moment.

To reside in the stillness of being moment by moment.

And especially right in those moments when some strong current in the mind and body such as fear or anger,

Regret or impatience stirs the underlying calmness.

And in doing so,

May carry your attention away from the present and off somewhere else.

So,

Staying here with your body and its sensations as they change and move and emerge moment by moment.

Thank you.

As well as the universe of individual sensations in the body,

As you move in close on stillness,

Sitting without moving,

Allowing the silence to hold everything gently,

Caringly,

In awareness,

Moment by moment.

As you move in close on stillness,

The silence of your Wheezing,

Fully here in your body and if your posture has become uncomfortable to the point of really needing to move just noticing the urge to move first and then as you're ready just adjusting your posture to settle again and find that sense of wakefulness and upright dignity when you're ready broadening your field of awareness from your body and breathing to the sense of sound noticing not just individual sounds but feeling into the quality of the sounds that come to your awareness rather than getting caught up in what the sounds might belong to say a bird or a car or the hum of a machine allow sounds to be just sounds listening for the tone,

The length and the quality of the sounds that you notice sounds outside of the room and sounds inside the room they may be sharp or dull staccato,

Melodic,

Soft,

Loud simply sitting in this field of sound as it arrives at your ears observe,

Dream,

B amusing digital individuals And as you've continued to sit here in awareness,

You have most likely noticed many thoughts arising.

So now allowing yourself to start to watch for your thoughts,

Noticing how they arise and pass away,

The impermanent nature of your thoughts,

Noticing if you've perhaps thought these thoughts many times before.

As if your awareness was a wide open sky and thoughts pass across this sky like little clouds,

Maybe some of them soft and small and others stormy and dark.

Just observing the rising,

The existence and the changing nature of thoughts as best you can.

And as best you can,

Not getting caught up with the thoughts.

Seeing if you can just let them come and go as objects in the field of your awareness.

Is that okay?

Noticing,

Possibly,

That there may be emotions of one sort or another attached to some or all of these passing thoughts.

Letting yourself simply receive the arising of the emotions as they come.

Noticing them,

Allowing them to be present,

And perhaps noticing how they too fade away,

Constantly shifting and changing.

You may notice sensations in your body connected to the thoughts and emotions.

Your experience of these phenomena are so intertwined that sometimes it is hard to distinguish between them.

Just abiding here and observing this moment-to-moment experience of thoughts,

Emotions,

Sensations,

Deliberately allowing this shifting experience to keep moving as a stream moves along its course.

Letting yourself simply receive the arising of the emotions as they come.

And at this point,

You might explore letting go of everything.

Letting go of any particular focus altogether and simply residing in awareness with no one anchor for your attention.

Present with whatever comes up moment-to-moment.

Holding it in awareness,

Watching it change,

Letting it all cook in that pot of mindfulness and reminding yourself if necessary to be compassionate and generous with yourself.

To let go of judging and pursuing and rejecting.

To let go of thinking and simply dwell in stillness and wakefulness and timelessness.

Watching everything,

Holding onto nothing.

Ended.

And in the final moments of this sitting,

Perhaps coming back to the breath.

As the primary object of your attention.

And to the body as a whole.

Simply sitting.

Simply present.

Simply here.

Now.

Awake.

Alive.

Still.

And perhaps affirming the possibility of bringing mindfulness to the everyday events and occurrences of your life as well.

Beyond formal sitting meditation practice.

For it is in the conduct of our daily lives that the deeper practices and challenges of mindfulness reside.

Reviews

Lovely meditation, enhanced even more by the silent periods. 🙏