Four Spheres Of Mindfulness

In this meditation, we deepen our sense of mindfulness by focusing on four progressively more subtle spheres of experience. First, the body and the five physical senses, then the natural process of breathing. Then, we shift our focus to become mindful of the spontaneous arising of thought, and finally toward the quality of consciousness itself.

Transcript

This is a mindfulness meditation.

We'll begin by taking three consecutive breaths.

Do this in your own time and as you begin to arrive in this meditation make each breath be a little bit deeper,

Slower,

And more gentle than the last.

This is to help our body begin to slow down from whatever life energy we came into this meditation from,

From the world and its obligations,

From the speed and pace and general inertia that we come into meditation with.

Mindfulness at its core is being aware.

Our environment can be so overstimulating,

Living constantly ahead or behind of the present moment experience.

When we align with the experience of the present moment,

We have the opportunity to see things as they really are.

This is what is implied with mindfulness.

In buddhism,

The fully enlightened state is living fully in this present moment experience,

Freed of all subjective interpretations and attachments.

In this meditation,

We'll use various points of focus to cultivate mindfulness.

First,

We'll use the body,

And then the breath,

And then the mind,

And finally an overarching quality of life energy.

To begin with the body,

Begin to become aware of points of contact you have with the world around you.

This could be in your seated position,

Along the back,

In the feet,

On the bottom of the legs.

Bring your awareness into the physical sensation of pressure of these points.

This is the quality of mindfulness.

It is very simply being aware.

I focus my attention on to this point where I'm experiencing a sensation in the body.

I feel that my body is touching something.

It's very simple,

And throughout our life,

Throughout the day,

We constantly have sensory stimulus entering our body,

But seldom do we put the amount of focus to truly be with and experience what's happening.

This very simple exercise helps us get closer to what we are experiencing,

Away from the noise of the mind,

And simply put our focus into what is being experienced in the body.

While we are exhibiting mindfulness as it exists in the body,

We can begin to take pressure and tension away from the body.

Starting with the forehead and the general area around the entire skull and the brain,

We can see how can tension be removed from this.

I place my attention,

My point of focus,

Into this area,

And I consciously release any tension that's there.

Next,

Moving towards the cheeks,

The brow,

The mouth,

And the jaw.

Slowly scanning down our body,

Becoming aware of its sensations,

And which sensations are unnecessary and not needed.

We can melt all the way down our body,

Find where is the point in my body right now that is holding the most tension,

And then how do I become willing to release that.

Now that we've done a quick scan to remove tension from the body,

We will go towards one other element of mindfulness as it exists in the body,

And that is our posture.

With our posture,

You want to keep the back,

The spine,

The neck,

This column of energy very upright and erect,

Which signals that in this period of meditation,

We are entering a state of discipline.

We are disciplining ourselves towards being aware and towards focusing on our experience so we can have a fully relaxed body and simultaneously keep this uprightness so that we're not slouching and we are attentive to what is happening in our experience.

Now we've opened up to the physical sensations of touch in our body,

And as we're focusing on the body,

Let's touch base with any other objects of focus that could be coming in through the different senses.

Through our ears,

Maybe we're hearing things.

Our environment in meditation is often not of complete silence,

So if there's a disturbance,

If there's anything that is with you,

Open the senses to this,

And just as we became aware of the physical sensation of pressure in the body,

Become aware of the sensation of whatever else is impeding on the sense doors.

Is it a temperature?

Is it wind?

Is it noise?

Without any attachment to whatever is coming into the senses,

Notice at a bare sensory level what is being experienced.

This is the quality of mindfulness.

Now that we've focused mindfulness in the body,

We'll move towards our breath.

What does mindfulness look like as we focus it on our breath?

Here,

We're not doing any form of control.

We're not modifying the breath in any way.

We are simply putting our attention directly onto the breath.

The process of the breath itself.

There are subtleties of moving of the chest,

Of the feeling of air as it inhales and exhales.

We can become aware of which stage of the breath we're at,

The beginning,

The end,

Approaching the end.

You can see that this process is automatic,

Continuous,

And happens without any effort.

We can continue to see,

Even with our full focus on the breath,

How can I not interfere with this process that happens so unconsciously?

With my full attention at this one point of focus on my breath,

How do I completely remove myself from its happening?

As we continue to sustain mindfulness on the breath,

Gradually our focus may shift into the third sphere of mindfulness,

Which is that of the mind itself.

We generally live one degree of separation away from the experience of our minds.

Throughout the day,

Various distractions,

Such as our phones,

Dull us from the actual conscious activity of the mind.

They shield us and keep us unconscious of this passing mental activity.

Here,

Our opportunity is to be present for the arising of energetic states that come from the unconscious.

They carry with them the subjective stories of our conditioned experiences in the world.

Now that we've established connection to our body,

Our practice is to remove ourselves from the stories and the subjective experiences of the mind,

And to experience thoughts as they spontaneously arise in their pure energetic state.

This is often uncomfortable,

Largely because we spend so much time avoiding this direct energetic confrontation.

Through this process,

We allow the body and the nervous system to actually be able and metabolize these experiences by being fully present to them.

This is deep mindfulness of our sensory experience.

As we sit,

Continue to place mindfulness now at what happens in the mind.

Where do things come from?

What do they feel like?

And how do we let them go?

How do we realize when an attachment to something that has come up in the mind has been formed?

How do we put our focus back on to the present experience of what is happening here and now,

And remove attachment from thoughts as they have arisen out of the unconscious?

If you need an object to come back to,

Come back to the breath,

And then when spontaneous thought arises again,

As soon as you become aware of it,

You can acknowledge it,

Let it go,

And come back to the breath.

In Buddhism,

There's reference to the six sense spheres.

Five of them are familiar,

And the sixth one is the mind.

In this way,

Our awareness becomes not so much about ourselves and the story of ourselves as it does with knowing exactly what is being experienced in the mind.

Here we arrive at our last object of mindfulness,

Being mindful of the quality of consciousness itself.

In the absence of thoughts from the brain,

In our complete absorption of our experience in the world,

Sensations of the body,

The breath,

Natural unconscious processes that happen without any of our doing or effort,

What is the quality of consciousness?

How do we be mindful of the quality of consciousness?

Releasing our effort to strain,

Releasing all efforts to control,

Releasing all efforts in the body with a complete surrender,

How do you become aware of the pure quality of consciousness that is within you?

By placing mindfulness towards the quality of consciousness itself,

We begin to reach a place of equanimity.

Having connected to the body,

To the breath,

To the mind,

And to the true qualities of what it is to be conscious,

We begin to develop an unfractured way of relating to the world.

Our fears of direct confrontation with the mind subside as we experience the sense of wholeness of being able to fully reside in ourselves.

To close this meditation,

Bring your attention to your posture once more,

And take two closing breaths in your own time,

And whenever you're ready,

You may open your eyes and resume being in the world.