Open Awareness Meditation

This is an open awareness, formless meditation practice. Sometimes it's called Silent Illumination. It's a practice where we meditate without an anchor, just being fully present with what's happening, not really trying to do anything in particular.

Transcript

I want to lead the practice that is called open awareness. Sometimes it's called silent illumination is the name it was given to me when it was taught to me and I think that name sounds really kind of heavy and weird so I like to call it open awareness. Some people call it the do-nothing practice and I think that's good too. So I want you to sit up as straight as you can and kind of rock back and forth find your seat find a position where your legs aren't gonna fall asleep so if you're sitting in a chair firmly plant your feet on the floor and if you're sitting on the floor cross your legs cross your legs find a position where you can cross your legs comfortably and this is an eyes-open practice so what I'm going to do is just look ahead of me at the wall that's on the other side of you and I'm just gonna fix my attention there. That being said if you don't have a wall like I do I have a wall that's not distracting if you don't have that an alternative is to kind of fix your gaze downward and have your attention on the floor find a part of the floor that's not distracting if you don't have a wall or floor that's not distracting I think closing your eyes is okay I prefer an open eyes practice but I do think closing your eyes is okay it's not a problem and with your hands I recommend there's two different forms I recommend and one I call it the bowl and it's one hand on top of the other thumbs gently touching resting in your lap and the other form I recommend and by the way some people say it's really important which hand is on top I don't I don't think it matters but it's one hand on top of the other thumbs touching so that your thumbs and hands make it kind of circle kind of a bowl shape that's why I call it the bowl some people call it the cosmic mudra and I think that is way too fancy a name for for what we're doing mudra just means hand position so they're saying cosmic hand position but the other form that I like to recommend is called relaxation or the relaxation mudra and that's just putting your hands on your knees and sit up as straight as you can I've always found when I start to slouch also my mind is wandering we don't always think of the mind and body is connected but they totally are okay so I have tended to notice sometimes my mind is wandering and I'm like me and my mind is wandering a lot and then I notice oh I'm slouching and then I straighten my back and then my mind stops wandering that can really happen so I'm gonna ring my bell and we're gonna take three deep breaths and then we will go into the meditation and I will instruct you but there won't be a whole lot of instruction because this is an open awareness practice there's actually not a lot that we're trying to do but we find that actually in trying to not do anything there's a lot happening so I'm gonna ring the bell I'm gonna ring the bell three times and then we're gonna take three deep breaths now that we've taken the moments to hear the bell and to breathe our intention with this practice is to just be still and just notice what's happening just notice what's happening and so what does that mean it means there's no anchor for our practice we're not following the breath we don't have a mantra we don't have anything we're reflecting on or visualizing we are just being present and noticing what our minds do and to an extent what our bodies do as well as I said they are totally connected so our intention is for thoughts and feelings to enter that enter our awareness to just notice them but then don't attach to them just let them go so our awareness is like the sky and all our thoughts and feelings all the things that come up to distract us are like clouds and sure sometimes there's a lot of clouds and sometimes there's a little but they're just passing through the sky and they always pass so what we want to do is just notice them so if I start to think I'm hungry I just notice oh I'm hungry and what I don't want to do what I want to learn how to not do is just notice I'm hungry and not start thinking of ten different kinds of food but just notice I'm hungry and be aware of it and let that thought pass or if I notice I'm bored or if I notice I'm lonely or if I'm impatient and wondering when this will be over I just notice that feeling I just notice it and I don't attach to it I just let it go and what you'll find is that when you do this practice over and over the thoughts and feelings start to show up a little less and start to be easier to not hold on to so we're gonna sit in silence being still year like this not really trying to do anything but just noticing what's happening in our awareness for a few minutes and I will ring the bell two times at the end you you you you you you you you you you you you you that is going to be it for the day so thank you for taking this time to sit with me in open awareness and have a good day