Sitting Meditation: Moving Between The Senses

Practice moving your attention between your different sense experiences. This practice induces relaxation and builds focus and concentration; which can lead to insight. After exploring the senses, you will move into choiceless awareness, where you soften and allow awareness itself to guide you.

Transcript

Welcome to a 30-minute sitting meditation.

The mind is having thoughts.

And there's probably an underlying mood or emotion present.

You may also notice that there are certain sounds surrounding you.

And that the body is having certain sensations coming and going.

And that the body is having certain sensations coming and going.

Take a moment to allow the body to become as comfortable as possible in this moment.

Making any small adjustments necessary to align the spine and to allow the muscles to relax.

Our first object of awareness will be the breath.

Start tracking the sensation of the breath as it rises and falls in and out of the body.

There's no need to change anything about the breath.

We're just bringing the attention back to the breath again and again.

And again and again.

Building concentration while allowing relaxation.

Sharpening the mind.

From time to time,

The mind will naturally wander off into thinking.

And as soon as you notice that that has happened,

That is a moment of mindfulness and the attention is already back.

So when that happens,

We simply notice and turn the attention back to the sensation of breath in one place in the body.

And again and again.

And again and again.

Like waves on the ocean,

Each breath is unique.

And each moment of each breath is different.

Our experience is always changing.

And this fact can be noted in the changing nature of the breath.

And again and again.

We'll move our awareness now away from the breath and into sound.

Our primary focus is now noticing what sounds are entering the ears and the brain.

And rather than thinking about the sound,

Our attention is turned toward the experience of hearing,

Feeling the vibrations,

Noticing volume,

Pitch or tone,

And simply being with the experience of hearing.

Just as each moment of each breath was unique,

So too is each moment of our experience of hearing.

Let the changing nature of sound hold the attention,

Staying curious about what will come next.

Let the changing nature of sound hold the attention,

Staying curious about what will come next.

You may choose one specific sound,

Or you may prefer to open up to the entire symphony of sounds that surround you.

Let the changing nature of sound hold the attention,

Staying curious about what will come next.

You may notice preferences for certain sounds over others,

And those preferences can be noted as manifestations of the mind or of the emotions,

Separate from the sound itself.

Looking back to hearing in its raw state again and again,

Simply hearing.

Let the changing nature of sound hold the attention,

Staying curious about what will come next.

Now we'll withdraw the awareness from sound and move into physical sensation.

Turn the attention to the most predominant physical sensation in the body.

Feel the moving and changing nature of that sensation,

Just like the breath is always changing,

Just like the soundscape was always changing.

The landscape of sensation in the body is also always changing.

When that predominant sensation fades,

As it naturally will in time,

Choose the next most predominant sensation to be in the forefront of your attention,

And then begin to track the experience of that sensation,

Moving along as sensations come and go.

The feeling of sensation is that some sound is 위에,

Even though not necessarily near If the sensation is pleasurable,

Make sure to enjoy it.

Give yourself permission to enjoy the body.

And if the sensation is not pleasurable,

Explore how it changes over time.

And if it becomes too uncomfortable or isn't fading away readily enough,

So that you don't feel too much tension in the body,

Simply move your posture or your position to become more comfortable.

And if needed,

You may even purposefully move the attention away from the discomfort and toward a more tolerable sensation until the less comfortable one fades away.

Allowing sensations to come and go just as they are,

To the best of your ability at this time.

We'll move the awareness once again.

Now,

Away from sensation and into the realm of mind states,

Thoughts and emotions.

We can notice that thoughts are coming and going from the mind without getting lost in them.

You may think of awareness like the sky,

With thoughts and emotions being like the weather patterns that move through.

The weather moves through while the sky remains unchanged.

Simply allowing the thoughts or emotions to be there without judgment,

With an attitude of kindness.

You can notice that thoughts and emotions come on their own.

Just as sensations do,

Just as sound does.

Noticing thoughts and emotions and letting them be.

You may think of awareness like the sky,

With thoughts and emotions being like the weather patterns that move through.

We'll move now away from thought and emotion and into choiceless awareness.

Now,

Whatever object in our awareness is most predominant in any moment,

Becomes the object that we focus on.

If you're ever feeling lost or uncertain,

Unable to tell which object is most predominant,

Simply come back to an anchor.

And an anchor,

For most people,

Will be the sensation of the breath.

For other people,

They may choose a sound or a different sensation in the body.

An anchor is something to come back to,

To gather the attention until the mind feels focused enough to be able to tell what is most predominant in your field of awareness.

You might choose some type of sound or object on an actual unit.

For a choiceless awareness,

We're allowing the attention to move.

We're allowing the attention to move from one object to the next,

Riding the waves of our changing experience.

We're staying alert to what is most predominant at any time.

We're allowing the attention to move from one object to the next,

Riding the waves of our changing experience.

We're allowing the attention to move from one object to the next,

Riding the waves of our changing experience.

We're redirecting the mind back to your anchor when needed.

We're allowing the attention to move from one object to the next,

Riding the waves of our changing experience.

And we'll end this meditation by congratulating ourselves for taking the time to investigate your experience in this kind and gentle way.

May whatever benefits come from this practice be passed along to all of those with whom you come in contact.

And may all beings find peace.

Reviews

This was a powerful meditation for finding and maintaining mindfulness. Thank you!

A perfectly timed and guided attentional practice with a calm, dispassionate, warm tone. Highly recommend. Thank you

Really lovely, excellent direction but with plenty of space to allow experience. It's become a regular go to for me. Thank you very much 😊

Just what I needed. Thank you. Will return to this again.

This brought me to a place of deep relaxation.

Excellent practice- thank you

Excellent, very helpful when you don’t have the ideal spot to meditate.

Combination of guided and silent meditation exploring senses. She has a nice voice for guided meditation.

Excellent well-paced mindfulness meditation with a pleasant voice and unobtrusive prompts.

What a calm and loving exploration of the senses. In such an accepting way!

Outstanding. A real keeper. Very happy to have chosen this today. Thank you.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, great breaks between the guidance. Will do again! Thank you very much

Beautiful voice so relaxing beautiful meditation gave me a sense of calm to begin the day thanku

Very peaceful, thank you

Lovely, wonderful metaphors

This is an excellent guided meditation. The pacing and tone of Eliza's voice commands are very effective. She also uses moments of silence well. Furthermore, there is no distracting music.