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 the 45-minute sitting meditation.

We'll start with a little mindful check-in.

Simply becoming aware of all that the moment is bringing,

And all that you are bringing to the moment.

And to the best of your ability,

Welcoming whatever is here,

Without judgment,

And with an attitude of kindness and curiosity.

You may notice the sounds that surround you.

Thoughts coming and going,

Perhaps in underlying mood or emotional state.

And of course we have the sensations of the body,

And the flow of the breath.

Let's take a moment to bring some awareness to the position of the body.

Bring some awareness to the alignment of the spine.

And if sitting,

You might tuck the chin slightly in and down,

With the back of the head rising up.

This balances the skull on top of the spine in a way that lets the muscles relax,

And lets the air move freely.

You might also check in with areas of the body that sometimes hold unneeded tension.

Starting with the face around the eyes and forehead,

Noticing any sensations here.

Letting the jaw be heavy,

Allowing the shoulders to hang loose,

And a softness in the belly.

Now let's turn our awareness to the sensation of the breath.

Choose one spot in your body where the breath is easy to feel.

Allow the breath to come and go naturally,

In whatever rhythm,

Regular or irregular,

That it naturally does at this time.

We are simply using the sensation of the movement of the breath to hold the attention in one place.

And to teach us about the changing nature of the present moment.

For example evidence of the body해주 being an extraordinarily absorbed body in theH кр Tracking the movement of the breath with your attention,

You will notice that each breath is a little bit different.

That like everything else,

This little slice of our reality is always changing.

Practicing allowing the breath to be as it is.

Practicing the temptation to control or create change.

This is to allow and let be.

If there's anything pleasant about the sensation of breath,

Don't miss it.

Give yourself permission to enjoy the moment.

The simplicity of breathing in and breathing out and paying attention.

You might try tracking the breath from the very beginning of an inhale to the turnaround,

To the exhale,

To the turnaround again.

On and on.

Staying connected to the changing experience of breath rising and falling.

We are building the capacity of mind to concentrate and focus more readily,

While at the same time keeping the practice simple enough to allow the mind to relax.

A relaxed and focused mind is better able to differentiate the subtleties of experience.

Differentiating and better understanding the subtleties of experience can lead to insight about ourselves and the world.

We are building the capacity of mind to concentrate and focus more readily,

While at the same time keeping the practice simple enough to allow the mind to relax.

Let's move the attention away from breath now and move to hearing meditation,

Awareness of sound.

With the primary object now being sound,

You may choose to focus on one sound or open up to the whole symphony of the soundscape that surrounds you,

Allowing the combination of sounds to be your focus.

Either way is just fine.

Just as each moment of each breath is a little bit different,

You'll notice too how sounds are always changing and our experience of hearing is constantly marking change.

Naturally,

Thoughts will be coming and going in the background from time to time.

This is no problem.

You simply note that the mind has been thinking and then refocus on hearing,

Allowing the thoughts to drop away into the background.

You may notice that some thoughts are about the sounds that you're hearing,

And that's fine.

But the focus of this meditation is the experience of hearing.

So turning the mind away from the thought and coming back to the experience of tone and pitch,

Volume,

Vibration.

These are the sorts of experiences that make up hearing.

The third example is Back In The Hall of the Mountain King.

And we allow sound to simply be sound.

No need to judge as right or wrong,

Good or bad.

If we notice these judgments arising,

We appropriately categorize that experience as thought or emotion.

We note that experience and return once again to hearing the sound.

Let's now move the attention away from sound and to physical sensation in the body.

You'll notice the most predominant physical sensation and put that in the forefront of your attention.

Just like sound or breath is always changing,

You'll note how the sensations in the body are also always changing.

So what is for some time the most predominant sensation will probably fade at some point and something else will take its place in the position of predominance.

Then you'll allow the attention to move with the changing sensations,

Always staying with whatever sensation is most predominant.

So what is the most predominant sensation?

What is the most predominant sensation in this different physical body?

Just as we would separate our thoughts about sound from the sound itself,

Separate our thoughts about the body from the sensation that the body is experiencing.

If you notice that the mind has been thinking,

Just reel it back in and come back to the experience of sensing the body.

The body speaks in the language of tingles and pressures,

Swirls,

And jabs.

All sensations are equal here.

Our job is to allow them to be there and let them be.

If at any time the more predominant sensation becomes too uncomfortable,

And the body becomes tense and the breath becomes short,

Simply move your position to become more comfortable,

Allowing that sensation to fade a bit,

And move the attention to an area of the body that has a sensation that is more tolerable.

Taking notice if the sensation that you're aware of is pleasant,

And being sure that you're aware of it,

Make sure to enjoy it.

Coming back to the body again and again,

Fully experiencing this changing body,

Each moment different.

Each time is different.

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.

.

.

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Sensation's come,

Sensations go,

Just like the breath,

Just like sound.

Sensation's come,

Sensations go,

Just like the breath,

Just like sound.

We'll move the awareness again.

Now moving into the realm of mind states,

Thoughts and emotions.

We'll now turn our awareness towards thought and emotion.

Awareness is like the sky.

The thoughts and emotions are like the weather patterns that move through.

The sky itself remains unchanged,

Despite all the changing weather that comes and goes.

We're noticing now what mood or emotion is present.

And while exploring the mood and emotion,

Taking note that thoughts are coming and going from time to time.

And noticing what it's like to be thinking.

Noticing how awareness is separate from the thoughts themselves.

And noticing how the thoughts are coming and going from time to time.

And noticing how awareness is separate from the thoughts themselves.

Just as we would allow breath to be breath without judging it,

Without trying to change it,

We can allow thought to be thought,

Emotion to be emotion,

Allowing it to move and change at its own pace.

Feeling the rise and fall,

Whether rhythmic or irregular,

Of thought and emotion,

Just as we would with the breath or with sound or with sensation.

And we're noticing that the thoughts are coming and going from time to time.

And now we'll move the awareness away from thought and emotion and move into choiceless awareness.

For choiceless awareness,

We let whatever object is most predominant in our field of awareness be our point of focus.

So whether the primary thing that you're noticing is a sound or a sensation or a thought,

We allow whatever is most predominant to be the center of focus until that experience fades away and something else moves into the place of predominance.

If you're ever feeling lost or uncertain about which object is most predominant,

You may choose to turn to an anchor.

An anchor can be an object that's easy to rest the mind upon.

Most people will choose the sensation of the breath.

And some people would prefer to choose a mildly pleasant sound or another sensation in the body to come back to again and again until some other experience becomes more primary.

So we'll move the awareness away from thought and emotion and move into the place of predominance.

Staying aware.

Of which object is most predominant.

And allowing that object to be as it is without judgment,

With an attitude of kindness.

Staying aware.

Maintaining the focus on one object for some time.

Until something else becomes very obvious that it's more predominant.

The objects that you might notice may be the breath,

Sound,

Physical sensation,

Thought or emotion.

Staying aware.

Staying aware.

Bringing the awareness back again and again.

Each time you feel that you've wandered away.

Coming back to an anchor or the most predominant object.

Staying aware.

We'll end with congratulating yourself for taking the time to explore your experience with gentleness,

Kindness and an acute awareness.

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

And may all beings find happiness.

Reviews

Excellent teacher. I really enjoyed the guidance. Thank you.

A gentle, clear guidance through awareness of breath, hearing, bodily feelings, thoughts and emotions. Really excellent.