Immaculate Presence: Pure Consciousness With Stephen Altair

Boundless Awareness with Stephen Altair is a meditation of love and compassion, freeing you from suffering and guiding you into the gentle transformation of your heart through spiritual awakening.

Stephen Altair is an author and teacher of Light Body Awakening, including Mindfulness and Meditation. Stephen graduated from Auckland and Otago University with degrees in Education and Business and was Certified as a Counselor with the Counselors and Psychotherapists Association of New South Wales in Australia. He has been writing and teaching meditation techniques for over 30 years. His latest books are Diary of a Yogi and Raising Our Vibration: A Guide to Subtle Energy Meditation.

Enlightened World Network is your guide to inspirational online programs about spiritual divinity, angels, energy work, chakras, past lives, or soul.

Transcript

Wonderful.

So I'm going to do a practice today on boundless awareness,

Boundless loving awareness.

So for all of you that are present and make sure if you're driving,

Perhaps that you pull over and just settle in with us.

And if you're at home,

You might want to sit on a chair,

Or you might want to be in lotus position on the ground,

Or you could even lie in a bed,

Depending on what your circumstances are,

Just make yourself really comfortable.

So to begin with,

We're going to simply bring our awareness and attention to what's present.

So you can lightly close your eyes and take a moment to be still and check in inside with what's present.

So notice your body,

First of all,

Just become aware of your body and any sensations that are present and welcome your body,

Welcome the sensations,

See if you can embrace them with loving kindness and openness.

Notice your posture right now.

Notice how you feel in that posture.

Notice your breathing,

A simple inhalation and exhalation.

For a moment,

Be with the quality of your breathing.

Does it feel like to breathe as you is the breathing smooth and calm?

Is it a little rough around the edges or jagged?

Whatever it is,

Be present to that.

This awareness of your relationship with your body and your breathing is great wisdom,

Right telling you exactly where you are in this present moment.

Drop your awareness from behind your eyes down,

Right down through your body,

Through the heart space,

Through the belly,

Right down and then to your feet.

So place the soles of your feet firmly on the ground and feel them connected to the ground.

Perhaps they're about hip width and parallel and really connect to the sensory awareness in the soles of your feet.

Relax,

Soften your toes,

Soften the feet,

Feel as if they're melting down like liquid light into the ground underneath you.

Feel the presence of the earth,

Feel the presence of life flowing through you,

Through your feet,

Through your legs.

Feel this flow of energy as your presence up through your feet,

Through your calves,

Knees,

Thighs,

Up through the pelvis area and hips,

Right up and into the belly.

Then bring your awareness to your palms,

Cup your palms in your lap,

One resting in the other,

The tips of the thumbs lightly touching and soften and relax the hands and feel into the presence of softness and gentleness here.

The hands are a wonderful check-in for just how gentle and calm and soft you can feel.

As you feel as if they're too melting into your legs like liquid light and feel your arms and shoulders soften and your neck and feel light,

As light as clouds in the sky.

It's light and open to the sky and free.

Just allow all of your body to relax and soften,

Everything right down from your head and neck,

Right down your back and chest,

All the way through to relax and soften.

The whole body feels relaxed and soft and open,

Beautiful light clouds in the sky.

And then check in with your posture and imagine a string attached to the top of your head,

Pulling your head upright.

There's this feeling of vertical spaciousness,

Of clarity,

Of uplifted vibration,

Of energy pulling you upwards,

Of ascension,

Of rising.

And tuck your chin to gently lengthen the back of your head and check in with your tongue,

Relax your tongue,

The calmness and soften.

And this feeling of softening and lightness in the tongue,

It's a good way also to check in with just how calm you feel.

How is your tongue doing?

You can even ask it,

How are you doing tongue?

How are you doing body?

How are you doing breath?

Notice how it feels when you sit upright like this,

It's much more intentional,

Much more focused.

And you can smile,

Right?

There's a beautiful feeling of smiling,

There's a sense and quality of beauty as you smile,

Christ's smile or the Magdalene smile or the smile of the Holy Spirit or a divine mother or an angel.

There's this beautiful sense of smiling and the quality that smiling brings like a young child,

The sense of freshness and openness to every moment.

Really feel that subtle sense of smiling and beauty,

This gratitude for being alive.

Really soak in this feeling of gratitude and happiness,

Being here,

Being here in this moment.

No matter what the struggles of life are,

Or the tensions or aches or pains in the body,

For just a moment,

You can feel this calm happiness of gratitude in your heart.

And you feel this Buddha or Christ smile,

This divine mother's smile in every cell,

Expanding from your heart and fusing every cell in your body,

Vibrating positive,

Clear,

Open,

Beautiful sensations,

Sending calm happiness from your heart to every single cell and out to every being,

All your loved ones.

You can touch them all with your calm happiness and peace,

With this loving kindness and beauty.

You can touch your family,

Your dad,

Your mom,

Your brothers,

Sisters,

All those you know and love,

Perhaps your whole ancestral line,

Even those who have departed,

You can touch them all with your sense of kindness.

You can touch all your friends,

Relatives,

All those you know and don't know,

All the animals,

All the living creatures on this planet,

All the creatures,

Living creatures and civilizations beyond this planet,

You can touch them all with your loving kindness and calmness and peace.

Then you drop your awareness deep into your belly,

Deep into breathing in the lower abdomen,

You just breathe in and out calmly here.

Bring your awareness to the sensations of breathing here.

As you breathe in,

Expand,

As you breathe out,

You relax,

Calm,

Happiness.

It's as if you're breathing in calmness,

Expanding,

Breathing out,

Happiness and relaxing.

There's just this beautiful sense and flow of calm,

Happiness and peace,

And become really aware of the entire in-breath,

So that from the moment you begin to inhale,

All the way,

Every moment of that inhale until you pause in the gap of silence and stillness,

And then all the way on the exhale,

Every moment until you pause in this gap of silence and spaciousness,

Breathing in this calmness and breathing out this happiness.

Just do that in your own time,

Quietly,

In stillness and spaciousness,

Just for a few moments,

And count the exhale.

So every time you count,

You exhale outwards,

Just count one,

Exhale,

And breathing in,

Pausing in the gap,

Being aware all the way on the exhale,

And then counting two,

And so on.

And if you lose count,

It's totally okay,

Just start again at one.

If you get to 10,

And begin again at one.

It's just so simple,

You're just counting the calmness,

Counting the happiness,

Just counting on the exhale.

And in that silence and stillness,

Allow yourself now just to gently absorb into these subtle sensations of breathing.

As you breathe,

Become aware now of where you're aware from.

Are you aware down in your belly,

Or in your heart?

Are you aware at the tip of your nose,

Or are you aware from behind your eyes?

As you become aware like this,

Move your awareness to the back of your skull.

As you breathe,

Move your awareness behind you.

So you're now breathing behind you,

And now bring your awareness to the right rear corner of the wall behind you,

And look down and back onto your body,

Sitting there,

Floating in the silence,

Still,

Ocean,

Spacious,

Pure awareness.

Become aware of your awareness of space.

Who is the one aware of this boundless space?

Is there someone or something looking?

Turn inwards,

And see if you can find the one who's looking.

It's unfindable,

Right?

There's only an awake space of emptiness,

Of nothingness looking.

It's ungraspable,

Unfindable,

Indefinable,

Boundaryless,

Boundless,

Unobstructed.

The one looking,

Aware of the space,

Has no boundaries or edges or limits,

Just like space.

The one looking,

Aware of the space,

Has no boundaries or edges or limits,

Just like space itself.

There's only a looking,

Open and empty,

Clear and vivid,

Empty and yet full,

Because this emptiness is alive,

Filled with aliveness,

Filled with vividness,

Consciousness,

Aware and awake,

Filled with this vivid,

Compassionate awareness.

This compassionate awareness allows and embraces everything,

Grasping onto nothing and pushing away nothing.

Simply,

Openly,

Eternally loving and compassionate for every being,

For everything,

For every thought,

Feeling or perception.

This infinite love and compassion.

Be very quiet now,

And be very,

Very still.

Drop your awareness down now,

And in and through your heart,

And limitlessly open,

To left and to right,

Simultaneously,

In all directions,

As if you're opening limitlessly the door of your heart.

Actually,

Flow with awareness down and into this quiet,

Still,

Timeless presence in your heart space,

In your chest.

This is vast and limitless,

This boundless space in the heart.

It's capable of embracing everything,

Nothing is excluded.

There is a vast sense of mystery here,

Like the unknown,

Unborn and uncreated nature of being.

It's limitless space in the silence of experience in your chest,

In your heart space.

This open-hearted awareness,

Vast and infinite,

Limitless and pure,

Naked,

Unformed,

Precious,

And new.

Your deepest being is awake here,

Ruthless in the ungraspable ground of being.

What a remarkable opportunity it is to come to the space of great being.

No past,

No future,

No identity,

No form.

This natural response to the call to turn inwards with your attention,

And simply to be.

To let go of all control and all effort.

Remain here for a few moments,

Stay here in your natural silence and stillness,

In this place of great peace.

Notice there's no need to move,

Wherever you move is vast,

Boundless,

Infinite space.

This infinite space of being,

Of boundless love,

In which you've come to absolute rest.

Notice there's no sense of time,

It's timeless.

Notice there's no sense of limit,

It's limitless being.

There's no grasping,

It's ungraspable.

There's nothing to find,

It's unfindable.

Empty of all form,

It's formless.

Full of awareness,

Alive with fullness.

No history,

Simply,

Totally present.

Presence.

Rest in this presence of being,

For a few moments.

Rest and let go into this effortless presence of being.

Let yourself rest as this empty and full,

Timeless presence,

So open,

Clear,

And boundless.

This vast ocean of loving awareness,

That clings to nothing and yet pushes nothing away.

Feel this openness,

This clarity,

This mystery.

Formless,

Unconditional love and compassion,

So naturally and effortlessly present.

Now,

Let go of all effort.

If there's any shred of effort here,

Drop that effort.

Let go of all attempts to control experience.

Allow whatever happens to effortlessly and spontaneously arise.

This loving,

Compassionate awareness is always present.

It's not something you need to make happen.

All we're doing is being that loving,

Compassionate awareness.

This boundless awareness,

And simply letting all experience to unfold naturally within it,

While we stay connected to this loving,

Compassionate awareness.

There's no effort required here.

Just allow this to unfold naturally.

Now,

Drop the orientation to anything whatsoever,

To what you hear or feel in your body,

To what you're seeing within.

Just drop the meditation completely and just sit in effortless,

Boundless awareness.

Now,

Slowly open your eyes,

Very slowly,

Like a divine child,

Taking in everything that you see around you with gratitude and appreciation,

With love and awe,

With delight and innocence of a child in a temple for the first time,

So that everything you see is fresh and new and filled with awe and love.

It's as if every object in your room,

The walls that you gaze upon,

Are smiling back at you with loving,

Compassionate awareness.

There's no inside,

No outside,

Just simply this pure,

Boundless awareness,

And you're allowing yourself to be this field of loving,

Compassionate awareness,

Within which all these experiences,

Objects,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Perceptions are happening.

As we completely open together,

Become aware of all of us meditating here,

In this loving,

Compassionate,

Boundless awareness,

We can reach out across time and space to all souls and connect with all beings.

Slowly move your body a little bit,

Feeling each movement as an expression of this loving,

Compassionate awareness.

Take a look around and notice the small details of the world around you,

As you perceive them,

Now as expressions of pure,

Loving,

Compassionate awareness.

Take in the richness and the beauty and the freshness of this moment,

This moment,

And this moment,

And this moment,

And this moment.

Every moment filled with the uncreated power of being.

Every moment fresh,

Filled with wonder,

Filled with mystery.

As you move on to whatever comes next in your day,

Rest in this felt sense of this empty and full,

Timeless,

Loving presence,

This ground of being,

Unborn,

Uncreated,

Open vastness,

Spacious,

Loving awareness,

That allows every single moment it embraces this one,

And this one,

And this one,

Simply to be.

Thank you always for your divine and immaculate presence.

You