Open Awareness Zazen

This practice is designed to help you to accept and to be aware of the present moment. In Zazen, we spend time being aware of every sensation (including our thoughts) simultaneously. This helps us to find peace in all of our sensations and thoughts in the present moment. You can even do this meditation with your eyes open!

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Evan and today I'm going to be leading you in a Zen meditation,

What I like to call an open awareness meditation.

So in this Zen meditation we're not going to be counting our breath,

We're not just going to be focusing on our breath,

We're going to be focusing on all the sensations around us.

Anything we feel in our body,

Anything we hear,

Anything we see,

Anything we taste,

Anything we smell,

Anything we think.

So let's find a comfortable position.

Sitting in a straight backed chair,

Or sitting cross-legged.

Remember if you find it hard to sit cross-legged try using some cushions.

You can buy some meditation cushions online,

What I use is a yoga bolster,

That's really helpful.

So let's just find a comfortable position.

We can sit in for about 30 minutes.

Let's start by placing our focus on our breath.

So as we breathe in through our nose,

And breathe out through our nose,

Just be aware of the breath coming in through the nostrils,

Going down the nasal passages,

Going down the throat,

Going into our lungs and finally our stomach.

We can just be aware of our chest and our stomach rising as we inhale.

Just any little subtleties that are occurring in our body as we breathe.

And as we exhale,

Following the breath as it takes that same path out of the body,

Going out of the stomach,

Out of the lungs,

Past the throat,

And out of the nasal passages.

So let's just focus on this process of breathing for a little bit.

Communicative.

And remember if a thought comes into mind,

Just be aware of that thought.

Place a few seconds of attention on that thought and bring your focus back to your breath.

No need to push that thought out of your mind.

Okay,

Now that we've practiced focusing on our breath,

Let's move our focus to our body.

So let's try to feel what we're sitting on right now.

We're sitting on cushions,

We're sitting on the ground,

We're sitting on a chair.

Just feel the weight of our body on whatever we're sitting on.

Do you feel supported?

Do you feel heavy?

Do you feel light?

Do you feel tingly?

Do you feel some stress or some tension in your legs?

Do you feel relaxation there?

Just be aware of how we're feeling from our sit bones through our legs as we sit grounded on this earth.

All right,

Now let's just take our awareness from our sit bone up our body.

Using our chest,

Our back,

Our arms,

Our neck,

Our face,

Whatever order you want.

Once we reach the top of our head,

Let's just send our awareness back down all the way to our feet.

So we're just sort of scanning very lightly,

Whatever way we want,

All along our body.

Just feeling all the sensations here,

So many sensations.

So many of them arising and passing away.

Just be aware of all the little and vague sensations in our body right now.

Now let's move our attention to sound.

Just be aware of any sounds that we hear right now.

My voice,

The recording.

Maybe you're in a building and you hear people outside the room.

Maybe you hear birds outside.

Maybe you even hear yourself breathing.

Just be aware of any sounds we hear right now.

Any sounds.

Just be aware of them.

We're not going to label them good or bad.

We're just going to be aware.

Remember if there's an unpleasant sound,

Remember not to be afraid of it.

Because there's anything in life,

It too will pass away.

It won't be there forever.

So learn to accept and to be okay with unpleasantness in life.

Not to seek it out of course.

Just to be okay with it when it comes.

Just aware of any sounds we hear right now.

Any sounds.

Alright and now let's move our focus to anything we can see right now.

It's your choice whether you want your eyes closed during meditation or whether you want them lightly open looking at the ground in front of you.

Usually a lot of Zatzen masters and monks choose to keep their eyes open during meditation.

This is usually how I practice Zatzen.

So if you'd like you can keep your eyes open.

Just staring at the ground in front of you.

Or if you think it'll help you,

You can close your eyes.

If your eyes are closed,

Be aware of anything you can see beneath the eyelids.

Is it dark?

Is there any lightness?

Whatever you can see beneath the eyelids,

Just be aware of that.

If your eyes are open,

Just be aware of anything you see.

Remember to keep your eyes focused on one point and not to look around.

It helps us to focus the mind if we keep our eyes focused on one point.

But you can just be aware of everything in your peripheral.

Anything in the room with you or wherever you are.

Just be aware of anything you see right now.

Anything you see.

Alright,

Now let's move our focus to the sensation of taste.

Is there anything you taste right now?

Maybe you just brush your teeth.

Maybe you just had something to eat.

Is there anything you taste right now in your mouth?

Just being aware of anything you can taste.

Anything you can taste.

If you can't taste anything,

That's totally fine.

Just be aware of that.

Alright,

Now let's move our focus to anything we can smell.

Is there anything you can smell right now?

It could be a subtle smell or it could be a strong smell.

You could smell nothing at all and that's totally fine.

Just be aware of anything we can smell right now.

Anything we can smell.

And finally,

What the Buddhists call the sixth sense.

Let's be aware of anything we're thinking right now.

This is a really important part of Zat-Zen.

We like to be aware of all the sensations around us,

But there's a major sensation inside of us.

That's the sensation of thinking.

Just be aware of anything we're thinking right now.

Or maybe we're not thinking of anything in particular.

That's okay too.

You can just be aware of whatever you're focusing on,

Wherever your consciousness is.

Remember thoughts.

Thoughts can come that are very small and very subtle.

Let's try to be aware of those.

Maybe it's a snap judgment of something.

Maybe it's just one or two words that pass by.

Or maybe there's a whole lot of thoughts going through your head.

Maybe there's dialogue and dialogue.

Maybe you're thinking of something in the past.

Maybe you're thinking of something that you want to accomplish in the future.

Just be aware of those thoughts.

Not judging them as good or bad.

Just being aware.

Just being aware.

Allowing them to pass by.

Not grasping onto any of them.

Sometimes it might help to focus on something else as you're aware of your thoughts.

So maybe focus on the sensations of your body.

Just be aware of what we're thinking right now.

What we're thinking.

Okay.

So now that we've practiced putting some focus on all of our different sensations on our body,

On our sight,

On the sounds we hear,

On our smell,

On our tastes,

On our thoughts.

Let's practice openawareness.

Com.

So I'm going to give you all 20 minutes.

In the process of this meditation,

We're just to sort of be aware of everything.

Of all of those sensations we just practiced being aware of.

So it's up to you how exactly you want to do this.

You might start by being aware of the body and then sort of switch your attention to different senses.

You might switch your attention to your taste and then your smell and your sight and then your hearing.

However you want to do it.

What I usually do is I just try to be aware of everything.

I notice what I'm looking at.

I sort of notice if I smell or taste anything.

I notice how my body feels.

I notice if I'm hearing anything.

I just sort of have this awareness of everything.

It's up to you how exactly you want to practice this.

The goal of this meditation is to just practice this open awareness.

Not to focus on any one thing in particular but to focus on our whole environment and our whole being at once.

Remember not to forget to focus on your thoughts.

That's something I can sometimes forget to focus on.

So let's remember that our thinking is a sense as well.

So as we're aware of the feelings in our body,

The sounds we hear and so on.

Let's also be aware of maybe what we're thinking.

Maybe we're not thinking of anything in particular.

So if we're not thinking of anything in particular we can just focus on where our focus is right now.

Just be aware of where our focus is.

So I'm going to give you all some time to practice about 20 minutes this open awareness then.

Remember there's no real goal here.

The goal is just to be aware of everything.

It's your choice if you want to focus on one thing in particular.

But just try to be aware of all the senses here.

And sort of the goal I guess here is just the great comfort it brings.

When you're aware and you're accepting of everything that you feel and everything that you think,

There's a great comfort that comes in that.

So I'm going to give you all some time to practice this open awareness.

Thank you.

You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you 20 minutes of open awareness,

Satsang.

Thank you for meditating with me.

Reviews

I thought this was instructional and helpful. There was plenty of silence to go along with the early instructions. 🙏

Amazing

Thank you so much, at the moment I am in sort of an emotional and spiritual crisis due to conflict in my spiritual group. This was very much needed. Thank you for your wisdom and compassion