Insight Practice - Inside And Outside Experience

This guided meditation invites you to explore the quality of your experiences, examining whether they feel as though they arise from the outside or the inside. Through gentle inquiry, you'll observe the subtle lines that define these perceptions, uncovering how they shape your sense of self and connection to the world.

Transcript

Take a moment to settle in, Feel the atmosphere of the room we're in, The sense of air touching the skin, The legs and the rest of the lower body, Touching the cushion or mattress. Close your eyes gently. Notice how the inner landscape might change just from closing the eyes. Naturally, When our eyes are open, We're going to focus on the outside. Outside appearances, Maybe directing our gaze or attention to sounds surrounding us. And then when we close our eyes, We might find that this same attention goes to what's happening inside. Body sensations, Sights of things happening behind the eyelids, Even internal sounds. But even with eyes closed, We can still sense that some things appear to be happening on the outside or as others are happening on the inside. In this meditation, We're going to maintain awareness and try to particularly pay attention to whether or not something is happening on the outside or on the inside. So as you let attention freely move in present experiences, You'll find that many different things appear in consciousness. For this practice, We're not going to be particularly concerned about the content of these experiences. We're only going to be concerned about whether or not they appear outside or inside. When you feel something happening on the outside, You can mentally label it out. When you feel something on the inside, Mentally label it in. Or for some experiences that might be obvious, If I hear a sound in the room, I can label it out. If I feel my heart beating, Naturally that's in. But what about the air touching the nostrils as I breathe, Or the feeling of clothes on my skin? Be particularly attentive to those things for which in or out labels are not particularly obvious. How do you know whether or not something is happening on the outside? How do you know that something is happening on the inside? Continue exploring the line that divides outside experiences from inside experiences. Thinking, Naturally, Might seem like an inside experience, But for other experiences it's not so obvious. Now as we keep this practice, We're going to open the eyes. Just gently open the eyes whenever you feel ready. Notice how the emphasis of outside versus inside might have shifted. You're seeing and hearing things on the outside, Feeling things on the inside, And some experiences might fall in between. Just like some sensations are pleasant, Some are unpleasant, And others are neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Some sensations are outside, Some are inside, And for others it's unclear. They might seem like they're neither outside nor inside. This boundary between the inside and the outside we can feel throughout the day. It can even point to what we feel as being us versus what we feel as being the world, The outside world. Exploring that apparent divide can be very rewarding and insightful. As I ring the bell to end the guided meditation, Feel how attention naturally shifts to an outside perception, But also notice how that feels inside.