Welcome.
Thank you for joining me today for this mindful practice.
Find a comfortable seat in a chair or on a cushion.
Sit with your spine tall and neutral and your shoulders relaxed.
Let your palms rest in your lap or on your thighs in a way that helps promote relaxation in the shoulders.
With your eyes closed or with your gaze low at the ground ahead of you,
Breathe slowly and quietly in and out through your nose.
Guide your attention to your breath.
Let each exhale breath be at least as long as each breath in.
Move towards a breath that reflects all the qualities you'd like to see in your mind.
Patience.
Steadiness.
Spaciousness.
Ease.
Continue to focus on your breath with about 25% of the effort of your mind.
Zero in on breath,
But with an attention that's not too tight,
Not too loose,
Just right.
With another 25% of your mind,
Notice whether or not you are still paying attention to the breath.
Each time you find that your mind has wandered,
Shift your focus back to the breath.
So this second part of the mind acts as the noticer,
The witness.
It's too,
Not too active,
Not too dull,
But just right.
It's the awareness that tells you when mindfulness has dropped.
It's the awareness that guides you back to mindfulness.
Continue in this way,
Watching your breath,
And noticing when your attention on the breath has waned.
Return to the breath as many times as you need to.
Eventually,
We notice that even the watcher needs a little part of the mind to watch it too.
So with a third part of your mind,
Notice whether or not you are still aware of your mindfulness on the breath.
Is the witness part of the mind doing its job?
There's a third part of the mind that notices that.
And then,
What about the third part of the mind?
Is it too,
Doing its job?
There's a fourth part of the mind,
Further back,
That watches the watcher,
Who's watching the watcher,
And so on.
And back and back and back it goes.
Follow for a moment,
This sensation of moving further back,
Deeper into the origins of awareness.
Where is or who is the original witness?
As the mind gets lost,
Or confused,
Or overwhelmed,
Just rest.
Rest in the spaciousness of awareness.
It is limitless,
Without beginning,
Without end.
That spacious,
Infinite,
Expansive awareness is you.
Infinite in its ability to notice.
Infinite in its ability to see,
To feel,
To listen.
Keep resting in this sensation of spaciousness.
Open awareness.
Just be.
When you feel like the mind has gotten small again,
Closing in on one train of thought,
One distraction,
Return the mind to the breath.
Repeat the process.
First part of the mind on breath.
Second part of the mind,
Witnessing the job of mindfulness on breath.
Third part of the mind,
Witnessing the witness.
Fourth part of the mind,
Witnessing the witness of the witness.
And so on.
Until you reach the felt sensation of open spaciousness again.
And there,
You rest.
You remain.
Spend as much time as you'd like in this state of infinite potential.
Limitless awareness.
Limitless wide open space.
See if you can hold that sense of spaciousness as you slowly open your eyes and return to the space around you.
