In this 24 minute meditation session,
We'll be focusing on the space of the mind.
Focusing our attention and our awareness on the space of the mind.
This will help us improve our attention skills,
While at the same time providing a sense of peace and calm.
We begin by acknowledging our positive motivation in completing this meditation session.
We dedicate the merit from that to our own benefit and the benefit of all sentient beings.
We begin by settling our body,
Speech and mind into a natural,
Unconfigured state.
Relaxing your body and releasing any tension.
Allowing all the muscles of your body to relax and feel yourself being fully supported.
Becoming more relaxed in the body with each breath.
Turning your attention now to your speech,
Your internal dialogue,
The voice in your mind and allowing that voice to settle and relax.
Letting any commentary about what you should be doing or how your practice is going,
Naturally dissolve back into silence.
And finally,
Turning attention to the mind and any remaining mental proliferation.
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Concepts of past or future,
Images,
Letting all of that content recede,
Diffusing from it,
Creating space between it and your awareness of it.
And allowing those mental events to dissolve back into the space of the mind from which they arose,
Noting how illusory they are,
How empty they are of any inherent existence.
Existing like a mirage in the space of your mind.
We turn our attention now to the main focus of our practice,
Which is that space of the mind,
Not an external space,
Not space inside our skull or our brain.
It's a non-physical space,
Simply the domain in which we perceive all mental events.
Focus your attention on this domain.
You will likely notice mental events returning,
Images,
Memories,
Appearing in this space.
This is normal.
This is what the mind does.
We observe those events,
Arise,
Abide,
And then dissolve,
Like actors on a stage.
We maintain our focus on the stage,
Not becoming absorbed in the movements of the actors.
Each time you notice your awareness has become fused with a thought or a mental event,
Simply release your attention from that object and return to focusing on the space from which they arise.
If you become confused or disorientated with where you should be focusing your attention,
You can generate a mental image,
Something neutral.
Deliberately create that image in the space of your mind and hold it there for a moment.
Then allow that image to dissolve back into the space of the mind while holding your attention in the same place.
Ensure you are not activating your eyes.
If your eyes are closed,
You do not want to be looking at the inside of your eyelids.
That is not the space of the mind.
Allow your visual focus to relax.
Your goal should be to focus the bulk of your awareness and attention on the space of the mind.
You want to have a small portion of your awareness that introspects,
That you use as quality control to periodically check in and ensure that you are still focused on the space of the mind.
Developing this self-reflective introspecting awareness can help us spend less time fused with the objects of mental awareness and more time observing them.
This introspective awareness can also check in on three foundational qualities of our meditation.
They are stability,
Vividness and relaxation.
Stability being that factor which allows us to stay focused on the space of the mind.
Vividness or clarity being that factor which keeps the object of our meditation clear in our mind so that we are not becoming drowsy or our meditation becoming foggy.
And the final indispensable element,
Relaxation,
As opposed to agitation,
Anxiety which disrupts our mind.
Relaxation supports our stability and clarity and in turn stability and clarity cultivates relaxation like three legs of a tripod upon which our meditation practice sits.
The more we focus on the space of the mind,
The more relaxed we become,
The more relaxed we become,
The greater our ability to stabilize our attention.
Through stability and relaxation we cultivate clarity and vividness,
Continuing to note any events that arise in the space of the mind and watching them dissolve back into the space of the mind.
As this meditation session comes to a close,
We dedicate the merit generated to our own benefit and the benefit of all sentient beings.
We can continue our meditation or come back to our environment,
Taking these factors of stability,
Clarity and relaxation with us into the rest of our day.
