BELL Mindfulness of thoughts.
We might begin again just by letting the mind know Okay,
Now I have stopped.
So just as I have brought my body to stillness allowing the mind to come into stillness also.
For the next 20-25 minutes there's nothing I need to be doing.
No planning,
No analyzing,
No thinking I need to engage in.
Nowhere I need to be.
Seeing if we can really allow the mind just to slow down and to rest.
And we can retrieve the mind from its habits of running into the future going back over the past just by really allowing the awareness to arrive into our present moment environment.
So maybe beginning by bringing the awareness into our environment of sound.
Just for a few moments cultivating a real listening presence.
Aware of the sensations of light being received to the muscles of the eyes.
Aware of the sensations of temperature as it registers on the surface of the skin.
Aware of the sensations of light being received to the muscles of the eyes.
Feeling into the sensations of the body.
Just feeling into the muscles in the body,
What it feels like to be sitting down,
To be supported by the chair,
The stool,
The floor.
So we're here seated in this place,
In this moment.
And we really know that we're here,
Fully alive to being here.
And in this environment we can sense our breathing body.
Just allowing the awareness to absorb inward toward the sensations of the breath.
And just bringing our attention to the quality of our own breathing,
However the breathing feels.
Allowing the awareness to follow the sensation of a full in-breath and a full out-breath right to its very end.
Seeing if we can allow the awareness,
The concentration to drop down into the breath.
Nothing more demanding the mind has to do.
Just really enjoy the sensation of breathing.
Breathing in,
I'm aware of the sensation of an in-breath.
Breathing out,
I enjoy the full release of an out-breath.
And let's just stay with the breathing for about a minute or so,
Really allowing the awareness to stabilize into the breath.
That's it.
And then seeing if we can sense into an experience of the mind as like clear,
Open space.
Our mind has this capacity.
Unobstructed by thoughts,
The mind is like clear blue sky.
Like vast,
Open,
Uncluttered,
Limitless space.
So for this practice we're going to see if we can really rest into this capacity of the mind.
Allowing awareness to open out into a spacious receptivity.
Awareness will continue to recognize sound,
Continues to experience light.
All the tiny sensations that move through the skin.
But the mind is really here,
Open,
Like an open palm,
Sensitive to all the aliveness of the present moment.
And then seeing if we can sense into an experience of the mind as like clear,
Open,
Uncluttered,
Limitless space.
When we are fully mindful,
We don't hold on to anything.
We don't hold on to anything and we don't push anything away.
Mindfulness is an awareness that's receptive to whatever is there.
So when we see distraction or thinking emerging into the mind,
Our practice is just to recognize there's thinking.
So we can imagine thinking as like clouds that pass through the sky-like openness of the mind.
So as we see a thought,
Seeing if we can recognize it as transient,
Cloud-like and allow the cloud of thought just to pass through the space of the mind.
Recognizing thinking,
There's thinking.
And then just allowing thinking to pass through.
So we can imagine thinking as like clouds that pass through the sky-like openness of the mind.
So as we see a thought,
Seeing if we can recognize it as transient,
Cloud-like and allow the cloud of thought just to pass through the sky-like openness of the mind.
Sometimes we recognize that there's something that's there.
Sometimes we recognize that the cloud-like quality of thought is almost more wispy or vaporous,
A tendril of thought that moves through the mind.
Sometimes its texture is more dense,
More expansive.
So always our practice is just to recognize there's thinking.
And not to get pulled away in the weather systems of thought.
Just allow them to pass through so that we can return to the open,
Expansive,
Clear space of the mind.
So as we see a thought,
Seeing if we can recognize it as transient,
Cloud-like and allow the cloud of thought to pass through the sky-like openness of the mind.
So as we see a thought,
Seeing if we can recognize it as transient,
Cloud-like and allow the cloud of thought to pass through the sky-like openness of the mind.
So we don't have to work too hard in this practice.
We're not pushing thought away.
Just seeing if the mind can really soften and rest into an open quality of receptivity.
A mind that's alive to everything in the present moment.
Sound,
Light,
Sensation,
The energies of feeling in the body.
Everything is allowed to be there.
And we're not carried away from this awareness by the tugging weather systems of thought.
So as we see a thought,
Seeing if we can recognize it as transient,
Cloud-like and allow the cloud of thought to pass through the sky-like openness of the mind.
So it might be useful just briefly to turn our attention to the face.
This can give us a clue if we've become somber or are pushing too hard.
Just notice if the voice has become tense.
And seeing if we can soften at the corners of the mouth,
Allow the forehead to be smooth,
To be light.
So we can bring a real quality of gentleness to the practice.
So there's nothing really we have to do.
We're just allowing the mind just to be here.
If thinking or distraction emerges,
Seeing if we can unhook the mind and very gently draw our awareness back to the sensations of the present moment.
Softening back into the open,
Limitless,
Spacious quality of the mind.
There's nothing really we have to do.
We're just allowing the mind just to be here.
Thank you.
Thinking is as insubstantial and transitory as clouds.
Just allow them to move through the sky-like openness of the mind.
Just allow them to move through the sky-like openness of the mind.
Just allow them to move through the sky-like openness of the mind.
Bell bell
