Welcome to grounded awareness meditation.
Today we'll be aiming to return to a state of pure consciousness.
We'll work our way through various levels of focus on our body,
Our surroundings and our breath.
Focus until we're able to witness all phenomena around us as occurring within our internal perceptual field.
First,
Find a comfortable position in your chair.
Make sure that you are upright,
Your feet are flat on the floor and you are not resting against the back of the chair.
Then place your hands gently in your lap,
One on top of the other.
And if it feels right,
Close your eye.
Imagine there's a thread attached to the crown of your head,
Gently pulling upwards.
Allow that imaginary force to move you into an alert,
Dignified position.
You may feel some pressure in your upper back.
This is normal,
Particularly if you spend a lot of time sitting at a desk.
Now we'll move to physical relaxation by attending to the body point by point.
Focus your attention on the top of your head.
Feel or visualize tension leaving your scalp.
Then move your attention to your eyes and the area around the eyes and relax.
Then relax the lower half of your face,
Around your nose and your mouth.
Relax your throat and the muscles at the back of your neck.
Relax your upper back and chest,
Shoulders dropping down.
Your upper arm,
Lower arms.
Now gently squeeze your hands into a fist and then slowly open your fingers,
Releasing the tension.
Now your lower back and upper abdomen.
Relaxing the belly,
Making it round and soft.
Your lower abdomen and hips,
Thighs and knees,
Lower legs and feet.
Repeating what you did with your hands,
Gently curling your toes and then releasing them onto the floor.
Your entire body may feel numb or it may be tingling or feel very heavy or very light.
All of these sensations are completely normal.
And now that the body is relaxed and still,
Let us expand our awareness using our senses.
Shift attention to the sounds around you,
To the music in the background,
Any internal sounds you can perceive,
Even your internal voice.
But try not to attach yourself to any of these phenomena,
Merely observe them,
Witness them,
Arise within your awareness and then recede.
If you are aware of any visual phenomena,
Either coming from outside or internally from your imagination,
Again,
Merely observe their appearance within your awareness,
Followed by their disappearance.
You may find yourself getting caught up in any of the phenomena that arise in your senses,
Either within your body and mind or your surroundings.
Rather than fading away,
They may become more intense or start to generate related thoughts.
When this occurs,
It is time to start to bring your attention back to your breath.
Identify the phenomena relating to breath.
These include movement in the belly,
The chest and the shoulders,
The feeling of air moving through the nose and throat,
The coldness and warmth of the air as it flows into and out of the body.
Pick one of these and focus your attention on it,
Witnessing how it changes,
Both within any individual breath and then from breath to breath.
There is no limit to the level of detail that can be found in these phenomena,
Given sufficient focus.
And by going deeper into them,
You will find that distractions disappear.
Practice this now,
By yourself for a short time.
You will notice that even though you focus on the breath,
Distractions arise.
Thoughts or sensations capture your attention.
You may even find that you are thinking about a completely different time and place,
Near or far,
Past or future.
If you become aware of this,
Then gently bring your attention back to your breath.
This shift of attention results in a change to the phenomena in awareness.
It is the first step back towards pure consciousness and a true understanding of the nature of your being.
Again,
Practice this by yourself for a short time.
You may find that you are now able to rest awareness on the breath for short periods without distraction.
If not,
Then stay with practicing shifting your awareness back to the breath.
This is analogous to physical exercise.
The more you practice,
The easier you will find it and eventually you will be able to focus at will.
If you are finding that you can stay with the breath for short periods,
Then try returning to focusing on all of the phenomena in awareness.
Witness them.
Allow sounds,
Physical sensations,
Conceptual thoughts,
Emotions and remembered or imagined experiences of all sorts to have equal weight in awareness.
Allow them to arise,
Appear and then move on.
All of these phenomena only exist in awareness.
They have no independent reality.
Awareness,
Your awareness,
Encompasses and constitutes the entire world.
For the remainder of this practice,
Continue to allow phenomena to arise and fade away,
Returning to the breath if you find that they have captured your attention.
We dedicate this practice to the cessation of suffering and the eventual revelation to all beings of their fundamental nature.
Thank you for taking this day.
