Sitting meditation,
Awareness of our senses.
Intention,
Practicing waking up to automatic pilot,
Befriending the body as we gather our scattered minds into the senses.
Attention,
Practicing bringing the attention back,
Gently turning towards our experience in this moment.
Attitude,
Curiosity,
Openness,
Acceptance and kindness.
Settling into a comfortable seated position,
The spine upright,
The head balanced,
Placing the hands on the lap or the thighs,
Palms up or down.
What supports our attentive and curious posture best by giving us stability?
And when ready,
Slowly turning our attention to the eyes.
Seeing,
Awareness of the sense of seeing,
Allowing the eyes to linger rather than moving quickly.
Gently greeting all visual sensations without judgment.
What do we see?
Seeing textures,
Colors,
Shapes,
Things close by and far away,
Small and big.
If you find yourself drawn into thought,
Gently coming back to just seeing without judging,
Seeing without naming,
Maybe closing the eyes now,
Seeing what can be seen from behind the eyelids.
Now turning the awareness to the sense of smell,
Keeping the eyes closed,
Allowing ourselves to smell,
Exploring the air coming in and out of our nostrils.
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant or neutral?
Maybe a connection to a smell,
Greeting it,
Recognizing it and then letting it go again.
As best we can also letting go of the judgments that might be there.
Is there one fragrance or many?
If there are no smells,
What do no smells smell like?
Now turning our awareness to the sense of touch,
Feeling physical sensations.
Which sensations can be noticed as we sit?
Where can they be noticed?
Hot,
Cool,
Warm,
Maybe pain,
Tingling,
No sensations,
Fluffy,
Soft,
Pressure,
Maybe many different sensations at the same time,
Internal sensations and external sensations.
Exploring not to label the sensations as good or bad,
Even sensations of pain or discomfort,
Simply sensing into what is here right now.
As best we can,
Accepting that this is how it is right now,
Knowing that it will change.
Now turning our awareness to the sense of hearing.
What are we hearing?
Which sounds are present?
Rather than naming and understanding the sound,
Focusing on the presence and nature of the sounds,
Noticing how sounds arrive,
Stay for a while and then go.
They have a start,
A middle and an end.
Are they low-pitched or high-pitched?
Loud,
Soft,
Close by,
Far away?
Maybe there's a mix of sounds.
Can silence be heard?
Now turning our awareness to the sense of taste.
Picking up a glass of water,
Taking a sip,
What do we notice?
Just like with a raisin exercise,
Noticing the taste,
Texture,
Is there a smell?
Is it cool?
Warm?
Refreshing?
Letting the describing words fade away,
Allowing us to explore the sensations.
When we have swallowed,
How far down can we sense the water?
When does it leave our awareness?
Maybe taking another sip.
Is our experience the same or different?
Expanding,
Expanding our awareness to the whole of our experience,
Awareness of all our senses,
The multitude of sensations.
Pausing for a moment to reflect on practicing gathering the scattered mind into the senses.
Do we normally gather ourselves into the senses in this way?
If it feels different,
How?
What's different?
Being curious about our experience during this practice without judging.
As we draw this practice to a close,
Breathing into the whole body,
Breathing down into the ground,
Gently expanding our attention into the room,
Becoming aware of the place where we sit before opening the eyes,
Feeling the room around us,
And when ready,
Opening the eyes.
The sensing practice is now complete.
