Spacious Awareness Meditation

In this meditation we cultivate an open, spacious focus that helps us to include in our awareness whatever is arising in our experience—sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, sounds, breath—all arising and passing like clouds moving through the sky.

Transcript

This is a spacious awareness meditation.

In this meditation we'll be cultivating an open,

Spacious focus that helps us to include in our awareness whatever is arising in our experience,

Whatever's arising in the body,

The heart,

The mind,

And in the environment.

You can begin this practice by finding a posture that is relaxed and comfortable,

Sitting on a chair,

A cushion,

A bench,

Or lying down.

Consciously allow your attention to drop down out of the head,

Out of thinking,

Down into the body.

Feel the points of contact with the surface beneath you,

Feelings of heaviness,

Pressure,

Warmth,

Tightness,

Tingling,

Coolness.

Whatever is present,

Allow yourself to feel the sensations of your body and invite your body to be at ease.

You can take some longer,

Deeper breaths to help you arrive fully and settle.

Taking a long,

Deep in-breath,

Filling the chest and the lungs with the breath,

And releasing with a long,

Slow out-breath.

Let the out-breath be a conscious releasing of any tension,

Pressure,

Or stress you might be holding.

As you breathe in,

You could invite in a quality of calm,

Silently saying that word calm to yourself as you breathe in and breathe out.

Breathing in,

Calming the body.

Breathing out,

Calming the mind.

And as you invite in one or two more full,

Deep breaths,

You can invite a smile to your face,

Enough to activate the muscles at the corners of your eyes and the corners of your mouth.

And the smile can send a message to our brain and to our nervous system that we can relax,

That we don't have to be hyper-vigilant.

And if it helps you deepen the smile,

You could think of a loved one,

A dear friend,

A child,

Or a pet,

And let their image come into your mind and your heart.

In your own time,

Let your breath settle into its natural rhythm,

Just as it is.

And you can do a brief scan of your body to see if you can relax any area where you might unconsciously be holding tension.

You might pay particular attention to the eyes and the facial muscles,

The jaw and the mouth.

Invite a relaxing of the face and the eyes and the mouth.

And the shoulders,

Just letting go of any unconscious holding or tensing in the shoulders,

In the upper back,

The back of the neck.

Inviting a relaxing of the chest and the belly.

Notice if you're clenching the muscles of the belly and just invite a relaxing,

Letting the breath come into a relaxed,

Open belly.

Now allow yourself to meet whatever is present in the body,

The heart,

And the mind,

With acceptance and with kindness.

See if you can make space for whatever is here.

Bodily feelings,

Tingling,

Warmth,

Coolness,

Tickling,

Pulsing.

See how these sensations come and go in their own time when met with kindness and with acceptance.

Whatever mood or emotions are present,

Peace or joy,

Sadness,

Tension,

Tiredness.

See if you can meet these two with an open-hearted acceptance.

And if you find what comes up is resistance or annoyance,

See if you can meet this with kindness,

Making space for it.

Letting go as much as you can of any narrative or story going through your mind.

Notice your thoughts.

Is your mind busy and active?

Or fairly calm and relaxed?

See if you can meet however your mind is right now with kindness and with acceptance.

Bring awareness to the thoughts and choose not to dwell on them or dive into them,

But let them go,

Bringing your attention back to what you're feeling and experiencing right now.

Often in meditation we'll use a focus or an object like the breath or sound or a mantra to focus the mind and help us stay grounded in our direct experience.

And when the mind wanders and we find ourselves caught up in thinking,

We just kindly and gently bring our attention back to that focus,

The breath or the body or sound or a mantra.

So in that form of meditation we're using an object or a focus as our,

You could say our home base or our anchor,

Kind of resting us in the present.

In this meditation we'll be cultivating a different kind of awareness,

An open spacious awareness,

Where our attention doesn't rest on a particular object or experience like the breath or a mantra,

But is open to whatever experience is arising from moment to moment.

So for this practice let your awareness be open and unfocused.

You might notice how bodily feelings come into awareness,

They arise tingling or pulsing or warmth,

And notice how they come and go.

You might envision or imagine your awareness,

This knowing quality of your mind,

As being like a wide open sky where everything can pass through it,

Like birds or planes,

Clouds or smoke,

Passing through the sky,

But the sky is not affected by what passes through it,

The sky remains open and spacious,

A wide open sky.

In the same way our awareness is not affected by what passes through it,

Everything can come and go in this open space of awareness,

This open sky of awareness.

So for these coming minutes just open to whatever is noticeable and see how,

If you don't hold on to it or push it away or get in a struggle with it,

This feeling,

This thought,

This breath will just come and go in its own time,

Like clouds passing through the sky.

Notice how sounds come and go.

In this open space of awareness,

They have a beginning,

They arise,

They stay for a while,

And then they dissolve as it were,

Just all in this open space of awareness,

Sounds coming and going,

Passing like clouds through the sky.

Notice how emotions,

Feelings and mind states also come and go in this open space of awareness.

If you feel sadness,

You just notice that,

How does that feel in your body,

Maybe in the heart area or around your eyes,

Just opening to the changing flow of the bodily experience,

Coming and going in this open space of awareness,

This wide open sky of awareness.

Maybe thoughts accompanying that emotion,

That sadness about a situation,

Notice how the thoughts too come,

Kind of bubble up as it were,

And then,

You know,

Often when we notice them,

They dissolve again.

So the thoughts coming and going in this open space,

This open sky of awareness.

Notice how your breath also comes and goes,

Coming and going in this open space of awareness,

Not trying to hold on to or resist anything,

Just letting everything come and go in its own time,

In this open space of awareness,

This wide open sky of awareness.

Notice how thoughts too come and go,

If we don't get into a struggle with them or get lost in them.

They can be seen and then dissipate like wisps of clouds dissolving.

Sometimes we can be pulled into our thoughts and lose connection with ourselves and our experience.

And then it's like the sun being lost behind the clouds.

The sun is still there,

But it's obscured by the clouds.

And when we wake up from the thought,

We're back again in this open,

Spacious awareness,

This sky-like awareness.

In these remaining minutes of the meditation,

You might invite your mind to be like a wide open sky,

Everything coming and going in this open space of awareness,

Like a wide open sky.

And when you get pulled into a story or a strong emotion,

Invite yourself back into this open,

Spacious awareness.

I live my life in widening circles.

And if you'd like to,

When the bell rings,

You could continue just resting in this open,

Spacious awareness,

Opening to whatever is arising in the body,

In the heart,

In the mind,

In the senses,

In the environment,

All coming and going within this wide open sky of awareness.

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one,

But I give myself to it.

I circle around God,

Around the primordial tower.

I've been circling for thousands of years,

And still I don't know.

Am I a falcon,

A storm,

Or a great song?

Or a great song?

Reviews

Just excellent. I am so grateful for all your splendid mediations here on Insight Timer. They have become a mainstay for my practice. Thank you so so much 🙏🌳🦢

Lovely thank you! Another beautiful meditation by a wise and gentle teacher.

Wonderful as always with this teacher. Today, this was my before-dinner meditation. So beautiful, deep, and centering.

I as able to keep on track even when the cat jumped on my lap, stayed for awhile until a noise from the rabbits house got his attention and he left

Thank you! Have to return bc I felt asleep halfway haha!

That was so beautiful! Thank you very much. 🙏🏻🙌🏻🌸

Quite easily my favorite meditation on Insight Timer. Wonderful.

So peaceful now. Namas

Wonderful ☁️☁️💫☀️

Exactly what I needed. I so appreciate your approach, Hugh. Thank you for this teaching.

Fantastic meditation! I enjoyed the focus on spacious awareness and found this to be a powerful alternative to breath focus. Nice balance between guidance and silent moments. And what a lovely and moving poem at the end. Thank you!

I was able to use the analogy to stay and not wander. So helpful.

Thank you, Hugh, for this beautiful, calming and centering meditation 🌷

Thank you for helping me create spaciousness and for the Rilke poem!

I found this to be a lovely way to meditate - being ‘aware’ rather than trying to block out thoughts and feelings. Very helpful to me and an easy way to continue to meditate silently. Thank you.

A wonderful meditation. Thank you so much.

Wonderful reminder of letting things/thoughts/stressors pass by with no attachment. Not getting caught up as creating undue stress. Thank you as always for your kind, soothe and calm voice.

Wonderful guidance for putting the body and mind at rest.

Thank you again, dear Hugh for this spacious, accepting meditation. All of your offerings are so helpful and loving. Wonderful. 🙏💕

Thank you Hugh. I love it!