Practicing With Open Awareness

This 20 minute practice is a practice in being present with the arising and fading away of experience. It can help you to focus by eliminating mental chatter.

Transcript

Practicing with open awareness.

Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to our moment-to-moment experience without judgment and with a heart of compassion.

It is a practice of becoming intimate with the process of the mind,

Bringing curiosity to each experience,

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.

Part of our practice is developing stability of mind and concentration by directing our awareness to a single object,

The sensation of the breath,

For instance.

As we practice in this way,

Each time the awareness is drawn away by other sensations or thoughts,

We simply come back to the single object,

The sensation of the breath.

In this practice,

The awareness is like a laser beam or a spotlight directed at one specific object.

Another form of practice is allowing awareness to be more like a floodlight,

Opening up to experience and sensation arising and fading away in the mind.

This practice of open awareness is similar to lying in a big field and looking up at the sky.

We observe the clouds passing,

Birds passing,

Leaves flowing around,

Etc.

All of these experiences simply coming and going within the vastness of the sky above.

For many of us,

The prevalent experience of the mind can be ongoing mental chatter and thoughts.

Just a word about thoughts.

Most of us have a constant stream of thoughts in the background of our attention.

This stream is constantly flowing like talk radio.

If we actually tune into these,

We will notice that they are most likely fragments of thoughts and not likely original and are usually repeating thoughts we've seen hundreds of times before.

As we sit,

We can sometimes feel the pull of these thoughts and the desire arises to think,

To figure out,

To solve the problem and plan.

If at any time while practicing in this way we find ourselves completely taken over by a thought or a difficult mind state,

We can always sharpen the awareness and come back to a single sensation of the breath.

As I guide this 20-minute practice of open awareness,

There will be many periods of silence,

And you may of course pause the guidance at any time to extend the meditation.

So let's begin.

Finding a comfortable posture,

A balanced posture on a chair or a cushion,

Your head upright,

Shoulders and arms relaxed,

Face and eyes relaxed,

Back firm,

Front soft,

A posture of relaxed alertness.

Begin by finding the sensation of the breath,

Either at the nose or the rising and falling of the chest or abdomen.

Resting the awareness here for a few minutes,

Allowing the mind to settle and stabilize.

Noticing that each breath has a beginning,

A middle,

And an end.

And noticing the space between each breath.

As you sit,

Becoming aware that the sensation of the breath is rising and falling within a large space of awareness.

You notice external sounds in this space as well.

Spending a few minutes allowing the awareness to just be with sound.

And paying attention to the space between sounds.

Sounds simply coming and going within awareness.

Okay.

You may also notice within this vastness of awareness other physical sensations arising in the body.

Some of these sensations will be very strong and may grab hold of your awareness suddenly like a sharp pain or an itch.

When this happens,

Notice the reactivity of the mind.

Notice the thoughts associated with this.

You may find yourself constricting around this sensation.

These sensations as well are arising in the vastness of awareness.

Unexperienced within this spaciousness,

They might actually seem considerably weaker.

Yes,

You can and may find yourself further flavoring with tested compl겠어 by experiencing Now,

Bringing your attention to the entire body just sitting.

Noticing the sensations that inform you that indeed you have a body.

Can you actually feel where the body ends and the space around it begins?

What is that sensation?

Notice that what we experience as my body is actually just sensations coming and going within this vastness of awareness.

Notice that what we experience as my body is actually just sensations coming and going within this vastness of awareness.

Notice that what we experience as my body is actually just sensations coming and going within this vastness of awareness.

Now,

Opening the awareness to thoughts as they are.

Opening the awareness to thoughts as they arise.

Thoughts,

Like other sensations,

Arising and fading away.

If you notice the mind constricting around a thought,

In other words,

Thinking,

Notice if you can simply let it be.

Observing how quickly the mind identifies with thoughts.

Thoughts themselves just come and go,

Imagining them as bubbles floating,

Which you simply push away with a feather.

Thoughts arising and passing,

As if you were watching a field of fireflies flickering on and off.

Thoughts arising and passing,

As if you were watching a field of fireflies flickering on and off.

Thoughts arising and passing,

As if you were watching a field of fireflies flickering on and off.

Thoughts arising and passing,

As if you were watching a field of fireflies flickering on and off.

Thoughts arising and passing,

As if you were watching a field of fireflies flickering on and off.

Notice at times as thoughts arise,

If they are familiar,

Like old friends.

If a disturbing thought arises,

Pay attention to what happens in the body,

And then rest the awareness on the body sensations.

If a pleasant thought arises,

Noticing what happens in the body as well.

Noticing what happens if you try to push away an unpleasant thought.

And what happens if you try to hold on to a pleasant one.

Paying attention to the space between these thoughts,

Just like the space between breaths.

And what happens if you try to hold on to a pleasant thought.

And what happens if you try to hold on to a pleasant thought.

And notice times when strong emotions may arise.

Sometimes these emotions may be pleasant and sometimes unpleasant.

Being aware of what else arises with these emotions.

What thoughts may be present.

What bodily sensations may be present.

What emotions may be present.

Attending to the space between emotions arising and fading away.

Just resting in this boundless awareness.

Neither holding to or pushing away thoughts,

Emotions,

Physical sensations,

Sounds.

And what happens if you try to hold on to a pleasant thought.

Just being.

And what happens if you try to hold on to a pleasant thought.

Reviews

Wonderful, thank you.

Beautiful, thank you Jon 🙏🏼 Love the way you describe focus and open awareness as laser and flood lights 💙

Jon, Thank you for this guided meditation. “Notice the space between the thoughts” helped me become present and aware, and peaceful.

Wonderful thank you 🙏🌟

Great short awareness meditation with a really good introduction! Thank you 🙏🙏

I listened to this in a noisy airport. It was so well guided that I was able to establish an inner peace and maintain it throughout the periods of silence. My insight was that the conversations around me were background noise just like the thoughts and feelings which arose.

Excellent straight forward practice, a literal practicing of how to sit and what to do with everything that comes up, physically and mentally. Plenty of quiet practice space in between gentle guidance. Looking back on my early experiences with meditation, I think open awareness is a better first style of practice for beginners rather than breath or other singularly pointed practice.

Excellent. Very clear pointer.

A guided meditation that one might want I revisit many times. I found it helpful in noticing sensations and thoughts to be as bubbles that could be acknowledged, yet could be gently pushed away. The body is sitting but my mind is not my body.

Gentle voice and nice pacing

Great meditation! Just enough guidance and space to practice on my own. Thanks🙏🏻

Wonderful. Loved all the silence. Very peaceful.

Exactly what I needed and looking for this morning. Needing that kind of focus lately, thank you! 🕉

Really enjoyed this . .when my thoughts didn't take over..thanks

I feel centered and secure, calm and accepting so that my own inner dialogue does not feel like the enemy or dictator.

Superb! Perfect balance of explanation, guidance, and practice. Thank you.

Enjoyed this one. The pauses were helpful as well. Thank you. Shared

Well paced and guided with opportunity for quiet practice. With gratitude 🙏🏼

Nicely done. Thank you.

I really enjoyed this and will use it throughout my day. Thank you!