Open Awareness

In today's session, guided by Jack Kornfield, you'll be practising Opening Awareness Meditation. This is a style of meditation where you learn to use the Buddhist practices of mindfulness or vipassana. With these, you can directly sense, with balance and compassion, the ever-changing experiences that make up your life and the relationships with the world around you. The aim of this session is to encourage you to notice whatever is happening in your body or mind with mindful loving awareness.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to Day 8 of Insight Timer's Building Healthy Habits Challenge.

Let's take a moment to get settled.

Close your eyes.

Take a deep breath in.

And exhale out.

Let's dive into today's healthy habit.

Hello,

And welcome to Insight Timer's Building Healthy Habits Challenge.

My name is Jack Kornfield,

And I trained as a Buddhist monk and today I'm introducing you to a practice called Open Awareness,

Which is a style of meditation where you learn to use the powerful Buddhist practices of mindfulness or vipassana.

With these you can directly sense,

With balance and compassion,

The ever-changing experiences that make up your life and your relationships with the world around you.

The aim of this session is to help you foster a wise and joyful heart by learning to notice whatever is happening in your body and mind with mindful,

Loving awareness.

So let's begin.

First,

Settle yourself.

Take a seat which is stable and comfortable,

Steady and at ease.

Let yourself come to rest in this human form halfway between heaven and earth.

Relax on this earth.

Let your eyes close gently.

And begin with two long breaths.

Letting the breath release whatever needs to be let go right now so you can be more fully present just here.

And with this mindful presence,

You can notice how the body begins again to breathe its natural rhythm,

And let the breath breathe itself with ease and calm,

A relaxation of breathing.

And now direct this quality of mindful,

Loving awareness to the whole field of your body.

There is the field of sensations of tingling and warm and cool,

Hard and soft,

That make up your sense of the body.

And there is the tensions and stress and tightness,

Areas of pain,

Areas of pleasure and ease.

Feel the whole sense and dynamic field of this body,

Just as it is,

And as you feel it.

With mindful,

Loving awareness,

Bring in a quality of compassion,

As if you could wrap your arms around this body,

Hold it with kindness.

Notice how your body responds to this kindness.

You can say thank you,

Thank you for caring so much,

Thank you for trying to keep me safe in so many ways.

You can relax,

I'm okay just now,

Thank you for trying so hard.

You can relax and come to rest just now.

Just as you invite this sense of presence,

How you can feel an easing in the body.

Thank you for keeping me safe,

I'm okay just now.

And with the same mindful,

Loving awareness,

Shift your attention to the heart.

Yes,

The area of the heart,

But the feeling heart,

The emotional heart.

The heart that carries sorrows and longing,

Frustration and love,

Anger and fears and hurts and tenderness and joy,

Appreciation,

Sweetness.

Feel all the emotions of the heart.

Feel how much your heart carries.

And again,

As if you could wrap your heart in compassion,

Hold it with compassionate kindness.

Say to your heart,

Thank you,

Thank you for feeling so much,

The 10,

000 joys and sorrows you feel,

Thank you for holding so much,

Thank you for trying to keep me safe and protect me through all this.

I'm okay just now.

You can relax.

You can be at peace just now.

And with gratitude,

Thanking your heart,

Invite it to come into ease and well-being just here and now.

Thank you for caring so much,

Keeping me safe.

I'm okay.

You can rest.

Now shift the mindful loving awareness to become aware of the mind,

All the thoughts and images,

All the ideas and plans and memories and figuring out and sorting and imagining and hoping and fearing,

All the stream of mental activity,

Analyzing and examining and remembering and thinking.

And that whirlwind of mind,

Feel it as a ball of energy,

A nonstop stream of images and thoughts and words,

Ideas.

And as you feel the whole field of the mind working so hard,

Turning and producing thoughts and images,

Wrap it all with a sense of gratitude and compassion,

This amazing beautiful mind.

Hold it with kindness and say thank you,

Thank you for all you do as you feel its energy.

Thank you for keeping me safe,

For trying so hard,

To figure things out,

To make things work out.

Thank you for caring so much to your mind.

I'll hold you with compassion,

Kindness.

Thank you for keeping me safe.

I'm okay just now.

You can relax,

You can let go and quiet.

I'm okay just here.

You don't have to work so hard now.

And invite and feel how the mind too can quiet and come into ease and presence,

Softly relax.

And now notice that what you have been practicing allows you to become the loving witness of experience.

Just now you are not your body.

The body is felt and experienced,

But you are the awareness that knows the body.

You are not the emotions,

All the range of feelings that come and go.

You have become the awareness that knows all the feelings of the heart,

The joys and sorrows.

You are the loving witness of the heart.

Relax with it.

You are not the mind,

Not all the thoughts and images.

You become the loving witness of the mind.

The mind that keeps busy tries to keep you safe.

Thank you.

Who you are,

Who you really are,

Is loving awareness,

Timeless and open like the sky.

Sensations appear and change and float and disappear.

Sensations arise,

Joys and sorrows,

Anger and love,

For a time like weather in the sky,

Appearing and vanishing.

All the thoughts and images appear for a time even as the sounds and these words come and go.

And you are the space of awareness,

Open,

Transparent.

You are loving awareness,

Consciousness.

This is who you really are.

Rest in.

Relax into loving awareness.

You are the loving witness of all that arises and passes away.

This awareness,

This consciousness,

This loving awareness,

Born into your body,

Timeless.

You are not the body or feelings or thoughts.

Rest in your true nature.

Loving awareness like the sky can hold it all.

Relax into it.

Trust it.

It is your home.

And as you go through your days,

Using this practice,

You can drop in to become the loving witness of the ten thousand joys and sorrows of life.

And while you'll feel and sense and see and know,

Who you really are is this great,

Wise heart of loving awareness itself.

Rest in it.

Trust it.

It is your home.

Thank you.

Reviews

I wept a little. It’s so easy to treat yourself with compassion if you allow yourself just a moment to do so.

I felt as light as a feather after this meditation!

Beautiful, so strong and touching..
Thank you for sharing 🙏

This is in my favorites playlist. I am working through the playlist similar to a daily challenge. This was today’s and I decided I need a fave fave playlist for this to reside in so I can remember to access it more regularly. Thank you.

Jack Kornfield at his best - which is what he always is. Thank you, Jack.

Thank you. Very kind, wise words. I felt the impact.

As ever, Jack Cornfield is an inspiration to anyone who practices mindful meditation. Although from a different area of theoretical orientation, he represents a wonderful role model for millions worldwide.

Such a sweet & tender homecoming. Thank you, dear Cuz. Love you. ~Jane

Gentle, a living example of the loving kindness teaching. 🙏🏼

It’s Jack Kornfield how can it be anything other than wonderful 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Wonderful. One to bookmark as so precious and to return to again and again. 🙏🌼🙏

Awareness is the gateway to peace of the mind , body and spirit. Thank you for this meditation. It reminded me of the power we each have within ourselves. 🙏

Jack is always such a great source of spiritual wisdom.

Perfect. A wonderful teacher to meditate with. 🙏🏼❤️

My body needed to hear it’s safe and can rest now. Thank you.

Jack guides you to place of love, thankfulness, and understanding of your experience. It's a nice shift from just being with, to loving what is. Thank you 🙏

Jacks loving guidance through the body mind & heart allow for a gentle inquiry into these parts to feel into what might be there to let go.
He is a wonderful guide & authentic presence in this world 💛

This guided meditation allowed me to drop down and experience a loving awareness that was quite remarkable.
Jack’s voice has a soothing effect, particularly when he welcomes one home. A delightful 15 minutes for me. Thanks

Wonderful! Really transformative and just what I needed to bring me to calm and balance, thank you!

Loving awareness is our true nature. Thank you Jack.