Meditative Journey Into Emptiness

A practice beginning with mindfulness of the breath, body and mind. After established concentration, using visualization, you embark on a journey giving the practitioner an experiential understanding of the Buddhist concept of "emptiness." This practice can help to ease fears and anxiety by learning to drop labels and preconceived notions of all that we encounter in life.

Background music by Cousin Silas.

Transcript

Welcome to the meditative journey into emptiness.

Sitting in a comfortable position with your spine and head upright and straight,

Shoulders relaxed,

Arms hanging loosely to your sides,

And with your hands together or resting on your legs.

Closing your eyes,

Take three long steady breaths and try to release any stress or tension you may be holding onto.

As you allow your breath to return to normal,

Give yourself permission to let go during this meditation.

Release yourself from all burdens and responsibility to the outside world.

Right now there is no place to be and nothing to be done.

Allow yourself to be completely at peace and present in this moment.

Now begin to scan your body for any places of tension,

Tightness,

Or discomfort.

Intending to relax each and every body part as you move through them,

Begin with your head,

Your face,

Your scalp,

Then down through your neck,

Melting and softening each area as you move through.

Now to your shoulders,

Then into your back,

From the top of your spine,

Down slowly through the muscles surrounding each vertebrae,

Top,

Middle,

And bottom.

Circle around to the front of your body and relax your chest,

Your abdominal muscles,

Outward to your hips,

Your sacrum,

And pelvic floor.

Relax your arms,

Your hands,

Your fingers,

Then down through your legs,

Your feet,

Your toes.

Feel everything let go and release as you relax the entire body.

Now return your focus to the sensation of your breath.

Feel the breath moving in and out.

Focus on the point where you feel the breath most,

Whether it be the tip of your nose or another area of your nostrils.

It may even be the rise and fall of your chest.

Breathe at a normal pace and just watch the breath.

Watch all of the qualities and detail of your breath as you form a single pointed awareness and concentration while you're breathing.

Allow any thoughts and emotions that are arising or flowing through you right now to simply pass by.

Don't try to suppress or repress any thoughts or emotions.

Just simply let them arise.

Let them be and let them go without attaching or clinging to them.

Now experience the space that you are in,

The physical space that is surrounding you.

However this space feels right now,

Experience the space of the room you are in.

Being outward,

Building or house you are in,

Town or city,

The continent,

This planet,

This universe.

Experience the space.

Does it feel crowded or empty?

Is it crowded or cramped?

Are we restricted in any way?

Experience the space as it is all around you,

Feeling it with all of your being as you are in,

In part,

The space.

Now turn your awareness inward into the space of your mind.

Experience that space in your mind as it is in the present moment.

You may experience an emptiness or openness in your mind.

Maybe you will experience your mind full,

Overrun and filled with thoughts like a crowded room.

No matter how you feel the space of your mind,

Simply feel it and experience it as it is or how it is.

Now turn your awareness back out,

Sending it outward,

Beyond our earth into outer space.

Feel that space around you expand,

A continuous expansion of the space around you.

Feel the space becoming more and more open,

Expanding further and further.

As your awareness of space expands further and further into the universe,

Farther and farther away,

Floating into emptiness,

Into complete,

Eternal,

Infinite openness.

Experience the infinity in nothingness of outer space,

Forever expanding.

Now begin to release attachment to your physical body.

Allow the space between your body's cells to expand,

And the space within the cells to expand.

Allow the physical body to come apart slowly,

And slowly dissipate into the continuous expansion of space.

Continue to feel the sensations of your body directly,

Without the concept of your body.

Feeling the sensations in this open,

Expanding space.

There is no longer a body present.

No head,

No neck,

No shoulders,

No back,

No chest,

No arms,

No legs.

Only points of sensations arising and passing in the open emptiness of mind.

There is no solid body that is the self or I.

Just particular sensations arising,

Being experienced and known,

Moment to moment,

Before they also dissipate into the space.

When we free ourselves from the concept of body,

There is less inclination to identify ourselves with it.

And you can see it as an ever-changing,

Dynamic energy pattern in constant flux.

It helps deepen our understanding of the inherently selfless nature of all things.

Now turn back into your inner space.

Bring this expansion,

This openness,

This emptiness,

This stillness into the space of your mind.

Continue to expand to space in your mind.

Expand the space between thoughts and expand that space until the space envelops and dissolves those thoughts.

Feel the frequency of the thoughts move farther and farther apart from one another.

Experience the expanding distance between thoughts.

Experience the thoughts arising far away in the openness.

Feel the space of your mind expand infinitely outward.

Eternally expand your mind.

Feel completely at peace in this emptiness.

Relaxed and serene.

No mind.

No body.

No self.

No thing.

Experience this emptiness in this eternal and infinite space without thought,

Without labels,

Without fears,

Beliefs,

Expectations.

See this openness.

This is the state that allows you to encounter and see the world as it is for what it is without the labels.

To truly see a flower or a tree,

To look at any other living being or to look at yourself for this eternal spaciousness without the thoughts,

Without the labels,

Without fears,

Beliefs,

Expectations.

To look through emptiness,

To look with the emptiness,

Beyond the emptiness.

Experience this emptiness with all that you are.

As you experience this emptiness,

Understand that after all has been stripped away and removed,

Leaving this emptiness and openness,

The only thing that remains is awareness.

Awareness of the emptiness.

For without awareness,

There could be no emptiness to observe.

Perhaps awareness and emptiness are two sides of the same coin.

Emptiness is empty and emptiness is aware.

And once upon a time,

Their dance began.

Now slowly,

Come back into your body and feel a warmth and glow in your heart.

Now open your heart to the space,

This emptiness,

This nothingness.

See a golden light emanating from your heart,

Allowing you to see,

To encounter the world as it is.

Feel the freedom without the constraints of thoughts and fears,

Without the limitations of personal preferences and your own self-imposed boundaries.

Experience this openness,

Envelop all that was within your mind.

Feeling more and more relaxed,

Serene and peaceful,

More and more open and free.

Slowly begin to once again,

Feel your body,

Your sense of being still remaining in this emptiness,

Feeling the stillness.

Being aware of the emptiness within and without,

In the outer space and your inner space.

Feel this connection.

Slowly open your eyes at the sound of the bell.

Reviews

Amazing💯

I am presently reading a book on Emptiness. This is a wonderful accompaniment. The author of Emptiness is Guy Armstrong.
I shall incorporate this meditation into my daily practice. Namaste 🙏🏼

A remarkable experience well worth repeating many times…so from the spacestillnessandsilence ThankyouandBless 🧸

A bit fast-paced for me, and used too many advanced concepts I am not quite ready for, but good potential

No words.. just beautiful..

Very beautiful, very powerful. Quite an amazing journey. Namaste

A pleasant and unique guided meditation. May you be well and free from suffering. Thank you so much.

Excellent! Thank you so much^^.

That was really cool. I was an undulating stream of energy flowing through space. Just breath and energy. Thank you for this meditation. ☮️💖🙏

Profound and thought provoking journey. It gave me a wonderful visualized experience of emptiness.

Wow, quite a journey, thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Exquisite,deepest gratitude sweet soul sibling!💛💚💙💜
Love,light&blessed be..
Namaste
🙏