Let me just begin by asking you just to,
As you're getting settled,
As you're kind of,
You know,
Getting on your cushion and getting set up in your chair and so on,
Just noticing where your awareness is.
It's always an interesting thing to.
.
.
Know where you're seeing from.
And depending on where you stand.
What you see is different,
Of course,
And the way that you kind of interact with things is quite different.
And you can move that around,
You know.
And people very often don't realize that the place that they're looking from is not always the best place to be looking from.
What I want to work with today is actually coming to that kind of core place of awareness within our practice.
But also to show you that actually at any given time.
It's likely that you're seeing from usually one of three places,
But there are actually four places of awareness to see from.
Just feel into your own awareness at this moment.
And just see where awareness is seeing from without trying to do anything about it.
Okay,
Let me invite you to be my guest.
Here and now.
Without force.
Inviting you to Become aware of your body.
And so this is place of awareness number one.
So awareness of your body or awareness within the body.
I'm just noticing.
The state of your awareness.
As you view from the body.
So this is the first place.
Body awareness.
Now it may be.
That body awareness is a little obscured.
And so there's nothing wrong with that.
What I've discovered in the last 10 years,
As this journey has gone deeper and deeper,
Is that there's usually one area of awareness operating more predominantly than the others on any given day or any given time.
So there's always a way.
It's not that you have to have body awareness.
It might be that it's one of the others as your leading place today.
So just noticing.
The body and awareness.
Now,
If you've had difficulty in your life,
Violence or trauma,
An accident or a mugging or,
You know,
All sorts of things,
It may be that body awareness is not the easiest place to access.
Or great loss or betrayal or trauma basically.
So we may be kind of withdrawn from the body or the body might not be the easiest place to move into.
So let's move to the second place of awareness.
From the head.
Now normally.
We see from the mind,
And we mistake that for awareness.
But there is the clarity in you that sees the mind.
So is this the one that's more predominant?
So just noticing how that is for you and maybe even try switching body awareness.
Header one.
If you feel like you're kind of pressed into your frontal lobes.
See if you can be the part that notices that.
I'm not trying to get anywhere with this.
Not trying to do anything.
Apart from,
Discover your own locale within yourself.
Because awareness is the base aspect of your being.
Third place.
Is what in the particular teaching I'm leaning into for this they call voice.
So by voice they mean the area of expression in the body.
So consider from the bottom of your chin to the top of your heart,
That space in between the communication vessel.
So it's not just the throat,
It's that whole upper chest and throat area.
In that area,
Your awareness will be aware of what you are communicating,
Not just through your things that you say,
But through your energies.
Including things that you're not communicating,
Those are also communicated.
And again,
We're not getting into judgment or criticism of any part of ourselves.
We're just noticing where we're seeing from.
Awareness of your body.
Awareness of the floor beneath you,
The room around you,
And just checking in where your awareness is seeing most from today.
Are in this moment.
Where is the best view?
Now,
Of course,
If we are dealing with a communication vessel,
The voice,
And there is difficulty there.
Know there are things unexpressed or if we're dealing with the body but there's withholdings in the body.
Or if we're dealing with the head,
But we're very mind addicted.
Then you'll feel those resistances.
But the resistances themselves are not the problem.
It's our pushing against them constantly or identifying with them that actually keeps us from our more full and beautiful life.
So wherever you have the most awareness,
It doesn't have to be good or bad,
It's just that wherever that place of seeing is slightly clearer,
Just inviting you to be more grounded in that.
So if it's in the head.
And through the eyes and so on,
Then just feeling back into that clear space of seeing.
If it's in voice,
Then feeling back into that clear place that sees expression.
And if it's in body,
Then allowing yourself back into that.
Inner aliveness and the sense of that.
And it's through this that you arrive at the fourth place of awareness.
Which is awareness aware of itself.
Which doesn't mean.
.
.
You suddenly don't have a body or a head or a voice.
It's the.
.
.
Basic awareness.
From this grounded awareness now.
Making sure that you're not.
Making an effort or creating a sense of awareness.
Because the ego mind can do that.
And it's only doing it because it's frightened.
There's nothing to be scared of.
We don't need to go to war with it.
We resist because we are scared.
It's that simple.
Scared of endless nameless things.
Are scary to us.
But we don't need to suddenly.
.
.
Disappear from that.
And not have the fear.
We can allow the awareness to see where we are fearful and whether that armor that we're holding up in defense there or that resistance that we are unconsciously pushing into,
Whether we need that in this moment.
And we can do that with love rather than judgment or criticism.
And awareness is love.
This clear light of awareness is the love we need.
So if there are resistances or.
.
.
Foggy bits.
Withdrawing parts of yourself.
We don't fall into the delusion that we should suddenly be unarmored and all open and jelly-like.
But that we just see that what is there?
Awareness just teaches us our own.
Systems at this level.
And the invitation here is just.
To allow that awareness to be as loving as sunlight.
Touching against these cooler places or these more closed places.
And also aware of the more open aspects.
But it's not that the open parts are the good bits and the closed parts are the bad parts.
That's not it.
What you actually begin to.
.
.
Is that regardless of closeness or openness,
You are a wholeness.
So awareness recognizes.
Your truer self.
All I've really wanted to show you with this practice,
It's quite an advanced thing actually,
Is that you might be coming at things one way because that's your usual way of coming at something.
Oh,
I enter meditation through the body or I enter meditation through the head or through a sense of feelings in communication.
But actually there are other doors.
And so we're never at a loss for getting back to ourselves.
One of them will always be open a little bit more than the others.
And that's just.
Years of practice observing that that I'm sharing with you.
So just going.
Where the awareness is,
And then allowing that to show you the wholeness.
Because that's all that we need do.
It's just accessing awareness is the key to everything.
And then if there is something that you are attending to today.
Something with a person.
Something with your work.
Something with your life.
Just allow yourself to lift it in your hands.
Like a little baby bird.
And just hold it in that awareness.
And just let awareness be with it and it will tell you.
I'll show you.
The deeper aspects of meeting that or working with that today or how you might.
Move through things.
Very often we don't listen to this clearer voice that's inside ourselves.
But we always have to check it's not made up story stuff.
So we let awareness just do its work.
And we listen the best we can.
Just allowing whatever you want to hold in your awareness be touched by it.
You can just feel the gentleness of this practice.
Awareness always has this gentle quality to it.
It's quite tangible.
Okay,
So just let me invite you now just to begin returning to ordinary consciousness.
So feeling into your body.
Being aware of the room around you.
See where you're seeing from now.
For me,
It's kind of really in the heart,
Right this moment,
Probably because I'm holding this space with you.
And so my heart opens to you.
With you.
And let's draw this practice to close with our usual dedication.
May this practice be for our own highest benefit.
And by being so,
May it be of benefit to all beings.
