This is a 20-minute meditation to help you be in a greater sense of awareness,
Spaciousness,
And presence,
Through what we might call the gateway of silence.
This meditation is not about focusing on a particular object of concentration,
But rather you're invited to become aware of the innate living silence within you by finding that it's part of your very nature,
As it is in all things.
So if you'll allow yourself to begin settling for meditation,
Wherever you are,
Whether you're at home or traveling,
Just begin by choosing to allow yourself to be here.
Just a few more percent.
Notice the difference between allowing and making.
Perhaps we can allow meditation to be an adventure,
Just beginning to physically settle.
So sitting upright,
Gently with no force,
But just the energy of the body moving upwards.
Your eyes can be half closed or closed,
Hands in your lap or on your knees,
Or of course this meditation can be done lying down if you're tired or poorly.
There's no rules.
Feeling your feet against the floor,
Just with your felt sense from within,
Feet and floor.
Aware of your lower legs,
Knees,
Quads and thighs,
Your bottom,
Sitting on the chair or the cushion or against the bed,
The lowest point of your spine,
The middle of your back,
Your upper back,
Right and left shoulders,
Right arm and left arm,
Right hand and left hand,
Your neck,
Back of your head,
Sides of your head,
Top of your head.
Let your forehead be soft,
Let your eyes be soft,
Let your jaw relax.
Aware of your face,
Aware of your throat,
Aware of your upper chest,
Whole chest,
Your abdomen,
How you're feeling in your abdomen.
Aware of your reproductive and excretory organs,
Nothing left out.
Aware of your whole body from within,
Through your felt sense and just feeling the energy of the body.
How is your wonderful vehicle?
And noticing the breath,
Just breathing naturally.
Notice where you feel that in your body,
Allowing yourself to be with that movement of breath,
Aware of the pulsation of life through breath.
And we're just going to take in a slightly longer breath and then let it go,
Just naturally.
A longer breath in and let it go.
One more time,
Breath in,
Let it go and just normal breathing,
Normal breathing and just noticing.
So I know for some of you,
When you put your attention on the breath,
Something tightens up within and you end up taking control of your breath.
If this happens,
Just notice that that's happened.
Perhaps if you can just come back to the feeling of your life force in your body and let go of any,
Any focus on the breath at all.
Just let that go,
We won't worry about it if this is the case for you.
Life in the body,
Notice how your mind is and perhaps you can allow yourself to notice your mind in terms of energy rather than its content.
What's the energy of your mind like right now?
And not judging or measuring or criticising,
But just noticing the energy of your mind.
And can you just relax back into the noticing more than the content,
Even if it's just a million of a percent.
And same with your emotions.
Can you feel how you feel in terms of energy?
Notice your emotional tone in terms of energy,
Not trying to decode how we feel,
Letting go of any idea that you have of meditation and just with curious and adventurous spirit meeting who you are right now with a bit of love and kindness.
You're not a problem to be solved.
Noticing that you can feel your clothes against your skin,
Just noticing clothes and skin.
Notice that you're aware of the light coming in through your eyes,
Whether they're open or closed.
You can taste the taste in your mouth.
You're aware of the air in your nostrils and you're aware of the sounds that you can hear.
Of course,
You can hear my voice.
You can hear the sounds in the room or the space that you're in.
And you're aware of the sounds coming from outside of that space,
However subtle or however loud.
So notice if you have any resistance to the sounds that you can hear.
And just like with mind and emotion,
Can you let the sounds just be there as energy and allow yourself to drop back to your felt sense a little bit so that you're not blocking out any sound or resisting it or wishing that anything were different or that you're not pulling towards the sounds.
Try to figure out what they are.
Just allow them to be there and noticing that you can hear the space between the sounds,
Perhaps allowing your noticing to be more with the space between the sounds than the sounds themselves.
You're aware of your body,
Aware of breath and life in your body.
You're aware of your mind,
Aware of your emotions.
You're aware of your five senses and you're aware of the silence between the sounds.
And perhaps you're also aware that there's a silence beneath each sound,
A primal silence without which the sound cannot exist,
Allowing yourself to rest between the sounds,
Allowing yourself to rest in the silence beneath the sound.
Notice how this feels in your body.
If at any time fear comes up,
You get tangled in thought,
Just notice that that's happened without making any fuss,
Just with love and forgiveness,
Just notice that it's happened and allow yourself just to come back to the feeling of your body sitting here and when you're ready,
Just coming back to the sounds and the spaces between them and feeling the space within yourself.
Perhaps by now,
As we've been sitting for quite a while,
You can feel the space within yourself a little more clearly and notice that the space between the sounds,
Space between the breaths,
A space in the feeling of life within you is the same space.
But perhaps you also notice the living quality of that space,
That you feel a little more here,
A little more present,
Aware of the unfolding beauty of life within yourself and around you,
In others and in the world,
Feeling a sense of your own wholeness and noticing that all this awareness and the awareness of the space and the silence is not constructed by you,
You are not doing anything to achieve it and it's this sense of awareness and space that is meditation and you can be here in the silence whilst in the midst of life without any effort at all.
Perhaps you just recognize something more original,
Something more original of yourself here in this present moment.
In just a moment this meditation will end and it's very easy to suddenly leap back into the thoughts that we think we are,
But I invite you,
Since you've not been away anywhere,
You're just here,
Just to remain in this more open state for a little while longer after the meditation is over and perhaps just take a moment to look from this state of presence around the room that you're in,
If there are other people in the space that you're in,
Just allow yourself to gently view them and see them from this more open state and so this meditation is over.
Thank you for sitting with me.
Please come back here whenever you feel you need to.
Have a beautiful day.
