002. Deep Inner Awareness, Stillness & Spaciousness (Full)

This is a 40-minute guided meditation practice.

We will focus on experiencing different qualities of attention and awareness, to help develop a sense of inner spaciousness and Presence.
The audio is backed with native birdsong, water, and forest sounds recorded in New Zealand.

People tell me this meditation is easy to follow and makes it very easy to go into deep stillness and remain inwardly focused.

If you have any feedback or question, please feel free to comment below.

>> Recorded during a live guided group meditation (Session 2, Recorded 2023-05-22)

Transcript

Hello,

This is Jonathan Evert.

It's a pleasure to be guiding this meditation with you.

Thanks for joining me.

In this particular practice we will be exploring and experiencing the different qualities of attention and awareness within the framework of the body and within your consciousness.

The feedback I've received from the live version of this is that it is a deep,

Calming and easy to follow practice.

In this recording I have included sounds of nature recorded from around my house in the forest in New Zealand.

The intention being that nature is a profound source of intelligence and wisdom and we can re-inform the psyche,

The soul and our body with that wisdom.

One of the ways to do that is through the sounds of nature.

This is a longer 40 minute version of this meditation.

There is a shorter one that you can find in my tracks if you have less time than is needed for this one.

So make yourself comfortable sitting in a way that is easy for you and let's begin.

So we'll be exploring a little the difference between just pure attention or awareness and intention and things that are intentional,

Whether that's consciously intentional or unconsciously and moving more into a space of just attention.

Pure attention,

We'll get into that soon.

So for now just noticing your body and the room around you,

The space.

If your eyes are still open then you can visually see that space.

You can also feel that space and even the space behind you,

Below you and in the space immediately around the body,

A centimeter or two around the body,

Around the whole body,

Simultaneously the whole body,

The space at the surface and just beyond the surface of the skin,

Your skin.

We're not we're not changing anything,

There's nothing to do,

There's nothing to become,

We're not trying to bring about anything,

It already is.

Noticing the space between your toes and that thin plane of contact where the toes are touching each other and that similar plane of contact between the fingers,

The space in the palms of the hands and the spaciousness in the mouth cavity,

Where is your tongue in that space,

Just allowing the jaw to relax,

The space in front of the chest and behind the chest,

Behind the shoulder blades,

Behind the back and just moving between those two spaces,

Behind the heart and in front of the heart,

Behind the back,

Between the shoulder blades and the front of the chest,

Just quite slowly moving to the front,

Just the surface of the skin and a little bit out into the spaciousness,

A couple of centimeters,

Maybe an inch,

Half an inch and gently moving through the space of the body to the back,

Just behind the,

Between the shoulder blades,

Just beyond the skin,

Gently moving your intention,

Your attention I should say,

To the space inside the head,

Just behind the forehead,

Noticing the face,

The sensation of the face,

Is it being aware of any tightness or clenching or straining around the eyes,

Trying to focus or tightness around the eye sockets,

The eyebrows and just noticing how they relax and allowing your attention to kind of move down the front of the body to again the space at the chest,

Just slightly out from the skin,

Allowing your attention to move back in towards the body,

Into the body,

Into the space inside the chest and down through the space of the torso of your body and to the lower abdomen,

Somewhere below the navel and a little up from the very base of the hip where you're sitting,

Being aware of the sensation of your body's contact with the chair or what you're sitting on,

Just dwelling tentatively,

Gently,

Tenderly in this space at the lower abdomen,

Driven towards the center whilst remaining aware of that space,

Being attentive there,

Again just being aware of your face,

Jaw,

Any tension around the eyes,

The forehead,

Tongue,

Temple and just noticing how that all dissolves as you become aware of it.

As your attention is dwelling in that space at the base of the body,

You may notice that there's a certain perspective that perhaps orientates from the head,

Maybe from behind your eyes,

Somewhere in the head space that it's as though you're either looking down at that space below from the head or maybe you experience simply both at the same time but just allowing that attention that seems to remain in the head or this point of view perspective,

Being aware of that and just dropping your awareness,

That awareness down through the body,

Almost like a felt sense,

It's not something we're visualizing and when you're being aware of these different parts of the body you're not visualizing them,

It doesn't require that visual capacity which tends to be embodied through the eyes,

Behind the eyes,

It's a felt sense of an awareness arising through a shift of attention to certain locations in the space of the body,

So just noticing how much of that attention is able to sink down,

Down to the space just in from the navel and a little bit below,

That's right,

Just dwelling there,

If there's any sense of effort arising or active you can just let that go and again bring,

Allow your attention just to be in that space at the lower part of the abdomen and noticing if from that space,

That point of view,

You can be aware of the palms of your hands and then again just being attentive in that space,

The lower abdomen and from there noticing if you can be aware of the soles of your feet,

Remaining aware,

Remaining attentive to the lower abdomen and inside the body and also the soles of the feet or maybe the space all around each foot,

Both feet and just being aware of the breathing that's arising and passing away,

Just noticing it as it is,

Again from the perspective of your awareness in this space in the lower abdomen,

Again being aware of any tension or muscular attraction that may be occurring in the face,

Anywhere around the eyes,

The forehead,

The eye sockets,

Cheeks,

The jaw,

Just dropping that energy down through the body,

Letting it relax,

Letting it drift,

Fall into the space just in from the navel and a little bit down,

Breath is arising and passing away,

Almost like a water washing up on the beach,

The ocean sort of comes more into the land and just as the breath washes from the ocean of the space around you into the body,

The body like a beach,

The space around you,

The atmosphere of the earth like an ocean of breath or air,

It's like with each inhalation which just arises as effortlessly as naturally as waves,

A wave washing up the beach and then the exhalation arises effortlessly in the same way that the wave withdraws back into the ocean,

The breath withdraws into the atmosphere,

There's this constant exchange of reciprocity,

Giving and receiving,

Even as the breath,

The air recedes into the atmosphere,

It's been changed,

You've added something of yourself to it,

Of your body in the form of various atoms and particles and gases and as the ocean of air washes into the body with the inhalation,

It brings something of itself into the body and leaves it there and again just dwelling in that space at the base of the body,

It's very tenderly as if you're holding a newborn baby,

In English we have the common phrase of paying attention,

It's an interesting combination of words,

To pay attention,

In the same way I might pay for something at the market,

It implies that something is being given and therefore received and when we are attentive to a,

Let's say a child,

A newborn child paying attention,

They're receiving something that enlivens them,

That comforts them,

Something that allows them to flourish,

To grow,

To feel secure within themselves,

In the same way we're paying attention,

Being attentive to aspects of the spaciousness in the body,

Locations within that spaciousness,

Life forces flowing there without any specific intention,

We're not trying to change or manipulate anything,

Just as we wouldn't be trying to change or manipulate the newborn child,

It's just lovingly paying attention and in the same way that the newborn child flourishes in this field of loving attention,

Our own body and psyche,

The soul within the body is able to unravel,

To flourish,

To blossom,

Little by little and from that space in the lower abdomen,

Just gently moving your attention or perhaps expanding it,

So that it starts to include the more of the torso,

The solar plexus and the space of the heart,

Chest,

Inside the chest,

If there's any tension in the face,

Around the eyes,

The jawbone,

The jaw muscles,

Or the back of the neck,

Shoulders,

Just allowing that to sink down like a stone dropping through water,

Releasing that stone and allowing it to sink down to the lower abdomen,

Just around below the navel,

Noticing the arising of inhalations,

Exhalations,

And again expanding that center of awareness,

Include down your arms,

The whole left arm,

Left hand,

Whole right arm,

The right hand,

The whole torso,

Arms,

Hands,

The left hip,

The right hip,

Contact of your buttocks with what you're sitting on,

Your left foot and your whole left leg,

And your right foot,

The whole right leg,

And just gently inwardly smiling into this space that you're aware of,

Attentive to,

Just inwardly smiling tenderly,

Lovingly,

Lovingly,

Noticing if that attention of that smile passes to the entire space of the body simultaneously or if it flows down in some way,

And being aware of the space of the room,

The less personal,

The impersonal space of the room or wherever you might be sitting,

And in a moment you'll gently open your eyes,

But when you do,

Remain aware of the space and the body and in the belly,

So that after you open your eyes,

Just gently and then gently closing them again and opening them a few times,

Of just noticing the shift in attention and awareness,

Seeing if some of that awareness,

That attention remains there dwelling in the body as you eventually keep the eyes open,

So you can just play with that now,

Just partially opening the eyes,

Just enough to let in some light and an awareness of perhaps the space immediately in front of you or below you,

And again just closing them and being aware of the space in the body,

And just simply being aware that in the same way the breath is a constant exchange,

And that by paying attention is a giving of something of life force,

As you open your attention to the world around you,

Whatever you pay attention to,

You're investing some life force into,

This exchange of reciprocity,

Being fully aware of the room,

The body,

Your body,

The breathing arising and passing away in that space,

The paying of attention,

The giving of attention,

And whatever it is you receive from the objects of your attention.

Reviews

Thank you for this beautiful, peaceful meditation. I had never previously given thought to the expression "pay attention," and your meditation opened a deeper awareness of this practice. Thank you. Your forest sounds are exquisite.❤️