Awareness through the senses.
In this meditation,
We will open the senses systematically and then rest in awareness.
So start by finding a comfortable position and bringing awareness to the body.
Feeling the connection the body is making with the floor,
Seat,
Whatever you are sitting or lying on.
And let the body relax.
And then,
Relax into the support of the floor,
Of the seat,
The bed.
And then bring awareness to the physical sensations of the body.
Second exercise.
And then bring awareness to the Aware.
And then bring awareness to the physical sensations of the body.
Starting with the hands.
Noticing the touches,
The touch sensations in the hands that can be experienced as temperature or pressure.
Perhaps holding tension.
Perhaps movement.
And then see if you can feel the hands from the inside.
Aware not only of the surface of the hands,
The skin.
Aware of the sensations within the hands.
As if you were putting your hands into a pair of gloves.
Bringing your awareness into your hands.
Noticing any subtle body sensations that may arise,
Perhaps a tingling liveliness,
Shimmering effervescence.
And bringing awareness to the arms.
Noticing the physical sensations,
Pressure,
Temperature,
Touch,
Movement.
And sinking to be aware of the sensations within the arms,
Feeling the arms from the inside.
Letting awareness sink into the arms.
Perhaps aware of a tingling liveliness effervescence.
Opening to the shoulders,
Neck and head.
Feeling where the physical sensations in those areas and then also feeling those areas from the inside.
Where the subtle body sensations.
Feeling the chest,
The heart center,
Solar plexus,
Abdomen.
Where the physical sensations,
Temperature,
Movement,
Pressure.
And also the subtle body sensations.
Aware of the buttocks,
Hips,
Thighs,
Legs,
Feet,
Each toe.
Where the physical sensations,
Pressure,
Temperature,
Movement.
And the subtle body sensations.
Tingling liveliness,
Shimmering,
Sometimes even experienced as pleasure or contentment.
And then feeling the whole body so awareness gets more diffuse when we expand awareness.
Feeling the bottoms of the feet up through the legs,
Seat,
Abdomen,
Chest,
Shoulders,
Arms,
Hands,
Each finger,
Head,
Neck.
Feeling the whole body at once aware of the physical sensations.
Feeling the places where there is tension or holding places of movements and temperature.
It's also aware of the body from the inside.
Inhabiting the body with awareness and feeling the subtle body,
Perhaps experienced as tingling liveliness or pleasure or joy.
Whatever you feel is perfectly fine.
There's no right way to do this.
You're becoming aware of your body in this moment and noticing what you notice.
There might be areas of the body that are too much to feel right now.
That's okay.
There might be areas of the body where there's particular tension or holding and the mind wants to keep going there.
That's okay.
See if you can hold that tendency within an awareness that's inclusive of the whole body.
Then open the sense of sound,
Hearing,
Listen to sounds.
Notice you can continue to be aware of the body and include sound.
Sounds have been happening since we started this meditation.
Notice that you can be aware of subtle sounds,
Constant,
Seemingly constant sounds like the sounds of a heater or some electrical appliance that has a hum.
And also aware of more abrupt sounds,
Sounds outside the room that you're in.
And you can be aware of the sounds within the body,
Perhaps grubbling and even the sounds of your own thoughts.
All are included in the field of hearing,
Hearing awareness,
Aware of the body and aware of sound.
Now opening awareness to the visual field and noticing what you notice.
Perhaps aware of light,
Particular objects might catch your attention.
See if you can relax your gaze and just take in the whole visual field at once.
Also aware of the objects and the space within the room or if you're outside the space outside.
So one whole field of color,
Light,
Space.
Aware of the physical sensations of the body,
The field of sound,
The visual field.
Now include a sense of smell.
Could be very subtle.
Notice if there are any smells right now.
And just notice what it feels like to include this sense of smell.
And aware of the sense of taste.
Is there a taste within the mouth right now?
However subtle,
Aware of the physical sensations of the body,
Subtle body sensations,
Tingling,
Liveliness.
Where the field of sound,
The visual field including sense of smell and taste.
And now we're going to add the mind field.
Aware of the thought stream.
And notice what it feels like to become aware of the thought stream.
Where do you look?
What happens to thoughts when you turn attention to look directly at them?
How long does a single thought last?
Do thoughts come and go?
Do thoughts have a texture?
Sound?
A visual component?
A touch component?
Usually we're aware of the content of thought.
Noticing what are thoughts made of?
What are their component parts?
How do you experience thought?
Then also noticing if thoughts have a feeling tone.
Are the thoughts heavy or light?
They have a mood,
Positive,
Negative,
Neutral.
As you're aware of thoughts,
Also notice the space in the mind,
The space from which thoughts seem to arise,
The space around thoughts.
Notice that you are aware of thoughts.
You are not your thoughts.
Surrounding attention again in the body,
Or the physical sensations of the body.
Opening sound,
Hearing,
Visual field,
Seeing,
Smelling,
Tasting,
Including thinking and the space of the mind.
This happening functioning freely through the senses.
One single field of awareness.
Inseparable from the sense phenomena arising,
Rising,
Displaying and disappearing.
Just like space.
Rest in awareness and the space,
The ground of being for as long as you like.
Healthy mind.
