And so as you feel the feet rooting down into the ground,
Sitting comfortably or standing,
Even lying down,
Begin to bring some awareness to the entirety of the body.
So here noticing the body in space,
How the limbs rest,
How the breath moves in the belly and in the chest.
And allow the focus of your awareness to move from any sensations that there are in the body to hearing.
Bring your attention to the ears and then allow the awareness to open and expand so that there's a receptiveness to the sounds as they arise,
Whenever they arise.
There's no need to go searching for any kind of sound or to listen for any particular sound.
Instead as best you can just simply open your awareness so it is open and receptive to sounds from all directions.
Just simply noticing these sounds as they arise,
Sounds that are far away,
Sounds that are close,
Sounds that are in front of you,
Behind you,
To the side,
Even above or below you.
Bringing here to an entire space of sound around you.
And building an awareness of the space between the sounds.
As best you can just be aware of sounds simply as sensations.
When you find yourself thinking of sounds,
Take a moment to reconnect,
To reground and as best you can open up with awareness to the qualities of the sound.
This may include pitch,
Loudness,
Duration,
Rather than any kind of meaning or implication of the sound.
Whenever you notice that your awareness is no longer focused in on that sound that's in the moment,
I invite you to simply gently acknowledge where the mind had moved to and then retune the awareness back to sounds as they arise and as they pass from one moment to the next.
And then when you're ready,
I invite you to let go of the awareness of sound and refocus your attention.
Now the awareness is on thoughts.
Taking here the thoughts.
Finding these thoughts as events that occur in the mind.
And just as with sounds,
You focused on whatever sounds arose,
Noticing them arise,
Develop and then pass away.
Now as best you can bring awareness to thoughts that arise in the mind in just the same way.
Realizing when thoughts spontaneously arise.
Focusing on these thoughts as they pass through the space of the mind and then eventually they disappear.
There's no need to try to make things,
Thoughts come or go or be any particular way.
Just allow them to arise naturally.
In that same way that the sounds arose naturally and then passed away.
Sometimes it may feel helpful to even bring awareness to thoughts in the mind the same way as if these thoughts were projected on a screen at the movies.
You sit,
Watch the screen,
Wait for a thought or an image to arise.
When it does,
You pay attention to it as long as it is there,
As long as it's on the screen.
And then you let it go as the image is removed and then perhaps a new image has been projected on the screen.
And if any of these thoughts bring with them intense feelings or emotions,
Pleasant or unpleasant as best you can,
Just note the emotional charge that's there,
The intensity and then let them be as they already are.
Maybe even saying to yourself,
I will notice my thoughts,
They're already here.
When they come back there or just this noise and being quiet doesn't always happen.
And if you find that your mind becomes unfocused or your thoughts are scattered,
Or maybe your thoughts even repeatedly get drawn into the drama of thinking and imagining,
You might even then notice where this affects the body.
Do you feel it in the throat,
The back,
The heart,
Or the belly?
And when we experience something that we don't really like,
There can be a feeling of contraction or tightness in the body,
In the face or shoulders or torso,
Almost like there's a sense of pushing away.
So you may just build a little curiosity and see if you notice any of this going on for you if any kind of intense feelings arise.
And once you do notice this,
Just see if it's possible to come back to the breath and the sense of the body as a whole,
Just sitting here breathing,
Using this focus to anchor and stabilize your awareness.
And perhaps here you might like to explore the possibility of just letting go of any particular object of awareness.
So letting go of focusing on the breath or something like a sound or a thought and allow the field of awareness to be open to whatever arises.
Using whatever arises in the landscape of the mind and the body and the world.
Maybe it's possible to just simply rest in the awareness itself effortlessly,
Noticing whatever arises from moment to moment.
You may notice breath,
Sensations in the body,
Sounds,
Thoughts,
Feelings.
As best you can just sit completely awake and aware.
There's no need to hold on to anything at all.
No need to look for anything.
Simply having no agenda whatsoever other than embodying wakefulness.
And then returning your focused awareness to your choice.
So it could be your breath,
Your body,
Your thoughts,
Your feelings.
Gathering your awareness and honing it into that one thing.
Maybe even just simply feeling your feet on the floor.
And then uh,
Position.
Finding it.
From here you can dip your chin to your chest and perhaps open up the eyes,
Letting the light in.
Nature give rise to everything real.
