GONG Sitting practice Feeling the weight of the body as it makes connection with the air Noticing those points Those points of sensation where the weight of the body is supported by whatever you're resting on Perhaps this is the feet Maybe the sit burns the legs Perhaps the hands are resting on the ground If you're lying down,
Noticing the back,
The head Noticing the weight of the body as it makes connection with the air And seeing if it's possible to notice how it feels for this body to be resting on the ground right now Not the idea,
But the felt experience in this moment Noticing the weight of the body as it makes connection with the air And you may like to remain here,
Through awareness,
Resting on the parts of the body that rest on the earth Or perhaps you'd like to move your awareness to the breath Breath doesn't feel accessible to all of us every day And checking in if today the breath feels like a safe place for you to rest your awareness,
If not returning to the body on the earth If you choose to bring your awareness to the breath And noticing where you sense the breath most strongly in the body Perhaps this is the nose or the mouth,
Back of the throat,
The chest Wherever you notice the breath most strongly,
Guiding your awareness here,
Noticing the gentle rise and fall of the body as you breathe And you may notice that to breathe in,
Take a little energy Breathing in involves contraction of muscles The muscles between the ribs,
Muscles of the diaphragm To breathe out is to release,
Is to allow,
Is to let go Noticing this gentle movement of the body,
Not needing to change the breath in any way,
Simply noticing As the body breathes in,
Air is pulled into the body As you breathe out,
You let go of the air that we no longer need,
You let go of the muscles,
You relax and release And we can allow the whole body to follow the breath and relax and release with the out breath And choosing to follow the whole journey of the breath now Breath enters the body,
Causes,
Breathes out So just seeing that,
That rhythm,
Like the gentle waves lapping at the beach Breathing in,
Pausing out,
Pausing out When you are ready,
Inhale your breathing in You select the medias and then release A moving awareness.
Starting down at the tips of the toes.
Shining a light of awareness on our toes.
A warm gentle awareness,
Kindly noticing.
These toes which do so much for us,
So often we don't notice.
Sensing into your toes,
Noticing what's there.
Perhaps there's cold.
The touch of fabric on skin.
Noticing if you can sense space between the toes.
Noticing too if there's numbness.
Knowing this too as an experience,
There's no right or wrong way to feel simply noticing.
And gently expanding this light of kindly awareness.
Taking the soles of the feet,
The balls,
The arch,
The heel.
Top of the feet,
Inside of the feet.
Holding the whole of both feet in your awareness.
And expanding your awareness.
Taking the ankles,
The calves,
Shins.
Bordering that awareness to take in the knees,
The thighs,
The large muscles,
The hips.
The thighs,
The large muscles of the thighs.
Place where the legs meet the body.
Sit bones,
Pelvis,
The whole basin of the pelvis.
And expanding this awareness,
Lower back,
Mid back,
Upper back,
Shoulders.
And noticing if there's any areas of discomfort or pain,
Perhaps breathing into these.
Perhaps offering a releasing,
A letting go.
And noticing also if there's any areas of comfort or ease.
Noticing those parts of our body which don't hurt,
Which are at ease.
Expanding your awareness to take in also the abdomen.
Either there's a sense of fullness or hunger.
Coming to a chest,
Noticing that gentle rise and fall.
Gentle rise and fall.
And if you notice your mind's wandered off,
Knowing that nothing's gone wrong,
This is the nature of minds.
Perhaps noticing where your mind's gone.
And gently and kindly guiding your focus back,
Back to this moment.
Back to your body,
Upper arms,
The elbows,
The lower arms,
The hands,
The fingers.
And expanding this light of kindly awareness yet further to take in the neck,
The throat,
The scalp,
The forehead,
The eye,
The temples,
The cheeks,
The nose,
Jaw,
The lips.
And holding the whole of this body in awareness.
Perhaps choosing to breathe in the body and back out again.
And gently releasing awareness of the body now.
Moving awareness up to the ears,
The sound.
Opening the full soundscape of sounds around you.
Seeing if it's possible to allow sounds to come to you rather than searching them out.
Other than focusing on one particular sound,
Holding an open awareness,
Noticing all of the sounds around you.
Not needing to analyse or label the sounds.
Noticing their volume,
Their tone,
Noticing how they change.
Once more when you notice your mind has wandered off.
Noticing where the mind's gone and then kindly and gently guiding your awareness back to your experience in this moment,
Back to sound.
Perhaps noticing how sounds calm and go,
They change.
Noticing if your mind's wandered off into thought.
Or if you've a long way down that path,
Tangled up in thoughts.
Perhaps noticing if that,
What type of thought that is,
Is that planning,
Worrying,
Remembering.
Knowing this is the nature of mind,
Gently and kindly coming back to the sounds around you.
And when you're ready,
Starting to release awareness of sounds.
And now bringing your awareness to thoughts,
Allowing thoughts to be the sensation,
The experience that you're arresting your awareness on.
Noticing as they arise,
Move across the mind and slowly disappear.
And you may like to imagine you're in a cinema and their thoughts are moving across the screen.
Maybe you're watching clouds move across the sky.
Or if neither of these work for you then letting go of them.
Simply noticing the thoughts.
And if it feels like your thoughts all of a sudden seem to stop as soon as you try to notice them.
Maybe resting your awareness on the body,
On the ground or the breath and just waiting for the next thought to arise.
And you noticing type of thought and noticing how if you don't get tangled up in the thought,
If you don't follow the thought sometimes they disappear and if you notice that you have been tangled up,
If you have got engaged with thinking and carried away then that's okay as well when it feels right allowing the thought to be released gently coming back resting back and watching the thoughts move across the mind if you notice you got lost in thoughts,
Perhaps noticing there's a new response in the body to this this is a happy thought,
Perhaps the body starts to release,
Starts to relax the body moves to be slightly more open and expansive interesting if there's any sensations in the body,
Maybe a warmth or a tingling or something else entirely letting the thought dissolve in its own time,
Resting back,
Noticing it's time to release your awareness of thoughts and we're going to move to the final stage of this practice,
An open awareness where we allow our awareness to notice all of our experience right now the body,
The breath,
Sounds,
Thoughts the possible to gently open,
Noticing all of these noticing as they calm and go and if your mind gets carried away noticing this,
Noticing where the mind's gone when you're ready,
Gently coming back once more to this open awareness what does it feel to notice the whole of your body your breathing body,
Sounds around you,
Thoughts in the mind as many times as the mind wanders off,
Gently and kindly guiding your awareness back back to this moment as we begin to come towards the end of this practice starting to release this open awareness returning back to the sense of the body on the earth noticing those points of sensation where the body makes connection with the ground perhaps taking a deeper breath here in and now bring a little movement of the fingers and the toes slowly starting to open your eyes
