Four Scopes Of Mindfulness

This is a meditation on the four scopes of mindfulness; breath, body, mind, all-encompassing mindfulness. The practice is 40 minute long, with 10 minutes for each scope. I respectfully acknowledge the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science and its teachers for the wisdom they shared with me, and I hope this small contribution may be of service.

Transcript

So let's take a position that feels comfortable.

Whether you're sitting in a chair or more reclined somewhere where it's more reclined to just kind of get that sense of you've arrived to this meditation that you're now going to do.

Bring your awareness to your eyesight where you're looking.

If you want to close your eyes,

That's a good time to do that.

If you just want to just gently lower your eyelids and place your gaze on a nice soft object,

If it is difficult to close the eyes,

That's always a very good strategy.

Just rest the eyes with the eyelid closed or with the gaze resting on a soft object or point in space that's comfortable to the eyes.

Now let's take a few breaths,

Breathing in through the nose.

Bringing our awareness to the breath that is flowing in and out.

Becoming aware of the phases of the breath,

In breath and out breath.

You might want to recognize the beginning of the breath,

The middle,

The end of the breath cycle.

And starting over again.

And again,

The awareness on the in breath,

Breathing in,

Top of the in breath,

The beginning of the out breath,

And the conclusion of the out breath,

Beginning again.

While we want to have an awareness of the breath,

We really don't need to breathe in any particular way.

We just want to be aware of what the breath itself is doing.

Now let the breath unfold as it is.

As we begin to settle into this pattern,

We might want to set an intention for our practice if that is your inclination.

And an intention might be to just benefit ourselves or specific people in our lives or just every being on the earth.

That's also a good intention to work with.

And we continue breathing in and out.

And as we settle into the flow of the breath,

We might begin to develop an awareness of wherever it is that we feel the breath the most.

In the nose,

At the tip of the nose,

The back of the throat.

We might notice a cooling sensation on the in breath or a sensation of warmth on the out breath.

Whatever it is you feel the breath the most,

However it is you feel the breath the most.

See if you can take a mental snapshot of the home of the breath.

And then just continue to be with your breath flowing in and out.

If any thoughts come up,

We can just recognize them and then get back to the breathing.

If we notice that our awareness has drifted away from the focus on the breath,

Again we can just recognize that and then go back to the breath.

This is the first scope of mindfulness,

Mindfulness of the breath.

We now move on to mindfulness of the body.

Just shifting slightly our awareness from the breath to the body,

The breathing body,

The face,

The jaws.

Noticing if there is any tension.

Noticing the tongue,

Letting it spread out on the floor of the mouth.

Moving up towards the eyes,

Again noticing any tension,

Any sensations.

Now moving into the wide open space behind the eyes.

That space of awareness,

We begin to explore the inner parts of the body,

The inner space of the body as a vessel.

As if we are trying to make out the edges of that inner space with our awareness.

Beginning with the head,

The neck,

Shoulders,

Space within the left arm,

Forearm and hand,

Each digit,

Moving on to the right arm,

Forearm,

Hand and again each digit.

Noticing any sensations in the arms and then moving on to the chest,

Abdomen,

The pelvic area and then continuing down the left thigh,

The left leg and the left foot and all the toes,

Then going down the right thigh,

Right leg,

The right foot and all the toes.

For a moment hold in your awareness the entirety of the space within the body from the tip of the toes to the crown of the head.

Then we move on to scanning the body from the outside beginning with the left toes,

Top of the left foot,

The sole of the left foot,

The ankle,

The shin,

The calf,

The knee,

Top of the thigh,

The bottom of the left thigh and again on the right side with the right toes,

Top of the right foot,

Sole of the right foot,

Ankle,

Shin,

Calf,

Knee,

Top of the right thigh,

Bottom of the right thigh.

Moving on to the pelvic area,

The buttocks,

Lower back,

Abdomen,

Chest,

Back and shoulders.

Seeing any sensations that are going on in the body right now.

If we notice any sensations just acknowledge them and go back to breathing and exploring.

Now we're going to continue the body scan on the left arm,

The underarm,

Crease of the left elbow,

The elbow,

Wrist,

Inside of the wrist,

Top of the wrist,

The back of the hand,

The palm of the hand and each digit on the left side.

And then again we move to the right side,

The right arm,

Underarm,

Crease of the elbow,

Inner crease of the elbow and the elbow,

Forearm,

Top of the wrist,

The inside of the wrist,

Top of the hand,

Palm of the hand and each digit on the right side.

Now moving up to the collar bones,

The neck,

The back of the neck and the throat,

The back of the head,

The left ear,

Right ear,

The left jaw and right jaw,

Chin,

Lips,

Cheeks,

Left cheek,

Right cheek.

And on the face notice if there are any areas,

Any sensations,

Tensions.

You may want to imagine the area within the mouth,

The inner corners of the mouth.

Imagine that they're lifting up just a little bit.

Imagine bringing your awareness to the eyes,

Imagining that the outer corners of the eyes are lifting up just a little bit.

Notice if that feels any different.

And then we're moving on to the forehead,

Back of the head,

The top of the head,

The crown of the head.

And in your mind's eye just hold the whole of the body,

The space within,

The space without.

Hold it in your mind's eye all at once.

This is mindfulness of the body.

And we're moving on to mindfulness of the mind.

Again we're not forgetting about the breath and the body.

We just shift our awareness a little closer to the mind processes.

And we notice any thoughts,

Feelings or sensations that arise and we'll just make space for them in our awareness.

We continue to stay on the breath and if any thoughts or feelings capture our awareness we just notice that and go back to the breath.

Alright.

If we notice the mind drifting towards thoughts or feelings repetitively,

We might notice what is the nature of those thoughts and feelings.

Are they pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral?

After we acknowledge that,

We just go back to the breath.

Are they pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral?

Are they pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral?

If we notice that the mind is drifting in the direction of the same thought or feeling,

We might want to first recognize what that thought or feeling is and the nature of the feeling.

Is it pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral?

And what reaction is it having on us?

We can investigate that with our awareness by just allowing the thought or the feeling to just be there without wanting to change it.

Just allowing it to be there.

Is it pleasant,

Pleasant or neutral?

We might notice that there are certain reactions we have,

Certain reactions when we agree with a particular thought or feeling,

Certain reactions when we disagree with a particular thought or feeling.

Do we want more of this thought or feeling or we just want it to go away?

We don't want it here,

It's not welcome.

Notice that.

I'm noticing this is the key to the path towards non-reactive awareness,

Open awareness.

We just notice these mental formations and features of our mind as they unfold without judgment.

Let them have a life of their own.

We don't need to react.

We can just allow them to be there.

This is mindfulness of the mind.

We move towards all-encompassing mindfulness,

Shifting our awareness to the place where we're sitting,

Noticing our posture,

Where our body makes contact with our chair,

Whatever surface is supporting us at this point,

Noticing where the feet make contact with the,

Perhaps with the ground,

Noticing the walls around us and the space between us and the walls,

Imagine the space below us,

Perhaps there are several floors,

Perhaps we're on the ground floor,

Sitting just above the Earth's crust.

Seeing the space above,

The space all around nature,

Trees,

Animals,

All the living critters that populate our surroundings,

Visualize the neighborhood,

Again the trees,

The streets,

The state,

The country.

Imagine the place,

The space below reaching all the way down to the other end of the Earth and the space above reaching out all the way into space.

Holding everything in our mind's eye is all right there,

Our life,

Our connections.

Imagine now all the relationships that you have with people in your everyday life,

Some of them may be pleasant,

Very pleasant,

Even loving,

Some of them might be unpleasant,

Difficult,

May have conflict,

And some of them are just neutral or maybe shallow,

Just not that deep.

Now think of a person or a relationship that is pleasant or loving,

A person or a relationship that is maybe more challenging,

Unpleasant,

It doesn't have to be the most unpleasant relationship you might have in your life right now,

But just something that is challenging in some way,

And then a neutral relationship.

So we begin with the person we have a pleasant relationship with,

Imagining that they're sitting right in front of us,

And just allow ourselves to notice all the pleasant things about this person,

Our relationship,

How we feel around them.

Can I even express gratitude,

Perhaps there's a richness to this relationship,

And perhaps we might notice whether do we want more of this person,

Of this relationship,

We have a tendency to want more with this individual,

With this type of relationship,

It's just to notice,

We don't have to change anything,

Just notice.

And just giving,

Giving some space here and just reflecting back and just appreciating that this relationship and this person are here,

Gifting to us this awareness.

As we bid farewell to our pleasant or loving relationship,

We move on to our more challenging relationship.

Again,

Trying to visualize a person,

If we have a person in mind,

Trying to visualize this individual,

What it feels to be in front of this person,

Our reaction,

How they react to us.

Again,

Notice what's our reaction,

Does this person or this relationship bring up things we agree with or things we don't agree with,

Does it bring up things we want more of or things we want less of?

And just noticing our reaction and that we don't really have to do anything about this,

But notice the way,

The way it is,

We don't have to fix anything,

We're just exploring with our awareness the nature of this challenging relationship.

Then we let that fade into the background,

Moving on to the neutral relationship.

Again,

Trying to visualize a person in front of us,

Whoever that may be,

Someone we maybe just don't know all that well,

Just notice our reaction in front of this individual.

The difference between the agreeableness and disagreeableness,

I mean,

We may have experienced that before,

Just noticing that.

Again,

We don't have to do anything about that.

Perhaps if we wish,

We might,

We might think to get to know this person a little bit better.

Fundamentally,

Just to recognize their humanity.

Now bringing up in front of you all three of these individuals,

Noticing how different they might be from each other,

From us,

And how much they enrich our lives as human beings,

Whether it's with the things or ideas we want more of,

Or things and ideas we want less of,

And as we let them fade into the background,

Recognizing that it's time for them to go at this point,

Our connectedness with these individuals and all other individuals in our lives.

Hold those relationships in your mind's eye all at once,

And your body in your mind's eye all at once,

And the breath and the home of the breath in your mind's eye.

This is all-encompassing mindfulness.

This is you,

Alive and present.

And as I thank you for participating in this meditation today,

I wish you well.

Thank you.

And in your own time,

Just bring your awareness back to your surroundings.

Reviews

Nicely guided meditation. Thank you.