Nature’s Flow: The Whole Flow Quality - Fingers And Hands

In this exploration, we'll discover nature's quality of whole flow through the sensitive awareness of your fingers and hands. I'll guide you through feeling the length, volume, and space that your fingers occupy, exploring how our hands can feel right there -- right here -- with presence filling and radiating through your hands all at once. Through this practice, you might discover how the all-at-once-ness and wholeness that we see in nature is also alive in the integrity of how your immediate experience unfolds.

Some possible takeaways from today's practice:
The sense of presence filling your hands completely
Experiencing the all-at-once-ness of whole flow
Feeling the integrity of wholeness in this moment
Recognizing the vibrancy and tangibility of presence in space

Transcript

So welcome back.

And let's continue to explore together.

This will be an exploration of the third quality of presence.

This third quality that is a way of nature that as a part of nature and as a part of all of this unfolding together,

We share in these same qualities together with all of nature.

Even these qualities are,

We could say they are ways of exploring and becoming familiar with how nature is together.

So let's begin our exploration by feeling more into our inner landscape,

Closing the eyes.

Perhaps beginning to relate to our inner landscape,

Which always has these qualities of presence,

Whatever our experience.

As our inner nature retreat,

How we can feel resourced by these ever-present qualities of nature,

Right in our own experience.

And feeling the experience of this flow within the landscape.

And we call the flow of the breath.

Settling in to feel our body,

Shoulders,

Hands,

And seat,

All laying down into support.

And how our experience of this air coming in and out of us never resolves into a grain size.

So free and fine.

And that our body too,

We may feel in the wave-like motion of our body breathing,

Shares in that quality of fine free flow.

As well as being tangibly and tactfully there in our experience.

Here.

And let's begin to notice our experience of our fingers.

And for this,

It may be helpful to have the back of the hands resting on our lap.

Where the fingers are a little bit free to move.

And our open face,

The space around them.

And we're going to begin an exploration that combines the feeling of breath with a feeling of long in our fingers.

The length of each finger all the way to the fingertip.

And so,

For example,

On the next out-breath,

Slightly elongating both thumbs very subtly.

And feeling at the end of the out-breath that you're feeling to the very tip of that thumb on both hands.

And let's do that just for the thumb a couple of times.

On the out-breath,

Ever so slightly,

Elongating the thumb,

Feeling its length all the way to its very tip.

And may like to practice so that the very end of the out-breath,

You're feeling to the very end of that length of your thumb or finger.

And maybe even feeling a sense of that finger touching the space just beyond it.

Literally touching the air just beyond it.

And now we'll begin to do this finger by finger.

So on the next out-breath,

Slightly elongating your pointer finger,

Feeling all the way to its tip.

Next out-breath,

Middle finger.

Next out-breath,

Long fourth finger.

And then the long pinky all the way to its very tip.

And then repeating this again,

Going at your own breathing pace.

Feeling the long of the fingers,

Fingers by finger.

And breath by breath.

The movement of elongation can really be like an inner movement.

It may not even be something you outwardly move,

But you feel that inner elongation,

Finger by finger.

Ending the breath and ending the elongation,

Feeling the sensitive tip of the finger touching the air just beyond it.

And now gradually letting ourselves return back to the thumb on both hands.

And on the out-breath,

Feeling the length of the thumb.

Now also allowing ourselves to feel that the thumb not only has length,

But has three-dimensional volume in space.

So feeling the outline,

The volume of your thumb as occupying this space in space.

And on the next out-breath,

Feeling like the breath is filling that space.

Even fills that space.

The fineness of awareness of the thumb being in that space.

Filled with presence.

And now let's begin as well to take this breath by breath and finger by finger.

So on the next out-breath,

Feeling and filling the volume of your pointer finger all the way to its tip.

The volume and space of your middle finger.

The volume and space of the fourth finger.

Filled.

Filled to the brim.

And not forgetting the pinky finger.

Its volume.

Its space that it takes up.

And repeating that one more time through all the fingers at your own pace.

And now gradually returning to the thumb.

Feeling the space full of presence that is our thumb.

And also feeling the space that's full of presence that is our pointer finger.

And how we can feel both of those.

And also feel the length between them.

The distance between our tip of our thumb and tip of our pointer finger.

And how we can know that we're feeling that space by making it ever so slightly smaller.

And we're aware that it's smaller.

Ever so slightly larger.

And we're aware that that distance length is a little longer.

And now slightly spreading all of the fingers.

Very slight inner movement of spreading all of the fingers.

And letting ourselves feel the space in between all of our fingers.

The space in between all of our fingers all at once.

And how that naturally includes feeling the space that our fingers occupy all at once.

As we also feel all the spaces between them.

And as we feel all of our fingers full of presence all at once.

And almost feel like they're filling the very palm and center of our hand.

Filling our hand all the way to the back.

All the way to the wrists.

Until our entire hand feels full all at once of presence in space.

As the wholeness of presence in the wholeness of this one volume.

One space of our hands.

The wholeness of our hands.

Full of presence.

Occupying space.

And surrounded on all sides by this one space.

And noticing how the wholeness of our hands feels.

This all at once-ness.

This integrity of it all being together in this one space.

With nothing left out of this one space of our hands.

And also nothing else affecting it other than what is unfolding together in this space and wholeness of our hands.

Our hands may not feel in this moment as they may typically feel.

When we're using them as an object.

When we're using them without this.

A lot of their qualities of presence that are always there.

To be a part of our experience of hands.

Perhaps noticing a vibrancy.

A subtlety.

That is also in a way incredibly tangible and here in its being.

And where this whole is not an abstraction but an altogether arising.

The wholeness of all this togetherness of nature.

And if we can access that experience in our hands then that becomes this shift where we can then begin to feel it in other parts of our body.

Altogether at once.

And also in other aspects of our experience.

And so staying with your inner nature retreat that has this whole quality that's always there.

Welcome to stay with your eyes closed or open them for a little more discussion about the practice.

About these explorations.

And so one of the wisdom through the ages is that everything is now.

And how much we could reduce some of the self-generated suffering that happens with our minds and how we hold our identity of a self.

And so today yes we practiced feeling the wholeness and all-at-once-ness of our fingers.

Again this approach is that we don't have to feel like there's some wisdom out there that we need to bring into our lives.

Like if I can only get it then I'll be helped by that.

But rather there's this understanding that the way of nature is that it's together.

And that it is you know even setting aside now which can even have a sense of now in time.

That this is it's just whole.

It's a whole togetherness.

It's this integrity of this ever whole at once-ness unfolding all together.

That includes you know this whole flow is not this abstraction of a concept of whole flow.

Like a whole flow in time.

But it's this whole flow that encompasses,

Is comprised of,

Is not distinct from all of the three and mutual flows.

And as we saw before those are not distinct things.

It's all this flow together that we can,

If we want,

Describe as mutual and as free and as whole and how it's arising together.

But this is the togetherness of nature that as a part of nature we are a part of.

And so feeling that in our fingers.

Using space can be helpful because we more naturally perceive us first of all length.

Right?

When we perceive a length we have that sense of both ends of that length as being present together in one moment.

And then volume is just length and the dimensions that things can move in.

So volume,

The space that things can take up in space.

And so we were using the sensitivity of our fingers and the sense of length and space to access that sense of the all at once-ness,

The simultaneous-ness of presence arising in this integrity of togetherness.

And I will also just share that the whole flow quality can be one of the harder ones to feel because we are actually so habituated to a more narrow focus.

I'm going to focus on this and then I need to do that.

And I'm going to focus here and there.

And that even concentration practices and mindfulness practices can somewhat exacerbate that sense of a narrow focus.

Like we focus on our shoulders,

We focus on our seat,

We focus on our fingers.

And the invitation of the whole flow quality and this feeling of space is to begin to break some of that habitual grasping of a narrow focus and realize that our awareness is already there.

It's streaming everything all at once.

So it's more like this sense of we're already in broad daylight.

Actually everything is its own illuminated broad daylight and we don't need this flashlight of attention.

I should say that flashlight of attention can be a helpful tool,

But we don't have to over-rely on it or use it like we have to use it in broad daylight.

And there's many,

Many ways that we can help support ourselves to make that shift from a more narrow attention to actually allowing ourselves to open to or even just not block out the fullness of all of our awareness at any moment,

Which then allows us to feel that at-once-ness.

You know,

Like as we feel all 10 of our fingers,

There's that sense of the at-once-ness compared to feeling them one at a time.

So there's more support for that shift of our awareness that you'll be able to explore at other times.

What we're heading into next is to take what we've done so far and to see how these components can stack into a 30-minute practice.

And yeah,

It can be interesting to see how they support each other,

Build on each other,

And then have this foundation so that at the end of those 30 minutes,

We have,

You know,

For lack of a better word,

Systematically helped ourselves to access,

Familiarize ourselves,

Appreciate these three qualities of mutual flow and free flow and whole flow that then in the entirety of this hour of presence becomes the foundation for being able to go in many,

Many different directions,

Less from a sense of trying to reach those states or those insights,

Connect with the wisdom of the ages,

And more of a sense of like from this foundation,

This is just more evident in our experience.

And so that's what we'll head into next as this 30-minute foundation,

And I'll give you advanced warning that there'll be a little less guidance for each of the intervals so that there's less talking and more feeling.

And this is how the practice really builds on itself so that the more one does it,

The more quickly and deeply you can access these different qualities and,

You know,

Less of an external guidance and more of an internal exploration each time that you go through it.

So with that,

I will look forward to our 30-minute practice together and have some time,

Actually,

To take some questions and comments here.

So Michelle,

Good to see you back.

Thank you for teaching on Insight Timer and for sharing your morning with us.

Thank you.

It's a lot more fun to practice together,

And this is a way that I get to practice.

I'm practicing right here with you,

Exploring right here with you.

It's really my treat.

Thank you.

How often do you do these classes?

Well,

It's variable.

My schedule is quite variable,

So I think the best response I can give is to follow so you get those.

I understand that you get those updates when I post sessions.

I also do teach Tai Chi here on Insight Timer as well as this.

I think that I will be offering this,

Our presence,

At least once a week for a while.

I'm actually thinking about doing a kind of a blitz.

If you want to join me,

A blitz of doing it once a day for a little bit.

But we'll see if that actually happens.

I'm sorry I can't give you a more scheduled,

Definite response.

My life is not highly scheduled at this time.

Luis R.

,

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

Thank you.

I really don't feel like it's really not my wisdom.

I think there's a lot of wisdom out there.

What I've personally experienced is sometimes,

Especially when all the world,

Spiritual traditions and all the best practices of psychology and so much self-help is just a mouse click away,

That is actually really easy to overload.

There's information overload.

I think something that's yet to be much talked about is that there's a kind of almost like a wisdom overload.

I think what I experienced with this practice and why I will not back down from it being an hour.

We're breaking it up here.

We need stepwise ways of connecting what is most evident and right there in our experience with this wisdom of the ages.

For me,

It's the seat on the ground and it's the flow of my breath and it's the experience of my fingers that gives me an experiential sense of what can this mean actually in my experience.

What is it?

Then that can connect to timeless wisdom through the ages where we're not alone.

We're not stuck and we are not smeared out in time.

This identity that we are trying to project that feels smeared out in time.

Actually,

There's this integrity of ourselves fully in each moment.

Just to begin to feel our hands and then our body as completely in this moment.

The integrity of that can be then the stepping stone for these offshoots of adventures where we can begin to feel our mind space,

Our storylines,

Other aspects as also all in this one whole togetherness arising.

That was a long response to your comment,

But that's what came up.

Yeah,

First time here and loving it.

Thank you.

See you for the next one.

Awesome.

Reviews

Wow - beautiful and powerful ! Very grateful for your slow, flowy, and profound style 💜