Open Awareness Meditation

Open awareness meditation practice is a meditation that cultivtes greater awareness of our own minds and it's tendencies.

Transcript

Hi and welcome.

My name is Manaj.

I'm here to take you through an open awareness meditation practice.

Now there are a lot of names for open awareness meditation.

Choiceless awareness,

Open monitoring.

Essentially what we're going to be doing in this meditation practice is simply cultivating our ability to be consciously aware of everything occurring in our experience.

So unlike other meditations where we have to concentrate on a particular thing,

In this meditation all we're doing is noticing what arises and passes.

And noticing what passes is just as important as noticing what arises.

As we begin to notice things come and things go,

We get a glimpse into the nature of our life.

How everything comes and how everything goes.

In this particular meditation we're going to become aware of thoughts as they enter and as they pass through.

Physical sensations and as they enter and as they pass through.

And sounds,

Coming and going.

And as we notice these objects enter and disappear we're going to apply a very soft mental label.

For example,

If a thought arises we'll simply say to ourself,

Thinking,

Thinking.

If a sound enters we'll mentally say to ourself,

Hearing,

Hearing.

And if a particular physical sensation or discomfort arises in our experience we're going to apply the mental label,

Feeling.

Okay,

So let's begin.

As you begin this meditation practice I invite you to move into a comfortable seat,

A seat in which you are upright and alert but not too rigid or forced.

It's best that you sit up for this meditation so that you can be more consciously aware of everything occurring.

As you find your comfortable seat let your shoulders relax,

Your hands resting on your lap or on top of each other's hands.

And then with your chin underneath the crown of your head not looking up or down.

Take a nice long deep breath all the way down into your stomach.

Open your mouth,

Take a long deep exhale to let go.

Let's do that again,

Breathe into your stomach nice and long.

Pause for a moment before you open your mouth and exhale to let go.

And as you begin your practice allow yourself to settle into your body.

Noticing how the body is feeling.

Noticing if there are any predominant thoughts distracting you from your practice.

Let's take a conscious moment to bring your full attention and your full awareness here to this moment.

We can begin by paying close attention to the way we are breathing.

Noticing how your body breathes.

If you feel like it will help you,

You can gently apply the mental label in on your next in-breath and out on your next out-breath.

Labeling each of your breaths as you effortlessly begin to stabilize your mind.

From time to time your mind will wander away and when it does,

Effortlessly bring it back.

Now as you begin to stabilize your mind,

You can slowly begin to open up to a more spacious and open practice.

Begin to notice any sounds that may come and go.

And without pushing them away,

Without wishing they weren't there,

Simply label it in your mind as hearing.

You might notice from time to time a sensation in your body.

A feeling of the chair or the feeling of your clothes.

And as you notice this feeling,

Apply the soft mental label feeling.

And then return back to simply noticing.

And then as a thought arises,

Simply noticing that you have a thought,

Apply the label thinking.

And simply return to being present to this moment.

Thank you.

And this meditation is so effortless.

You don't have to concentrate your mind.

You are simply noticing and labeling whatever arises.

So you can't actually get this meditation wrong.

You are simply observing the contents of your mind in each moment.

Thank you.

If you feel like this practice is really distracting or difficult,

You can simply return back to your breath for a few moments.

And then again open up your field of awareness to the present moment.

Thank you.

Effortlessly noticing just this moment.

Thank you.

Remember,

You cannot get this meditation wrong.

You are simply labeling everything that you are experiencing.

That's all.

Thank you.

Just for a moment bring your attention back to your body.

As you bring your attention back to the body,

I invite you to take a long deep breath into your stomach.

Open your mouth,

Exhale,

Let it go.

And again take a long deep breath in.

And as you open your mouth,

Let your whole body exhale.

Begin to notice how you feel.

Notice if you are more alert to sounds around you.

Perhaps the feeling of your body or the thoughts themselves.

And when you are ready you can begin to open your eyes.

And I invite you as you go off into your day or as you settle into the evening.

To greater cultivate this sense of awareness to simply begin to notice things.

The sound of the birds or the feeling of your body as you meet someone new.

And observe without judgment.

Simply noticing how things come and how things go.

And practicing equanimity at all times.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I look forward to see you again soon.

Reviews

Got more relaxed as I let myself noticing than trying to label everything arises in the awareness. Good to notice that we actually receive so much info everyday and how much info we filtered out.

Great practice in learning how to allow and be present.

An excellent open awareness meditation - simple and effective - and an easy way to begin the day. Manon has a delivery that I appreciate; two of his guided meditations are bookmarks of mine.

Such an elegant presentation of a simple and for me, an effective approach to an awareness practice. Thank you so much.🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Calming and soothing voice. Great guidance with portions of silent sitting. Loved this 🙏🏼 thank you.

Perfect for my ill focused mind this morning. Thank you!

Really focussed calm inviting Meditation.Ill do IT again, thank you 🙏✨💚

I really liked this meditation and will definitely do it again. Very gentle and easy

I appreciated the language identifying thinking, hearing, feeling. I also added healing.

Very gentle and harmonious practice. This one really helps keep thoughts and sensations with attention. Excellent!

Simple yet wonderful. Soak in the present moment without self judgment and gentle reminders along the way. Thank you

Beautiful May you feel peace, love and harmony. Namaste 🙏

Love everything about your meditations- but specifically the pacing is on point.

Very relaxing
I will be looking at more meditations from you. Thank you
Namaste

Easy, gentle guidance. Nice balance between guiding and silence. Thank you! 🙏🏻

It's late afternoon/early evening on a Saturday, and I listened to this meditation as a kind of a "wind down" after a day of errands and catching up on work from the week. It was great! 😊

Lovely gentle guided meditation. I enjoyed this and felt calmer and more aware of myself & surroundings. Thank you Manoj 🙏✨🌞

It was a delight. And so different from the average meditation! It gave me a new perspective. I'm very grateful that I found it 🙏

Wonderful soothing meditation. Manoj’s voice is calming

Very lovely, helpful in practicing being present! 🙏