Welcome everyone to this guided meditation into the embodied experience of inner refuge.
Throughout this meditation there will be spaces of silence for you to sink more deeply into the felt sense of the experience.
And so to begin,
I'll just invite you to settle in to the chair or the cushion or the couch that you are sitting or lying on right now.
I really invite you to rest somewhere that feels comfortable.
That's right.
And with just this invitation,
You may notice the support of the chair or the cushion or the ground that is holding your body right now.
That's right.
So I invite you to notice the places that you feel the pressure of the support and noticing the qualities of those sensations.
Does it feel soft or hard,
Warm or cool?
Just aware of the different parts of the body that are feeling the support right now.
All of it is really the support of the earth.
That's right.
And somehow with just this awareness,
With the next exhale,
You can feel where the tension of supporting yourself can begin to open and release and you can settle down a little more deeply into the support that is naturally here with no effort at all.
I can feel so good.
And I wonder what it could feel like like just with the next exhale that whatever you were doing before you came to sit with this meditation just has permission to fall back off into the past.
That's right.
And somehow with the next exhale,
Whatever needs to be done later can fall off into the future.
Ah,
So there's really permission to be fully here right now.
To be fully here right now.
And with this invitation to be fully here right now,
You may be aware of thoughts that are moving through the head,
Through the mind.
Maybe thoughts or projections,
Images.
I don't know.
That's right.
But I wonder what it could feel like right now to just say to these thoughts and projections,
Whatever may be happening,
I see you.
And with that,
With the next exhale,
You can rest down even deeper.
And you may be aware of emotional energy in the body.
And I don't know what this feels like for you.
May have a certain tone or vibration,
A certain wave of energy that's familiar or not familiar.
May have names such as resistance or fear,
Shame,
Sadness,
Grief.
I don't know.
Or there may be no emotional energy at all that you're aware of.
Perhaps a numbness.
And I wonder what it could be like just to say to this,
The particular qualities of emotional energy,
I feel you.
And with the next exhale,
Whatever's aware can drift down even deeper.
That's right.
And as whatever's aware drifts down even deeper,
There may be a sense of sensations in the body.
And I've been here all along,
But now there's a possibility.
That's right.
To feel them even more.
They may feel comfortable or uncomfortable.
And I wonder what it's like to feel them even more.
And they may feel comfortable or uncomfortable.
And I wonder if there's permission just to notice the areas of the body where sensations arise and fall.
To notice the qualities of the sensation.
Is there movement?
Is it still warm or cool?
Hard or soft?
And if really,
They can be just sensations.
And for a moment,
They don't mean anything at all.
That's right.
And I wonder what it could feel like to just say to these sensations,
I sense you.
And with the next exhale,
Whatever's aware can drop down even more deeply.
Yes.
So awareness can drop down to some place inside that is untouched by past and future.
Untouched by thoughts and projections.
Untouched by the energy of emotion.
And untouched by the sensations in the body.
Awareness can sink down so deeply.
And I wonder what it's like to feel them even more.
Awareness can sink down so deeply.
And there is this coming to rest,
As though settling at the bottom of the ocean.
While the waves ripple or crash up on the surface.
But there's really permission to rest so deeply as what is untouched,
Unmoved.
So silent.
And I don't know what it feels like for you,
But whatever it feels like is just right.
There's resting.
It may be that there's a resting.
There's some place inside of you that may be vast or as small as a mustard seed.
So it's some place within that is untouched by all the movement of the world.
Untouched by the movement of mind,
And emotion,
And body.
Deeply still.
And if you can't sense this in this moment,
That's just right too.
Something deeper is listening and is already at rest here.
Really good.
That's right.
At rest as this,
That doesn't come and go.
And I wonder what it could feel like for whatever is aware.
To sink so deeply inside this refuge.
To sink back and down and in,
So that there is no separation between you and refuge.
That this is what you are.
How vast is this sense of refuge?
That's right.
Are there any boundaries or edges?
Any places where this is not?
What if this is what you have always been?
What if this is what you have always been?
Nameless,
Formless,
Silence.
And now the invitation is to rest here for a few minutes.
Whatever arises,
Not a problem.
Just a signal to sink more deeply.
As that which is untouched.
And something even deeper may be discovered here.
Really good.
And I'm curious from this deep sense of inner refuge.
Yeah.
If there's some insight,
Some discovery.
There may or may not be.
But if there is,
It can really be received throughout your entire being.
That's right.
And as this is received throughout your entire being,
Then you may start to become more aware of the sensations in the body.
Just noticing the qualities,
The textures,
The energy.
Unmoving from the sense of refuge.
What does it feel like to be aware of sensation?
There may also become awareness of emotional energy in the body.
Or there may not.
I don't know.
But what could it be like just to be aware of the energy of emotion?
Waves that pass through.
Unmoving from the depth of this refuge.
Perhaps even aware of thought stream as it flows through.
Unmoving from here.
And I wonder if you're invited now to allow the eyes to open.
What does it feel like to sense the space that you are in from here?
Aware of colors and shapes.
Yeah.
And what could it feel like to allow physical movement to arise from here?
Perhaps a gentle stretching of the body.
Yes.
Or perhaps even a moving around through the space.
Still.
Still from this sense of refuge within.
That's right.
So it's possible to rest as that which is unmoving,
Even while moving.
Really good.
And from here,
As this meditation comes to an end,
What could it feel like to live from this inner refuge?
From this unmoving inner silence.
To allow life to be lived from here.
And even if awareness moves out and begins identifying with the circumstances,
The thoughts and emotions,
Not a problem,
Just a signal and permission.
Just a signal and permission to stop.
That's right.
And rest back down and in.
And if there's permission to return here over and over throughout the day,
Throughout the day,
So that you realize that who you are is actually never apart from this.
Any sense of separation.
It's just an illusion.
So then the question is,
From here,
What do you really want?
That's right.
And as you feel that what you really want is actually what you already are.
And somehow,
This realization changes everything.
And I don't know what it'll feel like as this meditation ends and you get up from your cushion or your couch or your chair,
But you may notice that everything is different.
And that's just right.
Really good.
Thank you.
