Choiceless Awareness

This audio was recorded during my regular mindfulness session at Monash University, Victoria, Australia on the 3rd of November, 2020. It intends to take the participants to a state of open or choiceless awareness. It ends with a Metta prayer for the self and all beings. It aims to constantly remind the practitioner that the open or choiceless awareness is an effortless "act" - their innate nature.

Transcript

Just quickly scanning your body to see if there is any part of your body that needs adjusting and scanning the body again from top to bottom from head to toes allowing your eyes to close if they're not already closed and whenever you feel ready bringing your awareness to the soles of your feet see if you can feel your toes your big toes and all small toe one by one you're welcome to wriggle them see if you can feel your heels and arcs in your instep see if you can feel any sense of touch and now keeping both of your feet in your awareness moving up to your ankles and feeling sensation in your ankles and as soon as your mind registers sensation you can move up to your calf muscles to your shins and feeling sensations here very naturally normally without any imagination and then coming up to your knees and feeling the sensations in your knees both inside and outside of your knees and then coming up to your thighs and feeling the sensations all around your thighs feeling the sense of support that the chair is providing to you and letting go of your weight allowing the chair to lift you and then coming up to your lower back your middle back your upper back ensuring that your back is straight and square allowing your chain to be parallel to the ground and now feeling sensations in your stomach as it rise and falls as you breathe in and out in a natural and normal way now feeling sensations in your heart region you may be able to feel the heartbeats now coming up to your shoulders your biceps your triceps feeling sensations around your elbows and your forearms your wrists your thumbs first fingers second third fourth your palms back of your palms tuning into any sense of touch you may be feeling at your fingertips it could even be just air or fabric or skin and now bringing your awareness such that it holds both of your arms and now bringing your awareness to your torso and bring your entire torso in your awareness as you breathe in and out becoming in tune with this sense of breathing and letting off any extra weight you may be carrying on your shoulders ensuring that your back is straight relaxed coming up to your neck throat your jawbones your cheeks lips your nose your ears your eyes your forehead back of your head and top of your head and staying here for a moment at the top of your head to see if you can feel any sensation at the very top of your head it could be the air or hair it could be the skin and when you feel the sensation allowing it to grow and encapsulate your entire body in your awareness from top of your head to the soles of your feet naturally breathing in and out and just holding your body lightly in your awareness there's no effort needed whatsoever you're very naturally aware of your body just holding it in your awareness so allowing thoughts and sensations to come and go in from your awareness and not giving any thought or sensation a permanent tendency allowing them to come and go rise and fall as you keep your body in the field of your awareness as you are aware of your body and sensations I'd like you to become more aware of your breathing as well and see and feel the whole body breathing and now if you can try to track the whole pathway of your breathing from your in breath to your out breath the expansion of chest and stomach so counting the full cycle from your in breath to your out breath and including two pauses in between your in breath and out breath there's one full cycle counting five of them when you finish five start again from one and if you forget in between start again with one very lightly becoming aware staying aware of your breathing as a light exercise without a lot of focus naturally letting breath in and out as you count and now becoming aware of the air around you and knowing that like fish is in water we are in air there is air all around us and we interact with this air through our breathing but also through sounds we hear sounds that are carried by air so not listening to one particular sound but being available to the soundscape around you sounds coming from your body from your computer from your room and outside of your being available to these sounds so much so that you become hearing as opposed to listening to one or two sounds without paying any attention or any effort just remain naturally open and aware now in the field of your awareness we have sounds we have spaces between sounds we have breathing we have body we have bodily sensations and we have thoughts and emotions and they all are happening at one time and you can remain available to all of these sensations without separating any feature and remain available to this phenomenon remain available to life without being embroiled in it your awareness like a basket can hold all these sensations and phenomenon movements as you remain open vast and choiceless so in one last jump now allowing your awareness to be spacious as big as the sky or the space itself with no boundary no circumference no center and as you do this you will find a lot of sensations and movements come and go idea is to remain effortlessly open spacious and allowing the bodily sensations to come and go thoughts to come and go but whenever you find yourself engaged in any of these movements you can very easily detach yourself from it and you become aware of it and you can again come back to this vast spaciousness without any judgment without any commentary so staying here was spacious awareness there is nothing to do nothing to attain no effort is needed whatsoever there is no imagination there is no goal no assessment just this life expressing itself and knowing it you you whenever you find yourself engage with any sensation or movements you can very gently and effortlessly letting it go you can very effortlessly come back to this spaciousness it's very natural to you do not doubt this so letting go of all your efforts and without featuring anything just become again the vast open empty spaciousness empty but full it doesn't need anything to complete itself and remain vast spacious choiceless without any effort just saying these one moment at a time and one breath at a time there is no way to go nothing special to do nothing to undo there is no goal and there is no effort just the natural science of being being vast spaciousness you in this spaciousness you can see even your attention moving or not moving you can watch your sensations you can watch the thoughts sounds and you can watch them coming and going like sky watching clouds floating some clouds stay longer some clouds disappear quickly but all of these moments are like clouds they do go away eventually what persist is this watchful sky choiceless open inclusive and yet effortless staying here for a few more moments just like this and empty and full needing nothing to complete you you and again letting go of all your efforts letting go of any sense of what's next letting go of any imagination any assessment and again just become this a natural sense of being and now in this benign inclusive vast space allowing a sense of goodwill to rise goodwill for yourself and repeating these three sentences in your mind may I be well may I be happy and may I be at peace again amplifying this sense of goodwill for yourself may I be well may I be happy and may I be at peace and now further extending this scope of your goodwill and including everyone in your home today or even your loved ones outside of your home may you all be well may you all be happy and may you all be at peace and staying as these benign spaciousness and expanding the scope of your goodwill further to include everyone shops roads offices home parks may you all be well may all be happy may all be at peace and in one last jump expanding the scope of your goodwill as far as you can and including everything all living beings and all non-living beings may you all be well may you all be happy and may you all be at peace and now staying here with this expanded sense of goodwill for everything staying here very effortlessly letting go of any imagination without featuring anything this remain as vast vinayana space without any effort without any imagination and knowing that this vast spaciousness is always available to you you do not have to cultivate it you do not create it or imagine it it is always a part of yourself and with this sense with this knowledge contracting your awareness slowly to the space around you and to your body paying attention to the soles of your feet to your legs weight on your chair paying attention to your torso your back and front your arms and shoulders your neck and your face your entire body allowing a smile to percolate true to your entire body and making mild resolution to try to continue with this mindfulness with this spaciousness throughout your day for as long as you can with that mild intention opening your eyes when you feel ready feel free to stretch I hope you had a good experience I certainly did I might sit here for a little bit longer if you wish to you can otherwise enjoy the rest of your day

Reviews

Thank you for guiding me home 🏠

I did have a wonderful experience…Enjoy the rest of your day…🧸❤️🙂ThankyouandBless

Perfect! Thank you 🙏🏻

Wonderfully paced and clearly articulated session. Moving slowly from focused bodily awareness to open space effortless attention. Thank you

So helpful

Really lovely meditation. I’ve done it a couple of times and find it incredibly grounding and refocusing. The idea to make your mind as vast as the sky I find really helpful and try to practice that throughout the day as I find my mind clouded. Thank you for this