Resting In The Senses And Sensations

An Instinctive Meditation® practice inviting us to rest. Explore how attuning to your senses can be a doorway into rest. This class uses The Radiance Sutras as inspiration - Sutra 31 invites us to "Experience the substance of the body ... As made up of vibrating particles and these particles made up of even finer energies. When we beging with our obvious senses of sight and hearing, then move into the inner world of vision and remembered sound - we open ourselves to the experience of even more subtle sensations. Ans as we tune into these more subtle sensations we find that we can rest deeply and feel restored.

Transcript

So,

Today I wanted to use the senses and sensation as a doorway into restfulness.

So,

Let's begin simply,

Begin simply with our eyes open and forgetting about any type of focus,

Just letting your eyes rest where they wish.

What would it be like to just have your eyes soft and yet drinking in,

Drinking in the nourishment of whatever it is that you want to look at,

That you want to even fill you up.

Let your eyes be a portal for light to come in,

And you might find that as you do so occasionally that your eyes might even drift closed and that picture still is presented to you in your visual cortex that you remember what it was that you're looking at,

Because when we give ourselves permission to rest in any of our senses,

Quite often we'll move from the outer world to our inner world.

So,

We're resting,

Resting in the sense of sight.

And perhaps if your eyes have drifted closed,

Maybe it's a memory of what you were looking at a moment ago,

Or you could bring into your awareness the memory of something beautiful some moment in time where you looked out at the world and it was just,

Ah,

The most amazing sunset,

Or looking up at the stars at night.

Remembering watching horses run wild or a dog running around your feet.

The invitation is to have a very rich experience of this visual aspect of your senses,

Whether it's here with the outer world or whether it's in your inner world as well.

Resting in the visual,

Your unique perspective.

And what if we invite you to wonder about your sense of hearing?

And perhaps if you've started to really dive into your inner world,

Remembering the sounds,

Noticing that your hearing is spherical,

That you can hear all around you.

That you can sense direction of sound and you can,

You know,

You heard that sound that was off to the right and you can let your gaze follow your ears towards that sound and see what it was that gained your attention.

Perhaps there was the sound of a bird flying across the sky and your gaze lifts up to the sky that you had forgotten about.

So whatever it is,

Wherever it is,

Whenever it is,

That your doorway has opened you up to.

Our eyes,

The memory of what we saw,

This movie that we can play inside us has vision but it also has sound.

Perhaps you're hearing conversations,

Perhaps you're hearing water moving,

Wind blowing through the leaves.

Perhaps it's just the still silence of a brilliant night sky.

And as you breathe in,

Let's not force anything with this,

But wondering about this motion of breath as we breathe in and breathe out,

Feeling the movement of air in and out of your nostrils.

You can rest into all of the sensations that let you know that you're alive and that this motion of breath is supporting you,

Is fueling you,

Is nourishing you.

It's a constant movement in,

Receiving and movement out of giving breath back.

And you might sense that in many different ways in your body.

And perhaps while you're watching the sunset and listening to movement of water or maybe birds or whatever.

Oh.

Wow.

Wow.

You can breathe out a sigh or breathe out a wow.

Oh my.

How beautiful.

So if there's any,

If there was any sound you can feel the resonance of it in your chest and in your throat and in your head.

You can sense the vibration in your body of the sounds of the movement of your breath.

Sense the aliveness.

Even in rest.

Feel the pulsation and vibrancy of my life.

In the movement of breath and in the movement of a sigh or a wow.

You can feel it.

What if we rest in a wondering about the shape of your body?

Though you can,

Right now you can feel the effects of gravity in different ways.

The weight of your body being squashed into your chair,

Into the floor,

Into your feet if you're standing.

You can feel the heaviness.

You can also feel the strength in the bones that's supporting you.

We're inviting an awareness into the softening of the muscles that are relaxed,

That you allow,

When you allow yourself to relax.

And also you can tune in to where it is that you naturally need to hold tension to hold the posture that you're in sitting.

Hold the posture that you're in sitting.

The smaller muscles around the spine.

The neck.

The neck that holds your head.

You feel if you let go of the muscles in the neck,

Any tension there at all,

That your head's going to fall forward or to the side and it's going to give in to gravity.

And you can sense this.

The sense of balance knows where the center of the earth is.

The miracle of the sense of balance that tells us.

Where we are in relation to the center of the earth.

And perhaps if there's some movement happening in your body,

You can be aware of the change in tension in muscles as they're contracting and releasing,

Relaxing.

You feel areas in your body that are still just completely quiet.

And other areas.

Maybe you're engaging in some subtle movement.

And what if you were to bring,

For example,

Your hands to your chest,

To your belly,

To your heart,

To your solar plexus.

Do you feel some sense of warmth in your hand or in your chest or in your belly?

Or if you're sensitive to some more subtle energies.

As you bring your awareness into your body,

Are you feeling any flows or pulsations?

Any movement of your awareness?

Any movement of any energies within you?

It's not about creating them,

It's about opening yourself up to experiencing what's happening naturally within you.

Perhaps you can wonder,

Just wonder,

About any sensations that might arise into your awareness in your body.

So we're resting in an awareness of sensation.

And we don't have to do anything with this awareness.

We don't have to try and make it mean anything.

We don't have to do anything with this awareness.

We don't have to try and make it mean anything.

Simply being in our experience of being here,

Now,

In this present moment in your body,

Feeling it as it is now.

And as sensation arises,

There can be thoughts.

And those thoughts might congeal themselves into words of meaning,

Feelings,

That may describe emotions.

You can just let yourself follow that thread.

It's not a creation.

Simply what arises out of the wisdom of your essential nature.

Out of the wisdom of your essential nature.

When you give yourself permission to rest.

Resting in your senses.

Resting in your sensations.

Resting in your essence.

You might find as you continue that your awareness tunes into the more subtle aspects,

More and more subtle sensations.

More and more subtle movement,

Pulsations,

Vibrations.

Energies.

And it may come that your awareness forgets about vision and hearing.

Forgets the shape of your body.

Forgets the movement of breath.

And dissolves into the hum,

Vibration of being.

Your essence,

Your I am.

Your aham.

Aham.

My subtle experience,

Sensation of I am.

Aham.

I am.

Experience the substance of the body and the world.

As made up of vibrating particles.

And these particles made up of even finer energies.

Drifting more deeply.

Feel into each pulse of energy as it condenses from infinity.

And dissolves back into it continuously.

Noticing this.

Breathe easily.

With infinity dancing everywhere.

Everywhere.

Experience the substance of the body as made up of vibrating particles.

These subtle,

Subtle sensations.

This hum of your experience,

This hum of I am.

This hum of aham.

Breathe easily with infinity dancing everywhere.

Within you.

Through you,

Around you.

As you.

Aham.

I am.

Impulsing energies of creation.

Here.

Now.

And I feel.

And I am.

I am this breath.

I am this movement.

I am these perceptions.

I am the perceptions of my heart.

I am the perceptions of my ears.

Of my eyes.

Of my skin.

Of all of the nerves within the muscles,

Within my body,

Within the ligaments.

I am all of the organs of sense.

And I am the perception of all of the sensory organs.

I am that which makes meaning of all these perceptions.

I am that which moves through the world and sees and feels and touches.

I am that which receives breath and which gives breath.

Which receives life and gives life.

Which receives love and gives love.

Let's consider how we can bring these perceptions,

The subtle,

The less subtle,

With you back into a more external awareness.

Let's feel perhaps first the effects of the force of gravity on your body.

Feel the weight of you in your seat.

Tune into again the strength of your bones holding you up.

The slight constriction or contraction of the muscles around your spine that hold it up and stops it from collapsing.

All the way up into the base of your neck.

You can feel the softness of your face as it's relaxed.

And gravity drawing your skin down.

And if you were to engage those muscles in your face,

Maybe a little smile.

Drawing the lips wide,

The cheeks up.

Maybe opening the mouth for a yawn.

Inviting a big inhalation.

And wandering and tuning into all of the senses that let you know that you're taking a big breath.

The perception of the air flowing through your nostrils again or maybe through the back of the throat.

The movement of your belly,

The opening of the ribs.

Maybe you can be aware of the next breath opening into your back a little bit more.

Extending into the back side of your body.

How do you want to engage with the digits on the end of your limbs with those fingers and toes?

Creating a little bit of movement.

With whatever's right for you,

Knowing where you have to move into in the rest of your day.

Might need to be quite active to move into the rest of your day.

Or it could be very,

Very gentle,

Soft.

Just enough to take you away.

Perhaps,

You know,

You're called to tune to a sense of hearing to what's around you.

A little bit more outside of the room that you're in.

Start to create a little bit more movement.

Noticing a sense of balance if you're swaying from side to side.

If your head is moving on your neck.

Eventually,

Letting your eyes flutter open.

They might open and want to close again.

There might be a couple more breaths before you want to let them open again.

Maybe opening your mouth wide and your eyes wide all at once to really engage with the muscles in your face.

And then when you're ready,

It's time to move off into the rest of your day,

Evening.

And then when you're ready,

It's time to move off into the rest of your day,

Evening.