Alright,
So for this practice,
We re gonna do something called Black Box Meditation.
And this is a way to clear the mind and to put aside labels and concepts and ideas just for a few minutes in order to touch into some sense of spaciousness and openness.
So whenever you re ready,
I wanna invite you to get comfortable wherever you re at,
Maybe in a seated position or standing,
Lying down,
Whatever is comfortable for you.
And gently closing the eyes,
Starting with a couple of nice deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth,
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
You might roll your shoulders back,
Just feel your chest opening up and just feeling any contact with the floor,
The chair,
Feeling that sense of support.
And if it s possible,
Just relaxing back even further,
Let your body really be supported by the earth,
By the ground,
By the floor beneath you.
Take a moment to just do a little scan of your body,
Taking as much time as you need.
Starting with the top of the head all the way down to the tips of your toes,
Just noticing if there s any tension,
Any tightness anywhere.
As you bring this light of your awareness to your body,
You might notice how just by doing that,
You start to soften those parts of the body.
And it s okay if the mind is busy,
It s okay if there s agitation or frustration or fear,
Sadness or whatever,
Whatever is going on in the mind,
In the heart,
In the body.
Without pushing anything away or holding too tightly,
We re just taking the seat of the witness and just observing what s present.
And once you ve made it to the bottom,
To your feet,
Just coming back to the breath,
I want to invite you now to imagine there s a big black box right in front of you,
Just floating in the infinite vastness of space.
And in this black box,
You start to,
One by one,
Put in everything you know about yourself.
Starting with your name,
Starting with gender,
And all the sort of basic things you know about yourself,
Your appearance,
Your height,
Your weight,
Your career,
Your profession.
Starting to put in more and more into this box,
Skills that you ve learned over the years.
As you put everything in this box,
It s as if you no longer have access,
You no longer know that these things are part of you.
You start putting in all the different labels and attachments you have and beliefs you have about yourself,
Stories you have about your life,
About where you should be or shouldn t be.
You start putting in everything you know about your relationships,
About all the people in your life.
One by one,
Just putting it all in this big black box.
Putting in every single memory that you ve ever had into the box.
Putting in every single label,
Everything that makes you,
You.
And you keep doing this until you get to the very last thing.
There s one more thing.
This is the last thing that you know about yourself to be true.
And then you drop that in the box.
You close the box and now you simply notice what s here right now.
Who are you without labels,
Attachments,
Memories?
I don t know.
This is exactly the right place to start.
And you can just sit in not knowing and what if that s perfectly okay?
What is the quality of awareness that s present?
Is there a sense of stillness,
Openness,
Spaciousness?
Is there some other quality,
Maybe some mystery?
Maybe there s something tender,
Soft or loving.
Maybe there s something really accepting or empowering even.
And instead of noticing yourself as someone experiencing this,
What if you just allowed yourself to become this awareness,
To become this presence?
I am this.
I am this.
As we wrap up here shortly,
Just noticing what effect this short practice has had on your body and mind.
And as you come back to feeling your body,
Really noticing the sense of sitting here,
Standing here,
Lying down.
Noticing your posture.
Noticing your shoulders and your breath.
Noticing the weight of your body.
And just starting to wiggle your fingers and your toes,
Regrounding,
Reconnecting.
Noticing these two things that are true.
One is,
You do have labels,
You do have roles.
Concepts are important.
And the other truth is,
Oh,
It s also possible to experience a moment without that.
And neither is good or bad,
It s just different ways of looking.
And so you might just notice what it s like to take these different perspectives.
Knowing that you have access to this whenever you just take a moment to reconnect and to explore.
Alright,
We will start to wrap up this practice here.
Feel free to continue if you would like,
Or go ahead and gently open your eyes.
Just noticing the presence,
Quality of awareness right now.
And I truly hope that you enjoyed this.
Got some insight from it.
And invite you to return to this meditation periodically.
And see how it changes and shifts over time.
Alright,
Thank you so much.
