Open awareness practice can give us the gift of noticing so many things we aren't regularly aware of.
Awareness of things like the mind stream of thoughts,
And the shifting tides of emotions and feelings,
The field of bodily sensations,
The field of sound that surrounds us.
But open awareness allows awareness of these things without getting stuck or hung up on them as we may usually do.
Open awareness practice helps us to have a gentle and kind matter of factness saying to ourselves,
This is what is right now.
How might I meet this?
Can I meet this with open curiosity and kindness?
So we'll begin by noticing the movement in the body as it breathes.
Noticing the movement as the breath enters.
Noticing the movements as the breath leaves.
Then taking time to allow the breath to settle and to find its own natural rhythm while you are simply watching the body breathe as it does for you 24 hours of every day,
7 days a week,
All the years of your life.
Just letting the body breathe itself.
And now gently begin to expand your awareness to whatever is arising as your experience moment to moment.
You may notice thoughts,
Sensations,
Sounds,
Feelings,
All coming and going,
Arising and passing in a field that expands out beyond you and also expands within you.
And you will notice that everything arising as your experience passes away,
Shifts and changes.
So letting go of any ideas about what you think any given moment should be like and just rest in awareness of how things actually are moment to moment and allowing them to be just as they are.
Notice if you become aware of any changes in the body or the mind tensing up in resistance around your arising experience and noticing you can gently soften and let go again without judgment.
Being alert to noticing any arising of resistance and to allow your experience to be just as it is.
Noticing that without you labelling what's arising as good or bad,
Right or wrong,
You can experience them in a new and more open way.
Notice how different things are when you simply allow them to be just as they are.
And with each breath returning to a simple,
Clear,
Open awareness of what's here right now in your experience.
Noticing your experience with an attitude of curiosity and kindness.
Even if your attention becomes distracted and carried away on a stream of thought,
Just gently let that go and bring your attention back to following the movement in the body as it breathes and opening again inwardly and outwardly into the full spectrum of the field of your experience.
Settling into a curious and kind awareness,
Allowing everything to be exactly as it is.
And now as we near the end of this practice,
Bringing your attention back again to focus on the movement in the body as it breathes,
Letting awareness of other things fade into the background.
Noticing the physical sensations of the contact between the body and what is supporting it and between the body and itself.
And now bringing the palms of your hands together and rubbing them briskly to create heat,
Then covering your eyes with the palms of your hands,
Opening your eyes into that warmth and moving your hands away in front of your face slowly and focusing on them as soon as you can.
Being consciously and deliberately taking in your environment.
And as you move back into your day,
See how long you can maintain a degree of open awareness of your ever-changing,
Arising experience.
