Effortless Effort And The Heart

This lyrical practice takes you on a journey to stillness and silence, resting with Effortless-Effort and exploring the power of your heart. This journey ultimately invites you to 'Be, knowingly' in your life and to carry the practice with you into your day. Your donations/reviews are appreciated and directly support audios & my Ph.D. research, regarding how brain science may inform the creation of the meditative narrative, and how that may then, shape a more integrative and harmonious 'mind'.

Transcript

As you settle into your posture for this practice,

Allow yourself to be here,

To totally be here in this moment,

Where else you need to be.

All the moments in your life that have come before now,

The moments that have been written by you,

Written into you,

Carried here today to this practice,

All these thousands of moments,

Days,

Months,

Fold to a single moment,

To this moment.

Embracing this gift of time,

Give yourself full permission to rest and simply be.

Come to this practice,

Where you are invited to explore effortless effort and the heart.

My name is David,

And friendliness to your experience.

And when you are ready,

Allowing your attention to pivot towards the natural rhythm of your breath,

Which has been here all along.

Intention in practice is important.

Here in this practice you are invited to explore the sensorium of your body,

Resting with sensation as your support and just being,

Where you seek nothing.

Let your body be in this immersive meditation journey,

Your attention to pivot and turn towards the natural breathing body,

An ancient rhythm,

Finding all beings,

Past,

Present,

Future.

Perhaps you can allow the breath to fall open,

Wider,

Paying full care and attention to each breath.

Breathing in,

Breathing in to silence.

You may wish to say,

Silence.

Breathing out to stillness.

You may wish to say,

Stillness.

Silence.

Stillness.

Silence.

Stillness.

Feeling the quality,

The texture of this breath being continually written into you,

Life living through you.

Natural faith,

Relaxing and surrendering now,

Natural flow of this body.

Here,

Surrender to breathing naturally.

You need to manipulate this experience,

Simply listening,

Trying to do it right.

To achieve,

Perhaps you can notice how the body softens,

Melts and releases its rigidity on the out breath.

A feeling,

Silent,

Graceful release,

Even just a little,

Allowing your attention to fall and rest into the movement of the out breath.

Leaving you grounded,

Earthed,

Rooted.

Is it possible for you to use the surrendering of the out breath as an invitation to release whatever you can,

Whatever no longer serves carried away on the air,

Whatever you know to fall away to earth like autumnal leaves shed from a great oak,

Surrendering to earth's intelligence so you may eventually rise up,

Rooted,

And accept it too,

As this is your experience just now.

You allow it to be,

Meeting it with gentle curiosity,

Like a butterfly resting in warm open palms of cupped hands.

Eventually emotions and feelings,

The silhouette of memory,

Will sweep and swirl within you.

It is always the way.

It can you allow what arises,

Without judgement,

Without trying to alter anything,

Whatever rises held in the open hand of your mind,

Or like a butterfly carried on the emptiness of the wind,

Falling into warm air that lifts,

Owing beat of rising and falling,

You may sense too,

Your own rolling rhythm of silent arising and surrendered releasing to stillness,

A pause,

A space,

A thin slice of stillness between,

How it speaks to silence,

Becoming the very heart of all things.

In this silence,

Is it possible for the arising of thoughts to become the leaves of trees,

Unfurling,

Falling,

Sensing the slip of time to give way,

Now measured by the movement of the moon and the turning of tides,

Understanding what appears to be beginnings,

Endings,

Is only change in unfolding flow,

Gently turning your attention to the top of your head,

Feeling into the scalp,

Tension falling to the eyes,

Back of the eyes,

Resting in their dark sockets,

The weight of gravity on the face,

Feeling the jaw loosen a little too,

Words and meanings needed to be spoken,

Small muscles in the neck,

Melting and easing with the feel of each out breath,

Feeling into the arms and shoulders,

Feeling the weight of them falling away from the body,

Sensing gravity's ancient claim on your body,

Feeling into the hands,

Where the sensations are revealing and arising there,

You feel into the volume of the hands,

Hands from the inside,

Softly expanding and contracting,

We feel into the sensations there,

Not trying to imagine,

It is really like to feel,

Tension falling further,

To the hips,

Noticing looseness,

Tightness there,

The left leg,

The thigh,

Noticing the volume of the left leg,

By skin,

The shin bone,

It's like to be aware of the left,

The thigh,

This muscle that holds you all day as you walk tall on this earth,

And shin,

Just feeling into the presence of the right leg,

Represents itself to you,

Just to be,

To change your sensations,

Releasing the idea of this shifting and sweeping flow through the body,

Relaxing once more,

To just being here,

Not even trying to meditate,

Setting yourself adrift,

Floating free in a warm salty ocean,

Serenely held,

Letting go of any notion of doing,

And simply allowing your attention to fall open wide and relaxed,

Open receptivity to what is,

Noticing the intimacy,

The vibrancy of immersing yourself into body,

Taking this moment,

Inhaling the most tender gasp of breath now,

Perhaps you may feel a joyful shock of inspiration,

Possibly the skip of a heart,

In rare moments like this,

When the universe may show the simplicity of its fullness to you,

Whatever you feel,

Embracing the beautiful humanity of this human,

To be alive in pleasure and pain,

Allowing your awareness to unfurl into the immersive totalness of the space within you,

The space around you,

Bringing a silence to spill into your body,

A searching silence to fill your body,

Like a silent ink drop,

Falling and dissolving into water,

Feeling into the intuition of accommodating this body,

As it unfolds,

As it reveals itself,

Silence is not absence,

It is a presence,

Allowing sensations to arise in the body,

Allowing your awareness to be called to wherever signals,

Be it tingling in the hands,

Awareness to move,

Calls to you in swirling whispers of sensation,

And if you find your mind wanders into pathways of thinking,

Notice and softly allow your mind to gently turn once more to whatever body sensations arise,

Breathing into that,

Allowing into that,

Each time,

Again into sensation,

Using the sense of melting on the out-breath,

Sensations lightly held,

A butterfly carried on the emptiness of the wind,

Once more,

Fully letting go of the idea of doing anything,

Allowing awareness to fall open wider,

Relaxed,

Welcoming awareness once more,

To notice the whole of the body here,

Noticing thoughts,

Noticing sensations,

Allowing them,

Without interfering,

Without manipulation,

To feel the vibrancy of your body here,

Even feel the sense of weighted volume in the body,

Subtle muscle,

And deep flowing blood rivers within,

Feeling this space here,

Allowing yourself to be humbly present to your own humanity,

Your own humanness,

Allowing your attention,

Your awareness,

To unfurl into the totalness of this space,

And you feel your heart at the centre of this space,

Perhaps you can gently imagine,

Dazzling like a single star in the dark velvet vastness of space,

You may prefer to sense a purity of colour,

Or even waves of warmth,

Or ripples of energy in the heart,

And you feel into this space,

The beating heart,

The sweep of light or colour,

Or pulsing energy,

What it is like if you can allow this sense of your heart to stream up to the soft space between the eyes,

Sensing here too,

A widening,

An opening,

An expanding,

The warmth of the heart flowing and streaming to this place between your eyes,

Taking a few breaths,

To feel into this place between the eyes,

Expanding out,

Wider,

Unfolding into openness,

A place or a person that nurtures you,

That sustains you,

Letting this embodied feeling between the eyes to flow out to whatever you have brought to mind,

Sending it from you,

Streaming across time and space,

And feeling into that place or person,

Feeling a giving river pour from you,

Outflowing from you,

Allowing this felt sense to fall open wider,

Even wider,

In all directions,

To all beings,

To all things in this universe,

Sensing a brightness from your heart shining through the space between the eyes,

Rippling out to everything,

No limits,

Offering your serene stillness,

Beating heart to everything that is,

What does it feel like,

This flow,

From you to the universe,

A vibrancy,

A tingling,

Allowing it all,

Slowly,

Allowing this flow to ease to fade away,

Awareness falling back to this organic body,

Here,

Sensing once more,

The simplicity of this body here,

Once again,

Gently feeling into that sense of space in your heart,

The energy there,

Beating pulsing rhythm to life,

Perhaps it is possible,

To pour what you feel into the fullness of your own body,

Wherever you need it to be nourished,

Wherever you need it to be soothed,

A wish,

A hope even,

In the sense of light from your heart,

To flood this body,

To fill the entire space and volume of this body,

Wave,

Falling back into the ocean,

Letting go of the idea of meditating now,

And rest back into the simplicity of this body here,

The pure simplicity of presence woven into this body,

Open receptivity to what is,

One's self image,

Surrendering,

Yet holding a gentle effort of attention to,

A silent drop of awareness,

Gently held,

As a feather rests on water's meniscus,

Holding just enough conscious awareness to notice when once more,

You may drift into the backroads and byways of thought,

Effort and surrender,

Beautifully balanced,

This is how effortless effort moves within you,

Power and grace,

A delicate dance,

This is how the flow of non-doing,

Doing moves within you,

Can you simply be here,

What is here,

To be here,

Falling more into our essence,

Emptiness,

Awareness,

Consciousness,

The simple mundane realisation of our nature,

Touching you into the humanness of your body here,

The silence you seek,

Was always there,

The stillness you seek,

Was always there,

The awareness you seek,

Was always there,

Just listen,

Feel it,

It is what you are,

Before the seeking,

Rest is being,

Truth before thought,

I invite you to hold a wish,

To dedicate this practice,

So that the benefits ripple out,

To all beings,

So that all may benefit too,

Savouring,

Staying in a state of listening,

The practice never ends,

If you can carry the experience of awareness with you,

See how it moves into your day,

Simply,

Mindfully,

Allowing your body to move when it wishes,

And the experience of this meditation with you,

Into the rest of your day.

Thank you.

Reviews

So great…so much of what so many of us need in this hectic world.

Thankyou David I loved this meditation I didn't complete I fell asleep but I will play again 🙏

I’m being held…resting in the ripples of vast, deep and wise waters. Thank you David for your heart felt presence and beautiful guiding word’s.

I’ve listened three times to this. Superb. A friend I shared it with said it’s the best one (of David’s) yet.