Take a moment to settle into a posture that respects your body's needs,
Allowing a feeling of fluidity.
My name is David Harrison,
And welcome to this practice of expanding awareness into the earth.
Eyes may be open or closed.
The easiest way to begin meditation is by starting with listening.
So let's begin by allowing yourself to hear the myriad sounds around you,
Listening to the hum and buzz of the world,
As if you are enjoying a melody,
Appreciating music.
Identifying sounds is unnecessary.
Everything is music.
Is it possible to hear your breath,
Or feel a subtle movement,
A slow rhythmic pulse within your body?
Attuning to this,
Perhaps with each exhale,
Muscles of your face relaxing,
Melting,
Your eyes softening,
And your body releasing,
More,
And more.
Tension in your jaw dissolves slightly,
Words no longer required,
Body sinews,
Feeling gravity's gentle pull and reach,
Perhaps allowing thoughts to drift to the ground around you,
Like autumn leaves,
Completing their life cycle.
There's no need to push thoughts away,
Or empty your mind,
It is just manipulation.
It's like trying to calm and smooth the water surface with your hand.
So there is nothing to do here.
This is how the seeing is the doing,
May move within you.
Perhaps I can pose a question.
What do you hope for when you practice?
What do you return for?
There's no need to search for an answer.
Feel what resonates,
Allowing your body to speak,
Perhaps through an image,
A sense of an ineffable need,
An echoed memory,
A swirl of emotion,
Or the shimmer of a feeling,
Perhaps to allowing no response to be okay.
Whatever answers,
Let it shape your intention and motivation to practice with me now.
I will leave you resting with that for a moment.
Eventually,
You may notice thoughts arise.
They always do.
Perhaps you may wonder what observes these thoughts.
Can this reveal something profound?
You are more than just your thoughts.
When you notice thoughts surfacing,
It is simply the rippling of the mind,
Smiling to yourself,
As this reveals something deeper within us that is far more significant than mere thoughts.
Can you be present for a little while now?
Thoughts may arise again.
They always do.
Trying to quieten your thoughts is like trying to calm and smooth the water surface with your hand.
Each time you find yourself lost in thought,
Notice.
Withhold the hand of your mind and lean back and fall once more into the music of your breath.
Muscles relaxing.
Eyes softening.
Breath flowing.
Allowing the sounds of the world to come to your ears.
Perhaps sights can come to you without seeking them.
Let light dance through your eyelids if closed.
Breath infuses the entire body,
Like ink spreading to water.
You may notice the subtle ripple of movements in your body.
Perhaps the boundary of your body expands slightly as you take a breath.
You may sense your body's outline opening outward as your volume slightly increases and falling back again.
Sensing the outline of contact wherever your body meets your world and the earth beneath.
Perhaps through your feet or back.
Possibly your sitting bones are in contact with a chair or cushion.
Can you sense how this contact subtly changes as we breathe?
Letting your awareness rest here,
Where this contact expands and contracts with the breath.
No need to change anything here.
Just maintain an open receptivity to what is present,
Allowing the breath to frame your awareness.
As you breathe in,
Can you sense your awareness unfurl and open subtly?
Even if it's just a suggestion.
Nothing significant here.
Exploring the space beneath your body with each inhale,
A world unfolds where you sense contact at the boundary of your body and your awareness reach there or extend beyond this liminal contact membrane.
When you're ready,
Letting that contact field open wider as you breathe.
Sensing through and beyond your skin and into the floor with your in-breath.
Just a little.
Imagine your awareness opening beyond the boundaries of you.
Like the shifting shape of an inkblot on paper.
Try not to think about it.
Feel it.
Embody awareness.
Breathing creates more space beneath you.
With each exhale,
You relax and immerse yourself in the space you opened.
With each in-breath,
You expand more and more into the earth,
Radiating downward and outward.
As Rumi said,
Flow down and down in ever-widening rings of being.
On your out-breath,
Release and fall into the space in the earth you are moving into,
Pouring your awareness into it.
As you inhale,
Broaden your awareness without worrying about what lies beneath the earth.
Silent stone and earthy soil symbols profound knowledge nearly as ancient as time.
As you exhale,
Permitting yourself to unfurl,
Flowering into that space.
Rooting deeply and expanding your awareness far beyond the confines of this physical body.
Your corporeal body stays here while you surrender into the depths of the earth.
With the out-breath,
Emptying yourself into that space.
Delicious,
Rejuvenating.
Be here for a while with your own experience.
Eventually,
Your thinking mind may interfere and narrow,
And you sense in that shift.
Your essence is the deep sea.
Thoughts and words are the crest and fall of waves at the shore.
Breathe deeply,
Opening into the vast space beneath you.
Coolness,
Stillness,
Richness.
Full of life and wisdom.
In this expansive space we enter,
We can bring all our worries,
Narratives,
Storylines and challenges and let them flow into this space.
The earth can hold it all.
If the mind narrows and retreats into thought,
Slowly take a deeper breath,
Unfurling once more to the earth and breathe out,
Releasing,
Pouring,
Emptying your concerns and struggles into the earth.
Let me leave you here for a while with your mind.
Perhaps for you,
This meditation shifts slightly now.
I invite you to use each breath as a pathway for the universe's energy that weaves and flows through and between all things.
With each breath,
Energy surges and sweeps up from deep within the earth,
To you,
Through you,
Nourishing your bones and healing your heart,
Muscles,
Sinews and blood.
Whatever you find nourishing in the deep earth,
Drawing it back into you,
Weaving it through this fleshy body,
Cells dancing,
Heart pulsing new,
A vibration,
Searching and seeping into this earthly body.
Perhaps you may practice this way for a while on your own.
Resting back now,
Letting go of the idea of meditating,
Being.
Awareness narrows to this body again,
Here,
Now,
Your house of being,
The essence of your existence,
Grounded,
Rejuvenated,
Revitalised.
There will be no bell to signal the end of practice,
Because practice does not end.
Listen for when your body signals when it is ready to move into your day,
Carrying the practice with you as you go about your ways in the world.
