Welcome to this open awareness practice.
Allowing the eyes to close gently or finding a gaze point somewhere in front of you to let the eyes rest.
Allowing the awareness to move into the inner landscape.
As you allow the awareness to move inwardly,
Take a moment to make contact with what is arriving here into this practice with the qualities of the mind and the qualities of the body that are here.
Maybe there is some sense of urgency,
Rushingness,
Efforting.
Maybe there is some sense of quiet or still,
Calm.
Whatever it is that's arriving with you into this practice,
Just allowing it to be.
Not needing it to be anything more than what it is right now.
And then allow the awareness to begin to connect to the body as it's sitting here,
As it's beginning to enter this practice.
Allowing the awareness to the places of the body that have support or are making connection to support.
Maybe this is the feet,
The legs,
The back of the body.
Can you let your body receive this support?
Allow the body to sense into the groundedness that's here,
The stability that's here.
And from this sense of stability and support,
Also take notice that this body is active.
It's upright,
It's engaged.
That the whole torso,
The shoulders,
The neck,
And the head are extending up out of the space of support from the body.
Using some position of the arms and hands that allows for there to be ease and support.
And as the awareness collects to notice this body as it's sitting here.
If there's any place of the body that feels tight or tense or feels uneasy,
Seeing if you can invite in some sense of openness,
Some sense of relaxation or ease to really fully arrive into this posture and into this practice.
Now direct the awareness to notice the breath.
Beginning to notice the stream,
The flow,
The inhales that comes into the body.
The stream and the flow of the exhale as it's leaving the body.
Really sensing into the unfoldingness of the breath.
The sense of moving moment to moment with breath.
Seeing into this breath as an anchor,
As a way in which to really arrive the awareness into the present moment.
And now allowing the awareness to shift from this focus of breath and to begin to let go of the focus and invite the awareness into open awareness.
Open awareness is the practice of beginning to just see the stream of whatever it is in the moment that's unfolding.
So if thoughts arise,
Noticing thinking.
If sounds in the environment catch the awareness,
Beginning to let the awareness investigate sound arising and passing away.
The sensation of body is what makes contact with awareness being in the experience of sensation and body.
If an emotion arises,
Agitation,
Frustration,
Ease,
Calm,
Being in the stream,
The emotional current as it's unfolding.
Open awareness is moment to moment awareness of just life as it is right now.
Seeing if you get caught in the sense of wanting to try to do something or figure out thought or follow a sound or avoid an emotion or sensation and let go of the doing.
Allow the receiving of just the moment to moment experiences that are making themselves the awareness gets too caught and following something or trying to push some experience away.
The breath is always here as an anchor in which to arrive the awareness back into for the moment.
And re-entering,
Opening to the stream of being present to whatever's here.
Allowing the awareness to investigate the sense of choiceless,
Open awareness.
Re-entering open into the mystery of what's unfolding in this moment.
Letting go of any need to figure it out,
Do anything about it.
Chase or avoid.
Whatever experience is here,
It is here.
So allow the awareness to be present,
To be open,
To be with this moment just like it is.
Period.
Open to this stream of life just like this.
.
Creating the moment of whatever is arising with kindness,
Gentleness,
Openness,
Compassion.
Letting the gifts of the moment truly be present with you right now just as it is.
.
Open.
.
.
.
And as we arrive to the end of this practice,
Taking a moment to offer a sense of gratitude to your experience of practice,
To the efforts of your practice,
To the willingness to practice.
Honoring the goodness that is practice that arises each time we choose to be present,
To be with life as it is in the moment.
