Inclining Awareness To Light, Ease And Support Within

This 30-minute practice is to support you attending to that which is light, easeful, and supportive within your inner landscape. This practice is to help cultivate how to incline the mind, heart, and body to attend to that which is uplifting and light.

Transcript

And so as you hear the sound of the bowl,

Inviting yourself into a posture that feels comfortable,

Supported,

You might choose to close the eyes for this practice or you can always choose to leave them open and rest the eyes into something that's in front of you softly.

As we begin this practice,

Just allowing yourself to feel what it's like to choose and take this time for yourself to cultivate and attend to your inner landscape.

Just for these first few moments,

Maybe really appreciating that gift that you're offering to yourself and feeling what that's like to connect to that choice,

That intention.

And allowing yourself to begin to feel the body and the posture that you've chosen.

Letting your posture really be one that supports your wellbeing right now.

What is that?

It's not to be lying down,

To be seated with support,

The lower body and the back,

Or maybe it's to sit just with lower body support.

And as you feel into this posture,

Feeling the goodness that's there to really listen intentionally to what your body needs and to choose that for yourself.

Allowing now the awareness to begin to sense and connect all of the points of contact that the body has with support.

Maybe this is at the legs or the feet.

Maybe this is at the buttocks or the back.

And really attuning your attention to feel and connect to all of these contact points,

To the densities,

The heavinesses,

The pressures,

The touch.

Invite the body to really receive the support that's here.

Resting,

Feeling that sense of gravity,

Stability,

Groundedness,

Earth,

Supporting your body here now.

And as you feel into that,

Connect to those sensations.

Again,

Can you stay with and incline to feel how this really supports your wellbeing?

Maybe how it shifts the landscape of the mind or the heart or even the body.

Also taking the time to really feel the length of your spine in whatever posture it's in.

This organizing system that supports our wellbeing day to day.

So feeling that spine,

The length of it,

And the support of it in whatever position you're in.

It's the messenger,

It sends communication throughout the body,

All of the nerves and the organization of the way we can move in our body.

Allowing yourself to sweep your attention gently through the body to just feel and sense is there any place of the body that's feeling tight,

Tense,

Contracted,

Making any subtle shifts,

Movements,

Adjustments,

So that you can relax the body.

And the goodness that arises from taking care like that.

And entering this practice with a sense of openness,

Receptivity,

Willingness to let the conditions of the mind,

Places that are challenging come and go.

Our intention to focus and attend to that which feels and is sensed as light,

Supportive,

Peaceful of wellbeing.

So tending now,

Focusing awareness of the breath.

Just letting the breath be natural.

Allowing the awareness to experience moment to moment what it's like to feel and sense the movement of the breath.

I might notice a breath that feels short,

Choppy,

And a breath that feels long,

Expansive.

As best you can,

No need to judge or choose which moment of the breath is better than another.

Instead,

Just letting awareness be present,

Open,

Receiving each moment of breath just as it is.

As you attend to the breath,

Can you be curious to feel and sense any moment that reveals itself as light,

Peaceful,

Calm?

This might be the way the breath feels in a particular part of the body.

Maybe a particular type of sensation in the breath or a movement in the breath.

And no matter what the mind wants to gravitate towards or be pulled by,

Those are moments we just notice mind thinking.

Just come back,

Feel into this moment of the breath,

Inclining with care and curiosity to feel these movements or experiences of the breath that are supportive.

So smiling in you,

Now we'll shift our focus from attending to the breath and attend to sensations of the body.

So a vast landscape in which to explore and attend to moment to moment.

We might be curious to first just attend through the sensory doors.

Listening to how sounds are coming and going.

Sense of touch,

Temperatures,

Pressures,

Textures.

Sense of smell.

Different fragrances that waft past through each breath.

Maybe you choose to let the eyes open if they've been closed and just let the eyes receive centrally what's here.

Colors,

Lights,

Shadows,

Dimensions.

Maybe be curious if you choose and that's helpful to just sense the sensory experience of taste.

Tongue resting inside the mouth.

As we allow our awareness to investigate and be present to the sensory doors.

Choosing for yourself which sensory experience as you become aware to it is supporting your well-being in this moment.

Was it to attend to the light flickering sound of birdsong?

Was it to feel into some particular type of touch,

Pressure of the body?

Maybe it's to stay in an awareness of particular qualities of scent.

Tendency as we notice experiences arising into awareness that are pleasant can be too.

Well,

That's interesting and then we want to quickly move on.

So if you experience a quality of ease or calm,

Lightness,

Can you just stay for a moment attending to the experience of those sensations or qualities arising?

Again,

Not a problem if we get cold or begin to chase or resist some other experience that's arising or look for different types of experience to move towards.

All of that's part of practice.

Invite your awareness to return and feel into the sensory doors of awareness and rest into that which is inclining your inner landscape towards lightness,

Ease.

Now for allow.

You can choose if you like to expand beyond the sensory doors and also invite an awareness to the sensations of the whole body.

Attending moment to moment in a way sensations are expressing themselves.

Pingling,

Lightness,

Pulses,

Densities.

As you attend to the body if you choose,

Again,

Inclining towards that which is filling awareness with ease,

Lightness,

Steadiness,

Support.

Three,

Two,

One,

Movement.

Returning again and again into the moment.

Letting presence of this moment be the author of invitation to feel what's supported.

Letting presence of this moment be the author of invitation to feel what's supported.

Letting presence of this moment be the author of invitation to feel what's supported.

Where's the attention now?

Lost in thoughts,

Gravitating towards things that are contracting,

Challenging.

We can notice that.

Choose a moment to let go.

And to incline the awareness back into the focus of the body or the senses.

Letting one arises be of support.

Letting one arise be of support.

Now invite us to shift from attending to the body or senses,

Allowing our awareness to explore and attend to the qualities of the mind and of the heart.

Take a moment to feel and sense what it's like to become aware and to focus attention to feeling into the landscape of the thinking mind or the feeling heart.

First you might notice a little resistance or absence of a lot of feeling or thoughts.

Just beginning to be curious about whatever is here.

Movement of the mind is thinking about something that has already happened or in the future,

Notice that.

Is there a feeling quality that arises of contraction or reaching,

Resisting?

As we're aware of heart and mind practices to just let whatever thoughts,

Whatever movements or feelings are here to be here.

If it's absence of thought,

Notice what that's like and you incline to feel or even take the light.

If the heart is feeling particularly peaceful or is,

Can you incline yourself to notice what that's like?

So just letting presence of the mind,

Whatever qualities of the heart are here,

Be here.

Attending to the moment of sweetness,

Space,

Lightness,

Whatever form or shape they take.

Remembering these are the places we often get caught,

The challenges of the way the mind or the heart can move.

So if that arises,

Be kind enough,

Notice a moment of that just as it is.

And seeing if you can find or direct your attention to feel the qualities of heart or mind that are light,

Easy,

Supportive.

You might even dip your attention towards the sensory doors again,

Feeling out sweet birdsong flickers delight in the heart,

Softens,

Quiets the mind.

Just allowing yourself to rest in this open sense of the mind and the heart and your body.

Inclining and attending that which uplifts,

Which delights,

Lightens,

Allows ease.

As we arrive into the last few minutes of our practice,

Choosing wherever serves you in this moment,

Really incline the awareness for taking in that which is arising,

Well being.

Feeling any qualities of lightness,

Peace,

Calm,

Ease,

Support.

Feeling where that is present within.

And as we close.

The moments as we arrive at the end here to really offer gratitude to yourself to practice.

The cultivation of this inclination to feel and sense.

Goodness,

Lightness,

Ease,

Calm,

Support.

As we close just offering also a moment of gratitude to all of the support that's around us allowing the awareness to feel and sense into these qualities within to take care of ourselves in this way.

To community we're connected to nature we're connected to appreciating how that offers lightness and support.

And then we take the fruits and the goodness of our practice into our day and into offering it to the well being of all beings.