Namo tassa bhagavato arhato sammasambuddhassa Namo tassa bhagavato arhato sammasambuddhassa Namo tassa bhagavato arhato sammasambuddhassa So this practice we can call orientation through the senses,
Orientation to the environment through the senses,
Orientation through the visual,
Is a way of beginning practice where we use the visual sense most commonly,
But you can sometimes use the audio or sensate senses.
I'll give instructions for the visual.
You use the visual sense as a way to bring attention out of wandering thought,
Out of activation and stirred up internal states,
Really into the here and now,
This place,
This moment,
Exactly where we are.
And so starting in whatever posture you're in,
Getting as comfortable as you can,
Something like stillness,
But without forcing it at all.
And for the practice of orientation,
And this is a practice you can do anytime,
Even as a brief reset practice,
You would open the eyes and let your eyes go where they want around the room,
The space you're in.
The practice here is to really disinhibit the eyes.
You might even feel the difference between looking around,
Which is something that you can do on purpose,
To a more intuitive,
Like letting the soft animal of your eyes go where they want.
As the eyes go where they want,
They'll naturally pause at different places.
These little resting spots in the sea of color and line and image and object.
At some point when the eyes rest on something,
Let them stay there for a little bit and see if you can notice what's restful about this place,
What it is that feels like it's a landing place.
It might be that you're seeing something that's interesting,
Something attractive to you,
Something that draws your attention in some way.
Notice what's there,
Notice any feelings that arise,
Any shift in energy,
And let it go.
Let the eyes either come back to center and rest,
Maybe closed for a couple moments,
Or just resting open with a soft gaze.
Notice anything you notice here.
And we'll do it again.
Invite the eyes to open and to go where they want around the room.
Notice how it tends to move the head on its axis,
So you're taking in the horizontal scope of the room.
Even if the eyes track upward,
There's a way that there's an awareness of the horizon,
The level plane.
Even if the eyes track downward,
Feeling how it moves the neck.
And again,
See if there's anywhere the eyes naturally rest,
Let them rest there.
Notice what draws the eyes.
Relaxing,
See if you can notice what's pleasurable about whatever it is the eyes have landed on.
Maybe it just feels good for the eyes to rest.
But usually there's something about the object,
The object the eyes have come to rest on.
It's like a little home or a pause or a respite,
A tiny delight,
A little blossom of interest.
Often the eyes will rest on something interesting or lovely.
Sometimes they'll rest on something that may seem like a flaw,
Like I see a stain on the wall that I should clean.
You might not think of that as pleasant.
So then as the eyes rest there,
Notice what else you feel.
What's here as the eyes orient to this flaw?
Sometimes there's a different kind of pleasure or clarity that's present when the eyes rest on something unpretty.
Whatever it is,
Let it go and come back.
Watch out for any place where you start to spin a story about where the eyes are landing.
Instead,
Just notice the feeling,
The energy of landing really with something that's here in the physical space.
Notice how it shifts the energy to the body,
How it might shift the breath.
And we'll play with this once more.
Letting eyes open,
Letting eyes go where they want around the room.
Seeing where they naturally land.
Noticing interest,
Pleasure.
And if you can notice what's pleasurable or easeful or interesting about this place the eyes have landed,
Then see if you can notice where in your body you can feel that pleasure.
And if there's something that's interesting or lovely,
We say that they are those things because there's a response in the body.
Can you feel that response?
The response to loveliness,
To interestingness.
Feel it in the body.
And then if you can feel it in a place in the body,
Then see if you can feel it in the whole body.
And that's the full practice of orientation to the environment through the senses.
Letting the eyes go where they want,
Seeing where they naturally pause,
Taking in the good,
The pleasurable,
The interesting,
Feeling it in the body,
And then feeling it in the whole body.
And once you get to this point,
Feeling it either in a part of the body or the whole body,
You can either come out and let it go,
Or you can use this in meditation as the doorway to letting the eyes close and just coming into the sense of the whole body.
Maybe you notice the breathing,
You let the breath flow through the whole body.
You notice that pleasure,
The ease or interest,
Goodness.
See if we can feel it through the whole body.
Let the pleasure mix with the breath and the posture.
So we'll sit in silence from here,
And you can practice with this tool of orientation.
If the mind feels unable to ground or lost in thought,
Too much spinning,
You can open the eyes,
Orient,
Let them go,
See where they pause,
Feel the pleasure in the body,
Feel pleasure in the whole body,
And use that to settle,
Drop in again.
Be with the flow of pleasurable energy and breath in the body.
Sheltered from story,
Worry,
Or anything that would pull the mind away in a way that we don't want.
So we'll practice in this way together.
Coming toward the end of the meditation,
Orientation can also be a landing and grounding gesture at the end of a period of stillness.
So we're gonna do the same sequence again.
With the eyes open,
Let them go where they want.
Notice how the eyes pause,
Where they pause.
Notice any ease,
Interest,
Delight.
Settling,
It's there.
Notice any of those positive feelings in the body and then breathe them into the whole body.
So there's a landing in the here,
In this room,
In this place,
And in the now,
This moment's light,
This moment's sensation unfolding.
With orientation,
You can come out of the meditation already with your eyes open and not really have a dramatic state shift.
It's not like opening your eyes,
Ringing the bell and jumping up.
The mind can be quite ordinary,
Just here,
Just at ease,
Right where it is.
