Welcome to this meditation and to your practice.
I'm going to be leading us in a meditation where we're going to get curious about the impermanent or changing nature of our experience.
And we'll be doing that firstly by opening to sound,
Spending a little bit of time with sound,
And then opening to sensations in the body,
Spending a bit of time with the emergence and the passing away of sensation.
And then finally,
We'll open to the heart mind and begin to get curious about the impermanent nature of thoughts,
Emotions,
Images,
Memories,
Whatever else can be felt in the heart mind and known directly.
Before we do any of that,
We'll just do a little bit of preparatory work to support us to arrive a bit more fully in our posture.
So if you'd like,
You could take three deep breaths,
Letting the out breath support awareness dropping down into the points of contact where the body meets the ground and really feeling the support there,
Sensing into the holding that the earth provides us all the time.
With each out breath,
Maybe just trusting a little bit more for the ground to hold you here,
Allowing the ground to take your weight,
Tuning into the felt sense of steadiness that the ground provides us,
Stillness,
Safety,
And sensations of being here.
And once again,
In the spirit of the radical embrace,
We can appreciate whatever else is here,
Wanted or unwanted,
Sensations,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Coming and going in awareness as they are,
Welcoming all of it,
Allowing it all to be here as it is.
And then there's also an invitation to feel into the shape of the body as it rises into space,
Or if you're laying down,
The whole front of the body opening to space and softening into space,
Creating space for all of what's here.
And we can use the breath here to support this.
So particularly on the in breath,
Feeling that expansion,
That opening up.
And then on the out breath,
Feeling that dropping down,
Trusting and allowing ourselves to be held.
And then there's an invitation here to just connect with your own deep heart wish to be free from suffering.
Just finding within you that longing,
True refuge,
True safety,
Something we can place our hearts on,
Somewhere we can rest.
So we can remember to do this practice in light of this deep heart wish for freedom for ourselves and all beings to be free.
From here we can very gently begin to open to sound.
So it's just simple experience to open to because we don't choose it,
It's just here as it is.
Firstly,
Just noticing what can be heard in this moment.
And then beginning to tune in,
Particularly through the lens of impermanence.
So knowing directly the changing nature of sound from the very beginnings of a sound emerging,
How it lingers,
And how it is as it dissolves back into nothingness.
My teacher says knowing impermanence is also a direct knowing of emptiness.
There's nothing inherent in any sound that we can nail down and say this is what makes it what it is.
It's just changing all the time.
And we can know that directly right now as it is.
Keep calmly knowing the changing nature of sound.
Feel free to hang out with sound as long as it feels creative and supportive.
There's also an invitation here to begin to just very gently shift the awareness towards the breathing.
Another experience that so clearly reveals impermanence over and over again.
Air coming and going in the body.
And all the changing sensations that come and go with the air coming and going in the body.
This thing we call the breath really isn't a thing at all.
It's just a process,
Constantly changing.
And here we can connect with the breath as a way to connect with the body,
A bridge into the body,
Allowing the breath to slowly reveal more and more of the body to us.
Sensations from very deep inside all the way out to the edges and everywhere in between as we breathe.
So I'll just name a few things here to help in pointing out what might be happening,
What we can get curious about.
So we might notice sensations of pressure,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Coolness,
Numbing,
Aching,
Dullness,
Softness,
Currents of energy,
Waves,
Places of contraction and stuckness,
Places of openness and expansion,
Sensations of density,
Wetness,
Dryness,
Itchiness.
And as we tune into all of that and so much more,
We can get curious also about the impermanent nature of all of it.
So the body becomes a rich,
Diaphanous cloud of ever-changing sensations like flashing lights or waves forming and dissolving on the surface of the sea.
And we're just resting back,
Attending to all of it as it is.
And here,
We don't have to worry so much about isolating individual sensations.
It's more about a broad,
Open awareness of all of it,
Just as a changing experience.
Although if you're working with physical pain,
It can be interesting also to just explore it a little bit more closely,
Or you might want to stay with the breath.
So I'll just leave you for a few minutes to explore on your own how you want to open to the impermanent nature of sensations.
And at any point you start to get a little bit overwhelmed or notice yourself shutting down or going into vagueness,
There's a few things that you can do to just support a little bit more presence and availability to what's happening through resourcing yourself.
So it could be very simply reconnecting with the ground and just spending a little bit of time there as a resource,
Feeling into space,
Stretching in all directions.
Can you even open the eyes and just have a little look around,
Reminding your nervous system that you're still okay,
You're still here.
Self-touch is also a very helpful resource when things get a little bit difficult.
So hand on heart,
Hand on belly,
Or anywhere else that feels supported,
Maybe taking a few deeper breaths.
And then when you feel ready,
Just coming back in an easeful way,
Without putting any pressure on yourself.
Finding the breath and beginning again,
Opening to sensations,
Noticing their changing nature.
So again,
Feel free to hang out here for as long as you'd like.
And there's also an invitation to begin to turn the same curious awareness towards the heart-mind,
Almost like mind looking at itself,
Awareness turning itself back on itself.
And here getting curious about what's coming and going.
Sometimes the mind gets a little quiet when we go to look,
But usually if we wait,
Things will start happening.
So I often find myself all of a sudden going into thoughts about the future,
What I'm going to do next,
Or ruminating about the past,
Or having thoughts about what's happening now,
Or maybe a memory pops in or an image.
So here the invitation is to take a step back into awareness and just get curious about that very first moment when activity in the mind just begins to emerge and see what happens if you can catch that moment and just watch what happens next in a relaxed,
Open way,
Not needing to pin anything down.
Or is it to simply attend to the arising and passing of mental objects as it is?
If you're finding this tricky,
Like you might be getting caught up in the content of your thinking,
One trick is to just shift the focus away from the content of your thoughts and towards the quality of your thoughts.
So for example,
Some thoughts are a bit light,
Some might be heavier.
Some might move quickly,
Others a bit slower.
Some might have a particular shape or color or image that they come with,
Or even a sensation in the body that arises with the thought.
So here we're feeling into qualities and textures rather than content,
Which can support us to stay with the changing nature of what's here without getting drawn in to the story or the narrative.
So for the last minute or so of this practice,
There's an invitation now to let go of any effort that you've been making.
You could take a slightly deeper breath,
Resting back in the posture,
Maybe putting the hands palm up in the lap,
And even open the eyes with a soft focus.
Opening to sound,
Physical sensations,
The whole body open,
All the pores of the skin receptive,
Soft,
Just sitting,
Just being here as it is,
Absorbing any benefits from the practice.
And in a moment,
I'll ring a bell to mark the end of this practice.
Please do feel free to make any movements,
Stretches,
Et cetera,
To help yourself come out gently and lovingly.
