A practice of just sitting.
In the spirit of the radical embrace,
I invite you to take a few moments before we start this practice.
To just welcome any parts of yourself showing up right now.
And just notice them and allow them to be here as they are.
Maybe even inviting them to join us in this practice.
There's nothing that need be left out here.
So this meditation practice can be done with the eyes open or closed.
If open,
Maintain a soft focus.
With the gaze set directly in front of you,
But not focused on anything in particular.
Begin by taking three deep breaths into the belly.
With each breath,
Allowing the weight of the body to surrender more and more deeply into gravity.
Noticing the body fully held by the ground.
At the same time feeling the space all around you.
As you breathe in,
Allowing yourself to expand and soften into that space.
Breathing in,
Softening into space,
Breathing out,
Dropping down,
Surrendering into the stillness of the ground.
As you allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm.
Tuning in to what the mind and body are like just now.
Without trying to fix or correct anything.
Just noticing.
If the mind is busy or dull.
The body restless or tired.
You may want to do a bit of breath awareness.
And waking up of the energy body.
Until the mind and body feel sufficiently settled and clear.
Present and available.
Do whatever you need to do to work with what's here now.
Once you feel sufficiently present and available.
Begin to broaden the awareness to include sensations coming and going as the whole body breathes.
Invite everything that can be known and felt directly into this space of open awareness.
Sounds,
Visual sensations.
Smells and tastes.
Physical sensations in the body.
And thoughts,
Emotions,
Images,
Memories,
Urges,
Impulses in the heart-mind.
Here we might imagine we're sitting on a beach looking out at a vast expanse of ocean.
And all the various waves forming and dissolving on the surface of the water are a bit like all the different sensations coming and going.
Through the six senses.
Or simply sat on the beach allowing all of it to play out in front of us.
Simply receiving all that is arising and dissolving.
In its fullness,
Just as it is.
Notice what it's like to be that open,
That receptive.
Everything being allowed to remain and pass away in its own time,
Its own way.
Without interfering.
What's that like?
If at any time you begin to lose touch with this openness.
Getting caught up in thoughts or emotions,
Distracted by sensations.
Or becoming restless,
Tired,
Frustrated,
Or confused.
Simply bring your attention back to the breath and sensations of breathing.
Allow the breath to be a steady anchor for you in practice.
And then when you feel ready again.
Gently opening out.
To all of what's here.
I'll give you a few minutes to simply dwell on this broad open awareness.
So there's all of what's here.
And the awareness.
Out of which it arises and dissolves back into.
So there's an invitation now to begin to turn towards this awareness,
A bit like the mind turning onto itself.
To look at its own qualities.
Traditionally referred to as completely open,
Boundaryless,
Limitless.
So tuning into these qualities of expansion.
Boundarylessness.
We can look to see where does this awareness begin and end.
We might look at the boundaries of the physical body,
Try and find in your direct experience where your body begins and ends,
Or try and locate the place from which sounds or visual sensations arrive from and dissolve back into.
Another quality of this awareness is its clarity or luminosity.
The clarity with which objects arise.
So as sounds,
Sensations,
Or thoughts come and go,
Notice the complete immediacy with which they arise and the luminous nature of their arising.
How everything can be fully known and felt just as they are.
Even confusion can be known clearly as confusion.
As you tune into the clarity of what's coming and going in awareness,
We can ask ourselves,
Where is the essential self that is experiencing?
Peace things.
Is a self needed for the experience to happen.
Or is it simply no?
Without a self doing the knowing.
Finally,
I invite you to notice and dwell within the deep sensitivity of this awareness.
The sensitive nature of this awareness that receives everything completely without bias,
Without picking and choosing.
Allowing yourself to be completely filled up with the sense impressions as they come and go.
Noticing if there's a limit to the depth to which.
Objects arising in awareness can be felt.
How sensitive can you be?
At any point you begin to feel like The practice is getting a bit rigid.
If there's tightness,
Contraction.
Tension in the body.
Or sense of trying to make something happen.
You could just open the eyes if they're closed,
Give the body a little shake,
Have a little look around.
Even make some sounds,
Bring some vibration in.
And then when you feel ready,
Simply opening again to everything coming and going in awareness.
Just sitting.
As it is.
So you can pause the guidance here and sit for as long as you'd like.
And then when you're ready to bring the practice to a close,
The invitation.
Is to simply take a few deeper breaths.
Again,
You might want to rest back a bit in the posture.
Open the eyes if they've been closed.
Place the hands,
Palm up on the lap,
Or even lie down.
Hands alongside the body.
Allowing yourself to dwell in a broad open awareness without any effort.
And enjoying.
And metabolizing the fruits of this practice.
Taking them with you into the rest of your day.
