Six Senses Meditation Leading To Open Awareness

This beautiful meditation of becoming sensitive to the body starts with a brief reading from the beginning of the Ānāpānasati Sutta. We then ground to support the body-heart-mind in becoming present. Next, we allow the breath and awareness to find each other and then to get curious about how that feels in the body. We then go on an exploration of the different sense stores which slowly leads us to open awareness.

This meditation has regular periods of exploratory silence and, as such, it is best suited for those with some prior meditation experience.

Transcript

The meditator having gone to the forest to the shade of a tree or to an empty building, Sits down with legs folded crosswise, Body held erect, And setting mindfulness to the fore. Always mindful one breeze in, Mindful one breeze out. While breathing in long, One knows I breathe in long. While breathing out long, One knows I breathe out long. While breathing in short, One knows I breathe in short. While breathing out short, One knows I breathe out short. One trains oneself, Sensitive to the whole body. I breathe in, Sensitive to the whole body. I breathe out. One trains oneself, Calming the whole body. I breathe in, Calming the whole body. I breathe out. So we'll begin this meditation of becoming sensitive to the body. By firstly, Bringing our attention to where the body's in touch with the earth. And feeling the support of the ground beneath you. Even at the beginning of this meditation, We can start to get curious about sensations here. Pressure, Tingling, Warmth, Numbness, Aching, Softening, Allowing the whole of your body, Heart and mind to be supported here. And welcoming in whatever parts of you are showing up right now. All of that can be here, Supported by the ground. And even if it's hard to contact or stay with any sensations here for very long, We can always use this connection with the ground as a way to tune into its qualities like stillness. Sensing the stillness just beneath us. The stability and the steadiness. The ground consistently here for us. Solid, Ever present. And deeply, Deeply still. So from here, Just taking a few breaths to begin to broaden the awareness to include the upper body rising into space. And again, Even here at the start of this practice, We can tune into any habits of bracing against space. So many of us painfully trained to brace against even make ourselves smaller, Contracting against space. Or maybe we had to do that to stay safe. So the invitation is to see what it would be like to just try on expanding into space, And really taking your place. Allowing the posture to really support a sense of our dignity. Our innate worthiness to be here doing what we're doing right now. And then when you feel ready, And if it's comfortable to do so just beginning to bring just enough effort in to allow the breath and awareness to find each other. If the breath is a hard place to be for you, You could always simply open to sounds or stay with the sensations of the body against the ground. If you are able to be with the breath in this way, The invitation is to get curious about how it is, All the different qualities of the breath as it comes and goes. How that feels in the body. Sensations. Knowing the changing sensations of a breathing body. Each breath from beginning to end, As it is. And you might notice the mind drifting off. This is understandable. It's what minds do. Can also appreciate that mind and body aren't separate. So in that moment of noticing, You're already a little bit outside of the thinking. And there's always something to get curious about in terms of what might be happening in the body. There might even be something that's a little bit harder to be with. So you could ask yourself, What am I distracted from? And just see what happens when you ask yourself that. What am I distracted from? Or what can't I be with? So feel free to hang out with the breath for as long as you'd like. I'm going to just take us through a little exploration of the different sense doors. And the breath is always with us. So it's in the background as an anchor. We can even think of it as breathing with sensations. So right now, I'd like to invite us to breathe with sounds beginning to open to whatever can be heard just now by the ears. Or maybe there's something else happening right now. Unwanted, Unwelcome. See if it's possible to really rest back in awareness and simply allow the sounds to be here as they are coming and going in awareness. Sensitive to sounds. One thing you might notice as you open to sounds in this way is that the mind will automatically label things. And also sounds can kick us off into stories, Thinking. So this is where the breath can be really helpful as an anchor, Something to come back to. And then when you're ready, Just opening again. And the labels themselves aren't a problem. Even the stories and thinking isn't a problem. It's just what the mind does. So all of that can simply be felt and known as it is. Sensitive to sounds. So there's an invitation now to just very gently shift your attention to the visual field. We'll begin with eyes closed, Just noticing any dancing of light, Shadow, Color, Shapes. The back of the eyelids. And then if you'd like to try opening the eyes, The invitations just to look directly in front of you with a soft focus so that whatever's in the periphery and in the center are equally within the visual field. And here we can, Again, Just simply notice how it is to perceive color, Shapes, Light, Shadow, Movement in this way. Perceptively, Openly, Without picking and choosing. You also might notice very subtle movements of shapes on the surface of the eyes, Floaties or bits of light or color. Perhaps as the eyes soften further, The whole field just becomes one blur without anything specific. Gazing into space. Into infinite space. And then again, Shifting to taste, You might swallow here to get a sense of taste, The taste of the inside of the mouth. Maybe there's some residue of something you've recently been drinking or eating. And there's smell on each in-breath. Again, Could be really subtle here, Just sensing into if there's anything that can be smelt just now. And then from here, We're just going to begin to open into sensations in the physical body, Within or on the surface of the physical body. The breath can be helpful here, You can imagine the awareness sort of riding the breath into the body. Sensing into temperature, Places of tightness, Stuckness, As well as softening, Opening. Where there's energy, Flow, Currents, Tingling, Bubbling, Itching, Electrical currents, As well as places that maybe we have little or no sensation, Numbness, Iciness, Freeze. So I'll just leave you for a couple of minutes to explore the physical body and the sensations here. Ceaselessly flashing in and out of our awareness like lights or waves on the surface of the sea. Forming and dissolving. And if at any time it starts to feel a bit overwhelming, You can always bring in a resource like self-touch or orienting, Having a little look around, Taking a few deeper breaths, Feeling into the ground. And then when you feel ready, Opening again to the physical body sensations here. There's an invitation now to begin to open to the whole of what's coming and going in all five physical senses, As well as simply allowing whatever might be coming and going in the heart, Mind, Emotions, Thoughts, Memories, Images. Could imagine all the pores of the skin totally open, All the orifices of the body open. You might play around with opening the eyes if you haven't already. You might even put the hands palm up in the lap. Mood of receptivity. The whole body soft, Supple, Receptive. Breathing with life as it's flowing through us just now. This sensational life. Sensitive to the whole body. Breathing in, Sensitive to the whole body. Breathing out. Calming. Bringing the whole body, Breathing in, Calming the whole body, Breathing out. So in a minute, I'll be ringing a bell to mark the end of this formal period of meditation. The invitation is to just really take your time and take care, Emerging from the practice.

Reviews

Beautiful, clear, radiant suppprt. Thank You. So grateful to have found You. Just how you pronounced the word “sensational” brought emboldened deeper breadth of meaning to the word. Bless and Keep Us All in the preciousness. Muchísimas Gracias de la Selva de Nuevo México 💕 🕉️🪽☸️🏡❤️