MBSR Choiceless Awareness

This introduction to the practice of open awareness meditation is used in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction courses. Objects of attention are introduced, then followed by periods of silence. All objects are ultimately allowed to simply be in the space of open awareness. The practice closes with a return to the breath.

Transcript

We're going to begin this practice of choiceless awareness just by bringing our attention to the breath.

And that's the way we have started many of our meditations in the past.

So just bringing a very gentle attention and a very gentle curiosity to the breath.

And so you can allow that attention to rest on the breath wherever you might find it most easily.

So you might notice the breath in the belly and the rise and fall of the belly.

You might notice it in the back of the throat or in the nose as the breath comes in and out of the nose.

Just beginning to allow that spotlight of attention to rest just simply on the breath.

And just noticing how the breath is in this moment for you today.

Remembering that we're not doing anything here to change the breath.

There's no desired breath that we're looking for.

We are just simply being with the breath as it is.

Just breathing into the breath.

Following it in as it enters the body.

Following it out as it exits the body.

And you might notice even as you are sitting here that the breath changes.

It might change in its pace.

It might change in its depth.

And there's no preference given to any of those things.

It's just simply something that we can observe and notice and be interested in.

Just in this changing nature of the breath.

Never really staying the same.

And we don't have to assign a meaning to that or put a label on that.

It's just something that we can be aware of.

Simply be with.

Simply being with the breath without evaluation.

Just as it is.

And so taking just a few more attentive and focused breaths here.

Seeing if your mind has a tendency to wander away or get involved in a story or a fantasy.

And if that happens,

Just simply bringing it back to the breath.

And then as you're ready,

Allowing the breath to step aside from that center stage position it's held.

And bringing the body to the focus of your attention.

So just letting the breath kind of gently step to the side and bringing the body as the focus of our attention.

And so as you bring the body to your attention,

You might begin to notice just that you have a body.

We're so often separated from our body and just kind of living from the neck up.

You might just be initially noticing the presence of sensation in the body.

And so just connecting the head to the body here for a moment.

And noticing what,

If anything,

Your body just begins to communicate to you as you really drop into your body.

And you might begin to notice things like tension,

Heat,

Cool,

Tingling,

Soreness,

Hunger.

So just taking in the body.

And as you sit,

You can just simply notice what sensations arise in your awareness.

You might notice sensation in your knee and that may hold your attention.

You might get really curious about that.

You might investigate the boundaries of that sensation,

The temperature of that sensation.

And you might even notice that that sensation waxes and wanes.

And then as you sit,

You may also notice sensation elsewhere in the body.

So you might notice that your attention shifts from the knee to the jaw.

And you might notice sensation there.

You might notice air on the jaw.

So you might allow your attention to rest there.

Then you might notice again a tingling perhaps in the neck.

You might allow your attention to rest there.

So just as you're sitting,

You are holding in your awareness the body and any sensations that arise in the body.

And just like when we've done the body scan,

When the mind wants to get involved in that and offer an explanation or an evaluation or a story,

You can simply note that and then come back just simply to the experience of the sensation in the body.

And so taking some moments here just to hold the body in your awareness and note these sensations in the body as they arise.

Three more.

So now you might allow sensations in the body to again step to the side,

Step to the side of that stage and now allow sound to come to the center stage.

So now allowing sound to be the object of your attention and as you do that you will begin to notice sound as it meets the ear.

And in this way we're not listening or seeking out any particular sound we're just noticing sound as it arises and as it fades away.

Just allowing it to come to us.

And just in the same way a body sensation might arise,

Sound arises and then also fades away.

And we can also note the absence of sound and be aware of that experience as well.

And as we work with sound we can also notice the tendency of the mind to want to immediately label sound as something.

And in this meditation we can work with just hearing sound as something without a label,

Just as an experience,

Just experiencing tones,

Experiencing notes,

Just hearing without a label.

So allowing sound to be the object of your attention,

Coming back to the experience of sound when the mind wanders away.

And now allowing sound to step back up to the side and bringing emotion or feeling to the center stage and allowing that to be your object of attention.

So just beginning to notice what if any emotion or feeling tone such as pleasant or unpleasant or just a sense of neutrality is present.

And allowing that to be where you let your attention rest.

So often we can notice emotion or feeling tone resting in the body.

So you might notice if you're finding emotion or feeling resting somewhere in the body.

And if so just being in the experience of that emotion or feeling and just noticing what are the qualities of that emotion.

So for example what is the quality of happy?

Is it warm?

Is it tight?

Is it open?

Does it have a color?

Really getting curious about what the experience of an emotion is that you might be experiencing.

And does this emotion last?

Just noticing its length,

Its duration.

And of course if you find the mind wanting to know why,

Why this emotion,

Why now?

Just coming back to the experience of the emotion.

And in the same way if you find a sense of neutrality,

Being curious about that as well.

What is that experience like?

What are the qualities of that of perhaps the absence of emotion?

That is an experience in just the same way as emotion.

So for this time really settling into this idea of allowing emotion to be your sole focus.

To be all there is right now for you to know about,

To investigate.

So just simply be emotion for these next few moments.

You you you you and so we talk a lot about working with thoughts in a different way and noticing our thoughts and then coming back to the breath or coming back to the body.

And so in this meditation,

We're going to work with thoughts a little bit differently.

We're actually having thoughts be the focus of our attention.

And so just allowing thoughts to be just that,

To be the focus of your attention.

And so just beginning to notice thoughts as they arise.

And you might think of thoughts as soap bubbles just arising.

And you can see them come up and then they just pop as they arise.

And you don't have to get involved with these thoughts.

You don't have to add to them or chase them or know where they came from or where they're going or where they're going.

You can simply just see them arise,

Bubble up and then pop.

They're gone.

So just knowing that we can watch our thoughts,

That our thoughts can be the focus of our attention.

Another way of thinking of working with your thoughts is to imagine that you're on a riverbank and you're just on the shore.

And you might think of your thoughts as boats or rafts going down the river.

And so we can watch our thoughts in that way as well.

Our thoughts are just passing boats,

Passing rafts,

Going down this river.

And sometimes the river is very,

Very busy.

There's lots of traffic on this river.

Just like our minds are very,

Very busy sometimes with lots and lots of thoughts.

And sometimes there's not so much traffic on this river.

There will be periods of just space between the boats.

And we can notice that.

And we can see a thought.

And we can see another thought.

And sometimes we will also notice that we will jump from the shore right onto one of those boats.

And when we notice that,

As soon as we realize that we've jumped from the shore to the boat,

We can just simply jump off the boat back onto the shore.

So when we see that we have stopped watching our thoughts and we have started thinking,

We've started engaging in a story or in analyzing or evaluating,

As soon as we notice that,

That means we've jumped on the boat.

We're on the river.

And we notice that and we just simply jump back on the shore and start observing again,

Start watching our thoughts again.

And of course,

Sure enough,

Eventually we will jump back on another interesting boat.

But we'll recognize that we will just come back to the shore and take up our position of observation once again.

And so in this way,

You can work with simply watching your thoughts without getting caught up in them.

So taking some time here just to do that,

To work with this idea of watching your thoughts.

Of noticing when they arise,

Noticing that they don't hang around forever sometimes and that you can simply watch them go by.

And if you get caught up,

As soon as you notice that,

Coming back to the shore and just beginning to watch again.

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So now we're going to let our thoughts step aside from the center of our attention and we're going to open to awareness.

To an open awareness,

What's called an open or choiceless awareness.

And we're going to just hold all all of these experiences,

These present moment experiences in our awareness.

One way that we can do that is to just begin noticing these experiences as they occur.

So we hold this open awareness by not choosing one single object of our attention,

But allowing any present moment experience to come into our attention.

So,

For example,

You might begin as you begin your meditation,

You might begin to notice that sound arises and that begins to be in your awareness.

And that is in your attention.

And then you might begin to notice,

Huh,

A thought arises.

And you notice that.

And then you notice,

Hmm,

There's a sensation in my knee.

And you begin to notice the qualities of that sensation,

The heat,

The tingling.

And you investigate that experience.

And then perhaps a sound arises in your awareness.

And that moment that is in your awareness.

So this open awareness is the ability to hold all things in your awareness.

Shifting from an experience to an experience.

Not favoring one present moment experience over another.

Not staying with one longer.

Not seeking one out.

Just allowing all things to be held in your attention.

Noticing each as it arises.

Staying with each experience for as long as it lasts.

That is this practice of open awareness.

And as you work with this practice of open awareness,

It might seem confusing or overwhelming in the beginning.

And that's certainly understandable.

And so if you find that occurring,

You can always come back to a single focus of attention.

Such as the breath,

Or the body,

Or sound.

And just allow that to be your focus of attention.

And you can have that as your attention for the remainder of the meditation.

Or you can hold that as your focus of attention.

And then as you're ready,

Open back out to an open awareness.

When you feel more steady.

When your attention feels more steady.

And you feel you can open back out to this open awareness that allows for all experiences.

So my invitation to you for the remainder of the meditation is to work with this idea of open awareness.

And to note that again the experience is simply what it is.

There is no perfect way to practice this.

It's simply noting the rising and falling away of experience.

So if working with that and remembering to come back to a single point of attention.

If that's a better practice for you today.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

As we begin to close this meditation,

I encourage you to come back to a more single focused awareness.

And attention if you have had this expanded open awareness.

So narrowing that lens back down.

Just to an awareness of the breath.

If you have been expanded out to an open awareness.

Just coming back to a focus on the breath.

Just settling in to the breath.

Following the breath in and out of the body.

Just for these final moments.

Just really staying fully,

Fully attentive to the breath as it moves through the body.

Embodying this practice.

Bringing the mind and the body together.

And just taking just one or two last breaths.

Just fully experiencing those breaths.

And then just fully staying with the practice.

Really just the practice of breathing in this moment until you hear the bells completely fade out.

The bell rings.