The following is a guided meditation in which we will explore three types of awareness.
Focused awareness,
Choiceless awareness,
And finally natural awareness.
During this meditation you will experience both guided instruction and longer periods of silence.
These longer periods of silence will allow you to come into direct contact with your own mind,
To begin to know your mind most intimately,
And to gently begin to shape your mind.
So now,
Finding a comfortable posture that allows you to be both alert and relaxed,
And beginning this meditation using your hearing to follow the sound of the bell and allow the sound to begin to focus your mind in the present moment.
Whatever posture your body is currently in,
Whether it be sitting or lying down,
Bring your full awareness into your body.
Making this to be a coming home of sorts.
Coming home into the body,
Touching the felt sense of being here.
Having to do nowhere to be other than right here in this body.
And as you notice the body in this upright,
Alert,
And relaxed posture,
Sense the places in which your body makes contact with the chair or the surface underneath you.
Sense the pressure,
The gravity,
The experience of being held,
Supported.
And as you focus here on the body,
Inevitably you have most likely already made contact with the breath.
Simply finding the breath wherever it's most natural to connect with,
And beginning to bring your attention here.
To this breath.
Now this breath.
Touching the life that's here.
Breathing.
Being open and curious to all of the sensations in each breath cycle.
Feeling the air as it becomes the breath at the nostrils.
Feeling the rise and the fall of your chest,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Feeling the movement of the rib cage expanding and contracting.
Feeling the belly as it fills with air on the in breath and relaxes back as the air moves out on the out breath.
And as the mind wanders away from the breath,
Which it naturally does,
Away from the present moment,
We simply notice this gently returning to the breath in the body.
Feeling this first type of awareness,
Otherwise known as focused awareness.
The mind gets distracted,
Wanders into the past remembering,
Perhaps trying to redo the past.
Or moving into the future.
Planning,
Worrying.
This doesn't have to be a problem.
We simply notice and gently bring the thinking mind back to the breath.
Training the mind using the breath,
Allowing the breath to be the focus,
Breath by breath.
This moment to moment awareness of each breath.
And perhaps by now you notice your mind settling,
A sense of calmness arising.
Perhaps you're aware of the stillness in the body.
And maybe there's a bit more spaciousness in each moment.
And as the mind becomes more settled,
You can begin to shift into choiceless awareness.
Beginning to sense the wholeness of the present moment.
Feeling and allowing everything that can be known to be known.
Noticing the breath and all of the sensations of breathing.
Noticing the body from the top of the head all the way down to the bottoms of the feet.
All of these various internal sensations dancing about.
Tingling,
Vibrating,
Pulsating,
The energy of this body that is alive,
Breathing.
And not needing to focus in any one particular place,
But noticing the many sensations that can be known in any moment.
In this moment.
The breath in the belly.
The softness of the hands.
Feel the pressure at the bottoms of your feet.
Perhaps an itch at your nose.
Moment to moment sensations arising and passing away.
Testing in this mindfulness of the internal world.
Open,
Curious to all that can be known.
And being open,
Available to all of the various sensations internally.
You can also be aware of the external environment.
Bringing all of the sounds in the soundscape.
Bringing mindfulness to this external world.
You notice the impersonal nature of sound.
Coming and going,
Arising and passing away.
And perhaps just as you become aware of the stillness that is the backdrop for sensations in the body,
Perhaps you notice the silence between the sounds.
And just as it's possible to bring awareness to body sensations and breath sounds in the soundscape.
It's also possible to bring this awareness to the thinking mind.
Simply observed just like the breath or the body or sounds,
Thoughts arise and pass away.
No need to get hooked to judge or analyze.
Simply noticing thought as another aspect of what can be known in this present moment.
And as all of the sounds and sensations and thoughts dance about.
At different times,
One or another of these becomes prominent and you notice.
And resting in this equanimity,
The prominent sensation passes away and is replaced by a new arising sensation,
Thought or sound.
And resting in this choiceless awareness,
This receptive knowing,
The effort begins to become effortless.
Resting in this open-minded,
Open-hearted,
Natural awareness,
Where even the knower becomes less prominent.
And everything that is part of each moment can come and go with ease.
This place where everything that is,
Is equal and balanced.
Tranquil and peaceful.
This place,
This moment,
Where life flows through you.
This place,
This moment,
Where life flows through you.
This place,
This moment,
Where life flows through you.
