Choiceless Awareness (MBSR)

Using objects of concentration first to then rest in the flow of awareness. Periods of silence allow you to gently rest in awareness without interruption.

Transcript

The following is a 30-minute meditation on choiceless awareness.

Let's begin this meditation by bringing awareness to our entire body.

And particularly to our body in the sitting position.

You may find it helpful to begin with narrowing your awareness and coming directly into your feet if your feet are making contact with the floor or if your legs are crossed and folded noticing the sensations that your legs make as they make contact with the cushion.

Whatever position you're sitting in just beginning by bringing our awareness to this lower half of our body.

Noticing the sensations that are currently arising and passing whatever's here.

And we can bring awareness up into the upper portion of our body noticing perhaps the straightness of your back.

Noticing the way your hands make contact with your knees or if they're clasped together noticing the sensations that arise as they touch each other.

And notice in your face this time from the inside out so often we're used to staring at our face in a mirror often not being very kind.

This is an opportunity just to become aware of our face from the inside out.

And then broadening our awareness out again to just be in our whole body.

Just being here in the sitting posture.

Just breathing.

And as we sit it's possible to also begin to be aware of the stillness.

Just bringing awareness to the stillness.

And as we do this it's possible to begin to notice the movement of the breath.

This movement of the breath against the backdrop of the stillness of the body.

Feeling the fullness of each breath cycle.

This breath arises and passes.

And then the next breath arises and passes.

It's possible just to sit in this seat of awareness and receive each breath as it comes.

Letting go of control and allowing each breath to come as it is.

And then the next breath arises and passes.

And then the next breath passes.

And as the stillness settles into our body and the breath slows and quiets,

It's possible to notice that perhaps our mind is beginning to get just a little bit quieter.

We'll never stop producing thought but it's possible for it just to slow down just a little bit.

And now as we sit in the stillness just breathing we can expand our awareness out into the spaciousness to include the sounds of the soundscape.

Sounds that are very close and possibly even internally to the sounds around us nearby and even the sounds that are in the distance.

We can broaden our awareness to include the entire soundscape including the silences between the sounds.

And just as we can broaden our awareness to include this entire soundscape we can also expand our awareness to include all of the thoughts that arise and pass in our thinking mind and to include any feelings that arise and pass.

Awareness is flexible enough to include everything that arises and is part of this present moment.

And it's possible to rest in this seat of awareness and receive everything just as it is in just this moment.

And if you find yourself being pulled into a particular thought train leaving the present moment,

Getting lost in the past or imagining the future,

It's very skillful just to notice this and then return your awareness to the spaciousness of the moment.

Shifting from this myopic tunnel vision of being caught in a thought.

Really just expanding out to come back into this moment and all that is arising and passing,

All that's present here.

Another choice you might make is to skillfully return to more of a narrow focus on the breath.

Just to re-anchor,

Re-ground and then return to the spaciousness of the full present moment.

Either of these are very skillful means to come back to the present moment.

Receiving and accepting life just as it is right now.

Thank you.

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As we rest in this choiceless awareness,

We receive each breath as it comes.

Body sensation,

Sound,

Thought.

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Each arises and passes in its own time.

Life comes,

Goes,

Each moment by moment.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

And we can receive each one of these moments just as it is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Perfect mix of talking and silence Beautifully led, thank you!

I love your 30 min meditations and Ibkdep coming back. Thank you!❤️

Thank you!

Love the spaciousness. Just the right amount of guidance. Audio value could be better but that wasn’t an issue for me. I’ll be back!

Wonderful!

This particular mix of guidance, silence and duration seemed perfect for me this evening. Much thanks!

This meditation is a gift.

A gentle, spacious practice with a balance of guidance and silence. Thankyou.

Perfect! Very little taking with the perfect queues! Thank you. One of the best

I finally found what I needed! Great instructions to set up the session, few words in the middle to help to bring back focus and plenty of silence to meditate. Thank you!

Great stillness!

Love, love, love this! I will be coming back multiple times this was wonderful! Thank you

I appreciate your very quiet and unrushed approach. The open spaces were all very nice, and I like the way you affirmed drifting off in thought, and returning to the breath, very simply. Thank you for this. May you know that you have given all of us a beautiful gift, and may you rest in that peace.

A lovely quiet meditation. Leaves you to it with occasional reminders to come back to the present.

Exactly what I needed!

Excellent–I like that lots of space is provided for silent awareness.

Brilliant mindfulness exercise which offers ample silence , the latter getting rare on IT

I like the long silences. Maybe there could be a bit more instruction when passing to the choiceless awareness section. Thank you... May you be happy and peaceful...

Grateful for this gentle guidance.

Love this mediation. Calming and quiet a perfect way to start my day! Thank you. 🙏