Mindful Yogi: How To Experience The Present And The Eternal

Using simple and effective techniques of mindfulness, experience the union of sound and silence, form and emptiness, movement and stillness, time and timelessness, the limited and the unlimited, the present and the eternal, the mundane and the ineffable. (With a background of birdsong.)

Transcript

So the first part of the meditation is just to go through some fairly standard mindfulness practices,

Different ways to be more present and more aware of what's happening in this moment,

So not trying to create an experience,

Just exploring what's already happening.

So if we begin with the body,

And become aware of your body,

Noticing how the body is always in the present moment,

Always directly connected to its immediate environment.

As we bring the awareness to the body,

We're allowing ourselves to really settle into being in the present moment.

I like to just scan through the body,

Just be aware of the sensations that are there,

And feel the weight of my whole body,

And begin to allow the body to relax,

To let go of any tension,

Just allowing my body to be completely supported and held.

As the body relaxes,

That really allows me to be more present with the body.

So settling into the body,

Allowing yourself to fully arrive into your immediate environment by being with the body.

And feeling all those points of contact with the body,

So contact with the chair,

Or if you're lying down on the floor or the bed,

Contacting the floor and your feet,

Contact with your clothing,

Or maybe even the air on your skin,

Just having to scan through the body,

Noticing all the parts of the body that are in contact with something,

Feeling that sensation of connection,

So really emphasising and feeling how connected the body is with your environment and with this present moment.

And as the body settles down,

And as I bring the awareness to the body,

I think quite naturally after a short while,

I start to become more aware of the breath in the body,

So really feel the sensations of the breath in the body.

With the awareness of each in-breath,

You can really feel like you're bringing your awareness into the present moment,

As you're aware of the breath coming into the body,

So every breath a reminder to enter into the present moment.

So there's a sense of alertness,

Of actively engaging with the body,

With the breath,

And with the present moment.

And with the out-breath,

There can be a sense of letting go,

Relaxing into the present moment,

And allowing yourself to become more present by easing into being with the breath,

The released out-breath,

And being in the relaxed body.

A feeling of really settling into the body,

Into the breath,

And relaxing into the present moment.

So,

With the awareness of each in-breath,

You can really feel the awareness of the breath coming into the body.

And see if you can really just enjoy the simplicity of being present with the body,

With the breath,

Beginning to explore the present moment.

And keeping your awareness nice and light and open,

No sense of concentrating or focusing,

Opening up the awareness and allowing everything of the present moment to be within your open awareness.

And we can include how we're feeling and our thoughts within this open space of awareness.

So don't ignore your thoughts,

Don't try and stop or change your thoughts.

And try and move away from thoughts,

Just allow them to be there in your awareness,

Alongside running parallel with your breath,

Sensations of the body and how you're feeling.

So we're just gradually building up a picture and experience of all the various aspects that make up the present moment.

The body,

The breath,

Our emotions,

How we feel and the thoughts coming and going.

So adding the dimension of sound into our building picture of the present moment.

Spending a few moments paying particular interest to all the sounds you can hear,

Near and far,

Quiet and loud,

Occasional continuous sounds.

Just explore all the sounds of your environment and include these sounds now also in your open awareness,

Another aspect of what's happening in this present moment.

So now we can just let our attention and our awareness roam freely anywhere within this present moment,

So you may notice a sound,

You may take a slightly deeper breath and feel the breath in the body,

A particular thought may grab your attention,

You may notice a sensation in the body or an emotion bubbling away in the background and then another thought or another sound may grab your attention.

See if you can allow your attention and your awareness to move freely from one thing to the next,

One moment to the next.

So this idea of a choiceless awareness,

Of not choosing something to focus on,

But just noticing where your awareness moves within this present moment.

And then seeing if you can get a sense of the present moment as one whole thing,

One whole experience,

So composed of sensations,

Breath,

Thoughts,

Emotions,

Sounds,

Aspects of your inner world and of your outer environment.

See if you can get a sense of the wholeness of the present moment and all these different things just happening within and part of the present moment,

Getting a sense of the whole moment as one experience,

So holding the whole present moment within your open awareness.

So if you are inside something,

For example inside a room,

You can see the whole thing and have a partial view,

A partial experience of that room.

If you were to step outside and go above and beyond,

You could look down and see the whole room,

Like a bird's eye view.

The idea is if we can allow ourselves to experience the totality of the present moment,

So not a partial experience of one bit or another,

But if we can feel and experience the whole present moment,

Then that means we must be outside in the present moment.

So that's why,

For example,

When listening to sounds,

We can begin to feel a real inner quietness and inner silence.

So listen completely and attentively to all sounds,

Puts us outside of sound,

Puts us into a space of silence.

If I keep my awareness nice and light and open,

Holding everything of the present moment within it,

And with patience and time I can also begin to sense silence as well as sounds.

Seeing that space of my awareness as being a silent space within which sounds can come and go.

If I get a sense of all the things that are changing from moment to moment,

The sounds changing each moment,

The changing of the breath,

Thoughts,

Sensations in the body,

Little micro changes happening internally and externally,

Moment by moment,

A sense of the flow of time,

The flow of change.

If I can hold all of these changes within my open awareness,

I can also begin to get a sense of the changeless,

The timeless,

The eternal.

So that light,

Open awareness is silent and timeless,

Changeless,

All sound,

All change happening within it.

Another aspect of the nature of this open awareness is the feeling of emptiness.

All objects or forms existing within my awareness,

As I hold all of these gently within my open awareness,

Including my own body,

I can get a sense of that emptiness that is holding all these things.

An empty,

Silent and timeless awareness.

I am getting a sense of all the different forms of movement.

Movement within the present moment,

Movement of my own thoughts,

Movement of the breath,

Movement of sound vibrations,

Movement from moment to moment,

Holding all this movement within my open awareness,

I can get a sense of the stillness,

The stillness within which all movements occur.

My open awareness is still,

Silent,

Timeless,

Empty.

The final aspect of the present moment that we will look at in this meditation is experiencing how everything is limited,

Body,

Thoughts,

Sounds,

Breath,

All working and occurring within our own limits.

The open awareness within which all these limited experiences happen is unlimited.

I can experience the limited experiences of the present moment,

But also experience them happening within my unlimited awareness.

So the yogi,

The mindful yogi,

Is in that unique position to experience sounds,

Sounds and silence,

Simultaneously the sounds happening within silence,

Movement happening within stillness.

Time and change passing within the timeless,

The changeless,

The eternal,

Unlimited happening within the unlimited.

The present moment happening within the eternal.

Bringing together into one experience the physical and the spiritual,

The mundane and the divine.

I'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary before we finish.

Enjoying that presence,

Being present within the open awareness.

I'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary before we finish.

I'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary before we finish.

I'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary before we finish.

I'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary before we finish.

I'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary before we finish.

Just a few moments more,

Just really enjoy the simplicity of allowing yourself to just be present,

Holding the whole present moment within a light and open,

Easy awareness.

Okay,

So we'll start to bring the meditation to a close.

You've drifted away into the depth of the silence,

The stillness,

The timeless,

The unlimited.

Just gradually bring yourself back,

Feel the breath in the body,

Feel the body in contact with the chair,

The floor,

Feel the weight of the body.

You take a couple of deeper breaths in,

Bring yourself back into the body,

Have a bit of a stretch and just open your eyes in your own time when you feel ready.