MIDL 02/36: Insight Meditation: The Four Elements

Stephen Procter guides you in the insight meditation skill of training your mind to perceive the four elemental qualities as a range of: Earth: softness-hardness, Fire: coolness-warmth, Water: dryness-wetness, Air: contraction-expansion. The development of this insight technique will allow you to experience your body, emotions, thoughts, memories etc. without judging or controlling them, thereby training your mind to let go of control in all aspects of your life. Support articles and instructions for this guided meditation can be found in the Free Online MIDL Insight Meditation Course by checking Stephens Procter's teacher profile.

Transcript

During this mindfulness training we're going to develop our sensitivity to the elemental qualities within our body.

Taking a meditation posture.

Now close your eyes over lightly and start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here.

Becoming aware of any sounds around you.

And allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

And allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Now gently bringing your awareness to your body.

Becoming aware of what it feels like just to sit here.

Becoming aware of any warmth or coolness within your body.

Feeling them gently in mind.

Also become aware of the touch of your hands.

And the pressure of your body as it rests on the chair on the floor.

Grounding.

And I'd like you to observe if you can experience any warmth within your body.

And if you can experience warmth within your body bring your awareness to it and silently say warm,

Warm.

What does warmth feel like?

Shelter,

Support,

Mixture,

Rest.

Now bring your awareness back to your whole body just sitting here.

Now I'd like you to observe if you can experience any coolness within your body.

If you can experience coolness within your body bring your awareness to it and silently say cool cool.

What does coolness feel like?

Now bring your awareness back to the experience of your body and just sitting here.

Now I'd like you to bring your awareness to a point of touch.

If you can experience hardness bring your awareness to it and silently say hard hard.

What does hardness feel like?

What does hardness feel like?

Now I'd like you to observe if you can experience softness within that point of touch.

If you can experience softness bring your awareness to it and silently say soft soft.

What does softness feel like?

What does softness feel like?

Now bringing your awareness to the touch of your lips.

I'd like you to observe if you can experience any dryness there.

If you can experience dryness bring your awareness to it and silently say dry dry.

What does dryness feel like?

What does dryness feel like?

What does dryness feel like?

What does dryness feel like?

What does dryness feel like?

Now bring your awareness to inside your mouth.

And I'd like you to observe if you can experience any wetness there.

If you can experience wetness bring your awareness to it and silently say wet wet.

What does wetness feel like?

What does wetness feel like?

Now bring your awareness back to the experience of your body and just sitting here.

Now bring your awareness back to the experience of your body and just sitting here.

Now I'd like you to observe if you can experience any tension within your body.

If you can experience tension then bring your awareness to it and silently say tense tense.

What does tension feel like?

What does tension feel like?

Now relaxing your chest and belly allow your breathing to flow freely and naturally within your body.

What does tension feel like?

What does tension feel like?

I'd like you to observe if you can experience movement within your breathing.

If you can experience movement then bring your awareness to it and silently say tense tense.

If you can experience movement then bring your awareness to it and silently say moving moving.

What does movement feel like?

What does movement feel like?

As your body relaxes notice the general feeling of heavy breathing.

As your body relaxes notice the general feeling of heaviness throughout your body.

If you can observe heaviness within your body then bring your awareness to it and silently say heavy heavy.

What does heaviness feel like?

What does heaviness feel like?

What does heaviness feel like?

Now start to observe all the different sensations within your body.

The sensations of warmth,

Of coolness,

Of hardness,

Of softness.

The sensations of dryness and wetness.

The sensation of movement and heaviness.

Your whole body is just sensations.

Your whole body is just sensations.

Your whole body is just sensations.

Your whole body is just sensations.

Now coming back again to the experience of just sitting here.

And opening to any sounds around you.

Allowing the sounds to come into you.

And when you're ready you can gently open your eyes.

Thank you for spending this time with me.

Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.

Goodbye.

Reviews

Very well thought out. A good lesson as a step towards midl

Thank you for holding the space for me to explore presence Stephen. I find your meditations so helpful in navigating the things I encounter in my life. 💕

Excellent meditation 🙏

I've never taken the time to explore those qualities before, thank you! Thank you for this course!

Useful, easy to be hooked, not stcky. Thanks so much for sharing

A very interesting practise. I found it supportive and relaxing, thank you Stephen.

Amazing! Thanks 🙏🏻

Thank you for creating this series. My progress is slow but rich.

Thank you Stephen for teaching me to be more mindful and making it an ongoing part of my meditation practice and daily life.

Thank you very much

Very good drawing our attention deep into the various sensations in the body, and relaxing.
Thankyou Stephen

The meditation was grounding for me. I appreciate you allowing the time to carry this feeling of inner connectedness throughout the day.
I am truly grateful.

Love this! - Thank you so much!🌹

Excellent mindfulness / awareness of bodily sensations. Requires strong concentration (for me at least :).

Nice deepening of contact with bodily sensations.

I continue to become familiar with the nuances in my body that I didn’t realize existed.
How wonderful it is to carry this with me throughout my day.
🙏🏼❤️🌞

One of the most insightful meditations I’ve had. Getting a whole new experience of the elements. Thank you!

Thank you for this meditation. As someone who often struggles to make the difference between sensations and feelings, this session really helps me ground at the level of sensations. It really is a pleasure weeks after weeks to look within and to connect with myself.

Thanks again for this excellent meditation!

Very valuable meditation, I think that having all these elemental qualities to look out for will definitely help me be more mindful of the body throughout the day. I do always wonder though, what does it mean that as soon as I settle in to meditate for any length of time, I get an itchy nose, or something else. If I ignore it, it goes away eventually, but if I scratch it then all hell breaks lose - everything begins to be itchy one after another.... Body trying to avoid being still? Would itchiness be considered an elemental quality? 😕
Thank you for this illuminating instruction! 🙏

A revealing tour of body sensations. Thank you!

Fantastic led meditation
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