MIDL 28/36: Insight Meditation: Mindfulness Of Awareness

In this meditation, Stephen Procter will guide you in the insight meditation skill of observing the experience of mindfulness by being mindfully aware of being aware. The ability to be aware of being aware is the foundation for insight into the autonomous (anatta) nature of the six sense fields and of awareness itself. 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

And during this mindfulness training we will develop the skill of remembering awareness.

Being aware of being aware.

If you just start out by taking your meditation posture.

Now closing your eyes over lightly.

Start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here.

If you mean the next few minutes before,

And stop trying to read the room as you start And becoming aware of any sounds around you.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

And slowly bringing awareness into your body.

Aware of any warmth or coolness within your body,

Holding them gently in mind.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Also becoming aware of the touch of your hands.

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

Your whole body just sitting here.

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

Using a few slow softening breaths out through your nose.

Allow your awareness to start to relax into your body.

Relaxing deeply into your body.

Allowing the awareness to flow into your body,

Filling it like water.

Sinking deeply in.

Becoming very present within your body.

Allowing the awareness to flow into your body.

Start to notice the feeling of this presence.

The feeling of this awareness within your body.

Allowing the awareness to flow into your body.

Gradually become more aware of this stream of remembering.

This stream of awareness.

This stream of awareness.

Notice how awareness is a stream of remembering.

Towards remembering that you are just sitting here.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Start to be aware of any little pulls of your attention away from this remembering.

Notice how attention naturally shifts towards sounds,

Towards thoughts.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

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

The feeling of your whole body as it breathes.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Gradually bring your awareness into your body as it breathes.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Allowing your awareness to relax into the breathing.

Deeply into the breath,

Into the body.

Deeply into the breath,

Into the body.

Softening awareness deeper into your breathing.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Now gently change your focus from being aware of your breathing to being aware of awareness itself.

Being aware of the sense of presence around the breathing.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

There is your breathing.

There is awareness of it.

And there is your awareness of that awareness.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Start to notice the effort to remember that awareness.

The effort to remember,

To remember that you are just sitting here.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

To remember,

To remember this field of awareness.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Notice how awareness is a stream of remembering.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Observe how you have to apply effort towards remembering.

Towards remembering that you are just sitting here breathing.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Gradually become more aware of this stream of remembering.

This stream of awareness.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Now start to widen your awareness beyond your body.

Opening to the experience of all your senses.

Opening to sounds,

Sensations,

Smells,

Thoughts and memories.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Notice your awareness of these senses start to grow.

And gently softening your awareness into the experience of your senses.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Start to notice this feeling of presence,

This awareness.

Flowing within your senses.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Soften ever deeper into this field of experience.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Now gently change your focus from being aware of your senses.

To being aware of awareness itself.

Aware of that sense of presence.

Just here.

There is your sensory experience.

There is the awareness of it.

A field of presence.

Gently soften,

Relax into this field.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Notice how this awareness is a stream of remembering.

Gently focusing on this continuous stream.

This stream of awareness itself.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Focusing on this continuous stream.

Now gently coming back into your body.

Just sitting here.

And start to be aware of any sounds around you.

Allowing these sounds to come into you.

And when you're ready,

You can gently open your eyes.

Thank you for spending this time meditating with me.

Take care of yourself and have a wonderful day.

And goodbye.

Reviews

Wonderful. Thank you.

You keep bringing the teaching, thank you! Awareness is being here now! I never really connected those before, thank you! I hope this finds you and yours well!

This is a wonderful practice. I can't even describe how deep this is. But it is definitely not for beginners. I have committed to Stephen's midl training (mindfulness in daily life) on a daily basis for 43 weeks. This has deepened my practice and my understanding of mindfulness meditation enormously. Since the lockdown, I have the unspeakably beneficial opportunity to get personal instructions from Stephen via zoom. I am so grateful that this is possible. There are group classes on a weekly basis for students from all around the globe. If you want to understand more about mindfulness and to deepen your practice, please visit Stephen's website: www.midlmeditation.com. You won't regret it.

Each morning that I’ve done this, I’ve had a slightly different experience. The first time was profound, my awareness of my awareness was so light that it moved easily between perspectives. The next day, I found myself being drawn into thinking and was disappointed with myself. Today, it occurred to me that I was aware of the different ways and parts of me and that I was able to be aware of each one as they did their thing, aware of the body, aware of the thoughts, aware of expanding outward.

This meditation opens to me bit by bit. Thank you Stephen!

Very interesting but it was hard I don’t know if I’m doing it right

Is This remembering of awareness the Same as “seeing” my focus. Sometimes steady And Sometimes all over.

And is This “seeing” a state of mindfull(ness)

Whoa! That was profound.
Having a hard time finding the words for that experience. I'll think about it and update.
Thanks Stephen. 😁🙏 deep bow.
Staying with this a second week, I keep learning more.

What a wonderful journey. I am not quite sure if I was able to get to be the complete observer the first time around, but I will be practicing to be moving forward. Thank you

Fantastic, deep, letting distinctive levels of awareness grow. I will repeat this exercise.

Hi Stephen. I had a similar experience to Sandy. I find this lesson difficult and will need to stay with it a while. Awareness of awareness is like being outside my body watching myself being aware. A little like watching the villagers from afar. Thank you for your teaching. It is bringing calmness.

Thank you for another excellent lesson, deepening my awareness of being aware. I am experiencing this practice carrying over into my daily life more than ever now.

I noticed during this meditation that I was repeating “remembering awareness “, “remembering awareness “ as I was aware of my body and breath sensations and then expanding awareness outward.also as I expand my awareness outward I can feel more effort in my body and mind. When my attention is in my body I think of my awareness as very light like a feather. I wonder if I can learn to do this with a wider awareness. My awareness went very wide from my house to my neighborhood to eventually the whole universe. Is that too much?

As always, I've enjoyed it lots. I'd also like to mention now that your training has had great benefits on my rather bombarded (bipolar) mind. You helped me learn to stop though processes when I need it most, and also the added blessing of experiencing that inner quite, comforting place... Namaste Stephen 🙏. Thank you so much, blessings and Metta to you.

Profoundly intuitive as I have found all of these sessions to be 🙏

So simple, so powerful. So peaceful.

Truly awesome! It will take some practice to get my mind around this.
I experienced a period of peace that I have not had before....
As always, with gratitude
Namaskar

challenging. Thank you.

Thank you so much for this wonderful guidance, so refreshing and clearing body and mind 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

This was good. A little like an out of body experience where I watched myself breathing and being aware.
At times my mind wandered but I then remembered being aware of my body.
Will practice this again. Thank you Stephen.