MIDL 31/36: Insight Meditation: Mindfulness Of Smelling

In this meditation, Stephen Procter will guide you in the insight meditation skill of observing the autonomous (anatta) nature of the process of smelling and how to relax the effort of attention that supports it. As insight develops your mind will weaken its identification with what you smell and thereby more easily let go of tendencies of your mind to be attracted and averse towards what you smell in daily 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

Hello,

My name is Stephen Proctor.

In this guided mindfulness meditation,

Number 43,

We're going to be practicing mindfulness of the third of the six sense doors,

The sense door of smell.

To do this you'll need some incense or oil burner or something that creates a scent.

So if you just pause the meditation at this point and go and organize that and then we can begin.

So start out by taking a meditation posture.

Just light your incense or start up the oil burner and have it in a position near you.

Be careful not to start a fire.

Now taking a meditation posture either seated or lying down.

Close your eyes over lightly.

Relax your jaw and place your tongue behind your two top teeth.

Now take a deep breath in and as you're breathing out just allow yourself to relax.

Start off developing some presence by anchoring your awareness within your body.

Just start out being aware of the feeling of your body sitting or lying down.

Start to notice that throughout your body is a feeling of heaviness.

Hold that feeling of heaviness in mind continuously and notice any time your attention wanders away from it.

Now take a deep breath in and as you're breathing out just allow yourself to relax.

Now start to be aware of the different sensations within your body.

Can you notice any warmth within your body?

Can you notice any warmth within your body?

Can you experience a sensation of coolness within your body?

Can you experience a sensation of coolness within your body?

Notice wherever your body is touching something you may experience the sensation of hardness or softness.

Anchored on all the different sensations you can experience.

Now take a deep breath in and as you're breathing out just allow yourself to relax.

Start to be aware of the movement of the breathing within your body.

Not controlling it in any way be aware of it coming from the tip of the nose moving through your chest deep down into your belly and as it goes all the way back out again.

Start to notice it as your breath comes in your body expands outwards moving outwards into the world like a balloon filling up with air.

Notice it as the breath goes out your body contracts back to your heart center again.

As the breath comes in your body expands out into the world as the breath goes out it contracts back again.

Notice how as your body expands and contracts the borders of your body start to disappear.

Your breathing expands out and fills the whole room.

Now bring your awareness to the tip of your nose.

Notice each time as the breath comes in the sense of smell arises the smell of the incense oil.

Notice the change in the smell between when the breath comes in and when it goes out.

Notice the change in the smell between when the breath comes in and when it goes out.

Notice how as your breath comes in and out the sense of smell is very present.

Notice how being aware of that sense of smell keeps you very very present.

Notice how as your breath comes in and out the sense of smell is very present.

Now after being aware of the breath coming in and the sense of smell as it arises.

Notice how the sense of smell dissolves it collapses as the breath goes out.

In particular pay as much attention as possible to the change within the smell and the breath.

The smell arises and is strong on the in-breath and dissolves on the out-breath.

Be aware of these four changes for the full length of the in-breath and the full length of the out-breath.

Notice how the sense of smell is very present.

Now start to notice can you experience the smell within your mouth.

What does it feel like to experience smell within your mouth?

Follow the breath down into your body.

Notice as the smell goes through your nose moving down your throat into your chest.

Experience the smell as it goes all the way in and the change as it goes all the way out.

Can you experience the smell deep into your belly?

Now start being aware that when the breath comes in your body expands outwards.

Notice that when the body expands outwards the smell fills it permeates every cell of your body.

Notice you can experience the smell as it goes outwards.

Notice you can experience the smell expanding out filling the room.

Each in-breath expanding the smell outwards.

Each out-breath contracting the smell back into you.

Allow your whole body to immerse with the smell.

Allow yourself to become the smell.

Notice how the sense of smell affects your whole body.

Notice the effect the sense of smell has on your mind.

Notice how the sense of smell affects your whole body.

Notice how the sense of smell affects your whole body.

With each in-breath expand out into the room.

Every time the breath goes out allowing yourself to sink inwards to the heart center.

Allow this contraction inwards to bring you deeper.

Then deeper into the heart center.

Softening deeper into stillness and peace.

Notice how the sense of smell affects your whole body.

Notice how the sense of smell affects your whole body.

With each in-breath expand out into the room.

With each out-breath expand out into the room.

Now bring your awareness back into your body.

Be aware of the feeling of heaviness throughout your body.

Anchor your awareness in the feeling of touch,

The hardness,

The softness,

The pressure.

Having cultivated this foundation of mindfulness of body I'd like you to carry it into your everyday life.

So see if you can keep it in mind even when we come out of this formal seated meditation.

Now widen your awareness and start to be aware of any sounds around you.

Allow the sounds to come into you and don't go out to them.

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

Be aware of the experience of seeing.

Notice how the world has just appeared to you.

The five sense doors are the doorway between our awareness and the world.

The world that we know can only be experienced through five doors,

Through sight,

Sound,

Smell,

Taste and touch.

These five doors are always present.

The experience at the doors are always right here,

Right now.

Any of these five doors can be used during seated mindfulness meditation and they can also equally be used during everyday life.

Because these five doors can only be experienced right now,

The experience of them is an anchor,

A reference point to the present.

While the mind travels between three different realities,

The reality of the past,

The reality of the present and the reality of the future.

The experience of our body and the experience of the five sense doors can only be experienced in the present.

So using them during formal meditation training and for mindfulness in everyday life,

Literally coming to your senses,

Will anchor you in the present,

Anchor you in reality.

Protect you from the ups and downs in life and provide an anchor for training the mind.

Today we use the sense of smell as that anchor.

Notice,

Even now,

That we're just sitting here listening to this,

That if your incense or oil is still burning,

If you bring your presence,

Be aware of that sense of smell,

Without commentary,

Without thinking about it.

Bringing presence within your body,

It anchors your awareness,

It holds you right here,

Right now and it dissolves past and future.

Once again,

Thank you for spending this time with me.

Take care of yourself and goodbye.

Reviews

Amazing meditation using the smell as an anchor to be present. Thankyou so much

Excellent

Another great meditation on awareness! Thank you! Blessings for you and yours!

An interesting meditation that I’m finding quite challenging. It may be that I don’t have anything scented in the house, and, because of lockdown, can’t go and buy something, so I’m using the smells that are around me, the morning air coming through the window, and smells within the house, but I’m finding it difficult to remain present. I wonder though whether it’s because I am quite sensitive to smell, and am used to finding many smells aversive, and so am avoiding it, or whether we simply have a natural preference for different senses?

OMG I LOVED this one, it’s so relaxing I started doing meta after, thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you Stephen. Continuing to practice with using the senses to stay in the present. This one took a little bit more organizing before finding the right balance between time and the distance of intensity coming from the incense. As always I am very enjoying the entire process...

Very good Stephen, thank you.

Thank you as always, Stephen.

Thanks Stephen.....it was so interesting to be aware of the taste of a smell. It opened up new ideas....and what a lovely lucid explanation of the awareness of senses in MIDL at the end.
Namaste 🙏🏻🕉

My favorite of this series so far. Interesting and instructive.

Fantastic! Couldn't have been better.

Magical experience, thank you

Imagine my delight to discover I've been using scent all along as an anchor. I light incense every time I sit but now I'll be more mindful of the scent permeating through my body. I am also a big fan of scented candles and incense in my house. Another delightful way to be present during the day. Thank you Stephen. Another wonderful lesson.

My longest meditation ever!