Just Sitting, Or Choiceless Awareness - Mindfulness Practice

Just Sitting is a wonderful practice which goes to the very heart of meditation, being at peace with our experience in this present moment. It’s best to try this practice once you have some experience of Mindfulness of Breathing.We sit in stillness, without any particular focus for our awareness, allowing whatever comes to the foreground of our awareness to be there, whether pleasant or unpleasant, like clouds passing through the sky of awareness. We are not trying to achieve anything - not to become calm, nor to clear thoughts from our mind. So, we can just *relax* with things as they are. This is the simplest of all meditation practices. And, therefore, not the easiest! Being at peace with whatever is present, just in this moment. If it feels difficult, try a small period of Just Sitting at the end of a practice that you are more comfortable with. Just let go of the focus of your practice, and sit in open awareness for a few minutes.

Transcript

Welcome to this guided meditation. Just sitting. Or choiceless awareness. So to begin settling into our posture. Making any last minute adjustments. So that we can be as comfortable as possible. So that we can sit in stillness. And bringing the awareness to the lower half of the body. And to the places where your weight is supported. Feet on the floor, Maybe the legs on the floor. Where your weight is supported by the cushions or chair. And where the weight of your hands is supported in your lap or on your knees. And having a sense of letting go into these places where your weight is supported. Sense that the body can relax into this support. Having a sense of the posture being like a mountain. With a very stable, Sturdy base, Rising up through the spine to the peak at your head. So that the posture has the qualities of a mountain. Unshakeable, Very sturdy and still. And unchanging as the weather. Changes around the mountain. Clouds and sunshine pass over. And the mountain remains unmoved. So our posture embodies our intention to be relaxed and at the same time alert. Just spending a few more moments aware of the whole body. With the breath coming and going. And awareness of the face. And a sense of letting go of the persona we express through our face. A feeling of the face coming into neutral. That there's no one that we have to be, There's no particular way we have to be. And so now the practice of just sitting or choiceless awareness. . . It's as if we let the awareness zoom right out, So that we have no particular focus. Our awareness is open and spacious. And the practice is very, Very simple. It's simply a practice of being aware. And just noticing it doesn't take any effort to be aware. We're just naturally aware when we're awake. So we just allow whatever arises in awareness to be there. And different things will come to the foreground of our awareness at different times. So that might be sensations in the body. Sounds, Emotions. And of course thoughts. So we're just being aware of things as they arise in awareness, Without clinging to any experience, And nor pushing anything away. Awareness is like the sky. Open and spacious. And different things arise in our awareness, Like clouds passing through the sky. And we're just aware of those clouds arising. And passing through the sky of awareness. And there's no particular state that we're aiming to achieve. We're not trying to empty the mind of thoughts. We're not trying to attain a state of calm. So since we're not striving for any goal, We can just relax with things as they are. So inviting a sense of ease. A sense of welcoming whatever arises in our experience. Whether pleasant or unpleasant, Or maybe neutral. With a gentle sense of kindness towards yourself. Sense of letting go. Letting things be as they are. And the awareness soft, Open, Spacious. We're just being aware of whatever arises in our awareness. Whether it's sensations in the body, Thoughts in the mind. Sounds, Or other sense experience. We have this sense of just observing. Being aware. Of whatever is arising in our awareness. And at some point we'll find that we've been lost in a train of thought. So for the last, However, Maybe a few seconds, Maybe minutes. We realise that we have been lost in thought. And that's absolutely fine. It's just what our minds naturally do. But at that point, We just make a clear decision not to follow that train of thought. So we're not trying to stop that happening in the practice. But just when it does happen, We decide not to follow the train of thought. And we come back to awareness of thought. So thoughts will be floating around in our mind. That's absolutely fine. We're not trying to get rid of thoughts. We're not trying to stop ourselves getting lost in thought, But just when we notice that we've stopped being aware, Our awareness has got lost in thought. Just at that moment, We make a decision to come back to this sense of being aware, Of observing. And that can include observing thoughts. A sense of not being interested in thoughts, Just for the duration of this practice. Thoughts are like mental events. And for the practice, We're just not interested in the content of thoughts. A sense of embracing our whole experience, Just as it is. Not pushing away any part of our experience that is unpleasant. And nor clinging to any part of our experience that is pleasant. A sense of just letting our experience unfold moment to moment. And we just. . . Being aware. Of whatever is arising. A sense of not identifying with our experience. Not being attached. To our experience. Either positive or negative. But rather this sense of observing. Or witnessing our experience. Like watching clouds float through the vast, Spacious sky. A sense of relaxing and letting go with things just as they are, Moment to moment. Thank you. A sense of being with our experience, Just as it is. Not trying to change anything. Allowing everything to be just as it is. And we'll close this practice with a quote from the Buddhist teacher Ajahn Chah. Do everything with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little, You'll have a little peace. If you let go a lot. You'll have a lot of peace. If you let go completely. You'll have complete peace.