All Sensory Systems Meditation Challenge

Join Steve for a 90 minute meditation challenge immersing in the inner and outer sensory systems.

In the first hour you will be guided to explore each sense, both inner and outer. In the final thirty minutes you will combine these sensory systems in creative and fast-paced ways.

Recorded live at a retreat in Ojai, California.

Transcript

So just adjusting yourself into whatever position.

Feel free anytime to adjust your position or move in any way like laying down or stretching your legs out.

And you can do this with your eyes open or closed.

You can do any of these techniques with your eyes open or closed.

We're going to see out.

See out.

That means turning our attention to what we can see with our eyes.

And if your eyes are open,

That's whatever is in your visual field.

And if your eyes are closed,

It's back of your eyelids.

You might notice shapes,

Colors,

Shifting,

Etc.

That's see out,

What you can see out of your eyes.

See out.

And you can let your gaze be drawn from place to place.

Or you could relax and defocus your eyes.

Or you could look out at the general visual landscape as a whole.

Doesn't really matter which.

And if you notice thoughts,

Feelings,

Other sensations,

Just allowing them to go on in the background while you see out.

And then switching to see in.

See in.

Turning your attention to the inner visual screen.

The images in your mind,

In your mind's eye.

It may be that you detect vivid,

Clear imagery or moving video-like footage.

Perhaps you just get glimpses of very vague,

Fleeting images.

Or maybe you don't see really much of anything at all.

In which case you can just pay attention to the visual space,

The screen upon which visual imagery would be projected if there was any you were able to detect.

You may also get a sense of images beneath the surface of conscious awareness,

Sort of rumbling in visual space,

Beneath the threshold of conscious awareness.

And that's fine as well,

You might notice that.

So whether you have very vivid images,

Very vague ones,

Or really find the space somewhat intangible or blank,

That's all good.

If you're drawn away from your inner visual space by thoughts,

Feelings,

Sounds,

Just coming back to see in.

And if you want to label as a way of helping you concentrate,

If you find you're constantly being drawn away and you want to label to help you concentrate,

You could use the word see,

See,

See.

And that's an option.

So for a little while,

See in.

Of memories,

Future plans,

People,

Places,

You might have an image of the room around you.

Sometimes it's,

The space can be somewhat intangible,

Difficult to contact.

If that's the case,

It's all right just to be paying attention to where you think the images might arise if there were any.

Sometimes then you can catch glimpses,

Glimpses of fleeting imagery,

Other times not.

Good.

And then turning your attention to what you can hear,

To what you can hear,

Hear out the sounds that you hear with your ears.

Once again,

You might hear individual sounds be drawn to one or another,

Or you could just hear the sound of sound,

Tuning in in a sense to the raw sensory data flowing in to your ears before it becomes differentiated by labels,

Categorizations,

Passing apart.

So whether you're drawn to the detail and separation of sounds or the underlying unity of sound,

Both are good.

Hear out.

You you and if you find yourself drawn away by thoughts feelings other sensations just bringing your attention back to what you can hear letting any other sensations go along in the background without push or pull as you return to hear out you you you you you you you you you you you you you you good and then turning your attention to here in here in the inner sounds mr.

Place where you hear internal talk and once again you may have a clear contact with content or it may be somewhat vague fleeting perhaps a sort of subterranean rumbling or maybe you don't hear anything at all that's all fine in that case just resting your attention on the place where you would hear something if there was something so regardless of whether it's clear fuzzy or absent turn your attention to the inner auditory space here in you and turn your attention to feel out feel out that is to say sensations that reveal the presence of your body if you didn't know anything about bodies arms and legs and hands what are the sensations that would reveal its presence feel in is the somatic component of emotional experience such as a sort of feeling of joyful happiness in the chest but we're concerning ourselves right now with feel out for instance the feeling of your hands in your lap or the feeling of your clothing on your skin or the temperature in the room feeling free of course to move your body and adjust your position at any time and feel out feeling the sensations that reveal the presence of your body and once again you may be drawn from sensation to sensation different parts of the body or you might concentrate on one particular part or you could hold the whole body in a sort of global awareness so free-floating specific to an area or global awareness where you hold the sort of whole body at once in your attention whatever works whatever seems interesting or workable you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Good.

And turning your attention to the somatic component,

The bodily component of emotional experience.

Feel in.

You may feel particularly strong activation emotionally in the body for instance.

A joyful happy feeling in the chest or an agitated restless feeling in the base of the body perhaps.

You may also notice a certain neutrality of emotion,

A peaceful neutrality and you can enjoy the restful quality of the absence of strong or active emotional sensations.

So whether it's a strong activation,

A general flavor or neutrality,

The focus range is the same.

Feel in.

Good.

And turning your attention to the somatic component,

The bodily component of emotional experience.

Feel in.

You may feel particularly strong activation emotionally in the body perhaps.

A joyful happy feeling in the chest or an agitated restless feeling in the base of the body perhaps.

Good.

And then focusing on the outer system.

First of all see what you can see out of your eyes whether they're open or closed.

And then hear what you can hear out of your ears.

And then feel sensations that reveal the presence of your body.

See.

Hear.

Feel.

See how cleanly you can redirect your attention.

How smoothly you can let go of the previous focus range,

Allow it to exist in the background.

And how completely or fully you can redirect to the new focus range.

See.

Hear.

Feel.

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Your attention might drift from sensation to sensation,

Or you may have a sort of omnidirectional attention across all of see,

Hear and feel.

Good.

And then turning to the inner system,

Comprising of see in the inner visual space,

Images that appear in the mind's eye,

And hear in the inner auditory space,

Sounds such as the inner monologue,

Songs,

Hear in and feel in,

The somatic component of emotion,

The somatic component of emotion,

The part of emotion that you feel in the body,

Happy feeling in the chest or perhaps a sad feeling in the stomach.

So working exclusively with the inner system.

Let me start with see.

And if there are loud sensations in other focus ranges,

Such as the body sensation or sound,

Just letting that be in the background without push or pull.

No need to try to get rid of it or attend to it particularly.

Just returning your attention to see in,

Letting everything else happen in the background.

To give an example of,

Absolutely all of this bad energy happening in this If you don't detect anything,

It's all right.

Just arrest your attention in the general direction of the inner auditory space.

You could enjoy the restful quality of the absence of inner sound.

You may detect from time to time some activation there.

Perhaps you have a very clear inner activation in herein.

That's all right too.

Feel.

And you might have a strong or clearly defined epicenter of emotional sensation in the body or maybe several.

And you may feel an absence of emotional sensation or neutrality.

That's also fine.

You can enjoy the restful quality of the neutrality or absence.

Resting your attention in the inner feel space,

Regardless of its contents or lack thereof.

Feel in.

See.

Hear.

Feel.

See.

Hear.

Feel.

See how cleanly you can shift your attention from one focus range to the next.

Allowing the previous focus range to go on in the background.

Fully or completely turning your attention to the new focus range.

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Hear.

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The entire inner sensory system,

Your focus range.

You You You You You Good,

And then switching between the inner and outer systems.

Out,

Including see,

Hear,

And feel.

In,

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Hear,

And feel.

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You you you you no limit to your perception no need for distinctions just feeling you you good and bringing this exploration to an end

Reviews

Simple, challenging mindfulness with a great balance of prompting and silence

My second try at this--it unlocked levels of attunement I have blocked off a long time. Grateful for this exposure and ready to try again soon.

Always a great sensory perception workout to practice with GuruViking Steve James!

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Thank you for sharing this, such an interesting experience!

A wonderful, rewarding exploratory meditation. Thank you.

Thanks. It was a great meditation

That was a deeper, more advanced and extremely practical at the same time meditation session. Thanks Steven.

There are very long spaces in between the guided prompts. It worked for me. I can understand how it may not for some but it was great to be able to get into the zone for those long stretches- then he came back for more guidance. I liked his voice too