Settling into a relaxed and alert,
Awake posture,
Allowing the eyes to close
gently or have your gaze on the floor in front of you.
Just recalling the
attitudes of beginner's mind,
Being open to not knowing what to do or what to
expect,
Not judging whatever happens,
The attitudes of patience,
Non-striving,
Acceptance and trust,
Letting be.
Letting go of any conceptions about what should or
shouldn't happen while we meditate.
I'm not trying to make anything in
particular happen.
Allowing each moment to be as it is,
Not wanting anything to
be different than it is in this moment.
Coming out of the head and into the body,
Allowing the body to settle.
We'll begin by noticing our feet,
Allowing your
attention to go directly down from the usual place where it resides in the head
and going down to the body to the feet.
Being with the feet as if seeing them
for the first time,
Sensing into and feeling whatever sensations are present
in the feet.
Really feeling the feet just as they are and perhaps noticing the touch
of the feet on the floor or the cushion,
The touch of socks or slippers,
Perhaps the air
on the feet.
Just noticing whatever's there.
If you find it helpful,
You might also notice
the breath in the background.
The breath can also act as your background anchor.
It can be
either at the nostrils,
The chest or the belly.
Shifting the focus of attention to the hand,
Not the concept of your hands,
But a direct engagement with the sensations in the hands.
Sensing directly into your immediate bare experience of the hands.
And of course,
Other experiences may come to the fore,
Grab your attention.
Perhaps your mind may
wander off in thoughts.
This is quite normal.
Don't be surprised if this happens.
Gently notice
perhaps where your attention went and without any worry or anxiety,
But rather with patience
and kindness,
Escorting your attention gently back to the hands.
Perhaps remembering that this
is a moment of mindfulness.
It's part of the training of the mind that we're undertaking here.
Just resting again with attention on the hands and if it's helpful,
With some background attention on the breath.
Being with the bare experience,
The immediate experience of the hands before the mind jumps in with commentary and interpretation.
Bringing that beginner's mind to the sensation,
The experiential feelings of sensations in the hands.
Then letting go of the hands as a focus of attention and drawing attention up to the face,
Feeling the forehead,
The cheeks,
The jaw,
The lips,
The eyes,
And the area around the eyes and the forehead without judging or interpreting.
Just being fully with whatever is arising as sensations in the area of the face,
Allowing yourself to experience directly whatever's arising in the face area.
If you're noticing any tension or tightness in any areas of the face,
Perhaps the jaw or around the eyes or the forehead,
Seeing if you can be with those sensations without thinking or reacting,
Simply just being with the bare sensation.
Bringing the beginner's mind,
The don't-know mind,
Nothing to figure out,
Simply an intimacy with the face.
Expanding attention,
Including in your awareness the entire body,
Just opening the lenses wide enough to include the entire body,
Whatever sensations arise into awareness.
Just listening deeply,
Allowing everything to come and go,
Shining the light of awareness directly on what's strongest or loudest as a sensation in the entire body.
Letting go of any concept of the body and falling into an experiential feeling,
Sensing of the body sitting here.
Letting go of the mind and intuitively sensing the body and feeling rather than thinking.
As we relinquish the conceptual knowing,
We can fall into experiential knowing,
Coming into a mode of simply being,
Of allowing ourselves to be,
Of becoming aware of our being,
Of recognizing our ground,
Our essential nature.
Just settling into this awareness of the body here and now.
This is a different way to take in the moment,
Not the conventional way,
A way to receive the moment without grasping,
Without struggle,
With the beginner's mind.
Noticing how you receive my voice,
Perhaps sensing into the atmosphere or essence of being that is receiving the sound.
As we sense into our experience,
The body,
The sounds,
Whatever it might be in this way,
We might also sense into a space of calm and quiet that exists all around the sounds,
The breath,
The body.
This space and stillness that's all around experience.
There's an aware space within which all experience arises.
Here we're sensing into a dimension of our being that's beyond concepts,
Beyond language,
Beyond categories.
Falling into an intuitive or experiential knowing of this aware,
Silent space.
The space of awareness is a context within which all the content of experience arises and passes away.
Perhaps noticing that the content is temporary,
Whereas the context of spacious awareness is eternal.
You can't grasp it,
You can't conceptualize it,
It's just there.
We can simply acknowledge it,
And sense it,
And recognize it.
