Hello and welcome to meditation number three.
This one's going to be on sensations.
The word sensation can be used in many ways.
We use it for something that's extraordinary,
Something that's sensational.
We use it to describe feelings that we have coming from outside.
So you touch a rough surface with your fingers and you feel the sensation of roughness through the fingers.
We can also feel sensations inside the body or what seemed to be inside the body.
Sensations of excitement for instance or heat or a chill,
Even a psychological chill can be all manifestations of sensation.
And our consciousness or you could say our awareness is often filled with different forms of sensations and we tend to gravitate towards the sensations that we approve of or that we like and we tend to recoil from or move away from the sensations that we dislike.
Today we're going to look at just the raw data of sensation itself as it appears in our consciousness and we'll get into the comings and goings of these sensations and how to use these as meditative tools.
So take a few moments again as always and just settle into your seat.
You might be sitting on the floor.
Of course your legs don't have to be crossed.
There's no formality here other than just be comfortable and relatively alert.
If you're feeling any tension in your body to begin with,
You may want to just take a few long breaths and even tighten up the fists and the arms and the legs creating even more tension in the body so you're really aware of that sensation of tension.
And then as you exhale,
See if you can let the hands and the fists relax with the legs and the arms,
The feet,
Everything you can relax as much as possible.
So you're just remaining in this comfortable seat and you may also want to close your eyes.
Now when you close your eyes,
You're prohibiting the visual sensations from coming in.
Mostly,
You're still seeing of course some pixelated light,
Maybe shadow and color behind the closed lids.
The eyes are still working but you've eliminated a lot of the shapes and colors outside.
Take a moment and just see if you can feel the weight of the body,
Maybe the texture of the surface that you're sitting on or its density.
See if you can feel the back of the body as it rests against whatever it's on.
See if you can become aware of the weight of your clothing or any areas where it feels more restricted.
And as you undertake this exercise of noticing,
It is again effortless in terms of a muscular tension.
It's simply the art of attention,
The art of noticing.
So allow the sensations of weight,
Pressure,
Even temperature of the air,
Feeling of clothing.
Allow all these sensations,
These tactile sensations to appear and dissolve within the greater realm of consciousness.
Take one minute here.
This could be the last piece.
Take a few moments to notice the spaces between the sensations,
If there are any.
Now you can bring your attention back to the breath.
You can make these first few breaths a little deeper and voluntary so you're feeling not only the sensation of an active breath,
But the volition,
The feeling that you are doing the breath.
If you can really make that a little pronounced,
You're really active,
The doer of the breath.
And the accompanying sensations of the breath,
Maybe in the chest or the belly or the nose.
Now gradually begin to relax the effort in the breath.
So you feel as if you are doing less and less and the breath itself is doing more and more.
Just relaxing into its natural pattern.
And again,
Just remain aware of the sensations of the breath here without a doer,
Just a sensor,
A receiver of sensation.
And in this state of receptivity and noticing,
See if you can look to find who is receiving or what is receiving the sensations.
Try to keep the body relaxed.
And as you look for this particular identification,
A receiver of some kind,
What you may find is that consciousness is the receiver.
Consciousness is bigger than the body,
You could say broader than the mind.
Just rest back in that witness,
That receiver of sensation.
Consider any thoughts or concepts that come into the mind or through the mind,
Just like sensations,
Arising and dissolving.
Take one minute here.
And as always for the last few moments,
You can begin to breathe more actively.
And as you breathe,
You can associate a word or a phrase,
Something of value to you or state you'd like to occupy,
Intelligence,
Clarity,
Calm,
Whatever it is.
Just breathe that in along with the breath,
Nourishing the cells of the body with that aspiration,
That intention.
And you can gradually blink,
Open the eyes.
Take a long breath voluntarily.
Thanks again for listening and I'll see you soon.
