Hello,
Thank you for joining me today.
We're going to work on recognizing states of awareness in your life.
In our meditation journey,
Awareness is what keeps us on the path.
Whether we are beginning the journey or have already taken the first steps,
It is worth considering what awareness means in our lives.
You can do this without even taking time out to meditate.
The exercise I'm going to describe will show you that there is already a range of different experiences of awareness in your life.
Awareness is always available to us anytime,
Anywhere.
In meditation,
We will choose to be aware.
So what is awareness?
The dictionary definition is knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.
The important part for us is perception of a situation,
Our situation.
More significant still is perception of our situation now.
Let's consider our situation now in terms of our mental state and physical body.
You may be listening to this in a quiet room or when traveling on a noisy train.
What signs can you pick up to tell you how stressed you feel?
You can check the well-known signs of stress to see if you are in a state of hypervigilant awareness that is so common in our difficult lives.
Even if we are sitting quietly by ourselves,
The hypervigilance of stress can persist.
Here are the physical signs of this state of awareness.
A dry mouth,
Tension in muscles that is not needed to support posture,
Tension in senses,
Particularly the eyes and the ears or a tense jaw and throat,
Shallow rapid breathing and much more.
Mentally,
You might be overflowing with thoughts,
Barely experiencing a space between them.
Each of us experiences stress or heightened awareness in a way that feels unique to us and yet is known to us all.
We might not call it stress when it creates a useful drive to get something done,
But it is so easy for the useful focus of awareness to get out of hand,
To become a constant state that takes over our lives.
The first sign is often that our ability to sleep well is disturbed and that can start a downward spiral.
The good news is that there is a scale of awareness from heightened awareness to the very restful awareness that becomes important to us in meditation.
Let me emphasize that it is not a switch and neither is it always a simple transition from heightened to restful if heightened awareness has become a chronic state.
We can compare the two extremes of awareness to journeys on a train and first we'll renew our experience of restful awareness.
If we board the slow train,
Then we might expect it to be a restful experience,
To have time to see the scenery,
Talk to the passengers or simply rest.
The experience of travelling the slow route encourages us to accept the pace,
Being fully present in each moment and so being sensitive to our inner and outer worlds.
We can be aware of subtle changes.
Even if we are the driver of the slow train,
We might work in a steady way,
Enjoying our work.
Recall now a time when your life had the feeling of being on the slow train.
First you might remember the details of the time that you were really resting or working in the zone,
Even playing or enjoying nature or music in a state of total immersion.
Then look to your body to see if you can relive the feeling of this state that I would call restful awareness.
This is the important part,
Engaging with the feeling of restful awareness.
Can you relate to some of the lovely qualities of the scenic slow train ride?
Letting experience unfold,
Fully being in the present moment,
Totally absorbed in the experience.
Being sensitive to every detail without having to put it into words.
Living each moment without waiting or checking your watch.
Pause this recording now if you want to continue to feel this comfortable state.
The important thing is to feel it rather than describe it.
How different this is to the journey on the express train,
The journey of heightened awareness.
The fast train pushes you out of the present moment.
You feel driven by expectations so sensitivity is suspended.
The focus is on getting into the future.
I encourage you to notice times in your life when you are on the fast train and whether there are also times when you get off it and onto the slow train.
There is no need to consciously change anything.
It really is okay if you seldom get off the fast train or if you keep the alert state that you had on the fast train even when you believe you are on the slow train.
Right now all that is important is to get acquainted with awareness in your life.
That is the exercise that I suggest you do at different times in your day.
It is not an exercise for the meditation cushion.
It is an exercise in getting familiar with awareness and that is all.
If you want to do more then you are definitely on the fast train.
Simply labelling your experience as fast train or slow train will be useful.
No judgement,
Just noticing.
It might help you to know that stress had a part in the lives of wandering Chinese monks who often wrote movingly of nature and precious time spent with friends.
Here is a lovely little quote from the poet Li Po.
He says it is to send to Doofu another poet and a friend of his as a joke.
I ran into Doofu by a rice grain mountain in a bamboo hat with the sun at high noon.
Hasn't he got awfully thin since our parting?
It must be the struggle of writing his poems.
It is those last two lines isn't it?
Hasn't he got awfully thin since our parting?
It must be the struggle of writing his poems.
There is a struggle and a stress even in writing poems.
Also Li Po would like to think about his friend Doofu.
This was written in the Tang Dynasty before 1000 AD.
I hope you enjoyed this introduction to awareness.
Let me have some feedback if you need more advice on this particular aspect of your meditation journey.
I look forward to working with you again.
Thank you.
