Hello,
I want to invite you to come and sit in silence with me.
I will of course give some guidance,
A few pointers as I call them,
But the pointers are really for directing you back to the silence,
Back to what's actually happening.
When I say silence I don't mean an absence of sound.
I mean your direct experience of what's happening now.
The silence I'm talking about is an experience of the senses without the storyline of the mind.
So there will be periods of silence and that is giving you the opportunity to tune into what's really going on,
Feeling,
Hearing etc.
So set up your posture,
You can sit if you wish or lie down,
Just making sure you're comfortable and taking one or two deeper breaths and allow the body to breathe naturally.
So just sensing into the body,
Remember we're not trying to achieve anything,
We're not trying to be anybody,
To do anything.
Just feeling your contact with the surface you're on.
Now sensing your hands,
All those little tingling sensations of the hands.
Notice how effortless it is just to feel the hands.
Do you have to go somewhere to feel the hands?
Do you have to try hard?
Just a simple switch of attention and it's there.
Now just switch your attention to hearing.
Notice how my voice,
The sound of my voice comes to you,
Just appears in your awareness.
No effort is needed.
You may notice background sounds such as the birds singing or distant traffic,
Creaky floorboards.
How hard do you have to try to hear?
Try not to hear my voice.
Sometimes there's a cacophony of sound,
Traffic,
Home of the refrigerator,
Birds.
Just be the hearing,
Really listen.
Now take your attention to the sense of taste.
Maybe the remains of a meal,
The taste of a meal or a drink.
Maybe there's just the sensations of the mouth,
The tongue.
Just feel them.
Just feel around inside the mouth,
A sense of taste.
Again,
Effortless.
If you were to pop something into your mouth right now,
A piece of fruit,
The tasting of it would be effortless.
Now about the sense of smell.
It may not be so activated right now,
Just to acknowledge it.
The more there's an aroma,
There it is.
And how about seeing,
The sense of seeing.
Maybe you have your eyes closed right now.
Just notice that you're seeing a certain darkness,
Maybe the shimmers of light.
You're seeing the backs of the eyelids.
Just notice that.
Can you ever stop seeing?
So seeing is just happening,
Effortless.
Now just for a few moments,
I want you just to open your eyes.
Notice how seeing is still happening,
Exactly the same way.
Now you're seeing the world.
The world just appears.
Maybe seeing a wall or a tree in the garden,
Whatever.
An empty cup in front of you.
You can close your eyes again if you wish,
Don't need to.
How much effort did it take to open the eyes and to close them again?
Now take your attention to the feeling sense once again.
Feel the breath.
How much effort does it take to feel the breath?
How much effort does it take to breathe?
Isn't breathing just happening?
Even while we're asleep,
We don't do the breathing.
The body does it.
Let's just look a little closer,
So to speak.
The breathing's happening.
The hearing and the seeing,
Tasting and smelling,
All just on.
And the heart is beating.
The lungs are doing what they do.
Do you have to work your kidneys and your liver?
No.
All just happening effortlessly.
On the cells of the body?
Do you have to direct them?
You go here,
You go there?
No.
Even your hair grows all by itself.
Just like your nails.
Listen to the silence for a few moments.
There was just being here.
When you find yourself lost in thought,
Just see it's thought.
And come back.
Come back to one of the five senses.
That's what I mean by silence.
Life without the story,
The narrative,
The commentary.
Feel the aliveness of this.
This moment.
Through the senses,
Through the body.
Feel the aliveness of the body.
That's silence.
That's stillness.
You can't achieve silence.
It's your nature.
The senses are already here,
Already on.
Meditation is just recognising what's already here.
Watching the shore that the mind presents.
Thank you,
But no thank you.
It's not bad,
Not good.
Okay.
So you can open your eyes if they're closed.
Maybe moving a little.
And then maybe taking a little of this stillness into your daily life.
Thank you.
