Five Awareness Meditation

The intention for this mindfulness practice is to cultivate a sense of friendliness toward whatever arises in our experience, placing five different areas of focus at the center of our awareness: body, breath, sounds, thoughts, and emotions. With curiosity, acceptance, and self-compassion, we create more space for the wide variety of experiences that come and go as we sit and listen to this practice.

Transcript

Welcome to the five awarenesses meditation.

The intention of this meditation is cultivating a sense of friendliness toward whatever arises in our experience,

Allowing our focus to shift to the body,

Awareness of the breath and present moment experience,

The sounds within us and around us,

Awareness of thoughts arising and falling away,

And emotion,

Checking in with our emotional weather.

The attention in this meditation will be toward developing spacious awareness around experiences as they arise and fall away,

Noticing the pleasant,

Unpleasant and neutral experiences that come and go as we sit and breathe in meditation.

And the attitudes will be those of curiosity,

Openness,

Acceptance and trust.

So let's begin this meditation by coming into a comfortable,

Mindful position.

We might choose to be lying down on the earth,

Sitting in a chair,

Or sitting supported on the earth itself,

Remembering that the purpose in mindful awareness is to be awake,

Alert and present with ourselves just as we are.

So taking a few moments to shift and drop into our foundation,

Maybe feeling a groundedness,

The parts of the body that are touching the earth,

A sense of wakefulness in the body,

Alert and ready to pay attention on purpose,

Calmly,

Without judging ourselves or giving ourselves a hard time.

As we shift our awareness through the five awarenesses,

It may be helpful to set a refuge,

A safe place to land if at any time the meditation becomes uncomfortable or too stimulating or maybe just more difficult than we're choosing to be present with in this moment.

And so beginning our meditation by finding a refuge or an anchor that feels available,

Welcoming and safe.

We may choose to keep our eyes open or closed.

And if the eyes are open,

The gaze is soft,

Usually turned gently downward,

Grounding the eyes,

Softening the gaze,

Allowing us to be present visually with the area around us.

Or we may find it more comfortable to land in the present moment in the foundation of the body,

The parts of the body that are touching the earth or the position of the hands.

Perhaps the awake alert posture is our space that we come home to.

Or maybe it's the feeling of the breath.

And so as we set our refuge,

Returning to the present moment in the most welcoming place,

The easiest place to land,

Knowing that this refuge is always present for us as we move through our meditation.

Let's formally begin by feeling awareness again of the foundation of the body and the feeling of sitting here as we open to awareness of the body itself.

Maybe noticing how we feel generally as we sit at the beginning of this meditation,

Maybe a wigglyness,

Heaviness,

Maybe a calmness,

Or maybe something completely different.

We may ask ourselves,

What is my experience in this moment as I tune into the body?

Maybe we notice unnecessary tension in the jaw or the shoulders,

Maybe some heat,

Heaviness,

Sweatiness,

Just kind of moving around the body and noticing what's my experience in this moment as I tune into physical sensation.

Noticing that our intention is to cultivate a friendliness toward whatever arises,

Including the pleasant,

The unpleasant,

And the neutral.

Perhaps we're noticing mind wandering and remembering that the intention of this meditation is to bring our attention back to the body when we notice we've wandered away to the past or the future,

Remembering that nothing's gone wrong.

It's what minds do.

The noticing is part of the meditation itself and the willingness to return,

To find our way back to the body as our present moment focus.

Perhaps the feeling of the eyes gazing gently on the earth or feet on the floor.

Maybe we've come back to our refuge.

Maybe our refuge is the body.

So just noticing what it's like to cultivate a relationship of acceptance with physical sensation,

A willingness to be with ourselves exactly as we are.

If it feels available,

We may choose to turn toward uncomfortable sensations as the object of our awareness,

Maybe cultivating a friendliness toward the unpleasant,

A curiosity,

Perhaps beginner's mind.

Investigating the body with a sense of trust,

A willingness to let go of our judgments and be with ourselves exactly as we are.

Remembering it's always okay to return our focus to the breath.

Staying in touch with our moment-to-moment experience as best we can.

Self-compassion and calm awareness.

When we feel ready,

Returning back to the foundation of the body,

The feeling of sitting here as we open to the second awareness,

Awareness of the breath.

So perhaps we've already been aware of the breath.

And if the breath feels like a comfortable anchor or reference in the now,

We might turn a little bit more deeply toward the breath,

Noticing the detailed sensations of breathing.

Remembering that if the breath doesn't feel comfortable today,

That's okay.

Coming back to our refuge or maybe placing a hand on our heart as a gesture of kindness and compassion.

As the second step of our meditation unfolds,

What do we notice?

What's here for me now?

Perhaps the mind has wandered away.

We notice that.

The noticing is part of the meditation and allows us to return maybe to the feeling of the body,

Perhaps back to the gentle movement of the breath.

We may notice how the breath has a beginning,

A middle,

And end for each inhalation.

And how the breath shifts into an exhalation,

Which also has a beginning,

A middle,

And an end.

Allowing our meditation to unfold moment by moment,

Breath by breath.

Not holding ourselves too rigidly,

But cultivating friendliness toward the ab and flow of experiences that arise as we sit and listen.

What's here for me now?

And then when we feel ready,

Shifting awareness to the third step of our meditation,

Awareness of sounds.

Shifting from the body and the breath to our sense of hearing.

Not seeking sound,

But simply receiving sounds that are already present.

Perhaps we notice sounds within our own body or within our mind.

Perhaps the room around us is filled with sound,

Or perhaps we're noticing the sound of silence.

Observing the nature of sound without trying to figure it out.

Or maybe noticing when the mind is trying to do so.

What is it like to step back and simply allow sounds to be received?

Perhaps even noticing how we prefer some sounds more and some sounds less.

Some sounds last longer and some last shorter.

Some are louder,

Others softer.

Returning to our refuge at any time during the meditation as a reference point in the now,

A safe place to land.

Not needing to create sound,

But simply noticing what's already here.

The wide variety and texture of different sounds coming and going,

Ebbing and flowing,

Arising and falling away with open awareness.

Letting sounds be just as they are,

As best we can.

And when we feel ready,

Coming back to our refuge,

Back to the foundation of the body,

Perhaps the soft gaze on the earth,

The feeling of the breath.

And moving into our fourth aspect or step of this meditation,

Awareness of thoughts.

As best we can,

Cultivating a willingness to turn toward thoughts that arise in our awareness.

We may notice who we're thinking about or what we're thinking about.

Noticing if thoughts are in the past or the future.

Simply dropping into the nature of the thinking process.

Observing our thoughts,

Perhaps looking at our thoughts instead of from them.

We may notice the different nature of our thoughts,

How some are sticky and others float by smoothly,

Sliding away from our awareness.

We may notice how thoughts can be about anything,

Worrying,

Planning,

Remembering,

Daydreaming.

As best we can,

Cultivating an awareness of what we're thinking about,

Observing our thoughts like clouds in the sky or leaves in the stream.

Maybe even noticing the pleasant,

Unpleasant,

And neutral nature of thinking.

We may even notice a reflection in the body.

Where do we feel worry?

What does planning feel like?

Observing the integrated nature of thought,

Emotion,

And body sensation as we look at our thoughts instead of from them.

Remembering that our refuge is always waiting for us.

A safe place to land,

To check in,

A reference in the now.

Even when we feel ready,

Expanding awareness back out into the nature of thought.

Our thoughts coming and going,

Sticking around or flowing by quickly and smoothly.

Fortifying our willingness to be here with whatever arises in the mind.

Observing,

Checking in with our body and heart.

What's here for me now?

Even when we feel ready,

Coming back,

Back toward our body and breath,

Soft gaze on the earth.

Regrounding ourselves in the present moment,

Our anchor at the center of our awareness as we move toward the fifth awareness,

Awareness of emotion.

We may ask ourselves the mindful question,

What am I feeling?

What's the emotional weather during my meditation today?

It may seem quite quiet.

There's no need to create an emotion.

Just simply cultivating patience and willingness to listen and be with ourselves exactly as we are.

Recognizing ourselves what emotions are living in our heart and body.

If an emotion is present,

We may acknowledge it.

There is contentment,

Peacefulness,

Frustration,

Boredom present.

Allowing ourselves to feel the reflection of emotions in our body as best we can with curiosity and fresh eyes.

Understanding our emotional weather without edges,

Without preferring or rejecting.

Perhaps there are thoughts around the difficult emotion.

What would it be like to look at those thoughts instead of from them?

Let them be.

Let them go.

And perhaps feeling into the emotion in our body as an echo or reflection in our present moment experience.

Remembering that our anchor is always waiting for us,

A safe place to land.

Always staying within our window of tolerance,

Not tuning out but opening,

Receiving what's already here.

Cultivating patience and trust in the power of open awareness.

Not stopping the mind,

Perhaps choosing to redirect the mind back to our refuge,

Back to our emotional weather.

Perhaps dropping into the felt sensations of the body as we sit and listen.

The path of awareness is humility and listening.

Stepping back from the drama and letting it all be.

Remembering that our refuge,

Our safe place to land is waiting for us patiently.

Practicing self-compassion and kindness.

Not pushing too hard,

Not tuning out,

But tuning in,

Tuning in to ourselves just as we are.

When we feel ready,

Regrounding ourselves in the present moment,

Connecting to our anchor,

Our safe place to land.

Feet on the floor,

Perhaps breath coming and going.

Noticing how we feel at the end of this meditation,

Having cultivated awareness of the body,

The breath,

Sound,

Thoughts and emotions as the central focus of our meditation.

Noticing how we feel,

Having observed ourselves as we are.

And then as we prepare to release the meditation,

Feeling a groundedness,

A connection to the earth perhaps,

We may open to this space around us,

The room around us,

The outside world and our interior world,

United,

Held gently and calmly in the now,

This best we can.

The meditation of the five awarenesses is now complete.

Reviews

thankss you veryyy muchhh 😍😍😍

Perfect. Just perfect.