Settle into your posture,
However you're choosing to practice today,
Whether sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Or walking.
And keep attention wide to take in anything that shows up,
And always come back to that.
Today we're practicing noticing open senses.
We're seeing how much we can notice the senses before there's an actual sensation.
We're not seeking this.
We're just seeing if we can catch a glimpse of it.
So just cast your net and see what you notice.
So perhaps when you notice an actual sensation,
Roll that back.
Notice that the sense itself was already awake.
We just weren't noticing anything relating to that sense.
So keep playing with this.
Stay curious.
In the Tibetan Bhava Chakra,
The wheel of life and death,
This is pictured as a six-sided glass house.
Five Senses in Mind.
Sight,
Sound,
Smell,
Taste,
Touch,
And mind.
All different ways of being open to making contact with experience itself.
So you might ask yourself,
How clean are those windows of your glass house?
How filtered are they?
Are they tinted?
Warped.
How much are we adding?
How much are we blocking?
And how much do we go into each moment already expecting,
Checking for our preconceived notion of what we think is going to happen?
Or what we want to have happen.
I now invite you to choose a sense.
Or just allow a sense to reveal itself.
You might practice allowing attention to stay precisely on what's occurring in that sense sphere.
But see if you can maintain that precision and keep attention wide and open.
One small note,
Precision is not tightening.
If you're practicing precision,
One good spot to notice is your brow.
Is it furrowing?
Are you clenching?
Stay relaxed.
Have a play with this.
We're actively playing with what attention itself is like.
I now invite you to find something in your environment that you can maintain some percentage of awareness on.
Just keep some amount of hovering on that.
Traditionally this is done with a breath,
But you can choose anything you like.
In my case,
I hear a fan in my room.
It's producing a fairly steady hum.
Again,
You can choose pretty much anything,
Especially if it's fairly steady.
Just keep some small percentage of your attention on that.
But then the rest of your attention stays open and wide,
Taking in everything else.
Not holding on to just that one thing.
And letting everything float through your experience.
And notice if there's ever an impulse to create separation.
And that you feel like you're an observer inside of the house.
That's not really what we're going for here.
It's natural to feel that.
But really just be in the entirety of your experience.
In the body.
In the moment.
This body can be this entire theater of experience that we're actually living in.
We are that theater.
Enjoy the ride!
And see if you can allow every sense experience to be a surprise.
Once again,
That's our indication that we had expectations.
So just enjoy whatever arises.
We are awakening increasing subtlety of our awareness.
Isn't it so nice to just let things happen without doing anything about it?
If you notice any clenching or tightening,
Let's just release it.
Move through life fully embracing each moment.
Without gripping onto it.
There's nothing to find.
Nowhere to land.
Just notice the experiences that show up and let them go.
And for the last minute or two,
Just slowly,
Gradually begin to come out of the practice.
Or keep sitting if you like.
But keep the practice alive,
Even as we end formal practice.
And see if throughout the rest of the day you can have these little check-ins where you notice the senses being open before sensation shows up.
Part of this whole Twelve Links practice is that we're seeing how these different elements of experience are all part of this tapestry of life that's being generated moment to moment.
We're just exploring it.
Let's end with one more breath,
Breathing in.
And out.
Thank you for joining me and thank you for your practice.
