Let's start to generate some intensity.
Now we know time's running out.
Let's start to use every hour we have left to push ourselves a little bit.
Take the time you need to settle in and get comfortable.
But then get ready to really use your focus.
It's the last couple of days of this retreat to really see how deep we can go.
So let's continue with this spot focus.
This ability for us to turn every point in our body into a position of awareness.
Going from sensation to sensation,
Going deeply into this.
Regardless of what posture you're in,
Which position you're meditating in,
Every sensation within the body is an opportunity for us to generate wisdom,
Insight,
To continue our practice.
So let's start to move our awareness up to the point between the eyebrows.
And let's anchor our awareness here.
Feeling the sensations fixating on them and going deeply into them.
And then feeling if there are other more subtle sensations contained within this.
And now start to feel as you go deeply and deeply into sensation,
Into sensory awareness.
So these sensations that you feel have connections to other sensations as you penetrate deeply into the body using the skill of heightened awareness.
What do you feel as your focus gets sharper and you go more deeply into yourself?
And you penetrate more deeply into the body?
What do you find as you take your mind through this next step of exploration?
Slowly we want to map the entirety of the body inside and out,
Not just staying on the surface,
Using this ability to move from sensation to sensation,
Not just to go over the body,
But to go into it and through it.
As you move around the body now,
Stopping and turning every point into a point of awareness,
Into an anchor for us just as we turned.
A large triangle into an anchor on day one.
Let's see how deeply we can penetrate,
How much we can perceive and what we can find before the end of this course.
Continue to move at your own pace,
Always remembering to feel everything and react to nothing.
These two pillars of awareness and equanimity carry us through the whole practice,
Whatever it is we face.
This is how we respond,
Because this is how we perceive reality as it is.
This is how we practice for passion.
So let's do this now,
Step by step,
Moving closer to the truth.
Hands up.
Now we know that we can meditate both open-eyed and closed-eyed.
So let's continue our practice,
Our practice of transfiguration.
If you're working with a partner,
Then turn to face your partner.
If you're working on your own,
Then get your mirror and place it in front of you.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes and either look at your partner or yourself,
Remembering that our primary object of meditation is always ourselves.
Our sensations,
Our breath,
The reality within that we directly experience.
We're simply opening our eyes,
Allowing ourselves to perceive what's in front of us and continuing our meditation so that we can integrate this practice into every area of our lives,
Whether open-eyed or closed-eyed,
Whether focusing on an object or a person.
We turn everything into an opportunity for meditation and not potential for distraction.
So let's practice this now for a few minutes.
And then when you feel like it's been enough,
Close your eyes and return to your internal practice.
Let's start now.
Let's carry our awareness with us through the postures,
Through the days.
And let's see if tomorrow we can be a little bit more skillful than we've been today,
Continuing this development of our practice step by step,
Going deeper into awareness,
Turning every position into an opportunity for meditation.
