The Spaciousness Within The Body
If one should meditate on the skin of the body like a shell that is filled only with emptiness, then he/she may recognize themselves as that peaceful void of awareness, which can never be meditated upon.
Transcript
Just first be aware of your body.
Forget about the space,
But be aware of your body there.
We begin there.
Easier to recognize to begin with.
Be aware of the felt sense of the body there.
You can feel it on its seat,
Being held by its seat.
Be aware of the solid feeling.
Let's start with the body as a feeling of solidness.
Before we empty it,
I want you to be aware of the body as a solid sense.
You can be aware of the solidness of your bones,
Leg bones,
Solid feeling of your leg bones and your hips and pelvis.
Be aware of the feeling of your solid leg bones and pelvis connected to the earthy seat,
To the solid seat.
Be aware of the solid feeling spine,
Solid vertebrae that rise up to support the solid skull,
Head.
Be aware of the solid rib cage,
The arm bones and the hands.
Be aware of the solid feeling of the whole body.
Solid feeling of the whole body.
Awareness of the solid body,
The whole solid body,
Rooted to the seat and extending up toward the sky.
The body that is filled with bones,
Solid bones and organs and blood,
Fluids.
Awareness of the body,
Of the whole material body,
Food body.
Be aware of it as being solid,
A solid body.
I feel my solid body.
I am aware of the feeling of my solid body.
Now I want you to become aware of the very top of your body,
The very top of your head,
Your crown.
I want you to imagine as if you remove a hole at the crown of your head,
Like you cut a hole like four or five inches in diameter and remove it from the top of your head.
There's an opening at your crown,
Like where the soft spot of a baby would be.
We're going to begin to allow the empty space in the sky above the head to seep into that hole that we cut in the crown of the head.
We're going to begin to allow the slowly,
Piece by piece,
Sequentially.
We're going to begin to allow this open expanse of sky,
This spacious empty sky that exists above the head.
We're going to begin to allow that to slowly seep into the head,
Beginning with the head,
Like this blackness or this emptiness or however you see it or sense it or visualize it.
And as this sky,
As this emptiness seeps into the head,
It's going to start to consume the brain.
It's going to dissolve the brain.
The eyes,
The eyeballs.
The jaw and the tongue.
I want you to just imagine that this emptiness that's pouring into,
It's beginning to pour into this opening at the crown of your head.
I want you to imagine this emptiness consuming everything within your head,
So your head is filled only with emptiness.
Imagine or visualize or get the sense that your head is filled with emptiness.
And this emptiness continues to flow down,
Filling your neck area,
All sides of the neck,
Dissolving everything within the throat so that your head and your neck are only filled with emptiness.
Be aware of the emptiness that fills only the head and the neck,
Only the region of the head and neck.
This emptiness which consumes everything that it touches,
Permeates and consumes everything that it touches,
It flows down into your shoulders.
And as it flows into your shoulders,
It begins to flow down your arms,
Down your upper arms,
Your elbows,
Your forearms and your hands so that your arms are filled only with emptiness.
As if there is a shell of skin that contains only emptiness,
Only blackness or voidness from your shoulders down through your arms,
Right into your fingertips,
There is only emptiness.
Same emptiness that flows in through the crown and fills the head and the neck,
Which flows down through the shoulders,
The arms,
Right down into the hands and fingertips.
Be aware of the emptiness that fills,
Or continues to fill the body,
Flowing down into the chest.
Let this emptiness consume the bones of your rib cage and the heart and the lungs.
Let this emptiness permeate the cells of the heart and the lungs and all of the bones in the rib cage,
Of the rib cage.
So that this emptiness that flows in through your crown and fills all sides of your head and all sides of your neck,
It flows down through your shoulders and arms and hands and fingers,
The same emptiness fills the chest cavity,
Contained only by the shell of skin,
That is your upper body.
Only by the wall or partition of skin that is your upper body,
Which flows down and continues down and filling the abdominal cavity,
The abdominal region,
The front and back and sides,
The whole torso,
Chest cavity,
Abdominal cavity filled only with emptiness.
This emptiness which flows down to fill the entire pelvic bowl,
Which no longer has the bones of a pelvis,
Only skin,
A wall of skin or container of skin which contains emptiness,
Spaciousness.
Spaciousness that fills you from the floor of the pelvis right up to the opening at the crown of your head.
The floor of the pelvis right up into that opening,
That opening into the infinite sky of consciousness above the crown of the head.
This infinite sky of consciousness which flows in through this opening in your crown,
Filling all areas of the head and neck,
Torso,
Arms,
Right down into the floor of the pelvis.
You are filled only with this space,
Only with this spacious sky of consciousness that is flowing in through the crown of the head and it continues down consuming the bones and muscles of your legs and your knees and your calves and all the way down into your feet and toes.
There is only space.
Everything within your body from toes to the opening in your crown has been consumed by spaciousness.
Be aware all at once as if in one thoughtless thought of the spaciousness that fills the shell of your body,
The skin of your body from toes to the opening in the crown from where that sky of consciousness flows in.
See if you can be aware all at once,
Not piece by piece,
Not sequentially from head down,
But all at once can you be aware of the space that fills the shell of your body.
You are filled only with space,
Nothing else.
You are filled only with space.
You are filled only with space.
You may be aware of the wall or partition of skin that is filled only with space from toes to the opening in the crown,
But you may also be aware that the same space that fills the shell of skin of body,
That the same space surrounds the body.
Awareness of the shell of skin filled with emptiness,
With voidness,
With spaciousness and surrounded by the shell of skin,
Surrounded by the same spaciousness.
Awareness only of space,
Space which fills all parts of the body in one thought.
Until you no longer need that thought as an anchor,
Then abandon it.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Just like everything else.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
You are filled only with space.
There are no bones,
There are no muscles,
There are no organs,
No fluids,
Nothing.
There is only a shell of skin that is filled with space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Your thoughts may distract you,
Roll off onto some other subject,
That's okay,
Just come right back to the shell of skin that is filled only with space.
And within this space,
Yes,
Thoughts arise and dissolve back into the space.
You may notice them,
Observe them,
But just allow just that,
Them to be consumed by that space.
And be aware only of the space that fills this shell of this body,
This skin,
This wall of skin that is filled only with space,
Only with emptiness.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
There is no brain,
There are no eyes,
There is no tongue,
There is no throat,
There is no lungs or heart beating,
No bones or muscles,
None of it,
All of it has been consumed,
Completely consumed by spaciousness.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space.
Let it be dissolved by the space of the heart,
Only to reside within the space of the heart,
Predominantly.
Imagine specifically that the heart,
The space of the heart is just about a space,
That the heart area is filled with space.
The whole chest cavity is just space.
At the heart center is a void,
Pulsating void,
Undulating void of the heart.
Just allowing your awareness and your breath,
The breath energy to flow in and out of the space of the heart.
Feel your inhalation flow into the heart area,
The chest area.
Become aware of your body,
The sense of your body is becoming solid,
It's becoming more solid again,
With solid bones and muscles and organs.
All of that stuff,
Be aware of the body.
Be aware of the whole body.
From within the space of the heart,
Be aware of the whole body,
The whole solid sense of body.
Not from in your head,
But from within the seat of the heart.
