Hello and welcome.
This is Tricia.
In this mindfulness practice,
We'll explore stepping out of our busy waking consciousness and stepping into the observer,
Our essence,
A place where all knowing is available and words,
While possible,
Are not necessary.
So let's begin by getting into a place where you can be still and comfortable,
Relaxed and alert at the same time.
Let your eyes fall shut and now I'm going to ask you to see with your eyes closed.
Take a moment here to notice the shapes,
Colors and lights that swirl behind your eyelids.
We're taking just a moment to focus here,
Seeing with eyes closed.
Just as we can see with eyes closed,
See without seeing,
We can also practice listening without words and there's much that's present beyond our inner monologue,
Just as the shapes were present behind our closed lids.
For the next minute,
We'll do the most difficult part of the practice which is listen for the silence and if words come into your mind,
Just notice that and do what you can to return to the silence again and again.
No judgment here.
We're practicing noticing and observing silence.
And letting that go,
Letting it go and there may have been a lot of chatter or maybe it was very quiet but we're practicing noticing,
We're observing and for right now that's enough.
And next we'll take what the Buddhists call the backward step.
So first get a clear sense of where you are now,
Your body in the chair,
How do your feet feel on the floor,
Where does your body rest,
Your arms,
Your hands.
Just noticing our physical presence in this moment.
Now feel your breath moving in and out of this seated body.
Experience the movement of the breath into the still container of the body.
Our bodies know how to be still.
Notice any thoughts or emotions passing through your consciousness and this is permitted right now.
We're observing but not judging.
Pay attention to the temperature of the air on your skin.
Notice.
Whatever is present here in this body and this mind in this moment,
Notice it.
And we want to pause here for just a moment to consider who is it that is noticing,
Who is observing.
And now will you imagine and accept it's true that you can take a backward step.
You can leave your body in the chair and step behind it.
In doing so today we're going to leave our local self with its aches and pains and histories,
Its obsessive thoughts and worries.
We're going to leave it right there in the chair or on the cushion and we're going to step into the observer,
Our high self and our essence.
So in whatever way feels right for you,
Take that backward step now.
And here in the body of essence look at your local self sitting.
Look at them with compassion.
Observe.
You may even want to place your hands on their shoulders and make this a gesture of understanding,
Of compassion,
Of love and as the one who observes we are doing this now.
And let's settle more deeply into the experience of being the observer.
As essence we hold the consciousness of our complete evolution,
The wisdom and the learning of lifetimes.
As essence we're beyond words for we're connected to everything in a way that transcends words.
Aches and pains are no longer relevant.
We are all ages and no age,
All time and no time.
All possibility is held here.
We are the acorn that contains the oak.
So take a moment to stand here behind your local self,
Hands on their shoulders and just observe them there breathing.
And now feel the quiet and the rest and the passion and the power and completeness of essence.
No words are needed.
Everything is present in essence.
Everything is available.
And send some of this sense of completeness to your local self through those hands resting on their shoulders.
Now in the body of the observer of essence I invite you to travel anywhere you'd like in nature.
Maybe you'll visit a grove of trees or sit on a rock by the ocean,
Find a desert or a mountain that speaks to you,
But let yourself be drawn to a place.
And that should be easy and effortless.
As essence just let your consciousness flow to that place.
And for the next minute of clock time we're going to enter into conversation without words with the spirit of that place that we are visiting.
You can see this visually or experience it kinesthetically.
We simply want to be with,
Be alongside.
No words are needed as essence.
Breathe it in through your pores.
Inhabit it.
Put a hand to your heart and actually imagine breathing this place in and out of your heart.
This is a place we can simply be in resonance without the words and having let the experience of it fill us,
We'll now return to our local self seated in that chair on that cushion.
Before stepping into that body let's choose to consciously bring in some remembrance of the observer,
The essence,
A sense of the peace we inhabit beyond the words,
The worries,
The need to control,
Choosing to anchor that memory in our body,
Other ways of knowing,
Other ways of being in our world and with our world.
And now we step back and return to where we began to that seeing without seeing,
The place behind the closed eyelids.
And again we listen into the silence,
Listen beyond the words.
Remembering we can take the backwards step again and again.
We can step out of local mind and drop into essence,
Step out of chaos and into peace here and now.
