A meditation exploring different qualities of awareness.
Remembering to start where you are right now.
Knowing the body and the mind to be just as they are.
Not trying to change anything.
Not trying to make ourselves more relaxed.
Not trying to make the mind any clearer,
Any more awake.
Any kinder,
Any more anything.
It's a kindness itself to just allow body and mind to be as they are in the presence of awareness.
And allowing your physical experience to be just as it is.
If there's some discomfort or tension,
Can that be okay just for now?
As best you can,
Allowing body and mind to relax in the present moment.
And allowing that to be a gradual process of settling,
Coming to the present.
And each time we meditate,
We can't know beforehand how it will be.
How the body will feel,
How the mind will be.
So each time we need to look afresh with curiosity,
Gentleness and openness.
If it's helpful,
Initially choose an anchor,
Perhaps the breath or some body sensations or sounds.
A simple sphere of experience to help anchor you in the moment.
And this is especially helpful if you find that there are a lot of thoughts that are carrying you away into unawareness.
And just take a few moments to rest with your chosen anchor.
Perhaps the sounds around and within.
The movement of the breath sensations.
Recall the touch sensations of your sitting bones.
Another way you can sit with an anchor is to use an overall sense of the body.
Of its temperature.
Different sensations.
Different ways your clothing makes contact with the body.
There's a lot within our experience that we can't do anything about in this moment.
Our physical condition.
Different mental habits and patterns and moods.
But what is possible to have some influence over is how we relate to these experiences.
How we relate to the sensations,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Emotions.
How we relate to sights and sounds that arise in experience.
We can use the four qualities of Right Mindfulness to relate to our experience in a helpful way.
Firstly by being mindful of what's actually happening.
Reminding yourself to be aware.
Looking for a quality of awareness that has some degree of openness,
Of relaxation.
And being without an agenda of what you want to happen in meditation.
And if you do notice some sort of agenda,
Some things that you're looking to try and make happen,
Then just notice that in awareness.
Awareness is doing its job of spotting a particular agenda,
A particular motivation.
This first quality is simply remembering to be aware in a relaxed way.
You might also notice the quality of clearly knowing.
Perhaps at times knowing what's needed or what's helpful to do in the practice right now.
Perhaps there's some sleepiness and you can clearly know this is sleepiness.
This is what this mind state feels like,
Bringing some interest and curiosity to it.
Often what's helpful is simply to remember your purpose.
To have a sense of why you're meditating right now.
Why you're practicing.
Another helpful quality is when we recognize that there's some degree of interest and curiosity in the mind.
Recognizing a sense of engagement in the practice.
It's helpful to recognize the quality of the effort that you're making.
Does it lead to tension or contraction in the mind?
Or is there a sense of openness,
Appreciation?
And you can see if you need to reduce any unnecessary effort that's being made.
Any sense of trying a bit too hard.
And remembering to look for enjoyment in the practice.
Enjoying the present moment.
And the last quality is to notice when there are moments of contentment.
When the mind and body feel at ease and relaxed with whatever is happening.
And what's happening might well be a pain in the body.
Might be some mental or emotional discomfort.
But we're willing to be with whatever's happening.
Being aware of it.
There's some sort of acceptance of what's actually happening.
So in those moments,
Really feel into that quality of awareness where there's ease and acceptance of whatever is arising.
It might be that you are aware of moments of desires or discontents in the mind.
There's some struggle to get something or make something else go away.
And seeing if it's possible to be aware of these things with some degree of acceptance.
Allowing them to be there.
Being curious.
Open.
You might also notice qualities of the mind that you enjoy experiencing.
You might also notice qualities in the mind that are pleasurable to experience because they're skillful.
They refresh the mind and heart.
Perhaps there's the presence of loving kindness,
Of matter or of appreciation,
Generous spirit.
Notice the effect these qualities have on the mind through our awareness of them.
It's important not to overlook these qualities but to allow them to nurture confidence and faith in our practice.
You're actually seeing the fruits of practice right there in present moment experience.
Whether experience is pleasant or unpleasant,
Our job is simply to know what's happening.
To be aware and relax into that awareness in the present moment.
You might also notice qualities in the mind that are pleasurable to experience.
You might also notice qualities in the mind that are pleasurable to experience.
You might also notice qualities in the mind that are pleasurable to experience.
You might also notice qualities in the mind that are pleasurable to experience.
