Hello and welcome into this guided meditation.
Today I want to invite us to explore consciousness,
That space in which all thoughts,
Feelings and perceptions appear as a metaphor of white noise.
When I'm editing audio there is always an imperceptible white noise.
In which all sounds of my voice appear.
So I want us to use this as a metaphor for the space of consciousness in which all thoughts,
Feelings in the body and perceptions of the world appear.
But first let's make ourselves comfortable.
Sit with your back straight and feel the soles of your feet resting on the floor.
Feel your hands.
Feel your breathing wherever you can feel it most distinctly.
Whether it's at the tip of your nose or in rising and falling of your chest or abdomen.
And take a couple of deep breaths to relax ourselves and calm down the mind.
So like I said when editing an audio there is this white noise,
The background,
The constant background in which all sounds appear.
I noticed it just yesterday and that background is always present.
And the sounds appear in that background.
And it is so easy to overlook it because we naturally pay attention to the sounds.
Because they are more prominent and the white noise is so common and so ordinary.
In the same way let's pay attention right now not to the thoughts that come to us and not to the feelings in the body and also not to the perceptions of the world,
The sounds outside.
But let's pay attention to the background in which they appear.
Notice that if you're sitting with your eyes closed,
Notice that darkness behind your closed eyes.
Notice that presence.
And notice also that that darkness is not completely dark.
It's like it's shimmering with light.
And notice that it is not the darkness of nothingness but rather like the white noise in which sounds appear in a recording.
That darkness is the background in which all thoughts,
Feelings and perceptions appear.
And notice that it is absolutely alive.
So in that shimmering darkness,
In that presence there is this sense of aliveness.
It is not just some inert space that simply gives space to the thoughts and feelings and perceptions,
But it is the alive background in which they appear.
And if you notice yourself being distracted by a thought,
That's totally fine.
Just come back to that darkness behind your closed eyes,
To that sense of aliveness.
We can see even with our eyes closed how it's shimmering with light,
How their their patterns appearing and disappearing within it.
And notice also that any feelings we have of the body,
They appear also within it.
So we may feel that the darkness is,
Initially we may feel that it is confined by our visual field,
But notice that it has no boundary that would define it in our immediate experience.
It is simply boundless.
Space.
And notice also that whenever we have a thought,
Whenever a thought comes and we get carried away by it,
We get identified with it.
And when we catch ourselves being lost in a thought and it vanishes eventually,
What remains?
Isn't it that darkness,
That background of all experience?
And notice also that every sound that we hear,
Whether in the room or outside,
It also appears in that darkness.
It appears in that silence,
Which is the background of its appearance.
So in subsequent meditations,
We will explore this sense of presence,
This sense of aliveness from different angles.
But today,
If you want to stay with that sense of aliveness,
With that presence,
That brilliant darkness behind your closed eyes,
You can do so.
Or if you want to conclude the meditation,
Just gently move your body and open your eyes.
And thank you for meditating with me today and I'm wishing you a nice day.
Bye.
Bye.
