Most of us spend the day responding.
To screens,
Voices,
Messages,
Sounds,
Demands,
Movements.
This practice is not about escaping the world.
It's about practicing what happens when attention no longer has to respond to everything at once.
Word is associated with pratyahara,
Moving awareness deliberately from outer sensory experience towards inner mental space.
Try to find a comfortable position either on a chair or on the floor as it works best for you.
Take your awareness to your body.
Sitting tall,
Spine lifted upwards.
In a comfortable seated posture.
Eyes are gently closed.
Your hands,
Your palms are resting comfortably on your thighs.
Let mind remain naturally upright.
Awareness of the whole body.
While relaxing each part.
Legs,
Spine,
Torso,
Chest,
Sides of your body,
Arms,
Shoulders,
Neck.
Entire face,
Your head,
All are relaxed and are still.
If you wish to make any final adjustments,
Now is the time to make the same.
Mentally resolve to remain physically still for the next few minutes without any strain.
Move your awareness and become aware of all the sounds around you.
All the sounds that you can hear,
Use your ears as a radar to catch and to hear all the sounds around you.
Without any judgment.
Just simply awareness of all the sounds coming from near or far.
Pleasant or unpleasant?
Continuous or intermittent.
All the sounds.
You do not need to fight the sounds,
Just becoming aware of the same.
Try not to name or identify the source of the sound.
If it is possible,
Avoid doing that.
Do not name or identify the source of the sound.
And let your awareness move from one sound to another and another and another.
You don't need to walk towards.
Any sound to disappear,
Just one to another to another.
Choose one sound.
Any sound which catches your attention,
Your awareness,
Only on that sound.
Just be with that sound.
Just listen to that one sound.
And now slowly release it.
Let that sound go.
Let it pass.
Move your awareness away from that sound.
Choose another sound now.
The next new sound that you can hear,
Become fully aware of it.
Be only with that sound now.
And now slowly.
Release that sound.
Now allow all the sounds to be present together.
Everything that you can hear,
Your awareness on all the different sounds to be present together.
Let them be present together and all together.
Observe that you don't have to try to capture the attention.
It can be easily directed.
Now slowly moving the awareness more inwards.
Slowly moving the awareness more inwards.
Start with your awareness moving to all the points of contact of your body.
With the floor.
Observe which all parts of the body are in contact with the floor.
Maybe with the cushion on which you're sitting.
Maybe on the chair while your feet are resting on the floor.
Or if you are completely sitting down on the floor,
Your awareness to each part which is coming in direct contact.
Just become aware of those parts.
Try to observe the weight of your body.
The weight,
Is it falling too much on the right,
Maybe on the left?
Maybe slightly forward or backward,
Just simply awareness of the wake.
Try to pick on the details of the temperature that you're feeling.
Are you feeling hot?
Are you feeling too cold?
Are you feeling too warm?
Are you feeling slightly hot?
Are you feeling pleasant?
Just becoming aware of that feeling.
We are not changing anything.
We are just taking our awareness to observe that feeling more in words.
Try to observe.
The contact of the clothes that you're wearing against the skin.
Observe how it feels.
With the contact of the clothes against the skin.
Awareness of your hands with your closed eyes,
Awareness of your hands,
How they are.
Which position they are kept in.
How do they feel?
Do they feel light?
Do they feel heavy?
Simply aware of the same.
Try to Feel the entire boundary of your whole body.
The outline of your whole body,
Starting from your feet,
Slowly coming upwards.
And feeling the boundary of your whole body as you sit comfortably,
Relaxed and still.
Observe that the senses are still functioning.
But attention is becoming less scattered.
The sounds remain outside.
The body remains here.
You are simply changing where the attention rests.
Observe that.
Try to now move your awareness.
To the breath.
Bring your focus,
Your attention at the nostrils.
Or the chest.
Or the movement of your navel or your abdomen,
Whichever is comfortable for you,
For you to feel the movement,
The awareness of your breath.
Feel the breath moving inwards.
And feel the breath moving outwards.
As you inhale,
The breath moves in through your nostrils.
Giving you a cool sensation around your nostrils.
And as you exhale,
The breath moves out through the nostrils,
Leaving a slightly warm sensation.
Just simply Being aware.
And watching the movement of the breath as it effortlessly slowly comes in,
Quietly moves out.
Comes in and moves out.
For the next few moments.
Allow.
Allow the sounds to exist without turning towards them.
Let the sensations exist.
Without needing to be changed.
Let the thoughts appear without needing to be continued.
Just simply observe that the sounds exist,
And I don't need to go towards them.
There are sensations that I'm feeling.
But I don't need to change anything.
The thoughts are there.
I don't need to fight them.
Neither I need to continue with them.
The sound,
The body,
The thoughts,
All three can remain.
They can remain,
They can exist in whichever form.
But my attention,
Your attention,
Does not need to chase them.
Now slowly try to bring your awareness.
To the dark space you perceive behind the closed eyes.
Your awareness to your mind screen.
Just behind your closed eyes.
The inner space of consciousness.
Your Chidakash.
Just behind your closed eyes.
The dark space behind your closed eyes.
All your awareness to that dark space.
Do not try to create a picture.
Do not imagine anything.
Just simply observe the space.
Just simply watch,
There may be light,
Maybe just darkness,
Maybe you see a colour,
Maybe not.
Maybe you see a pattern.
And maybe you see nothing at all.
Whatever appears,
Let it appear.
And whatever disappears,
Let it disappear.
For the next few moments.
Try not to look for an experience.
Try not to wait for something to appear,
Something to show up.
Or something to pass,
Something to disappear.
For some time,
Just nothing,
Nothing at all.
Try to become more and more comfortable,
More and more deeper.
And more rested in the space that is already there.
Slowly become aware once again of your breathing.
Feel and observe your body sitting comfortably.
Relaxed.
Calm.
Your awareness to all the sounds that you can hear around you.
Notice that the sounds never had to disappear.
Stillness.
Did not come to you because the world became quiet.
It came because your attention stopped having to follow everything.
