Shifting The Seat Of Consciousness (+10 Mins Silence)

In this session we practice 'Shifting The Seat Of Consciousness' followed by 10 minutes of silence.

Start by slowing down the breath and mindfully turning your attention to the sounds arising in this moment. Connect to the sense of self. Where are you located? Can you pin it down, or is it just a broad sense? Play with shifting 'where you are' to your heart space, belly, and beyond.

There is a subtle change that arises when we shift our awareness. The world feels different and who and what we are are far more complex than the simple initial/thoughtless impressions that arise without introspection and practices such as this one.

That said, this is an advanced practice, so work on it!

Transcript

Hello, Welcome, I invite you to take a seat, Lie down, Get yourself comfortable, Close down the eyes if you wish, And just begin by taking some slow, Deep breaths in through the nose, Just listening, Listening to the sounds that are arising in this moment, Sound of my voice, Of nature, Technology, Traffic, Slight shifts in breathing, Just listening in today's session we are going to explore the observer, The witness, The part of you that is aware, Take a moment and consider where you are located, Where it feels like you are situated, Chances are you did not choose your big toe for example, Whatever you are, Wherever you are, As a big toe, So where are you located, Where does it feel like or seem like perhaps, Then you get closer to it, You find a vague location of you, Place you are perceiving from, Is it possible to pin this point down, What does it seem to keep shifting, Most people, Not all, Feel they are located somewhere behind the eyes, Somewhere within the mind, Within the brain, Just behind the eyes, Behind the third eye somewhere, People in the heart, Some people in the belly or other places, We tend to have this vague perception, We are behind the eyes, But when we turn attention upon itself, It can seem a little bit slippery, An interesting thing you can do with perception, This feeling of the self is shifted, With practice, Placing your hand upon your heart space, Feeling the hand upon your skin, Imagine or move and begin to see, Perceive or base yourself from the heart space, Whatever we are, It's self moving and perceiving from the heart space, For some this approach comes easy, For others it takes a lot of work, But wherever you are at in this moment that is ok, And if you can shift the sense of self, The place where you feel located into the heart space, Two things happen, You get less caught up in the mental play of rumination and anxiety, Of judgement and logic, And you can shift more into a felt sense, Perception through the heart versus perception through the mind feels different, There's an exploration to be done here, If you can begin to shift where the sense of self feels located, You start to realise that the sense of self is not stuck, Or perhaps even solid, Perhaps who and what we are is not as simple as it seems, Now if you like you can stay in the heart space, Keep working from seeing and witnessing, From within or rather as heart space, And if you like we can shift it once more, Placing the hand upon the belly, Feeling the warmth of the hand upon the skin, And shifting, Moving, Becoming, Perceiving from the belly, Life from the belly or the gut, Once again feels a little bit different, There's a solidity, Primalness, Once again we are not trying to witness the belly looking down from the mind, We are trying to perceive through or as or from the belly, The gut, We're noticing where our sense of self is, Where we feel like we are located, And we're playing with where or moving that space, To the heart, To the belly, One more final shift, This concept may be a touch more advanced, If it doesn't resonate this time that is okay, But returning your focus back to the sound, Sounds that are arising, And shift your place of focus, Your sense of self, Your perception, A seat of consciousness, To sound itself, Become the sound, And just releasing it all, Releasing it all and just being in this moment, When this meditation we began by focusing on the sound, Sounds that are arising mindfully, Then we turned our attention upon attention, Most people feel like they are located somewhere behind the eyes, In the head, We get this vague feeling of where we are, Where the eye is, But it's quite hard to pin down specifically, Whoever we are perhaps has a big toe, But we're not the big toe, We're up in the head somewhere, But it is possible for some people instantly, For others over time, To shift where they are located, Perhaps seeing and witnessing from the heart, Or from the belly, Or perhaps even from perception of sound itself, This practice, This idea of shifting where we are, Like I said it's quite advanced, But it offers some deep insight, It shifts us out of our perception and allows us to see the world a little bit differently, We perceive it differently, And even more fundamentally than that, We become, We come to realize that the label that we give ourselves, The eye that can be offended or hurt, That desires things, That craves things, That is averted to things, Can be shifted and changed and isn't 100% solid as it feels, So thank you for joining me, I'll see you in the next session. If you like, We can continue meditating for 10 minutes, 10 minutes of silent meditation, You can continue to explore, Shift and move the seat of consciousness, Practice some basic mindfulness, Or do whatever practice that comes to mind for you, Let's begin. You're more than welcome to maintain the meditation if you like, But for everyone else, I invite you to return back, Back to the session, Back to your body, Back to your day, Checking back in, What's happening in this moment, Just allowing yourself to return, In this session we looked at turning the lens of attention upon itself, And shifting where we are located, A bit of an advanced practice, But one that can be quite subtly curious, We can shift, We can move, We can discover that even what we are may be a little bit larger, Or different than what immediately is or seems to be, Either way, Thank you for joining me, I'll see you next time.