Sitting With Awareness Meditation

Welcome to this mindfulness-based stress reduction program,

Sitting with Awareness.

As we begin this practice,

Allow yourself to take a position in a chair or on a cushion in which you're relaxed and yet alert,

In a posture that you can hold a sense of dignity,

Sitting as a mountain,

A sense of honoring the space in which you occupy and honoring yourself in this moment.

As we begin,

Focus in giving yourself attention.

You might take a moment to appreciate the importance of this connection,

This relationship with yourself is the most valuable of all relationships.

As you notice the experience of yourself in this moment,

We can allow ourselves to open up to how things are without having to change anything.

This is a practice of honoring how things are in this moment.

This honoring frees up a lot of the energy that we spend on trying to make things different or change ourselves.

This practice is one of allowing things to be as they are and allowing ourselves to be as we are.

And as we begin our practice,

Begin to focus your attention on your breathing,

Noticing the inhalation,

The trawling in of breath,

And then the exhalation,

Releasing,

The letting go of breath,

Following the rhythmic fluctuation of breath as it flows in and out of our bodies,

And noticing who's breathing.

As you focus the awareness of the breathing,

We cultivate a sense of concentration,

Keeping our attention focused on this one simple experience.

One of the techniques of focusing concentration is called noting.

As you breathe in quietly,

Noting in the mind breathing in,

And as you breathe out,

Noting in the mind breathing out.

So as we breathe in and pay attention to the in-breath,

There's this knowing that we're breathing in,

The awareness of breathing in as it occurs.

As we breathe out,

There's the knowing of the breathing out.

Following the rhythmic fluctuations of breathing in and out,

Letting the breath be natural and relaxed.

The body knows how to breathe.

All we need to do is watch it and be aware of the experience as the breath flows.

And as you allow yourself to stay connected to the movement of air in and out of your body,

The rising and falling of the belly,

You might deepen your concentration by noting the very beginning,

The moment you begin to breathe in,

Feeling the air coming in through the process of the in-breath,

To the moment of completion,

And then noticing the very moment you begin to release air to breathe out.

Following the process of release very carefully to its natural completion,

And then beginning with the next in-breath.

Noting the very moment that we begin to draw air into our body.

Following the air coming in and noticing the very moment that we begin to release and let go of the air,

And following the process of letting go.

Letting the breath be natural.

Just watching it enter and leave your body,

Being aware of the experience of movement of air in and out.

Even though it's your intention to stay connected to your breathing,

The natural habit of the mind is to drift away.

As you notice you've drifted away,

We can practice cultivation of concentration by bringing ourselves back,

Noticing the next breath,

Coming back home,

And doing this with a sense of understanding,

Of kindness towards ourselves.

In this very moment we can begin a very powerful shift in the way that we relate to ourselves,

The way we communicate with ourselves.

And as we bring ourselves back to the awareness of the next breath,

We can use a little bit less judgment of ourselves,

A little less critical,

That we make this powerful shift in the way that we treat ourselves,

The way that we respond.

And try,

As kind of an experiment,

To see what impact it would have to concentrate for three full breaths.

In the time span of three breaths,

This is enough time for the body to settle,

For the physiology of the body to change.

If you can hold your concentration for three breaths at a time,

Each cycle will deepen the relaxation of your body,

Letting the breath be very natural,

Nothing to force or to change,

Just observing it,

Observing it through the feelings,

The direct observance,

As the breath flows in and out.

See if you can concentrate one breath at a time for just three breaths,

And then beginning again.

Just allowing the breath to anchor you to the connection with yourself in this moment.

Simply experiencing the breath as it is in this moment,

And noticing whose breathing,

Whose breath is this.

Being fully in this moment,

Present with your breath.

And let us expand our focus of our awareness and begin to pay attention to the physical sensations of our body as we breathe.

Breathing in as we're breathing into our whole body,

And as we breathe out as if we're breathing out from our whole body.

Noticing the feelings of our body,

The sensations of the body itself as they arise,

As they arise in this moment.

As we breathe with the sensations of our body,

We can start to use the sensations themselves as an anchor to the experience of this moment.

Acknowledging whatever sensations are present.

As we breathe with these sensations,

We might notice a particularly strong feeling in our body or prominent sensation that might be arising in this moment.

Bring our full attention to this sensation,

Breathing into it,

Opening to it,

Using it as a vehicle for concentration and for opening.

Letting go of judgment or preference,

We simply open to the experience that is there for us in this moment.

Staying focused and concentrated on the sensation until it feels natural to come back to the sense of the whole body,

Or if another sensation seems to become more prominent,

If another sensation seems to draw our attention,

We go to that and stay with that.

Letting sensations be the anchor to our experience of this moment,

In the practice of mindfulness we focus on nonjudgmental awareness,

To be able to open to sensations without preference.

Feeling the sensations as if they were vibrations in the body that we're aware of as they arise.

Cultivating a sense of stillness,

A sense of being still in the presence of the experience of this moment.

As we sit,

There might be some uncomfortable experiences in which we've cultivated a habitual relationship of judgment,

Of resistance.

In this moment we can begin to allow a new relationship to arise,

Simply by letting ourselves be with the sensation with a little less harshness,

A little less judgment.

To notice that the place that we are observing this experience from can be still and whole in the middle of this experience.

As we meet our own experience fully awake,

Whole,

We can notice that the mind can be relaxed and open.

Acknowledging the feelings and sensations of our body,

Let's take three conscious breaths,

Returning to the breath as the primary object of our awareness.

Let's begin to shift our focus of concentration to our ears,

Noticing the experience of sounds as the primary object of our attention in this moment.

As we focus our attention to be present to experience the sounds that have arisen in the air and come to our ears,

And that we know this experience is the sound of hearing,

The experience of hearing,

We can cultivate a new way of hearing and noticing sounds,

Letting go of judgments and interpretations.

We can simply ride the waves of the experience of sounds as they come and go,

Letting go of any need to interpret the sound.

We can simply just experience the sound at its vibrational level,

Just noticing the experience.

Sounds tend to be very expansive in their nature as we use them to concentrate.

Sounds can come from very far away or can be the subtle sounds within our own bodies.

We can use the awareness of the movement of breath and breathing,

Connecting it to the sense of hearing,

The sense of breathing with the experience of sound,

Breathing in the sounds,

Opening further and further to the experience.

Because of the connection of our jaw to our ears and hearing,

We might also allow ourselves to relax our jaws,

To have a sense of relaxing the ears,

Allowing the ears to be fully open and attentive to the sounds around us.

As your attention is drawn towards a sound that is arising in this moment,

Bring your full focus of your awareness to that experience,

Opening to receive the experience fully,

To know it,

Staying with the experience until the sound experience itself fades away,

Or your attention turns towards another experience that you've become aware of.

Noticing how sounds arise and fall away.

Even relatively constant sounds have variation to them,

And that these sounds are actually arising and falling away,

But constantly being renewed so that it sounds continuous.

Noticing who is it that's experiencing this sound?

Who's hearing this?

As we notice the listener,

We more deeply connect with ourselves and our own experience.

It's always interesting to experience something that we might push away,

Not want to hear,

As we let go of judgment and simply open up to all experience without preference or judgment.

The very sounds that we would seem as being annoying,

Or something that might take us away from the place that we would like to be,

Becomes transformed into something that anchors us,

That gives us the opportunity to open more fully to this moment.

This transformation is quite remarkable at times.

And let us begin to come back to the breath,

Taking about three conscious breaths.

And then let us begin to notice thoughts as an object of awareness.

In this practice,

We turn towards our thoughts,

Watching the process of thoughts unfolding.

Watching thoughts arise,

Just as we might watch a cloud forming in the sky,

And then the wind blowing the cloud past the horizon.

This is the nature of thought as it rises and falls away.

Thought is neither good nor bad,

As we observe it arising,

Noticing the thought as an experience,

The process of thought unfolding,

Letting go of content,

And simply noticing the process of thoughts forming in the mind and passing away.

Seeing if we can stay attentive to the observation of the experience of thought,

Or do we drift away into unconscious thought,

Unconnected thought,

Noticing how we can habitually drift off,

Just as when we're reading and we drift away from the words on the page,

Yet the eyes continue to read without any connection of the mind.

Again bringing your attention back,

Taking about three conscious breaths.

And as we continue to breathe,

Let us practice what is referred to as choiceless awareness.

As we breathe,

Noticing whatever it is that is most prominent that comes up as we breathe.

One moment we might notice a sound arising.

Be aware of the hearing of the sound.

Then as we pay attention,

As we breathe,

We might notice a feeling in our body,

A sensation.

Being aware of the experience of that sensation,

Attending to it with awareness.

Staying with it until we can return to the breath.

We might stay with the breath and then noticing a thought arising and being aware of thought process.

Staying with that until we seem to be complete with that and then coming back again to the breath.

Just following and opening to whatever experience is arising most prominently as we pay attention to ourselves in each moment.

Seeing if we can stay connected to whatever is there for us in this moment.

No experience is good or bad.

Simply seeing if we can have the quality of openness,

Connectiveness,

Awareness,

Allowing the body and mind to open fully in this moment.

This is all we have,

Ourselves,

Here and now.

Just seeing what it would be like to have our full attention in this moment.

Using each experience that we are aware of as a tool to grab on to,

To hold us.

The heart and the mind open to itself in this moment.

And as we begin to bring this formal practice to a close,

Take a moment to notice yourself,

Notice how you feel.

Notice if there's any impact or transformative quality as a result of this practice that you've just undertaken.

Acknowledging yourself for spending this time with yourself for the purpose of growth and healing.

Be conscious of any tendency to judge yourself in any way,

To judge the experience.

Can you simply choose to acknowledge yourself for the specialness,

For the intention to be connected to yourself?

And see if you can continue this practice into your day,

Going into your informal practice.

The time with yourself and the activities of your day.

See if you can pay attention to yourself,

Noticing that you always have your breath to pay attention to.

You can choose to be present in each moment as fully as you can.

In each moment,

Appreciating it that it is precious and that we can appreciate it for what it is.

May you know peace.

May you be free of suffering.

May all people know peace and be free of suffering.