In this meditation,
We're going to explore boundaries.
You're welcome to keep your eyes open or have them closed,
Either way is fine.
There are many seeming boundaries in our lives,
Seeming lines of division and separation that we've just assumed to be so,
Often without really having explored whether such boundaries can be found in our direct experience.
So that will really be the focus of this time together.
Just beginning by feeling your own breath,
Moving very naturally.
Breath comes in and breath goes out.
And feeling the sense of aliveness,
The sense of your own being,
Being here,
Existing,
Sense of vitality in the body,
And feeling that sense of aliveness as if it's contained within this skin suit.
Life housed within the body,
This form of the body.
Just relaxing into that sense of aliveness,
Sense of being inside the body.
A sense of that insideness being separate from whatever it is that is outside the body.
The air surrounding the body,
The space surrounding the body,
The room in which you are if you're inside,
If you're outside just the natural world around the body.
Just feeling that sense of inside and outside.
And just in the mind's eye imagining what is outside or if your eyes are open seeing what is outside,
Noticing what is outside of the body seemingly.
And just traveling from the outside back towards inside.
Realizing that it's impossible to tell where what we consider to be outside becomes what is inside.
And if we feel as if the skin is a kind of barrier separating what's inside from what's outside.
Where does the skin and what's apparently outside of the skin begin?
Is there a boundary there that you can find?
Realizing the outside of the body,
The sensations.
Realizing the outer,
If you will,
Environment touching the skin,
Touching the body.
The body sensing,
Feeling,
Being touched by the surrounding air and space.
And just seeing in your direct experience whether you can find a line separating the skin from what's not skin.
Really noticing that as sensation what we call the skin and the body,
The flesh is very spacious as sensation,
As feeling.
And as that spacious sensation and feeling,
No border or boundary can really be found.
And so in a very real sense,
Experientially what is outside is also inside and what is inside is also outside.
I can't really say whether experience is inside or outside.
It's just experience with no boundary.
Coming back to that sense of beingness,
Aliveness,
And feeling into whatever you would call you,
Whatever you would consider as yourself,
A sense of me,
Of I,
A sense of subjectivity.
The one who is listening or what is listening to these words.
What is seeing if your eyes are open?
What is hearing?
Subject.
Relaxing into that sense of subjectivity,
Of I-ness.
The one listening.
The one seeing.
The one hearing.
And then either with eyes open,
Noticing whatever is being seen visually,
Whatever objects are appearing to the seeing,
Just noticing those objects or listening to sounds.
These appear as other than the self,
As other than the subject,
As other than the observing or the observer of them.
And yet look very innocently,
Very deeply,
And see is there any boundary actually in your own direct experience between you,
The subject,
And whatever objects are being experienced,
Sounds,
Sights,
Colors,
The world?
Where is the dividing line between subject and object,
Between self and other?
Can you find it?
Where does self and the world begin?
Where does the subject of experience and the object of experience begin?
Is there a line separating the two or is there just experience with no boundary between subject and object in direct experience,
Just the flow of experiencing,
No boundary?
Are the sights being seen or the sounds being heard outside or are they inside?
Can you actually tell where they are located?
Is the sound of my voice outside or inside or is there simply sound with no boundary of inside and outside,
No division between subject and object?
Relaxing into that boundarylessness of experience,
Relaxing into that sheer wide openness of everything with no obstructions,
No lines of division or separation.
Enjoying that openness.
Coming back again to that sense of being,
A sense of your own aliveness,
Breathing in and as that vitality and feeling the sense of that being here,
Here.
Not over there but here in this immediacy and feeling that sense of hereness of this localization of aliveness here and noticing that we can't really say in direct experience where here ends and there begins.
There is no boundary between here and there.
It's just seamless.
Boundarylessness.
Unboundedness.
In this sense of hereness,
This immediacy,
There is also the sense of it being now.
Just now.
This flash instant.
Timelessness.
Impossible to find the boundary between now and then.
Between what was a moment ago and what is now and what will be.
No boundary.
No clear demarcations of time,
Of past,
Present and future.
Just unboundedness,
Timelessness.
A now that has no clear edges to it.
Impossible to locate a beginning or an end of this moment.
Impossible to locate when now commenced.
Just as if it has always been here.
Just being this immediacy of now.
No boundary.
Being past,
Present or future.
Just now.
Enjoying the spaciousness of now without border,
Without boundary.
Sheer wide openness.
No boundary between you and not you.
No boundary between the body and the environment within which the body lives.
Nothing separate from anything else in direct experience.
Just seamlessness,
Openness.
