This month our meditation is going to center on commitment number nine.
Take a few deep breaths,
Allowing your attention to come down and in.
In fact,
Pick a point kind of at the center of your torso,
Midway between your shoulders and your pelvic floor and part way between the front of your body and the back of your body.
And imagine resting your attention on that point.
Now just allow your attention to rest there as I read to you commitment number nine.
I commit to creating a life of play,
Improvisation and laughter.
I commit to seeing all of life unfold easefully and effortlessly.
I commit to maximizing my energy by honoring rest,
Renewal and rhythm.
And listen as well as I read the counter commitment.
I commit to seeing my life as serious.
It requires hard work,
Effort and struggle.
I see play and rest as distractions from effectiveness and efficiency.
So would you be willing to see all of life as play,
As effortless,
As easeful?
Well begin by just noticing your breath.
So you're just resting your attention on the breath,
Following it as it comes down and in and up and out.
And see if you'd be willing to notice in this moment how breathing is effortless.
For most people,
Breathing simply is occurring.
So would you just rest in the effortlessness of breathing?
And again,
For most people,
Breathing is easeful.
In fact,
If you just simply relax into the breathing that's occurring,
You'll notice that there's a pleasurable quality to breathing.
So would you just allow this breath to be easeful and effortless?
And then notice as well that even noticing or observing or witnessing the breath takes no effort.
Witnessing or noticing is just occurring if we place our attention on the breath.
We don't have to work at noticing the breath.
Noticing just occurs.
And could you allow this noticing to be effortless?
And could you allow this noticing to be effortless and easeful?
Then let your attention go to hearing.
All you're doing is noticing sounds that are occurring.
The sound of this voice or the sound of the cars around you or the sound of your body or the sounds in the room you're in or as you're walking outdoors.
And again,
What I'm inviting you to notice is that hearing is effortless and it's easeful.
There's actually nothing for you to do.
Hearing is just occurring.
And then I invite you to notice what's being perceived or seen.
Even if your eyes are closed,
You might notice the dance of light on your eyelids.
But if you're doing this meditation,
Riding on a bus,
Your eyes might be open.
And just notice that images are rising in and on your consciousness,
Pictures.
And again,
I want you to notice that perceiving is effortless.
It's easeful.
There's nothing for you to do.
It's just occurring.
And then go a step further and notice sensation.
So here you're noticing sensations that are occurring in and on the body.
It could be as simple as the pressure of your seat in the chair or whatever your hands are touching.
It could be feeling the breeze against your skin or it could be some internal sensation.
Maybe pressure in your abdomen or the beating of your heart in your fingertips.
Some sort of tension in your shoulders.
And again,
Notice that sensing that this feeling state actually requires no efforting.
It's just occurring.
Then notice as well that observing it or noticing it,
Witnessing it,
Doesn't require any effort either.
In fact,
If you relax into witnessing,
It's quite easeful.
Then you might notice as well whatever feeling state is here.
Sad or scared,
Maybe grief or apathy.
Could be some irritation or anger,
Even joy.
And then notice that you're noticing that the feeling state is here.
Maybe grief or apathy.
Could be some irritation or anger,
Even joy or sexual creative energy.
And again,
Notice that these feeling states are arising without any effort on your part.
In fact,
They just come and go.
They come into consciousness.
They hang around for a little bit.
And then they just unwind back into the nothingness from which they came.
And it requires no doing,
No efforting.
And again,
Noticing or witnessing your feeling states is just happening.
And the same noticing can be used for your thoughts.
In this place of presence or meditation,
You can notice thoughts arising.
The mind might even be still and quiet and then from out of nowhere a thought arises.
It comes into form and it's just a feeling.
And then out of nowhere a thought arises.
It comes into form and hangs around for a little while,
But all thoughts unwind back into nothingness.
And notice that there's no efforting for thinking to occur.
And the noticer,
That which observes thinking,
Is effortless as well.
So in this now moment,
If you don't go into the imagined future,
Five minutes from now,
Or this afternoon,
Or tomorrow,
And if you don't go into the past in the form of memory,
If you just rest in this now moment,
Witnessing,
What you notice is that breathing,
And in fact all autonomic bodily functions,
Including heart rate and your brain functions,
Are just occurring totally effortlessly and easily.
And all sensory experience,
Whether it's hearing or perceiving,
Feeling,
Emotional states,
Or even thinking,
Are arising effortlessly in and on presence.
Presence is like the screen at the movie theater.
Onto the screen come all kinds of images,
But the screen doesn't effort when the movie's played.
It just allows.
So can you notice that what you are,
Present awareness,
The witness or the observer,
Is simply effortlessly,
Easefully noticing what is occurring naturally?
And you might also notice that the mind is not just a momentary object,
But a momentary object.
And you might also notice that from this place of the witness,
Or the screen in the movie theater,
Nothing that is arising is particularly serious.
If you just stay in the witness in the now moment,
The observer can notice sounds and images and breath,
Even body sensations and feeling states and thoughts.
But if we don't need to do anything about the feeling that's arising,
If we're just observing it,
Almost like a thunder cloud,
A dark cloud in the sky,
The sky just observes it,
The feeling state isn't particularly serious.
It's just a feeling state.
Thoughts aren't particularly serious.
They're just thoughts that arise.
Only when we attach to the feeling or the thought,
Or we try to get rid of the feeling or thought,
Or we make it mean something about us,
Especially about our survival of the ego,
Then and only then does it become serious.
So in this now moment,
From the effortless,
Easeful posture of the witness,
That is just noticing occurrences,
Notices well that nothing's particularly serious.
So could you just rest in this moment as that which is aware and notices all arisings and occurrences,
But doesn't need to effort or try or do?
Could you rest as that?
And could you just notice that from that place of noticing,
Of witnessing,
Like watching a movie,
Nothing is particularly serious.
And feel into the quality of easefulness with this breath,
Just observing with nothing to do about what's occurring.
Just simply noticing the arising of experience on consciousness.
This is the place of present awareness that's always here,
Always now,
Always available.
Now,
Always available.
Good.
