Your Place In Space

Begin by finding yourself in a posture that allows you to be relaxed and at the same time alert.

And if you'd like you can just scan your environment,

Look around to give yourself a sense of safety,

That you're in a safe place.

You are safe and free to relax and to go inward for the next 20 minutes or so.

Now you can either close your eyes or just lower your gaze,

Whatever will allow you to go within with a sense of relaxed alertness and a sense of safety and ease.

Notice where you can most easily feel your breath entering and leaving your body.

It might be in and out through your nostrils or perhaps the rise and fall of your chest and belly,

Maybe a tingling at the back of your throat.

And just tune in with your breath,

Notice the quality of your breathing right now.

Nothing to change,

Nothing to fix,

Just noticing.

And as you rest here noticing your breath,

Can you connect to how precious and how mysterious it is just to be alive,

To be alive as a being on this planet.

Notice any thoughts arising and as if your mind were the sky,

Allow the thoughts to pass like clouds,

Not identifying with them but just noticing them as parts of what is happening in this moment.

And now begin to include the sense of sound,

Noticing sound and the spaces in between sound.

The sounds of the words I'm saying,

Sounds in your near environment,

Spaces in between the words I'm saying and spaces in between the sounds in your environment.

Now including,

Expanding,

Widening your sense of sound to include sounds that are in the distance as well.

And see if you can notice any areas of tension in your body,

Letting go of any tension that you don't need as you notice the sounds around you,

The quality of your breathing,

Thoughts passing.

Sounds coming and going with no effort on your part.

Begin to sense your body in space,

The weight of your tongue,

The weight of your arms,

Sensing the aliveness in your palms and fingers,

Feeling into the weight of your legs and feet,

The soles of your feet,

Noticing the soles of your feet,

Whatever they're touching,

That contact and feeling supported,

Supported by the ground beneath you,

Supported by the force of gravity.

And see if you can allow yourself to soften and feel points of contact with either the chair or the ground,

Whatever you're in touch with.

Also noticing the state of your emotional body,

Making room for everything just as it is.

And in your body feeling the tingling or pulse or energy,

The play of sensation,

Wherever you can notice it in your body.

And if you don't notice sensation,

That's also totally natural.

Just making room for whatever is in this moment for you.

And you may want to connect with the idea,

The tool of an anchor or a home base,

Something that you can return to when your attention wanders,

Which it will because that is what our brains are designed to do.

They're designed to scan for danger,

But right now you can know that you're safe in your current environment.

But as far as this anchor or home base to come back to when your attention wanders,

It could be your breath,

It could be sound,

It could be your hands or feet,

Or the rise and fall of your chest or belly.

Just noticing and coming back to this anchor or home base whenever your mind wanders.

Also,

When your mind wanders and you notice,

This is an opportunity to celebrate that you've noticed and then come back to your home base.

Now widening your attention to include again your feet,

Your ankles,

Bringing your awareness to your lower legs and calves,

On up to your knees.

Bringing the field of mind and body together,

Really bringing your attention into this body through which you experience this life.

The front and back of your upper legs and the space in between.

Your pelvis,

Lower torso,

Low back,

Your midsection,

From your belly button to your spine.

Bringing your attention to this area and to all of the organs,

Keeping you alive with little to no effort on your part.

This beautiful,

Intelligent body doing what it does.

Now up to your ribs,

To your sternum,

Chest,

Front and back,

And the space in between.

Bringing your awareness to your upper back,

This area where for many of us there can be tension,

And just seeing if there's any possibility for letting go or softening.

Sensing into your shoulders,

First your right shoulder,

Then your left.

Then balancing your attention between the two,

Extending your attention to your arms,

Wrists,

Hands,

And fingertips.

Coming back up with your awareness,

Gliding through your elbows,

Forearms,

Biceps,

Up into your throat and neck.

Sensing the space in your throat and the space around your neck.

Then up to your jaw,

To your eyes and your brow.

Just noticing your whole body breathing.

This breath,

And now this one.

Then widening your attention to perceive change itself,

How everything is changing moment to moment.

Each breath,

Each breath coming and going.

Sounds coming and going.

Thoughts coming and going.

Sensations coming and going,

Arising and falling.

All of this demonstrating impermanence.

Now see about shifting your anchor or home base from an object,

Whatever you chose,

Whether your breath or hands or sound.

Shift it so that the anchor is the sense of space itself.

So the space between breaths,

Letting that be your anchor or home base.

The space between sounds.

Imagine the space inside your sinus cavities.

Sense or imagine the space inside your mouth.

If possible,

Sense or imagine the space inside your throat.

And is it possible to feel or imagine the space inside your lungs?

And is it possible to sense or imagine that this space is effortless?

That it happens on its own,

With no effort on your part?

Can you feel or imagine the space inside,

The aliveness,

In the fingers and palms on your right hand?

And then the space or aliveness inside the fingers and the palms on your left hand?

And can you feel or imagine the space between your sternum and your spine?

And how about the space between your navel and your spine?

And can you imagine this perception of space as effortless?

Now,

Can you imagine the space in front of your body extending out beyond the most distant star?

And can you imagine the space behind your body extending out beyond the furthest star?

And can you imagine the space to the left of your body as it extends out past the furthest star?

And can you imagine the space to the right of your body extending out beyond the furthest star?

And next,

You may imagine the space above your body as it extends out,

This space extends out past the most distant star.

And now,

Can you feel or imagine the space below your body extending out beyond the furthest star,

Passing right through this beautiful earth?

Can you imagine now the space inside your body,

The space within each cell?

And can you imagine again all of that space outside your body?

And is it possible to feel or imagine the space inside your body and the space outside your body as one continuous space?

Can you imagine the perception of space as effortless?

And in our last couple of minutes,

Can you imagine relaxing,

Softening,

Letting go into this effortless sense of space?

As you sense your breath,

Can you imagine the space inside your body and the space outside your body as you breathe?

Letting go into this larger sense of self,

Connecting deeply with the truth of connection,

Interdependence,

The field of vast space and possibility.

If you'd like,

You can bring small movements into your fingers or toes.

If you'd like,

You can open your eyes and move your gaze from side to side,

Engaging your neck.

And with that,

We close our practice this time around,

Offering the merit of our practice to all beings everywhere with no exception.