Completed consecration.
Notice how you feel right now,
Noticing the present state of your body.
How does it feel to be in your particular body in this moment?
Just bringing awareness to your general posture right now.
Make some adjustments if you feel the need.
Noticing the temperature and how that feels.
Noticing the general energy level in your body.
Do I feel heavy and dull,
Jittery and restless,
Light and energetic,
Or settled and calm?
Noticing the energy level in your body.
Familiarizing yourself with your perceived edges.
Just try and feel the limits of your body.
If you're alone,
You may use your hands and gently feel for where they are.
Starting from the top of the head,
Slowly brushing your hands down your face.
Just feeling the touches and textures.
Continue downward over your chest and belly.
Keep going around your body like that in a fashion that is practical for you right now.
Feeling the variety of hardness and softness throughout the body.
Some places are soft and you can gently press there in order to get a sense of the flexibility of your edges.
Other areas are hard,
Where you can feel your bones protruding.
Just noticing this inner scaffolding,
Keeping it all up.
Now rest your hands in your lap or on your knees and inviting a relaxation to spread throughout your body.
Don't worry if you're noticing tensions in certain parts that are reluctant to release.
Just be aware of the feeling.
Tensions again start at the crown of the head,
Feeling whatever sensations are there.
Feeling it difficult to connect with any sensations,
You can twitch some of your facial muscles a bit.
Moving attention downward down the face,
Relaxing as you go.
Don't worry if your attention wanders around to neighbouring sensations a bit.
That's quite okay.
Noticing any sensations in the neck,
Shoulders,
Arms.
You may be noticing how your clothes are touching your skin,
Hands.
Nothing special,
Just being aware of how your hands feel,
Your inner experience of hands.
Noticing how the breath is lifting or expanding your chest and abdomen.
Allowing awareness to listen in at whatever sensation,
Mood or emotion is on in your chest and belly.
No need to change or fix anything,
Just listening and embracing.
Inviting awareness to continue downward.
Not by pushing away the present experiences,
But by expanding awareness down to include sensations in the hips,
Groin,
Buttocks.
Just embracing and welcoming whatever reaction or emotion you may encounter.
When your thoughts go wandering,
Just sit there and let them go.
But don't go with them,
Keep sitting.
Feeling the sensations in your legs,
Noticing how they press against the chair,
Floor,
Your clothes.
Scanning downward,
Feeling your edges as you go.
All the way down to your toes and the soles of your feet.
Moving down,
We focus mainly on the outer edge of our body,
The wrapping.
When we now start scanning upward,
Let's try and connect with whatever sensations or energies we're feeling inside the body.
Noticing how your feet and legs are positioned in relation to each other.
Just staying with the awareness of your legs,
Let the legs speak to you as it were.
Just listen.
Moving upwards,
Towards your buttocks and groin,
To the area around the base of your spine.
Some people might get sensations similar to the chills down the spine,
That you might have experience listening to some really beautiful music or something.
If you do,
Just notice them and stay with the experience.
If you don't,
Don't worry,
Just feel whatever sensations are there around the hips,
Moving upwards to the abdomen,
Up the spine,
Connecting with the solar plexus.
Just listening in at whatever your experience is in a moment.
Keep moving upward,
Through the chest,
Relaxing and releasing with each out-breath.
Feel the neck and throat,
Allowing your body to straighten,
While at the same time sinking down into the seat,
Anchoring the base of your spine to the world.
If you're feeling the chills down the spine feeling,
Just let it flow according to its own nature.
Noticing sensations in your head,
The air or the breath moving through.
Opening yourself up to feeling whatever sensations or experiences you're sensing,
All the way back up to the crown of your head.
Just stay with that.
Now,
Zoom out and see if you can sense the whole body at once,
Without getting caught up in the details or particulars of it.
Notice how our attention can zoom right in on a specific sensation,
Like an itch.
Or the urge to swallow spittle.
Notice also how it can zoom out and allow us to be aware of conglomerations of sensations,
Like feeling our face.
Or a foot or a hand.
We can zoom in into one of the senses,
Like really listening at something.
Or we can zoom out and be aware of the totality of experience.
In my experience,
This flexibility of attention is strongly related to the amount of control that I try to exert over myself.
And to my tendency to define and pin things down.
If I try to force attention to focus solely on the breath,
My mind rebels and runs everywhere.
If I try to force my mind to be aware of the whole body,
Again,
Attention darts here and there,
Focuses on this part,
Then another part.
When I'm letting the body and mind do its own thing in accordance with their nature,
I'm experiencing an opening up and a sense of wholeness.
Then,
Being aware of the whole body is effortless.
Being aware of the totality of the present experience is effortless.
When the mind is inclining towards simplicity and stillness,
Staying with just the breath,
That too is effortless.
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