Opening Heart Spaciousness

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend.

Welcome.

I hope everybody is doing great.

Today's meditation is about equanimity.

Once again,

I know we've been meditating on equanimity for a while,

But it's never too much.

This is a very interesting approach towards meditating on equanimity because it works with awareness.

All of those concepts that we worked before,

Which is clarity,

Awareness,

And pleasant and pleasant,

All those things that we approached before in different meditations,

We're going to bring them back and let's see how it goes.

Let's just start by finding ourselves in a comfortable position.

You can wiggle around,

See if it's even and even.

We start by taking a couple of deep inhalations.

A deep inhale will help you straighten your spine and open your chest and exhale through your mouth,

Helping your body to relax,

Soften your face,

Your chest,

Shoulders,

Belly.

A deep inhalation through your nose.

Another one.

You can leave your eyes closed or open,

As always,

If you wish to leave them open.

Just don't focus on anything.

Give that a gaze.

Leave that gaze towards the floor,

Relaxed.

One last deep inhalation through your nose and a soft and long exhalation through your mouth as we return to regular breathing.

A soft and gentle inhalation through your nose,

A soft and gentle exhalation through your nose.

Soft and gently inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale.

Softly and gently.

When you inhale,

Try to make it shallow,

Just enough air,

Don't overdo it.

Make it effortless.

Let this comforting rhythm draw you in.

Try to keep the same rhythm,

The same depth of breathing.

And give your mind and body permission to unplug from the world.

If you notice any distraction,

Which is totally natural,

Mind distraction,

Sensations,

Feelings,

Anything,

Just welcome them.

Don't fight them.

Don't repel them.

Don't engage with them.

Just acknowledge and return to the breathing.

Just let go of thoughts of what's happened and what's next.

Bring yourself to the present moment.

Rest in the moment.

Gently breathing.

Let Gently breaths be there.

Now instead of noticing the mechanics of the breath,

Just pay attention on the sensations in your body where your breath touches,

Your air touches.

It can be the tip of your nose,

The tingling sensation on the tip of your nose,

It can be the air touching the back of your throat or the rise and fall of your body or the collapsing and expanding,

Collapsing and expansion of your belly,

Your chest,

Anything,

Whatever feels comfortable for you,

Just notice it and stay there.

That's your new home base.

As you feel rested and refreshed,

A soft and gentle inhalation and a soft and gentle exhalation.

Let those thoughts go.

Let those sensations go.

Don't engage with them.

Just let them go.

Just bring your attention back to the home base.

As your mind begins to clear and calm and you're drawn into this comforting rhythm of the breath,

Keeping your attention in your home base,

Noticing the sensation,

A soft and gentle inhalation and a soft and gentle exhalation.

Listen slowly and gently,

Relax that centering focus and let go some of your clarity and calm rippling out to diffuse through your whole body.

Just include your body in your field of awareness.

Try sensing your body,

Not just the home base,

But everything where you feel everything,

Whether pleasant or comfortable,

Unpleasant,

Uncomfortable,

Or all the neutral shades in between.

Just stay there sensing your body as a whole where everything happens.

As you breathe softly and gently,

Just enough inhalation,

Clear your nose,

Exhale gently,

Softly.

As you bring your awareness to your whole body from head to toe,

Shoulders to fingers.

As you breathe slowly and gently,

Just enough inhalation,

Calm your nose,

Exhale gently,

Slowly,

Scan your body for sensitivity.

You can do the quick body scan and notice comfort zones or uncomfort zones,

Places where you can identify the sensation,

The quality of sensation.

If it's either sensible,

If it's either pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral,

Just slowly,

Don't rush,

Just bring your curiosity to this exploration.

Bring your awareness to each of those sensitive areas.

Watch how you'll respond to those.

If displeasure or pain sparks aversion or frustration or makes you shy away,

If pleasure or comfort sparks attachment,

Get to clingy or expecting more.

Or see if the neutral grey is a silent metroidic,

Prompts glossing over or spacing out,

You just don't pay attention to it.

Let's take a time and explore those sensitive areas.

It can be very subtle,

It can be a strong aversion or attachment.

Take a time exploring your field of awareness,

Which is your whole body.

As you identify the pleasantness or unpleasantness of neutral areas of your body,

It's an important sensation in your body.

The equanimity is about accepting and bearing the unpleasant,

But letting it go or savoring the pleasant while letting it go and staying close and attentive to the shadows of grey,

But letting it go.

It's not about holding to those sensations and also not acknowledging them.

You acknowledge them,

You acknowledge the feeling,

The sensation,

And you just let go.

Try and practice that and see how you feel.

Go back to those places that you found pleasant or pleasant or neutral and try practicing let go.

These feel softly and gently inhale,

And softly and gentle exhale.

Your whole breathing doesn't change.

It stays the same softly and gently.

A slow inhalation and a slow exhalation,

Just enjoying this moment.

Understanding equanimity,

Accepting the unpleasant and letting it go,

Savoring the pleasant,

Not attaching to the pleasant and letting it go.

And paying attention to the shades of grey and whatever is in between pleasant and unpleasant and also letting it go,

Just experience them but do not hold them to you.

Don't carry them with you.

Now let's just sit together here for a few minutes and try to practice equanimity and acquire,

Let's try and acquire taste for it,

You know,

How good it feels not to hold to something and let it go.

Open space for new experiences.

Open space in your field of awareness for new sensations.

Let's stay here for a while.

You notice that some sensations will go away easily as you let it go.

Some will just stay there,

You know,

Asking for attention,

You know,

What to do with that.

Just give attention,

You know,

Just bring your attention to that place where it's pleasant and unpleasant and try to understand why is it holding for so long.

Is it,

You know,

If it's a pain or body discomfort,

Just change positions.

There's no need for you to hold yourself or,

You know,

Put yourself in a situation that you have to deal with that and eternally just change it.

Mindfully change it and you'll see that it will go away.

The same way the pleasant sensations will try to hold there as an attachment to it,

You know,

Because it brings you pleasure over and over.

And while your attention is there,

You're not noticing what's happening around you.

So just let it go to welcome new sensations,

To welcome new experiences,

To move on.

So notice how it feels to let go and to move on to a different sensation.

Let's try and acquire a taste for that,

You know.

Notice how,

You know,

Something that you felt like as long as two minutes ago,

You don't feel it anymore.

It's not there.

It's gone.

That's the holy permanence of things,

You know,

They're not here forever.

And everything that has a beginning has an end.

So don't get attached to it.

The konimiri is about practice.

Meditation allows you to practice it on a safe environment,

You know,

With you and yourself,

Calm and clear minded.

The more exercise,

The easier it gets on a daily basis.

When you find yourself in a situation that requires calm and a steady mind.

The more you practice the konimiri meditation,

The easier it's going to be.

Now slowly and gently bring your attention back to the breathing,

Your home base,

As you softly and gently inhale and softly and gently exhale.

You still have the taste for a konimiri.

Take this time now to make an attention to bring a konimiri into the sensitive moments of your daily life.

You know,

Those moments that require you to be clear minded and focused.

Commit to that.

Take this taste with you as you go on with your daily lives and remind yourself that everything has to go and it's up to you to let them go.

Now slowly and gently open your eyes.

Get used to the light,

The colors,

The environment around you.

There's no need to rush,

Just stay there enjoying this moment and the sensation of a konimiri.

The openness of your awareness because you let go.

Then you are receptive to new experiences.

Namaste.

Thank you so much for meditating with me and I'll see you next time.