Hi,
My name is Stephen Hick,
And welcome to my guided meditation on realizing interconnectedness.
If you're following along in my book entitled Mindful Transformation,
Then this is for week 40,
Entitled Realizing Interconnectedness.
The meditation invites you to explore the deep web of interconnection within your own body and breath,
And how this web extends outward to include all of life.
So we'll settle into stillness,
And then we'll notice that nothing arises in isolation.
Every thought,
Every sensation,
Everything is part of a much larger unfolding.
So let's begin now.
So finding a comfortable seat,
Whether on a cushion,
A chair,
Or lying down.
You're sitting,
Allowing the spine to rise naturally,
Imagining that upright,
Dignified posture,
But also kind of relaxed and comfortable enough that you can hold such a posture for the 30 minutes of the meditation,
Letting your hands rest comfortably on the thighs or on the lap,
And allowing the eyes to gently close or soften,
Just arriving into this moment and settling into this moment,
Letting attention settle onto the body,
Allowing the jaw to soften the area around the eyes and the forehead to release,
Letting the shoulders drop and the hands to be soft and comfortable,
Perhaps feeling the support of the sit bones on the chair or cushion,
The feet on the floor or the cushion,
And feeling the earth supporting you,
Holding you,
Realizing you're not separate from this support,
And continuing to scan through the body,
Bringing attention to the top of the head,
The ears,
And the forehead and eyes,
Area around the eyes,
The cheeks,
And again to the jaw and the mouth,
The tongue,
The lips,
Just holding the entire area of the face and head in awareness,
And feeling the throat,
The neck,
The back of the neck,
And into the shoulders,
And feeling what's present in the chest and the belly and the entire back area,
Noticing what's present in the arms,
The hands,
The pelvic region down into the legs,
Just feeling into the entire body as it sits,
Recognizing that each part of the body has its own texture,
Its own rhythm of sensations,
All of them arising together and flowing together in a web of experience in a single moment of experience,
Just resting with this sense of a web of body sensations moment by moment,
And bringing attention to the breath,
Feeling the breath as it moves through the body,
Rising and falling,
Noticing the subtle expansion of the belly as you breathe in,
And the contraction of the belly as you release and let go and breathe out,
Just observing.
You can notice how the breath affects the belly,
And also noticing how the breath affects the entire body,
The sense of the body expanding and rising and releasing and falling,
Noticing how as the breath softens,
The body softens too.
If the breath is rigid,
The body feels rigid,
Sensing into that connection between breath and body,
And beginning to sense this breath is not separate from the air around you.
The inhale is the world entering you.
The exhale is you entering the world.
As you breathe in,
Oxygen,
Breathe out,
Carbon dioxide.
You're a part of this greater web of sharing,
Of rhythm,
Of flow,
Just sensing into the breath and its connection to the air around you.
And we know the breath can be our anchor,
Our home base,
But it can also be our teacher.
Seeing how each breath is dependent on muscles and atmosphere and energy,
And emotion,
No part existing in isolation from the other.
Feeling the breath as it ripples through the body,
The body and the breath in a dance,
In a web together.
Being curious about the sensations in the body,
Whether they're warmth,
Tingling,
Pressure,
Coolness,
Stillness.
Be curious about how these sensations in the body arise and shift and dissolve,
Recognizing that they're not isolated events.
They arise from posture,
Mood,
Temperature,
Movement,
Memory,
Emotion,
All interconnected.
Resting in this awareness,
In this dance of sensation,
You may notice that a single breath can shift a sensation in the body,
How a thought can create tension or ease in the body.
How a thought can shift the breath.
Notice how the body is simply a network of responses,
Always in relationship with what's arising in experience.
Letting attention be wide and open,
Noticing the hum of interconnection everywhere in the body and the breath,
And bringing awareness to the mind,
To thoughts,
Not to quiet it or change it in any way,
But simply to notice it.
Thoughts may or may not be arising.
If thoughts are arising,
They may be memories or plans or images,
Just arising on their own without your consent,
Based on this interconnection with me and mind and environment,
Just arising into your field of awareness,
Just as breath and sensations do.
These thoughts arising based on causes and conditions,
This interconnected web of different causes,
Different conditions,
Not separate from the body,
Not separate from the breath,
Not separate from the world,
Not separate from anything.
Breath,
Body,
Thoughts,
All part of one singular unfolding.
Seeing if you can sense deeply into this truth,
This interconnectedness within body,
Mind,
And breath,
This dynamic dance of becoming.
You might even notice how sounds enter into it,
The arising of a sound in the environment,
How that might elicit a thought,
Which might elicit a body sensation,
A shift in the breath,
Then a noticing,
And then back to stillness.
Perhaps a bird chirps in the background,
Causing a cascade of thoughts around planning a trip,
Taking the beauty of nature and birds.
Whatever might arise,
Just noticing that interconnection,
This dance of one thing influencing another,
All connected.
Perhaps noticing how when you get lost in thought,
You get carried away by a thought train,
A juicy thought.
Once you notice it,
You can kind of check in.
How did that nature of that thought affect the breath and the body?
Was the thought a worrisome thought,
Causing a tightening in the body,
Constriction of the breath?
Was it a joyful,
Easeful thought?
Causing a release in the body and a softening of the breath?
Again,
Just noticing,
We're not,
Again,
Trying to create easeful thoughts.
Simply noticing what does arise based on the causes and conditions in the environment,
All an interconnected web.
Resting in the whole of experience,
Breath,
Body,
Mind,
Emotion,
All appearing and dissolving in this interconnected manner.
Recognizing that there's nothing separate or independent here.
There's just this stream of connected,
Changing conditions,
Just like the weather,
Like the seasons,
This nature unfolding.
You're not outside of this nature unfolding.
You are nature.
Sensing into this deep realization of your oneness with nature unfolding.
Realizing that you can see this interconnectedness at any moment in your experience.
Not only during a formal meditation,
But any moment during the day.
Seeing how one thing impacts another thing,
How it all just flows as a web.
And seeing in this that you are not separate and not independent.
The breath you breathe,
The body you inhabit,
This thoughts that arise and move through you are all part of this web of life.
And letting this knowing,
This realization guide you gently as you move through the world,
Allowing you to hold everything with more spaciousness,
More freedom,
More clarity.
And whenever you're ready,
Coming back into the room and slowly opening your eyes.
