The Flavor Of Experience: A Meditation On Feeling Tone

Welcome.

My name is Stephen Hick.

This is a guided meditation where we'll spend some time with a feeling tone,

That notion of pleasant,

Unpleasant,

And neutral,

As it arrives and passes with your experience.

If you're following along in my book,

Mindful Transformation,

Then this would be for week 12.

The practice has been deeply impactful for me because it helps me loosen my grip on reactivity and helps me to begin to see that the flavor of experience is not something personal.

It just arises.

So let's begin by finding a comfortable and dignified posture.

There's no need to be too rigid and just supported and alert.

If you need a cushion or a blanket,

Take a moment to grab it now.

Just settle in,

Whether you're on a cushion on the floor or sitting in a chair,

Closing your eyes if that feels safe,

Or simply letting your gaze rest softly in front of you.

Letting yourself arrive in this moment,

Letting the body,

The heart,

And the mind all catch up to each other.

Taking a deep breath in now through the nose,

Just breathing in and breathing out,

Remembering there's nowhere to go,

There's nothing to do.

There's no right or wrong way to be present in the moment.

We'll begin this practice with a body scan,

Just bringing some gentle attention to the top of your head,

Letting your awareness gently settle on the top of the head,

Then just scanning down through your eyebrows,

Noticing your cheeks,

Your jaw,

Perhaps noticing if there's any tension in that area,

Unclenching the jaw and softening if it's,

You notice if it's tense,

As you breathe in and breathe out,

Letting the muscles in the neck and the throat soften and release,

Allowing the shoulders to just drop away from the ears,

Letting them take a break,

Feeling a wave of softness wash over your arms and down into your fingertips,

Letting the chest soften,

The upper back and the abdomen,

The middle back and the belly and the lower back.

Breathing in,

Just allowing the body to soften,

Letting the soft easefulness continue down into the hips,

Noticing your point of contact with the chair or cushion,

Letting this groundedness that you feel be part of your practice,

Letting the scan continue down into your sit bones,

Your pelvis area,

Down the legs,

Into the feet and into the toes,

Feeling yourself here present,

Held and supported,

Noticing the entire body sitting here and feeling whatever is present in the body,

The body overall,

Just taking a few moments to sit with any softness or any tension that you find in the body,

Just allowing it to be.

And now that we've settled into this moment somewhat,

Using the body,

Shifting your attention to the breath,

Just feeling the breath as it is,

There's no need to change anything.

Where do you feel the breath most easily and most clearly?

Is it the chest,

The belly,

The nostrils?

Wherever it is,

Letting your attention rest there.

The breath can be your anchor to the present moment,

A place that you can come back to whenever you feel lost,

Whenever the mind wanders off,

Thinking about the past or the future or even how this meditation should be going.

The mind wanders in any way,

Which it will,

Once you notice,

Gently but firmly,

Escort your attention back to the breath in the present moment.

Each time you return in this way,

It's a moment of mindfulness,

An act of awareness,

Continuing to be aware of the breath,

At the nostrils,

The belly or the chest,

Breathing in and breathing out.

Now expanding attention back out to the body,

Noticing any sensations in the body.

It might be a tingling,

An ache,

Temperature,

Pressure,

Pulsing,

Numbness.

For each sensation that arises,

Gently ask yourself,

What is the feeling tone here?

Is it breath?

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral?

You might even silently label it pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral.

The pain in the back,

You might label it unpleasant.

Warmth in the hands,

You might label it pleasant.

A background kind of buzz in the body of nothing,

You might label it neutral.

There's no need to analyze or explain,

Just noticing the flavor or feeling tone of any sensation that arises in the body.

Letting yourself linger for a moment with the feeling tone,

Just sensing into it,

Letting go,

Noticing how it just arises,

Just something that automatically appears.

Observing how it arises,

Stays for a while,

Then changes or fades.

Asking yourself,

Can you be with this feeling tone without either grasping or resisting the sensation in the body,

Just being with it?

Remember,

The feeling tone is automatic,

But when we notice it in this way,

We can allow it to just be.

Without any next step in terms of reacting,

We'll just continue to sit for a few moments,

Experimenting with this feeling tone toward sensations in the body.

Often when we have a feeling tone of unpleasant,

We might react by doing something to try to get rid of it.

Perhaps you notice a pain in your forehead,

A tightness.

Often the reaction might be,

Well,

Maybe I'll breathe into it and it'll go away.

With this practice,

We're simply noticing the unpleasant feeling tone as it arises,

And just letting it be,

Not needing to fix or change anything.

Now opening your attention to include thoughts.

Thoughts are like clouds moving through the sky of the mind.

When one arises,

Pause and notice it,

And ask,

What is the feeling tone of this thought?

Does it bring a sense of joy or hope?

Is it pleasant?

Does it stir anxiety or regret that could be unpleasant?

Does it just pass through quietly,

Perhaps being neutral?

We're not analyzing the thought's story.

We're noticing the feeling tone or flavor of it.

You can do this with emotions as well.

You can notice sadness,

Contentment,

Irritation,

Frustration.

Each emotion has a feeling tone,

And you can notice it and allow it just to be.

No fixing,

No pushing away,

No wanting,

Or no grasping.

Noticing the feeling tone of any thoughts and emotions that might arise as you sit,

Letting awareness hold it all.

And if you get carried away by a thought train,

That's okay.

Again,

It'll happen.

It's quite natural.

When you notice,

Simply either anchoring yourself in the breath again,

And then opening back up to the practice of recognizing feeling tone,

Or just simply going back to the practice directly.

And now opening your attention even wider,

Letting the whole field of experience just be here,

Breathing body sensations,

Thoughts,

Emotions,

And even sounds.

Noticing the feeling tone of each,

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral.

Letting each just arise,

Register a feeling tone,

And then pass all on its own.

Each moment of experience carries this flavor or feeling tone.

Letting each one just flow through like clouds floating through the sky.

The sky is vast and open and allowing.

The weather patterns might be stormy or sunny,

Or neither,

This kind of neutral.

Remember,

You're not these factors that flow through awareness.

You're the sky it moves through.

As continuing to practice,

For the remainder of this meditation,

Not holding on to anything,

Not pushing away,

Noticing the feeling tone of whatever arises in the breath,

Body sounds,

Thoughts,

And emotions.

The words I am saying sound easy,

Simply registering the feeling tone of whatever passes through your field of experience.

But it's challenging for human beings to do this.

We're so used to reacting,

Grasping,

And pushing away to whatever's passing through us based on feeling tone,

That it's a habit of mind.

So that's why it's challenging,

And that's okay.

That's why we practice meditation,

So that we can practice being with our experience in this way.

And a key part of that is noticing,

Feeling tone,

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Neutral,

And letting it stop there.

For example,

You might notice some discomfort in the body from sitting still for this long.

When the discomfort is seen,

It will likely elicit a feeling tone of unpleasant.

Can you just notice the feeling tone unpleasant and not react,

Not shift your body position or move,

Or stop the meditation,

Just noticing the feeling tone of unpleasant and being with it,

Letting the discomfort be?

Of course,

This doesn't mean that you sit through extreme pain,

Sometimes the body sends us these messages to protect itself,

So there's nothing wrong with in extreme cases and just then moving,

And then re-engaging with the practice,

Seeing what arises in your experience next,

And seeing what the feeling tone of it is.

You're now coming back to the breath,

Letting it hold you,

Remembering that the breath is always there as your anchor,

Your home base,

Bringing you back to presence,

To the present moment.

Taking a moment to reflect a little.

Did you notice when you did this practice,

What surprised you?

Did the feeling tone of experience change as a result of you observing it?

Did your reactions to feeling tone change as a result of allowing it and noticing it?

Let the inquiry be gentle,

Not searching for intellectual answers,

But just posing these questions,

And realizing that the wisdom that you see when you meditate in this way can be with you for the rest of the day.

This awareness of feeling tone,

The subtle flavor of each moment,

Can help you meet life with more clarity,

Compassion,

And freedom.