Now we are going to do a practice that cultivates a sense of spacious awareness.
So of course we start with finding our comfortable position,
So taking a moment to do that.
Any position,
Sitting,
Lying,
Standing,
Whatever works for you.
And also feeling your groundedness.
Feeling the weight and volume of the body and all the surfaces that are supporting you.
And sensing how now as always you are supported by the earth.
Underneath all the layers that humans have made there is the earth.
And sensing how the earth is holding you now.
And now just imagining the space between your two eyes.
Allowing your focus to be soft and gentle.
Now see if you can imagine or sense the space between your two ears.
And sensing the space between the forehead and the back of your head.
Can you imagine that your hands are filled with space?
And sense how your chest is filled with space.
The space between the front of the body and the back of the body.
See if you can imagine or sense the space that fills your belly.
And now see if you can sense and imagine that your whole body is filled with space.
Expanding your awareness into this space.
Can you imagine how the energy and space of your own body is connected,
Continuously connected to the space and the energy beyond the body?
And can you imagine that this continuous space in and around you is filled with awareness?
See what it is like to rest in this wide open awareness.
See what it is to allow sounds to just arise and be known in this wide open awareness.
Allowing sensations in the body to arise and sense them within this wide open space of awareness.
And in the same way that sounds and sensations are arising,
Allowing thoughts and emotions to arise and naturally dissolve.
Letting your breath move easily like a gentle breeze.
Being aware of thoughts drifting through like passing clouds through a great open space of sky.
Letting yourself rest in an open,
Undistracted awareness.
Noticing the changing display of sounds,
Sensations,
Thoughts and emotions.
If you find at some point,
And you probably will,
That your attention narrows.
Maybe becomes a little fixated on a sensation or a sound,
A thought,
An emotion.
Just notice that.
Maybe name what you notice without judging.
And then see if you can expand back outward into the spacious awareness.
It's a little bit like choosing to zoom out when we notice that we've automatically zoomed in.
The breath to be easy and natural and to be known in this wide open field of awareness.
Allowing thoughts,
Emotions,
Sensations,
Every phenomena that is part of being human to arise in this wide open field of awareness,
In this spacious awareness.
Notice how when we don't engage,
When we don't feed or wrestle with whatever arises,
That it very naturally arises,
Stays for a short time and then dissipates.
Checking in to see if your attention has narrowed and if so,
Just be aware,
Maybe name it thinking or lost in thought or contracted.
See if you can release that and again step back,
Zoom out,
Wide open spacious awareness that's available to us always.
Sensing the space within and the space around us that we are part of.
Just resting in open awareness.
Let's see if you can reconnect with that spacious awareness if you find yourself contracted.
To do that you might again bring your awareness to the space within your body,
The space between the front part of your body and the back of your body.
The space that we are made of and that contains us.
So now we prepare to end our practice for today and let's do that with a poem.
This is a poem called Breath of Life by Dana Faulds.
I breathe in all that is,
Awareness expanding to take everything in,
As if my heart beats the world into being.
From the unnamed vastness beneath the mind,
I breathe my way to wholeness.
Inhalation,
Exhalation,
Each breath a yes,
A letting go,
A journey and a coming home.
