A Listening, Receptive Presence

Take a few moments to feel your sitting posture from the inside out so you make whatever subtle adjustments will help you to sit in a way that's upright so the posture supports the quality of being awake,

Balanced,

And at ease.

We'll start together just with the simplicity of breathing consciously,

Taking a very long and deep and full in-breath.

And then a slow out-breath,

Very consciously releasing and feeling the sensations of letting go.

And again,

Inhaling deeply.

And a slow out-breath,

Letting go,

Letting go.

And once again inhaling deeply,

Filling the lungs,

Filling the chest,

Holding for a moment,

Holding,

Feeling that fullness.

And again,

Very slowly releasing the breath,

Softening down the length of the body,

Letting go,

Letting go,

Letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm,

Feeling that increased presence,

That awareness that's attending with the in-breath,

A kind of inflating,

Opening,

Receiving,

With the out-breath,

A releasing,

A settling,

Relaxing outward.

And with this more collected attention,

Bringing a quality of listening to your heart,

Just sensing the state of your heart right now,

Physically,

Emotionally.

And as you listen and feel that part of your being,

Just a sense,

What is it that matters to you?

What brings you here tonight?

What is your intention?

And keep listening for the most true or sincere intention.

And we'll bring that caring of the heart to the chanting.

The mantra is simply Aum,

Mantra or a sound current of connectedness.

We'd like to bring the palms together so that you can chant from a quality of care,

Of tenderness.

We'll do three chanting together of Aum,

Beginning by inhaling deeply.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Taking some moments just to listen.

Sensing the space in the room,

The sounds,

The soft sounds that are right here.

So that you're listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness,

Just letting the sounds wash through.

Noticing that with listening there's nothing to do.

Sounds are known spontaneously.

Appear and disappear just like these words.

Listening to the more distant sounds,

The ones you can detect further and further away.

Sensing the space of awareness that includes even the most distant sounds you can detect.

It's with the same receptivity and spaciousness of listening that we can receive the play of sensations in the body.

You might scan through the body with a listening kind of attention,

Interested and open,

Receptive,

Perhaps feeling the scalp,

The skull,

Just being open to whatever tingling or vibrating you can feel.

Aware of the whole region of the eyes and the brow,

Perhaps softening a little and just sensing the aliveness,

The play of sensation there.

Relaxing the jaw,

Feeling the mouth,

The tongue.

And kind of a listening and receptive attention.

Realizing the face doesn't have to have any expression,

Just softening and feeling the sensations around the face.

The base of the skull and the neck.

You might let the throat… sense the throat filling the whole neck.

Just opening to the sensations in that region.

Bringing the awareness inside the shoulders.

Just letting whatever tangles or tension or sensations are there,

Let it float in this awareness,

This attention.

Just feeling life exactly as it is.

Feeling the region of the arms,

Sensing the energy moving,

Tingling,

Vibrating through the arms.

Right down into the hands.

Just helpful to soften the hands,

Sense the awareness inside the hands and just receive the actual sensations in life in a very intimate way,

Very close in.

Noticing that if you soften even more you can be more receptive,

More sensitive to the life in the hands.

Feeling the region of the chest,

Bringing the awareness inside the chest,

Heart,

The lungs,

A receptive,

Clear noticing of what it is like,

This play of sensation.

Relaxing the belly,

Feeling this next breath being received in a softening belly,

This breath,

And this one.

Sensing the awareness in the belly,

Receptive,

Open.

Just feeling the life that is playing through the body and the torso.

Sensing the back,

The upper back,

Might soften a little and just feel tingling,

Vibrating,

Heat,

Cool,

Just as it is.

Might be tightness,

Tension,

And the middle back,

The lower back.

Sensing the whole pelvic region filled with awareness,

Receptive,

Open to the dance of sensation that is here.

Aware of the places of contact with your cushion,

Your chair,

Feet on the floor,

Hands on the legs,

And letting those places of contact be received in awareness,

Pressure,

Warmth.

Letting the awareness be inside the legs.

And see if you can feel the tingling or vibrating,

The movement of energy right into the feet.

Letting the hands be soft,

Feeling an awakeness and sensitivity in the feet,

And then widening the lens so that you can feel this whole body as a dance of energy.

Sense that you are letting life live through you,

Completely receptive,

Awake.

And I discover in the midst of this field of sensation the simple sensations of the breath,

Perhaps the inflow,

Outflow of the breath,

Receiving the breath,

Not controlling in any way.

It might feel like just a whisper,

A very gentle stream right at the nostrils,

A stream and a whole sea of awareness,

Letting the breath be in the foreground.

Perhaps you feel the breath more easily,

That rising and falling sensation in the chest,

Or the expanding and then settling in the abdomen.

You might notice where the breath is felt in the most pleasant way or most accessible way.

And just receive the stream of the breath or the sensations or movement of the breath moment by moment in an open awareness.

Sense a kind of intimate listening to the breath.

For some you might feel that the whole body is breathing and expanding,

Settling of the whole body,

Every cell.

Now,

Where you feel the energy about you having a Path Umwelt Polygamous and full of Fly Quite naturally the mind will drift.

And when we notice that,

That's the opportunity to practice waking up again.

So not to judge thoughts,

But just to know that our whole practice is to notice when we've gone into a trance of sorts and gently reopen.

You might again open and listen to the sounds that are here.

Re-establishing a sense of space and openness.

Re-open and sense the aliveness in the body.

Perhaps softening a little.

You can't relax too often.

Feeling the shoulders,

Letting them relax a bit.

Softening the hands.

Loosening and softening the belly.

And again settling the attention with your home base.

For many the breath,

Some place the breath with the nose,

Chest,

Belly,

The whole body breathing,

Is often a preferred home base.

Sensing how that is for you.

Receptive,

Soft attention to this next in-breath,

Throughout-breath.

Rising breath,

Falling breath.

See how much you can relax with the experience of breathing.

As a way of closing this evening,

Just to let you know,

This evening,

Just to take a moment to sense if there's any judging or evaluating of your meditation.

And if that's there in the background or the foreground,

Just to let go.

And from your heart offer appreciation to yourself for your intention towards presence,

Your practice of presence.