Take a moment to settle in,
Whatever you're doing,
Wherever you are.
Just gather awareness back in the physical body,
To feel sensation flowing in this moment.
Feel the ground beneath you,
And to feel the flow of breath.
Without any special effort,
Just having an intention to become more fully present,
We find that it just kind of happens.
And let the belly soften,
Expanding and contracting with the breath.
Because awareness is all pervasive throughout all of experience,
It turns out it's not very difficult to contact awareness.
And when we contact awareness,
We naturally start to taste a flavor of stillness in our experience of peace,
Serenity,
But also tremendous dynamism and power,
Spontaneity.
Focus on just softening right now,
Letting this settling in process occur,
Whether you're in stillness or motion,
Just appreciating that you're aware.
You're aware of experience,
Aware of sensory experience,
And aware of awareness.
Something that's interesting about awareness is that as human beings,
We tend to pay attention in a very specific and habitual way.
If we notice our experiencing in a given moment throughout the day,
It's likely that a lot of our attention will be going to thoughts in the mind,
As well as our visual experience.
This is for some biological and evolutionary reasons.
It's also for some cultural reasons that all of these tendencies are reinforced.
And in this meditation,
We're just going to intentionally shift the way we're paying attention.
Redistributing our attention more evenly across the whole spectrum of sensory experience.
You can start in this moment by just bringing awareness to hearing.
Notice the experience of hearing.
Opening up awareness to the soundscape 360 degrees around you,
Above you,
Below you.
What sound is happening in this moment?
And what a marvel that we can hear it all.
Just allow yourself to become fascinated by hearing.
Never mind what you're hearing,
Just that you're hearing.
And in this way,
We give awareness a little bit of a stretch.
Start to flow more energy and awareness into the mode of hearing.
Stay with it just another moment.
Organizations let go of this awareness and awareness into the mode of hearing Shift your awareness now to the mode of feeling,
Sensation throughout the body.
Maybe you're outdoors and feel the touch of sun on your skin.
Maybe the caress of the breeze.
The support of the ground beneath you,
The touch of your clothing to your skin.
Just shift your awareness to feeling awareness.
And again,
As we do this,
We're not worried about what we're feeling.
Maybe sensations in this moment are mostly comfortable.
Maybe they're uncomfortable,
Or maybe some blend of both,
Which is usually the case.
But notice your capacity as you do this to just really receive the experience of feeling.
Just aware of feeling.
Want to marvel that we have bodies and can feel it all.
See if you're able to allow awareness to expansively focus on the entire physical body at once.
Just feeling the flow,
The cascade of sensation through awareness.
If you notice the tension fixating on one small area of sensation,
Just notice that and relax awareness like you would relax a muscle opening back up to holding the entire body in awareness.
If your attention contracts into a thought in the mind or a sound around you,
You can just notice that too and practice letting go.
Coming back to feeling awareness.
Okay.
Good.
Now bring attention to seeing.
And as you really put your awareness into the mode of seeing,
Be surprised,
Be in wonder that you have eyes at all and that you can see.
Never mind what you're seeing,
You could be staring at the magnificence of the Grand Canyon,
You could be staring at a blank wall,
And the miracle of seeing is not diminished in either case.
Just notice in this moment awareness taking the shape of seeing.
Notice how effortless it is to see,
You don't have to strain or effort to see.
The light of the world just streams in like sunlight through stained glass windows pouring into creating the experience of seeing spontaneously,
Effortlessly.
Notice that it's not you who is seeing,
Seeing is just happening.
What wonder.
And here comes the fun part.
Keeping awareness in the experience of seeing,
Start to embrace and include the other two modes of experience we were working with.
In this moment,
Notice this sense of hearing just happening without effort.
Notice feeling just happening without effort.
Feeling is happening,
Hearing is happening,
Seeing is happening.
They're all just happening.
And as you include all three of these modalities at once,
You may find your gaze starting to relax in a natural way.
You can still see perfectly fine,
But your gaze is softened.
There's less intensity,
Less laser like quality to your sense of seeing.
You're just allowing the light to pour in your eyes,
The sound to pour into your ears,
All of sensation to light up your senses.
It's happening all at once.
We tend to really unconsciously pour most of our awareness in a given moment into what we're looking at,
Either out in the world or some image in our mind as we're thinking.
Just feel this new balance.
It's a bit like riding a bicycle once you get the hang of it.
The balance just happens.
Feel what it's like to be in equilibrium with all the senses at once.
Seeing,
Hearing,
Feeling.
All different shapes of awareness.
Yes,
Effortlessly happening.
But who is it that's aware?
Come on.
Thank you.
