Transcription
[00:01, guided meditation begins]
[Let's] do a guided meditation. So just taking a moment to really settle into the posture. Centring in the body, feeling the body. Feeling the life of the body. And then, in whatever way is most helpful, just taking a few minutes to calm, to collect, to unify body and mind, whether it's with the breathing or the mettā or whatever works for you. Calming and gathering.
So very much including the body, the sense of the body. Feeling into the body in the calmness, including that. Aware of the body, pervading the space of the body with awareness. And feeling the stillness of the body. Perhaps regions within the body, areas where there is a sense of stillness. Tuning into that sense of stillness within the body.
And then from that stillness, centred, anchored in that stillness, opening out wide the awareness to listening. Opening to sounds. Very wide, spacious awareness, listening to sounds, near and far, all sounds. Open. Stillness, openness, space, sound. Noticing how sounds, all sounds, arise and pass, arise and pass. And this open awareness can receive them all, is receiving them all. And just letting that open expanse of awareness receive sound.
Noticing also in that openness, in that receptive awareness, perhaps the silence also. Silence between sounds, around sounds. So listening to sounds, listening to silence, opening to silence. Is it possible to get a sense that sounds somehow arise from this ground of silence and fade back into that ground of silence? Resting in that silence.
[11:56] Is it possible to get a sense or even imagine the mind, awareness, like an open sky? Clear, bright, vast, infinitely vast. And in that open, vast, clear sky, appearances come and go, appear and disappear. Sensations in the body, images, thoughts, like fireflies at night, like shooting stars in the dark night sky, appearing, disappearing, fading. Burst of fireworks, colour, in the space. Or clouds drifting through an open blue sky and dissolving. Appearances arise, live, and fade in that vastness. No need to struggle with any appearance. No need to get entangled with any appearance. Clinging to nothing, rejecting nothing.
In that vastness, there's plenty of space for everything, plenty of space. No need to control or interfere in any way. So seeing how naturally, effortlessly, everything is embraced in that vastness of awareness, no matter if it's lovely, if it's ugly. This infinite space of awareness is undisturbed by appearances within it, just as physical space is undisturbed by the objects in it. Undisturbed, unperturbed. Vast and serene.
Each moment of sensation floating free in that space. No need to label different experiences. Just moments of experience arising, appearing, disappearing within that vast spaciousness of awareness. Recognizing how everything, everything is held, held within awareness, without effort. Aware of the underlying spaciousness, clarity of the mind. Getting a sense of that space, of that clarity, that purity. And really letting everything arise and fade, and letting it all belong to that space. Let it belong to awareness. It all belongs there in that vastness, in that silence, in that space of awareness. Belongs to that. Letting it belong.
[26:57] This or that appearance, sensation, a bubble passing through the space of mind, dissolving back into that space of mind. Appearances floating there, melting back, melting back into that space, melting back into awareness. Possible to get a sense of appearances arising, like waves, and then dissolving back into the ocean.
Is it possible to see whatever arises, any of the six senses, is it possible to see it as just an impression in awareness? Just an impression in awareness, like a reflection on the surface of a lake. Appearances, experiences, sensations, whatever they are, can they be seen as just impressions in awareness? Reflections on the surface of a lake? Over and over, all appearances, seen as just impressions, just impressions in awareness.
And perhaps at times, is it possible to sense, just as silence permeates sounds, so the stillness and spaciousness of awareness, the purity of awareness, pervades and permeates everything that arises? Can all feel like the same stuff, the same substance. All is water. Waves, calm depths -- all is water. All appearances have the nature of awareness, of that spaciousness, purity, clarity, imperturbability, insubstantiality.
Over and over, letting everything belong to the space, the vast space of mind. Over and over, seeing all appearances -- just impressions in awareness. Including everything. Including the self-sense. The image of yourself sitting here, the felt sense of yourself sitting here. That, too, seeing it as just an impression in awareness. Including everything.
[42:52] Is it possible in the receptivity to really get a felt sense of the qualities of that vastness, a sense of its unfathomable peace, its imperturbability, the unshakable vastness of it?
[45:45, guided meditation ends]
So if you want to, to play with this today, something similar to what we just did. Obviously it can be brought into the walking meditation very nicely, very easily. Lovely in standing meditation. So posture is kind of irrelevant. Eyes open, very possible, visual impressions. Or eyes closed. It's all good. Does it kind of make sense how one might ...? Yeah? So if you feel drawn, spend some time today playing with it, and we'll talk about it tonight and fill it out, and kind of put it in a little bit of context. Okay. So some interviews this morning, and I'll see you guys tonight.
