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Namaste everyone, thank you for joining us here today, and a special thank you to those who have made it for every week leading up to now.
I will be in voice and text today, so please make sure you can hear if you'd like to, but it is not a necessity.
Please make yourselves comfortable, whatever that means for you. Find a position where you find a balance between effort and ease that you can maintain throughout the meditation. Try not to move too much during meditation, and if you do, move slowly with your breath.
I will lead us through a guided meditation to encourage a letting go of our expectations and thoughts, and coming into our experience as being in a body. Please turn off streamed music and media.
I invite you to close your eyes and begin to deepen your breath. Fill up your entire body with your air, expanding in all directions with the inhale, and letting it fall away with the exhale. I will leave you in silence for a few minutes, just see if you can keep bringing your attention to the breath.
//pause for two minutes
Welcome to Awareness Intensive. For the session today, I will ask that you come out of your mind and into experience. Step away from what you expect to notice, or what you think might or should happen, and see if you can just experience the practice. Come out of the teachings, what you might have been trained, what you believe. Let all of that take a back seat to your experience.
During these next few weeks we will work on tuning our awareness and seeing what potentials we have. Our brains are magnificent things, and the fact that we can be aware is a mystery. Let's explore what it means to be aware and have awareness. There is no right answer to any of the topics or questions posed here. We are each conscious individuals and therefore may experience the world differently from each other.
So, to begin us, I'll ask - what does "awareness" mean to you?
I'm going to ask a series of questions in voice and text. After each question we will have a few minutes of silent meditation before I pose the next question. As this is our first week, feel free to practice stream of consciousness into a notecard during the practice if you'd like, but I do encourage you to sit with your experience as perhaps it isn't quite as easy or consistent as it sounds.
If you are unfamiliar with stream of consciousness it means to write or speak or type without thinking about it too much. Don't worry about typos or even if it makes sense. It could be complete gobbledegook and that's perfect! The idea is to let the thoughts come out raw without intention.
Please keep any stream of consciousness in private during the meditation. We will open the floor for discussion after.
I will ring the Tibetan bowl once at the beginning of each meditation and twice at the end. Let us test the sound of it now. If you see particles but do not hear noise, please adjust your sound settings.
//test the bowl and make sure everyone can hear who wants to.
So please check in to your body and make sure you are comfortable, and we will begin. I invite you to close your eyes for this practice.
Sense awareness:
Can you follow the path of your breath?
Can you notice if the breath has a temperature?
Does the air stop being air and start being part of you? If so, where?
Can you feel your whole body? What is your experience of your body right now?
Can you feel the floor beneath you?
Can you feel the clothing and air against your skin?
Where does your body end and the objects touching it begin?
What can you taste?
What can you smell?
Even with eyes closed, what can you see? Are there any shapes, colours, or textures on the backs of your eyelids or in your mind?
What can you hear?
Can you feel the vibration of sound in your ears?
Can you recognize when hearing stops and it's just sound?
Take your time slowly coming out of the mind-practice. Bring your attention back to your breath. When you are ready, slowly wiggle your toes and fingers, turn your head from side to side, and then slowly open your eyes. As you are opening your eyes, try to notice what you see first.
//pause for a minute or so
Would anyone like to share their experiences? Are there any questions or comments?
Thank you all for your continual practice and support.
May all beings everywhere experience happiness and the root of happiness.
May all beings everywhere be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
May all beings everywhere attain equality, peace, and well-being.
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. _/\_
I bow to you all with deep respect. Gassho.
