30. Meditation 15
Notice the feeling of being inside your head, and see if that’s truly your point of view.
Just sit however is comfortable, and you might gently close your eyes. And then rest your mind wide open, listening to sounds.
Noticing sensations in the body. Feeling the breath come and go, either at the nose or at the abdomen or chest.
Just let your awareness be the space in which all of these things appear. It is in fact already the space in which all things simply appear. And if you notice any mood or coloring to your attention, If you feel sleepy or restless, anxious, peaceful, bored, any feeling tone, just notice that too. Where do you feel it?
Feel it as a pattern of energy. Notice that consciousness is prior to it. This too is just appearing in consciousness. Sleepiness itself, the feeling that you’re about to fall asleep, is also a sensation appearing in consciousness. And that which is aware of restlessness or sleepiness is not itself restless or sleepy.
Consciousness doesn’t actually take the shape of what it knows. See if you can feel that.
Become aware of the sensations of your face and your head. And rather than feel that consciousness is in your head or behind your face, notice that it is in fact the other way around. The sensations of having a face or head are appearing in the open space of consciousness. They’re appearing in the same place that sounds are appearing and thoughts. The sensation of having a face or a head or a body is appearing in the same place where you’re hearing the sound of my voice. There’s only one place to notice anything, and that’s in consciousness. Simply rest as that space.
And if you notice that you’ve been lost in thought and entirely forgotten about the practice of meditation, there’s no need to judge that moment. That again is just another moment of being lost in thought. Just start again. Watch what happens to the thought itself and rest as the space in which
It’s disappeared. Observe whatever comes next, sounds, sensations, another thought. Eventually, thoughts themselves can become objects of meditation.
There are times when the practice becomes stable enough that the arising of a thought is no longer synonymous with losing the thread of mindfulness. There are times when it feels like there is no possibility of losing that thread. There is nothing to be distracted. Again, there’s only one space in which everything appears.
What could be distracted from what?
In the last minute of this session, just begin again. See if you can pay really precise attention to whatever’s appearing.
Well, you’ve been at this for 15 days. This is a landmark of sorts. As you can tell, the practice keeps developing. I keep adding new elements.
And we’re now getting into territory in these sessions where the meditation is open to the full field of experience, sounds, sensations, moods, thoughts. Everything in principle is a fit object of meditation. And there’s nothing which is by its very nature a distraction here.
And I hope it’s clear that you’re not trying to prevent thoughts or moods from arising. You just want to pay close attention to whatever appears. The full field of conscious awareness is the context of mindfulness. And I’ll be adding exercises that interrogate various parts of it and that put into question certain features of our experience that seem worth taking a closer look at, but the content on this side of the course can become more evergreen and you can use it again and again.