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A MEDITATION ON CULTIVATING AWARENESS
Close your eyes, and feel your body hanging on your spine. Relax into
the body and take a few deep breaths. Now repeat the meditation called
“A Meditation on Finding the Stillness” that appears at the
end of chapter 1. Be aware.
When you’re ready, make the object of your awareness external
touch. Let your awareness float freely through the body. Perhaps
it will settle on your feet where they touch the floor . . . on your chest
where it touches your shirt . . . on your face where the air brushes your
skin. You might sense your hands as they rest on your thighs . . . your
eyelids where they touch each other.
Label out loud each time your awareness shifts, feet . . . chest . . . face . . . hands . . . eyelids.
Your awareness might land on a pang of hunger that arises in the stomach . . . label that stomach. Your awareness might land on a feeling of sleepiness that fills the whole body . . . label that whole body. And give the permission to be.
You might miss a lot of available sensations . . . but that’s okay . . . this is a beginning. Over time you’ll be aware of more.
If a thought arises, make it background. This means, note that it’s there. Thoughts will continue to arise and fade . . . be aware and gently return to the body.
Set your timer for five minutes, and let your awareness float freely
among these various kinds of external touch.
After five minutes have passed, shift the object of your meditation to
internal feel. Let your awareness land on those places in your body where
you experience moods or emotions . . . joy . . . excitement . . . anger
. . . sadness . . . impatience . . .
Start with your face. Perhaps the small muscles around your eyes are tense . . . if so, label that eyes. Notice that tenseness until your awareness is pulled somewhere else.
Continue with your throat as well as your face. Maybe your awareness will land on a lump you feel in your throat and the tears that fall from your eyes. Label that throat and eyes. And watch with curiosity . . . with interest in your body’s capacity to express feeling.
Then explore your chest and your abdomen. Are there flickers of sensation that you might call fear in your chest? Label that chest.
You might feel the kind of nervousness that makes you want to jump out of your skin . . . and it’s all over your body. Label that all over.
And if there’s an absence of feeling, label that none.
Whatever feelings arise . . . anger . . . sadness . . . jealousy . . . pleasure . . . happiness . . . peace . . . pour acceptance and love into them all. Watch as they arise, manifest, and fade. This is equanimity, a balanced mind, not preferring one or feeling over another. Sense each one . . . and be aware.
Set your timer for ten minutes and let your awareness float freely through
the body . . . observing internal feel.
Now, shift your awareness so that it includes external touch
and internal feel. In effect, be aware of any body sensation
that arises. Try to catch as many as you can and label their location.
Set your timer and take another ten minutes to watch. You might think
of your awareness as a butterfly . . . alighting on one or another body
sensation.
After the ten minutes, slowly open your eyes. Sit quietly for a while
and let the light shine in. Now . . . in the quiet . . . recall the trouble
you named during the first meditation . . . and be aware of any internal
feel body sensations that arise.
If you feel nothing, that’s all right. Simply enjoy the peace
that your body is offering. And label that nothing.
If you feel a heaviness all over the body and you associate it with sadness,
label that all over. If you feel flutters in your abdomen, label that
abdomen. Remember, you don’t have to be right or even accurate.
If, instead . . . as you hold your trouble in your mind . . . the muscles in your body relax and you’re filled with relief, you now know that, when confronted by trouble, you’re likely to feel relieved if you face it. This is an insight that might help in your effort to heal the emotions.
Whatever your reaction, whether it’s clarity . . . confusion .
. . insight . . . or no reaction at all . . . be aware . . . matter-of-fact.
And if your reactions are too upsetting . . . if you can’t be matter-of-fact
. . . you might want to enlist the aid of a trained counselor or a meditation
coach who can help you pursue this path.
When you’re ready . . . let go of trouble as an object of meditation
. . . and spend several minutes dwelling in the meditation called “A
Meditation on Finding the Stillness.” This will help calm the mind/body
process. Then end the meditation by writing down what you have learned.
And please remember, there is no correct outcome to meditation. Everything
is information.
May all beings know awareness.
Training for Awareness
1. Repeat “A Meditation on Finding the Stillness.”
2. Let your awareness float freely through the body, labeling the location
of sensations called external touch.
3. Let your awareness float freely through those parts of the body where
you can sense internal feel. Label the locations.
4. Let your awareness float freely through the body. Be aware of external
touch and internal feel. Label the locations.
5. Recall the trouble you named in the last meditation and be aware of
internal feel. Label the locations.
