A quick overview of where we are going over these next five sessions:
We are going to do five guided meditations focusing on the senses, our perceptions of the senses, and our overall experience. I'll start each one with a few words to orient everyone, then we'll do 10 to 15 minutes of guided practice, then we'll have some time for discussion.
My meditation practice comes out of the Buddhist tradition, particularly as the Tibetan Buddhists taught in the US in the 1970's and '80s.
One of the Buddhist views of experience is as the sum of 14 component parts
Unconscious
Subconscious
6 sense organs (ears, eyes, tongue, skin, nose, mind)
6 sense consciousnesses (hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, thinking)
In meditation practice, we aren't trying to block one of these out (thinking) in so much as bring some balance into our experience of each of them. The best way of doing that, it turns out, is not to try too hard, not to make meditation into a project that we should check off our list. But instead, to carve out a little time in the day when we can relax with our world the way it is.
In these exercises, we consciously turn our attention to one of the six sense organs and one of the six consciousnesses in order to experience it anew, and bring it into balance with the others. Today we are going to tune in to the experience of feeling, of touch, of how you feel in your body.
So let's begin. Take your seat.
Gong
Establish your intention, your motivation.
Think of someone or some thing that you would like to help. If you like, this practice session can be dedicated to them. Or it can be dedicated to helping yourself. Whatever inspires you at this moment.
deep belly breaths to come more into the feeling body.
I recommend closing your eyes for this one.
[guided mediation from legs/base/spine/heart/jaw/etc.]
Now just drop the technique. Drop the attention on sound and hearing. Let's just be together for a little bit.