Resting in Awareness

The sky is neither excited about the sunshine nor bothered by the clouds. This is what it means to have choiceless awareness to be free from bias, to have true stability of mind. So you'll know that I like to use this idea, a blue sky to represent awareness. And I think in this case is, it's particularly accurate. You know I mean I, this is my assumption but I get the impression that the sky is neither excited about the sunshine nor bothered by the clouds. And when we think about the quality of awareness, that blue sky in our mind, it is without bias. It is without judgment. It's without commentary. It's not trying to have an opinion in any way at all. It is simply witnessing with bare attention. And because of that, there is a sense of freedom in the mind, it doesn't have to do anything. There's no effort required. And this is why in meditation, you know we often talk about this idea of, of effortless effort. Of course to begin with some effort is required to create the framework, create the structure. But after that, once we get comfortable resting in awareness, there is really nothing more to do. We're simply watching, witnessing. Our only job is to realize when we've got caught up in the clouds, got caught up in the sunshine and in that moment to let that go and to come back to that blue sky. But just sitting with the confidence with that idea that, that blue sky, that awareness, is happy with the mind, no matter how it is, no matter how it appears in this moment. So just taking a moment to pause, to rest. We'll start with the eyes open and some deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath, just closing the eyes. Feeling the weight of the body as it presses down. Noticing those different points of contact. Not thinking about them, just noticing the sensation. Noticing the different sounds around you, not resisting but just allowing them to come and go. And then as you bring the attention back to the body. Just scanning down. Noticing how the body feels right now. As you scan down, noticing the movement of breath. It's a little different every time. Noticing where in the body you feel the movement. Noticing the rhythm of the breath, particular to this time. And then just following the rising and falling sensation Allowing thoughts to come and go. Realizing when you got distracted. And gently bringing the attention back again. Each time just letting go of the distraction and coming back to the breath. And then now as you become more aware of the other physical sensations again. And feeling body grounded against the seat. The floor beneath you. Noticing the different sound, smells, the air around you. And then when you're ready, just gently, opening the eyes again....