Relaxing into embodied awareness

So I always like to invite you to be really conscious about what shape your body takes before we launch into some kind of practice. So just checking, does the shape that your body is in offer a balance of relaxation and kind of brightness? And is there any subtle way that you can just bring a bit more of this into being, so that from the start the physical shape we’re in matches the kind of energetic shape — the shape of our intentions and attitudes we want to bring to practice? And then bringing awareness to the body, just recognising the awareness that already holds the body in a way that has some of this softness, this brightness, sort of inherent within it. So very gently allowing your inner map of the body to become more rich, more detailed, more fleshed out. Sometimes it’s helpful to identify the different layers of the body sense. You can bring awareness to the temperature layer, the thermal sense — noticing areas of the body that are warm, that are cooler, the movement of heat throughout the body. You can be aware of the sort of tension layer, the movement of contraction and expansion in the body, noticing areas of space and relaxation and other areas that are tight, pulling, holding. You can notice the shape and space of the body — feeling the space the body takes up, feeling the shape of the skin. We can feel the sort of subtle body — the micro-sensations, the tingles, the movements of energy, the background vibration in different parts of the body. And if this isn’t immediately obvious, try tuning into your fingers or your toes. You can sense the many micro-tingles, the sense of vibration. And we can tune into the emotional layer of the body — sensing the emotional tone present both as a kind of background sense of the whole body, and also perhaps as particular sensations in the chest, the throat, the belly. Just noticing how whatever the mood is, whatever the emotional atmosphere, the body reflects this. Even the word ‘reflect’ is not quite right — it’s more intimate than that. The body lives this in some way. Completing this check-in by just noticing what your mind is up to or has been up to — what kinds of thoughts have been arising, how frequently — and firmly grounding yourself in an attitude that does not make a problem out of any of this. The body, these many ways that the body can be known, these many layers of the body sense. The heart, the emotions that are present right now, or moving around. And the mind — there’s no way any of these need to be other than just as they are. It is perfect right now. So, having honed our awareness by tuning into these different, subtler layers of the body, and having set our intention to really deeply allow ourselves just to be as we are — to allow our experience to unfold as it will — with this foundation, we can begin to make the breath the centre of this embodied awareness. And don’t settle for some mental construction of the breath. Don’t settle for an easily known version of the breath. Descend into the lived reality of the breath, allowing the breath to be unknown territory — not just a convenient thing to nail the mind to. And there are many layers to what we call the breath. There’s the movement of air through the nose, down the throat, into the lungs. There’s the movement of the belly and the chest — maybe even subtly the shoulders, the pelvis. There’s the energetic lift and release, the inhale and the exhale. And there’s the shifting textures of the breath — sometimes smooth, at other points a little more jagged or tight. So we can know the breath in all of these ways and more. As much as possible, we want to release the sense of effort associated with receiving the breath. It doesn’t actually take effort to notice what’s already happening. This sense of effort, the sense of trying too hard, will show up physically. There’s tension in the forehead or the jaw, the shoulders, as the head decides that it needs to be in control and be the one that’s paying attention in some way. We can notice this habit — if it’s present — of trying to be aware of the breath, and just notice that the breath is there anyway. And this effort is actually unnecessary. As we relax this more effortful attention, a softer, wider, more open kind of awareness can emerge. This awareness can perhaps hold the whole body. With the movement of the breath, there’s a kind of current, a kind of pulsation that is felt everywhere. This soft and relaxed awareness is really supported by our attitudes and our intentions, rather than effort. If we actually want to be present, to know our experience, if we regard the body and the breath as something new and fresh in every moment — to be explored, to be met, to be known — and if we can bring an atmosphere of friendliness, compassion, warmth… with these attitudes, awareness will just arise in this open, inclusive way. So rather than holding attention anywhere — holding the mind here or there — we just need to take care of these attitudes, being wholehearted. So we’re simply relaxing and allowing everything to just be as it is, meeting our experience with friendliness and with this kind of open awareness — but not so interrupted by thoughts. Thoughts will still arise, but it’s not like we’re either in this open awareness or we’re thinking, in the way that we might feel with a more focused attention. Notice that this wider, softer awareness is undisturbed by thinking when it arises. There’s a kind of quiet steadiness. We’ll just rest in this quiet steadiness, in silence, for the last few minutes.