Jill Shepherd: 05 meditation: Opening to physical sensations, sounds, mental activity then choiceless attention

So yeah, just putting aside the books and the tea and finding yourself into your meditation position, making those micro adjustments to help the body find that steadiness and ease. Going this orientation to stillness by finding the steadiness of the ground beneath you, letting the weight of the body settle more fully into that support, sitting like a mountain, strong, steady, stable at ease. And just like a mountain has different weather conditions swirling around it and it stays steady in the middle of it all, in the same way that inner stillness can stay steady. Even as different experiences come and go from sensations in the body, come and go sometimes quickly, fleeting, sometimes more slowly. We can recognize different sensations in the body arising, staying for a while, passing away. We don't need to get involved with those sensations, holding on to them if they're pleasant or pushing them away if they're unpleasant. We can just settle back and recognize sensations coming and going. And the experience of breathing is the through line that keeps us centered and steady and still, even as these different sensations come and go. From this place of inner stillness becomes a little easier to notice if the attention starts to move into some kind of reactivity to a sensation. If it's pleasant you might notice an energetic movement to leaning in or holding on, or if a particular sensation is unpleasant, you might notice an inner pushing away or resisting. Either way there's some kind of tightening or tension, contraction. And if you notice that very first pulse of physical reaction right there, can you soften, release, relax, recognizing, oh it's just unpleasant, it's just pleasant, and rest back into the rhythm of breathing in the same way that we can practice staying present and non-reactive physical sensations in the body. We can do the same with hearing. So we can stay settled back, relax, and just allow different sounds to be known, tuning into the sense door of hearing, and receiving all the different sounds here in the room, outside the room, and some of them fleeting, some of them might stay for a while, and you don't need to get involved with what you're hearing. Simply sounds arising, staying for a while, and passing away, just hearing. The same as with sensations, some sounds might register as slightly unpleasant, some will be neutral, maybe some will be pleasant. You can notice if any subtle reactivity starts to register in the body, the sounds unpleasant, such first trace of stiffening or tightening, maybe resistance. Right there again, can you soften, just hearing. Being open and receptive, relaxed, a whole range of different sounds come and go. Stay for a while and pass away. Make notice if or when the mind gets involved. Thinking about the experience of hearing, be moving from pleasant or unpleasant to liking or not liking. There too, can you soften any reactivity in the mind, simply knowing hearing, hearing. Connected to that still center of non-reactivity as best you can, and in the same way as we did with physical sensations and sounds, you can notice the coming and going of thoughts and emotions, different kinds of mental activity coming into your awareness, staying for a while, passing away. And again, some will be fleeting there and then gone. Others might stay around for a while. You can simply receive thoughts and emotions, saying and going, not fighting with them, not feeding them, just letting them move through awareness, like where the systems move through the sky. The sky itself is unaffected by whatever passes through it in a similar way awareness can just receive. All the different kinds of thinking, maybe different flavors of emotion, and they can be quietly acknowledged, not getting entangled, simply knowing thoughts coming and going. And perhaps at times, moments of silence, inner silence between the thoughts, just keep resting back into the rhythm of breathing. There happens to be mental activity, letting it calm and go. With an awareness that receives it all without reactivity. Then let it go of tuning into any particular aspect of experience and just opening to whatever becomes predominant moment to moment, letting the attention connect with whatever naturally arises and calls it. Maybe a sensation, a thought, a sound that stays for a while, the breath coming and going. And a thought, we're just relaxing now into choiceless attention, letting your awareness move and connect with whatever naturally calls it moment to moment. And if at any time you get lost or confused, you can come back to the home base of breathing. And when the awareness is steady again, you can open up to the whole range of experiences coming and going. As we bring the meditation to a close, just taking a moment to notice the effect, what's it like to practice this more open, choiceless attention. Now it's the heart, the mind, now. Just to know, right now it's like this.