By Thomas McConkie, adapted from an episode of the Mindfulness+ podcast.
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“The longer we practice, the deeper we practice."
It’s something that one of my meditation teachers always used to say. In this spirit, I'm going to offer a longer guided meditation about being in the present moment. This is the practice of presence, of really learning to open up to the fullness that is here right now.
Begin
Take a moment to let the body settle into the posture, gathering awareness in the physical body, letting the dust from your day or your night of sleeping and dreaming just start to settle. And remember that you don't have to try and get settled, try and rest. You can just give yourself over to the natural rhythms of your own body, of nature — as rhythmically as the tide ebbs and flows, the body expands and contracts through the breath. You can just return to this rhythm.
[extended silence]
Good. Bring your awareness to the nostrils, the sensation of breathing in and breathing out through the nose. And just practice for a moment, tightly focusing your awareness on these sensations — breathing in through the nose, breathing out through the nose, and just noticing the changing sensations as you do this, letting everything else in the entire world fade into the background.
If you get pulled away from your focus on the sensations around the nostrils or inside of the nostrils, just notice that and come back. Refocus. Redouble your efforts, really bearing down on this small area of sensation.
And for a moment, as you do this, staying with the tight focus on the sensations of breathing through the nose, I want you to notice that within your narrowed focus there's a quality of total openness, that awareness is open to whatever sensation is flowing. No matter how tightly you focus, there's a quality of awareness that remains totally open. Within your scope of focus around the nostrils, you can just be open to whatever sensation is flowing in this moment. Tingling sensation, air cooling the nostrils as you breathe in, warming the nostrils as you breathe out.
Then go ahead and let that go. Relax your focus, opening up awareness to cover the entire physical body, all of sensation in this moment. Focusing on the physical body, being open within the scope of this focus. Allowing whatever sensation wants to arise, to arise. Whatever wants to pass, to pass.
And go ahead and relax that. Let go of that narrowing of focus on the body. And at this point you can totally ease up. Letting go of any particular focus in awareness and just allowing awareness to be completely open — not focusing on any one thing whatsoever.
As you stay open in awareness, you'll notice that however open you are, awareness will naturally and spontaneously focus. It will grip on an object such as a physical sensation, a thought in the mind, without your doing it. and you can just notice as this happens. Going from total expanse, total openness, to a spontaneous focus. And as you notice this spontaneous focusing, this spontaneous gripping, you can practice letting go. Letting go of whatever awareness notices in the moment, coming back to open awareness.
And start to notice that in a given moment, whether awareness is focused or open, in any event, you are simply aware. You are present. Whether you're present in a focused and narrowed way, or present in a relaxed and open way, awareness is simply aware. Just take a moment to enjoy this. From this perspective there are no distractions. There's only awareness. There's contractive awareness: tightly focused. There's expansive awareness: totally open. You're always aware. You're always present. You are aware presence itself.
Enjoy the freedom, the natural rhythm of awareness expanding and contracting, as naturally as the tides ebb and flow. As naturally as stars, suns, rise and set over countless planets. Awareness expands, contracts, and you are present. Aware, awake for it all.
End
Take a moment to give your fingers and toes a wiggle. Let the visual world back into awareness if you've closed your eyes. Stay soft, stay open. Enjoy all of the fullness that is this and every moment.
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