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Guided Meditation: All Inclusive Awareness

So I greet you with a good morning from Redwood City, California. And for those of you much further from here, maybe a good afternoon, good evening, or maybe a good night even.

It's a profound thing to sit in community, to sit together with others. It's a profound thing to live in community, to live in communion, in harmony, in cooperation with others. And to have the circles of cooperation and care extend outward in all directions to all beings everywhere is fantastic to do that well. Whether we care to meet with, to encounter a single other person or many people, it really helps if we are truly embodied in ourselves—if we, in a sense, are very present here and all of who we are can be present when we encounter or meet another person.

The more we are in the present moment, the more we learn to be mindful, the more mindfulness is holistic. All of who we are is included, even that which is difficult for us: the suffering, the challenges that we have. But there's a way in which we stay rooted in ourselves, as if all of ourselves can be here and be present to it. This contributes to our full capacity to meet someone else and for someone else to meet us. In that fullness, we care for the world, we connect with the world, we become friends of the world. There's more of us to be friendly with when we are fully present.

So we sit, partly to be rooted, unified, and complete in all of who we are. To do that is both simple and difficult enough to be a life task. It is simple in that it is just to really be present for what is difficult. Because to truly acknowledge, see, include, and discover how to be inclusive and unifying for all of who we are—without pushing anything away, being afraid of anything, or being ashamed by anything—is the task of a lifetime.

So here we sit. Take an upright or appropriate posture for yourself—taking a posture where you feel that maybe you have a chance to include all of yourself, with no part left out. Gently close your eyes if that's comfortable for you. Taking deep breaths at the beginning of a meditation can be the beginning of a process of becoming inclusive of all of who we are. Breathe in deeply, and start feeling our body and all the ways it is stretched, opened, and expanded as we breathe in. And as we exhale, take a long, gentle exhale to settle into this being that we are, to settle into this body here and now.

And then, letting your breathing return to normal, allow your attention to wander around your body. Do this with the idea that you're maybe like someone who is sewing all the pieces together, or taking a jigsaw puzzle and putting the pieces together, or turning on a light so all aspects of who we are can be revealed. Let your attention roam around your body, noticing what's here for you in this body that is the very place and location where attention and presence are to be rooted in^[1]. Attention is to find its home.

And then too, as you roam around your body, notice if there are any obvious places that you can relax and settle. Generally, tension in the body is a way to pull away from really being rooted^[2] and at home here. Perhaps relaxing the muscles of the face and softening. Relaxing the shoulders so they can feel the gentle pull of gravity. Softening the belly, maybe letting the belly hang forward and down, feeling the weight of the^[3] whole torso settling into the pelvic cavity down to the sitting bones. And if you're sitting upright, do you feel the energy or the momentum of the torso rising up from the base? The vitality, the aliveness.

And then within your body, as part of your body, become aware of how the body experiences breathing in this expression. How the body experiences breathing is a movement towards being inclusive with awareness. So the awareness is not only in the control tower—separate, pulled back, looking at things from a distance as if we are the observer. But we are as much the experience of the body breathing as we are what's aware of it.

We are as much the mind's awareness of thinking as we are the one who is aware of thinking. The mind's experience of thinking might have energy, tightness, and pressure. Feel that. Know that the mind's experience of thinking is this coming together, this unifying of you being aware of the mind's experience of itself. Perhaps you can gently relax the thinking muscle, and then relax back into the body's experience of breathing that is known, that you're aware of.

And then as we sit here quietly, whatever takes you away from your breathing, you don't need to fight against that or be troubled by it. Let yourself first and foremost be aware of it, as if being aware of it is including all things, unifying all things, letting yourself be complete with all things. And after that inclusion, recognition, and acknowledgment—almost like not turning away from anything, but returning to the center of all things—return to your breathing, breathing in and breathing out.

Concluding the Meditation

In the last five minutes of this sitting, it is something like how, if you turn a light on in a room, the light touches all things and includes all things in the room. So perhaps you can turn on or find within a place of quiet stillness or peace from which you can be aware of all things, including whatever is not peaceful, not quiet, not still. Or find a stillness, a peace, or quiet that's wider than any of the movements, activity, and agitation. Let all things be held in the field of peacefulness, quiet, gentle friendly stillness—the friendly space around us.

And then to end this sitting. Perhaps to any degree with your calm^[4] or the degree to which you're more self-aware—even if what you're aware of is difficult—is this greater connection. Can the awareness of yourself be the source for caring for the world? Can it be a way to bring more of yourself, all of yourself, into your connections and contacts with others, so that more of you is available to care for the welfare and happiness of others? To be and to become an agent of care, a conveyor of care, a caregiver that wishes for the happiness, well-being, and peace for all beings everywhere. May all beings be happy. May all beings be at peace. May all beings be safe.