Guided Meditation: Holding a Wide Perceptual Field of Listening

(This meditation can be done sitting upright in a chair, in a meditation posture of your choice, or lying down in savasana. It can be used in a Yoga Nidra session.)

Sit in a comfortable upright position in a chair, making sure your spine is straight. If your feet cannot reach the floor, position something underneath them in order to bring the knees to a ninety-degree angle. Place 2 or 3 folded blankets underneath your forearms and elbows and rest your forearms on the blankets. The blankets are an aid, to allow the arms and shoulders and neck to completely relax. Allow the palms to either face each other or lie slightly facing toward the ceiling. Make sure that your sit-bones are anchored in the chair and that your pelvis is not slumped. Raise your torso to correct this. Sit with your spine straight and your torso erect. Slightly tuck your chin.

Allow your shoulders and neck to relax.

Take a few moments to take in your surroundings. The noises you are hearing, the sounds in the room and in the distance.

When you are ready, you can close your eyes. Sometimes closing the eyes too soon can throw us off balance when the mind has not yet quietened. So, feel what is right for you here.

Sense your third eye and establish an awareness of the shushumna nadi that runs in the central canal in the spinal column. Take your time here. See if you can imagine/sense your spinal column as a midline.

Now imagine/sense that this midline runs deep into the earth. This midline extension is your fulcrum that anchors you in the earth. Now extend this fulcrum through the crown of your head into the space above. This fulcrum is not a fixed position in the room or in space, it is fluid and moves with your spine, yet it grounds you into the earth and in the space you are in. Take as long as you need here, to really sense/feel this midline. Some may sense this as light or energy.

See if you can get a felt sense of your body right now. Is there anything in the way of a deeper relaxation? Are you holding your body in a way that you are unaware of? And can you soften that hold? Can you allow your body to let go in this moment? Is there anything that is getting in the way of complete and trustful surrender in this moment? See if you can focus ever so gently on these questions without needing to analyse too much.

Just sense/feel your way now. Begin to listen to your body in a feeling way. Listen to your body in an intuitive way. Navigate your body and the space around your body in a feeling way. Unhook the mind.

Settling, softening, widening, deepening.

Enter into a state of presence. We are establishing our awareness of the annamaya kosa, the physical body. Become present and experience your body in this moment. Experience your body from head to toe as one whole. Allow your body to settle and rest.

Now see if you are able to bring your awareness to your midline, your spine, your sushumna nadi. Just take a few moments here to engage with this, locating your third eye in the centre of the head and allowing your awareness to travel from the third eye to the sushumna nadi all the way to the base of your spine. Now see if you can become aware of your spine as a whole. As though you are the witness, you are sensing your whole spine. Stay present here.

From here move your awareness to your hands and feel as if they are immersed in water. Stay here for a while with this sensation . Your hands may begin to feel fluid,

Settling, softening, widening, deepening.

Now begin to notice the space aound you. Notice your skin and the contact it makes with the air around you. Notice this environmental exchange. Sense/feel this space around you, breathe as though you are breathing in this space. Become aware of your breath. Is there anything that is in the way of you simply resting your awareness on your breathing? Allow your body to completely rest. Give yourself permission to completely let go. Allow this letting go and the perception of it to be soft and fluid. Settle into an awareness of your whole fluid - tissue body. Establish an awareness of the pranic or energy body, the pranamaya kosa. Divine Consciousness that becomes Pranashakti in all living beings.

Bring your attention to your inhalation, it makes the sound of ‘ha’ and then gently settle awareness on the exhalation, it makes the sound ‘sah’. Stay with this awareness of inhalation and exhalation. Listen to the sound of your own breathing. ‘ha’ and ‘sah’. ‘Ha’ is Shakti, divine energy, and ‘sah’ is Shiva divine energy. Stay here and let the mind settle deeply.

Rest your awareness at the space between the in-breath and the out-breath, at the junction of this ‘ha’ and ‘sah’, the junction of the in and out breath. Keep your focus on the third eye and rest in the space between the in-breath and the out-breath. We are establishing the awareness of the manomaya and vijnanamaya kosa. Can you let go of the need to analyse and withdraw the mind? Can you let emotions and thoughts pass without reacting? This is the art of trustful surrender. In this state of grace and presence, you completely surrender. Widen your listening field to take in the whole of you and the local field around you. Settle into an awareness of your whole fluid-tissue-sensory body, keeping your awareness resting on the third eye, the fluid space in the third ventricle in the centre of your cranium. Softening, widening, deepening.

Now gently widen your perceptual field, deepen your sense of midline into the earth. Widen your perceptual field of listening to include the whole of the room you are sitting in, settle here for a few minutes and then further widen your field of awareness out into the surrounding environment, extending your midline into the earth as you widen your field of awareness. Again, gently and slowly widen your perceptual field toward the horizon, and deepen your midline into the earth. Sensing your midline and your third eye in the centre of the cranium.

The body and the mind are resting in profound and deep stillness. The breath is long, smooth and slender. The mind has completely settled and is steady. Your midline is in the centre of your wide perceptual field. Bring your awareness to a feeling of being suspended in this vast space that surrounds you.

Stay with this for as long as you need to. This is anandamaya kosa. Bliss body.

Om asato ma sadgamaya

Tamasoma jyotir gamaya

Mritjormaamritam gamaya

Om Shanti Shanti Shantih

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28

From ignorance, lead me to truth,

From darkness lead me to light,

From death, lead me to immortality,

Om Peace Peace Peace

 When you are ready, gently bring your awareness back to your fluid – sensory – tissue body, begin to notice the sounds in the room and in the environment around you, become aware of your body. Become aware of your breathing.

Very slowly open your eyes, and orientate to the space around you, seeing, hearing and sensing yourself in your local environment.