Just Be and It Is

January 25, 2011 by Sally Kempton

Continued from Page 1

When we focus in and get to know that Awareness, it becomes the doorway to our deeper Consciousness.

Exercise: Become Aware of Your Awareness

Sit comfortably, with your back upright yet relaxed, and your eyes closed. Spend a moment listening to the sounds in the room. Then, bring your awareness into your own body. Notice how your body feels sitting in your posture. Become aware of the sensation of your thighs meeting the seat you're sitting on, of how the air feels against your skin, how the clothes feel against your body. Notice whether your body is warm, or cool. Now feel the sensations in your inner body. Perhaps you are aware of your stomach rumbling. Perhaps you notice sensations of contraction or relaxation in your muscles.

Become aware of your breath—the sensation of the breath entering the nostrils, the slight coolness as it comes in, the slight warmth as it goes out.

Become aware of what is going on in your mind. Observe the thoughts and images that move across your inner screen. Notice the deeper feelings the emotions, any mental static that arises. You are not trying to change any of this. Simply hold it in your awareness.

Now turn your attention to Awareness itself. Become aware of your own Awareness, the knowingness that lets you perceive all this, the inner spaciousness that holds together all the sensations, feelings, and thoughts that make up your experience in this moment. Focus your attention on your own Awareness, as if you were paying attention to attention itself. Let yourself be that Awareness.

If you keep exploring Awareness in meditation, it begins to emerge more and more distinctly. Thoughts and other sensations gradually recede, and you begin to experience the still yet fluid field of bare Consciousness that is the underlying ground of you. Eventually, the Awareness that was at first only perceptible in snatches will reveal itself to be a huge expanse of being.

"No words are necessary to see into reality," Rumi wrote. "Just be and It is."

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1/25/2011 5:00:00 AM

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About Sally Kempton

An internationally known teacher of meditation and spiritual wisdom, Kempton is the author of Meditation for the Love of It and writes a monthly column for Yoga Journal. Follow her on Facebook and visit her website at www.sallykempton.com.

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