Arc 2 · Liberated Space · Lesson 07

Opening Awareness

One method, one phrase: remain uninvolved.

The practice, briefly

Opening Awareness is a meditation whose method is remaining uninvolved. That means not elaborating on basic sensations, not amplifying them, not diminishing them, not turning away. Elaboration is what produces the thoughts, interpretations, and meanings about sensory experience that quickly fill in around it. When you notice yourself elaborating, just relax. Don't try to cut concepts off — they don't have to vanish. They can be there and you can be uninvolved with them.

Some of this will probably feel confusing. That's part of it, and it's normal. Nothing here needs to make sense.

Seven scaffolds

Below is one continuous fourteen-minute exercise: seven scaffolding practices, two minutes each. A scaffold isn't the practice itself — it's a temporary support that points you toward what the practice is like. Some scaffolds will land for you, others won't. That's expected. People differ.

Click Begin. The video will loop in the background while a guide speaks each scaffold aloud. Stay with it the whole way through.

First scaffold. Rest without speaking. As you sit, count your outbreaths, resting fully in each exhalation. Just the exhale. Now let that go. Second scaffold. Rest in the sensation of breath. Rest in and as the space your breath traverses — the whole inner room the breath moves through. Now let that go. Third scaffold. Listen to the silence in which sounds arise. The sounds aren't the focus. The silence behind and around them is. Now let that go. Fourth scaffold. Intentionally relax any effort you're making to do this well. Let any strategizing go. There's nothing to accomplish here. Now let that go. Fifth scaffold. Allow your thoughts to move like clouds in the sky. They appear, drift, dissolve. You're the sky, not the weather. Now let that go. Sixth scaffold. Rest in awareness of everything happening in external space, in internal space, and the relationship between them. Don't fix on any of it. Just be aware. Now let that go. Seventh and last scaffold. Any time you notice anything new — a sound, a sensation, a thought — include it. A useful cue is "that too," or "include, include, include." Now let that go.

If a scaffold made no sense, no problem. Each person fits with different ones, and some people don't benefit from any of them. The scaffolds are training wheels for noticing what "remaining uninvolved" feels like — they're not the bicycle.

Ten minutes of practice

Now the practice itself. Ten minutes. The method is remain uninvolved. No narration this time — silence is the point. Sit somewhere comfortable. Start the timer. When the bell rings, the practice is over.

If you realize you've fallen out of the method, that realization itself returns you to the method. There's no wrong way to do this, especially in the beginning. Each session is just exploration of subtler layers of involvement.

Sit somewhere comfortable. Let your gaze rest soft, or close your eyes. The method is to remain uninvolved with whatever arises. When the bell rings, the practice is over. Begin when you're ready.

Where this is going

Final lesson of this arc: how spaciousness shows up off the cushion, the attitudes that become more available as conceptuality relaxes, and a take-home practice you can use as much or as little as fits.

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