Walking meditation can counter the conditioning of the business model. Walking with nowhere to go, broadening attention to include the whole body, to feel the fluidity and pleasure of bodily ease. [Instructions end 11:28]
From an upright, grounded posture, move from the world of sense consciousness into subjectivity of ‘being conscious’. Meet uncomfortable energies with sympathy and support. [22:43] Transition into movement: Re-enter the world of the physical body – an expression of natural intelligence, integrating it into the sense of the world from the inside out.
We practice to come out of the stress and suffering of our workaday ‘Business Model’ by dismantling expectations of comfort and convenience, and of things being reliable. The wise attention that realizes that is itself stable and at ease.
Guided standing meditation: Spreading energy from the ground through the entire body, we set up conditions for blocked energy to release through the body. [14:30] Conclude standing form, begin gentle body movements.
The fundamental grooves that get established are expectations that we can make experience reliable, agreeable, and mine. Pursuing these makes us busy, anxious and stressed. But we can move out of them.
The sense of 'the other' is always a part of our experience, it's what consciousness does. Rather than giving attention to the other, practice with recognizing what the other signifies and what it activates in me.
In standing posture, begin with sensing the whole form – what’s around that and what’s in that. Body can be sensed in layers, starting with a basic sense of presence to the most primary level of “I am”, the sense of being a distinct object.
Many of us are susceptible to certain perceptual signals that communicate codes of obligation and pressure. Citta becomes secondary to these signals and we lose our sense of wholeness, balance and presence. The advice is to pause and check in with the subjective sense, the “I” before the “am”. As you come into wholeness its energies can change, and we can stop going back to our “I am” habits.
Beginning with standing position, take time to sense the space around that is non-intrusive, safe. Strengthening from the ground up, through the arch of the foot, and sending signals down, rooting. When you do feel centered you can maintain a center – that’s the most important thing.
