Seattle Insight Meditation Society

Reflection and Practice See if you can play with your perception of the relationship between the contents of awareness (sights, sounds, thoughts, etc.) and the open field of aware knowing. One way to experiment with this is to notice the space around objects, especially when you feel yourself caught or contracted. Consider this suggestion from Bhikkhu Anālayo:

"There is so much space surrounding the various things in the world, yet one usually only notices the things themselves, without paying any attention to the space between and around them. Even right now one could notice the space between one's eyes and this text... The silence between sounds, the stillness between an inhalation and an exhalation are other pointers in the same direction, and of course looking up at the vastness of the sky, whenever possible." From Bhikkhu Anālayo, Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation

How does this shift change your relationship to what you are experiencing?   This recording was edited and prepared for publication by volunteer Nikhil Natarajan.