"Space" meditation

· Plant your feet on the floor, hands on your lap

· Eyes closed or gently unfocused, maybe looking at the floor

· Observe your breathing

· Observe your inhalation into your lungs – and do this between each of the following exhales

· Exhale into your brain

- What does it feel like?
- Observe the activity of your mind
- What is the quality of that activity?
- Fast/slow?
- Comfortable/uncomfortable?
- Love/fear?
- Who is the observer?
- Don’t try to figure it out – just notice that there is an observer
- Who is noticing the observer?
- Don’t try to figure it out – just notice that something is noticing.

· Now exhale into your whole head
- See if there is some space in there, beyond the thinking brain

· Now exhale into your whole body
- Is your whole body thinking?
- Is there space in your body that is not thinking?

· Now exhale into the whole room around you
- See if there is a sense of space around you
- Expand into that space
- Notice that there is a center of consciousness in you, observing all this

· Now exhale into the whole building around you

· Now exhale into the city of Asheville

· Now exhale into the whole United States

· Now exhale into the whole planet

· Now exhale into the solar system

· Now exhale into the universe

· See if you have a sense of spaciousness, room to breathe

· Progressively bring your awareness back into your body, but see if you can keep an awareness of there being space around you

- What does it feel like to have this space around you?

· Open your eyes, but see if you can keep an awareness of there being space around you

· Experiment with this shifting of awareness between inside yourself and the space around you as often as you wish – shuttling between this focus and whatever else you happen to be doing