A Twelve-Minute Meditation on Approaching the World with an “Unconscious Mind”

We can gain strength and resilience from familiarity—and use those feelings to explore the unfamiliar.

At the beginning of every meditation practice I teach, I give small instructions for posture, so that you can feel the practice as supportive as possible for your body.

Meditation on Approaching the World “With the Mind of Ignorance”

1. I would like to invite you to come to a place that is truly comfortable and supportive of your practice. For some of you, this may mean sitting on a chair, sofa, or even some pillows on the floor. This may mean standing, if that is too supportive for your back and your posture. And for some of you, this may mean sleeping on the floor. Please take a moment to come to any place where you feel the most compassion in your body.
2. Some of you may want to close your eyes completely during this meditation practice. And some may want to use what I like to call a “soft look,” which is looking down about two inches in front of the knees or feet.
3. Once you’ve settled into a comfortable place, I’d like to invite you to take three deep breaths with me. As you take those three deep breaths, you may notice that your body may naturally begin to relax. You may begin to feel deeply connected to any place that touches the earth. For some of you that will be your feet, and for others it will be your back. Be aware of any area that meets the ground at this time.
4. Begin to draw your attention and awareness to the connection between your body and the world. It might feel worthwhile at this point to take another deep breath and let it out here. When you’re done, bring your breath back to its natural cadence and rhythm.
5. You may notice the sound quality in the room you are in. Maybe there is some sound coming from inside wherever you are, whatever building you are in. Or maybe there are sounds coming from outside. Please feel free to make this part of your practice.
6. Begin to draw your awareness down to your feet, wherever they land on the earth. What do you notice? Does the right or left foot feel heavier than the other? As you notice the difference between the right and left foot, you may also notice some small changes within your body.
7. You may notice that the mind continues to generate thoughts, and that’s okay. The point of meditation practice is not really to stop thinking the thoughts you are thinking, but rather to be aware of the thoughts as they flow through the body and mind. As you draw your awareness to your thoughts, you can also bring your awareness to the rhythm of your breath as it flows in and out of your body.
8. I would like to invite you to bring your attention to the abdominal muscles and notice that they are slightly pulled tight on the spine. Is it possible to invite a sense of relaxation, even vulnerability, in the abdominal muscles by allowing them to relax? Don’t worry, no one is watching. How does it feel when you invite a feeling of softness and relaxation in the stomach? How does the whole body react?
9. While your attention is here, you may begin to visualize a person, place, animal, or object that you are deeply familiar with. Maybe this animal, person, place, or thing reminds you of what it’s like to be home. Can you bring them into the room right now?
10. Notice if that invitation affects your spirit, as it rises and falls in your chest. You may feel even safer in the space of this habit as you invite the image of what reminds you of being at home, being held.
11. What do you know, know deeply about this person, animal, place, or thing, that makes you feel like you really know them? What is the feeling of knowing? What is familiarity, and how does it reside within the body? It’s an invitation to bring your attention back to the air whenever you notice you’re stuck in a story.
12. Now, recall an image of something that reminds you of what it means to be strong and resilient. Maybe there’s someone you really look up to, or a place you’ve been that made you feel really strong and strong where you are. Can you bring to your mental awareness the embodied feelings of strength and resilience? Does your body make small changes and shifts as you remember what this feels like?
13. Now we will do a little testing. Hope this is fun. There is a term called “I don’t know the mind” that is sometimes used in meditation to arouse curiosity.
14. What is it like to approach the world “with an unknown mind”? You may find that this is a little different from the feeling of familiarity that we began to explore at the beginning of this practice. The feeling of familiarity is the feeling of, “Oh yes, me know. I know this person. I know this place. I know this animal or this thing. They are very familiar with me.” Perhaps the way we look at things, which we seem to be used to, can begin to change and change a little if we use the pure curiosity of “I don’t know the mind.” How does that happen in the body? This exploration of ignorance, of uncertainty really?
15. At this point in your practice, you may notice if there are areas in the body that begin to shrink when we explore the feeling of “I don’t know the mind,” and that’s okay. This is physical intelligence. Can we combine this “unconsciousness” assessment with those same feelings of strength and resilience, to know that no matter what happens, when we encounter moments of uncertainty and ignorance that we have all the strength and resilience within our bodies to meet that moment? What does it feel like to unknowingly meet power and strength? Can we really be curious about what is happening to our awareness of this practice? Let’s take a moment to be quiet together now and explore how this sounds.
16. When you are ready please bring your whole body into the mind’s eye and notice the difference between the way the body feels now and the way the body felt when you first entered this practice space. Take the time to notice how the feet feel differently from the way they connect to the earth.
17. Let’s take one more breath in here.
    
18. When you are ready, at your own pace and rhythm, please begin, slowly and gently, with your eyes open, without staring at anything in particular. Let the color and texture return to your conscious awareness.
19. From here we can start the process of reorganizing the room we are in. Start by turning and moving your head and neck gently, and find the colors and textures of the space you’re in. Notice if there is something new or different or alive in the space. What has changed since you started this practice?