Each of these sensory spaces (defined in last post) also has a restful state, as well as the active state I have described above. Below I will define each restful state of each sensory space:
Touch Space:
Active state – Touch
Restful state – Relaxed – This restful state is experienced when there is essentially nothing going on in the Touch space. We experience this as stillness in the physical body and there is a sense of relaxation or settling.
Feel Space:
Active State – Feel
Restful State – Peace (or Neutral) – Peace occurs when there is the absence, or very little of physical phenomena with emotional content. We have a sense of peacefulness or stillness in the subtle physical/emotional body.
Image Space
Active State – Image
Restful State – Blank – this is often experienced as a blank screen, and can even be located behind or underneath image phenomena that are occurring.
Talk Space
Active State – Talk
Restful State – Quiet – This denotes the absence of internal talk, but is also relative. May be quiet, in comparison to what is happening in the active state. As awareness increases you may find that some low level noise is always going on in this space at the edge of unconsciousness.
The way these can be used is as follows:
Follow the directions in my previous post.
In addition, we will begin to label our experience in our chosen domain. We will label either the active state or the restful state as they are occurring. Sometimes the active state and the restful state can be occurring at once. In image space this often happens where we can ’see’ the image component of thought, but also can contact the ‘blank’ space behind that. In that case, we can go with whatever state is calling our attention.
When labeling it is important to use a non-judgemental and gentle tone. This promotes equanimity when encountering and making a relationship with our experiences.
The practice might look like this. Say you choose the image space to work with.
You would label every time an image arises in that space, saying quietly and with equanimity to yourself ‘image.’ Once you have labeled the phenomena stay with it, for the next 6-8 seconds. The image may stay or fade away, or morph in some way…whatever happens with it just follow your sensory experience of the image. After the 6-8 seconds is complete, if the image is still there, or if another has presented itself in image space you would label ‘image‘ again. If there is no image, by definition you would be encountering the restful state of image space, so you would label that ‘blank’. Again, staying with the blank, or the restful state for 6-8 seconds. It is important to stay with your experience in your chosen domain, whether restful or active, or a combination of both. This keeping your attention on the chosen domain and the current sensory phenomenon you are experiencing allows you to build concentration. Otherwise, if we flit from experience to experience, labeling and moving on, we are creating more of inattention and weakness in our concentration and awareness (or monkey mind as many practitioners are fond of calling it). Mindfulness is weakened in this case.
I am aware of the difficulties of trying to explain this practice in the medium of a blog…please comment or send me an email message from the about page if you are unclear or unsure about anything I have described here.
Namaste,
David
Filed under: Body, Breath, Mindfulness, Practice, Sensory Spaces
