Week 5: Getting Unstuck
CHOICELESS AWARENESS
The Mindful Way Through Depression, Guilford Press
Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn
In the early stages of this practice, it might be wise to just play with it for relatively short periods of time, returning to the breath or featuring some other specific chosen object of attention at other times. It sounds so simple to just sit without any chosen object to attend to – to simply be awareness itself, to be the knowing. It is not so easy. Yet with the time and motivation, the practice of choiceless awareness can become more and more robust and more and more compelling.
We begin with a few minutes of focusing on the breath, and then, if we care to, allow the field of awareness to expand to include any or all of the following body sensations (including the breath), sounds, thoughts, and feelings.
Then whenever we feel ready to, we see if it is possible to let go of any particular object of attention, like the breath, or class of objects of attention, like sounds or thoughts, and let the field of awareness be open to whatever arises in the landscape of the mind and the body and the world. We simply rest in awareness itself, effortlessly apprehending whatever happens moment to moment. That might include the breath, sensations from the body, sounds, thoughts, or feelings. As best we can, we just sit, completely awake, not holding on to anything, not looking for anything, having no agenda whatsoever other than embodied wakefulness.
This practice invites us to be open and receptive to whatever comes into the field of awareness, like an empty mirror, simply reflecting whatever comes before it, expecting nothing and clinging to nothing; awareness itself attending to the entire field of present- moment experience in utter stillness.
You can either view the information here on line, or download the Week 5 lesson pages