Below is an exercise I wrote, based directly on instructions in TSK exercises 1-17. This exercise can be done while engaged in various activities. It could be tape recorded with appropriate pauses to use as a guided meditation.
You might want to sit with your back straight but not stiff, so that your breathing is free. Or you can do this exercise while engaged in other activities, e.g., walking around or working. You can close your eyes or keep your eyes open, or do both at different times in this exercise. In the following, an ellipsis (. . . ) indicates a silent pause.
Steve Randall
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[TSK, exercises 1-5]
Pick some part of the body, and be aware of sensations and feelings in that part of the body . . . . Just be aware of the sensations and feelings . . . . Let the breath be gentle and relaxed . . . . Take a tour of the body, starting from wherever you are .... Be aware of different parts ... different sensations ... interconnections ... and how those different parts occupy space ... .
Imagine that you are a tiny speck of awareness ... and travel around the body, being aware of what's there ... different sensations, different feelings, different senses of space ... or possibly sensations of pain or tension, or numbness .... Maybe there's a sense that energy is blocked somewhere, or obstructed somehow .... Just keep traveling around, exploring, feeling what's going on .... If you feel any dense spots, you can try opening those up in different ways .... You could simply breathe into those more obstructed spaces ... or you could imagine that those areas expand a little bit .... If they expand, perhaps that density or obstruction can open up ... or maybe it doesn't .... You can try slowly zooming in and zooming out several times and see what happens . . . . You can let dense or obstructed areas expand and condense, again and again, with the movement going at its own rate.
You can just explore and see what happens at any level—the general inner structure; or internal organs, veins, tissues, fluids; or cells, molecules, bacteria; or particular atoms and molecules.… Let the breath be very relaxed, free, and spacious .… Awareness is open to whatever is happening .… Let awareness be drawn to wherever it goes ... whatever energies or feelings it is drawn to ... whatever levels and parts of the body .… If awareness finds any dense spots, you can open those, letting them expand ... exploring the different feelings in what might be a larger space .... Continue exploring until all the surfaces and structures become completely open . . . the surfaces are no longer obstacles to awareness. The precision of the surfaces remains, but as shining outlines, translucent boundaries and surfaces.
...
Now let awareness be drawn to the edges of the body, where the body meets outside space .... Explore the edges and the boundaries ... . See how space outside is related to space inside .... Is there any difference in the quality of the space outside and the space inside? .... Allow awareness to be drawn to different surfaces and different boundaries ... exploring the space inside, outside, and even within boundaries ....
You might want to sit with your back straight but not stiff, so that your breathing is free. Or you can do this exercise while engaged in other activities, e.g., walking around or working. You can close your eyes or keep your eyes open, or do both at different times in this exercise. In the following, an ellipsis (. . . ) indicates a silent pause.
Steve Randall
--------------------------------
[TSK, exercises 1-5]
Pick some part of the body, and be aware of sensations and feelings in that part of the body . . . . Just be aware of the sensations and feelings . . . . Let the breath be gentle and relaxed . . . . Take a tour of the body, starting from wherever you are .... Be aware of different parts ... different sensations ... interconnections ... and how those different parts occupy space ... .
Imagine that you are a tiny speck of awareness ... and travel around the body, being aware of what's there ... different sensations, different feelings, different senses of space ... or possibly sensations of pain or tension, or numbness .... Maybe there's a sense that energy is blocked somewhere, or obstructed somehow .... Just keep traveling around, exploring, feeling what's going on .... If you feel any dense spots, you can try opening those up in different ways .... You could simply breathe into those more obstructed spaces ... or you could imagine that those areas expand a little bit .... If they expand, perhaps that density or obstruction can open up ... or maybe it doesn't .... You can try slowly zooming in and zooming out several times and see what happens . . . . You can let dense or obstructed areas expand and condense, again and again, with the movement going at its own rate.
You can just explore and see what happens at any level—the general inner structure; or internal organs, veins, tissues, fluids; or cells, molecules, bacteria; or particular atoms and molecules.… Let the breath be very relaxed, free, and spacious .… Awareness is open to whatever is happening .… Let awareness be drawn to wherever it goes ... whatever energies or feelings it is drawn to ... whatever levels and parts of the body .… If awareness finds any dense spots, you can open those, letting them expand ... exploring the different feelings in what might be a larger space .... Continue exploring until all the surfaces and structures become completely open . . . the surfaces are no longer obstacles to awareness. The precision of the surfaces remains, but as shining outlines, translucent boundaries and surfaces.
...
Now let awareness be drawn to the edges of the body, where the body meets outside space .... Explore the edges and the boundaries ... . See how space outside is related to space inside .... Is there any difference in the quality of the space outside and the space inside? .... Allow awareness to be drawn to different surfaces and different boundaries ... exploring the space inside, outside, and even within boundaries ....
[TSK, exercises 4, 9]
Now become aware of any position that has been adopted during this awareness and observing .... Perhaps while traveling around, the observer had a subtle positioning .... As the exploration continues within the boundaries and different spaces inside and outside, see if there is an observer that has a particular kind of positioning ... see whether there is a feeling of being positioned in certain moments .… The exploration of inside, outside, spaces, and boundaries continues ... either with or without an observer ....
. . . See whether this vision of the body is possible without being limited to a single angle or point of view. Can the body been seen from all directions simultaneously? . . . Can the body been seen from all directions simultaneously?
[TSK, exercise 11]
Now let awareness attend to any thinking that is happening .... Where does thinking comes from ? .... Does thinking come from someplace? .… Do thoughts pop up from nowhere, from space? ... ... ... Where do thoughts go? .… They are there for a time, and then what happens to them? ... Do they go someplace? ... or into space? ... Do they simply disappear? ...
[TSK, exercise 12]
Watch sensitively for the moment when one thought fades and another arises .... See if there is some kind of space in between thoughts .... Allow thinking to go on .... Let the breath be smooth ... free ... open ... and see if there is some kind of space between thoughts .... If there is such a space, see if it can gently be expanded somehow ... perhaps by closely marrying it with the breath ....
[TSK, exercise 13]
Now see whether thoughts might actually be space itself .... See if each thought is also some kind of space .... Is there something about thoughts themselves that is spacious? ... In the ordinary activity of thinking is there also space? ...
[TSK, exercise 14]
Now see if there is a bystander during thinking .... Is there a thinker or an observer doing the thinking? . . . a bystander that might be subtly positioned separate from the thinking? .... If there is, there is no need to change anything, ... just be aware of any such positioning during knowing of the thoughts .... During thinking is there a subject? ... or a witness, or an observer, or a thinker, or a bystander of any kind? .... The mind might be another bystander .... See if there is a mind separate from the thinking and the sensing and knowing .... Is there a mind positioning separate from what's happening? ...
[TSK, exercise 15]
Now attend to the presence of space outside the body ... and breathe in the essence of that space ... the pure openness of that space ... very relaxed breathing ... gentle ... through both nose and mouth ... allowing the essential openness to open up the body .... Breathing-in this space, the essential openness, allowing it to pervade every level of physical and mental organization .... Allow it to pervade the organization and open it up, .... until it's completely open and translucent, itself having the quality of the space .... Breathing in the essential, open quality of space, allowing it to open up any densities or pains, rigidities, anything that seems fixed in any way ... either within the body or the mind ... or within a bystander like a sense of self .... During the exhalation, let the breath merge with space outside, ... so that the interaction, the interpenetration between the inside and outside is unobstructed, free, and transparent .... Also let the space enter and pervade thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, memories ... and the sense of time that might be passing, .... so there's a complete commingling of space inside and outside, in and out ....
[TSK, exercise 16]
Now as we sit, or walk around with eyes open, we can be aware of positions, forms, and surfaces, and see those as space .... It's possible that all positions, forms, and surfaces might also be space ... and might be felt as very open ... as somehow transparent ... without fixed boundaries, or inaccessible insides .... By relaxing any ordinary sense of bystander that might show up as mind, self, observer, or witness, by relaxing those bystanders, knowing can be freed up to appreciate whatever is present without seeing it as other .... There can be a simple and immediate knowing and appreciation as experience arises ... without necessarily seeing from a position . . . . Perhaps objects can be known without subjects having to use acts of knowing to appreciate them .... Let all units, quantities, meanings, delineations, motions, actions be given as time .... These can be seen as time, flickering and flashing ... units, qualities, meanings , delineations, movements, actions can be seen as time .... Dynamics ... energy ... playfully presenting, without freezing anything in place ....
[TSK, exercise 17]
As we sit, or as we walk around, noticing objects that might first seem distant and separate from us, we might also explore the possibility that in a sense there might not be any such distance .... Perhaps space can also be seen to unite, rather than just separate objects .... What makes up the distance that we normally perceive? .... Is it fixed? ... Does it always feel the same or does this feeling of distance change? ... Awareness can explore the space in which subject, object, and distance appear .... Is there a sense in which from time to time, we feel more or less close, or distant, from people and things? ... Might there be a sense in which the subject or the bystander is like a glow of an object? ... inseparable from the object? ... without any ordinary sense of distance? ... where space might be said to unite subject and object? .... Might there actually be a field of space from which subject and object tend to polarize, and emerge as separate and distant? ... a polarization that never leads to complete independence? .... Are subject and object just two poles of a process that tends to present them as being separate and distant, but which also presents them together? ...
Now become aware of any position that has been adopted during this awareness and observing .... Perhaps while traveling around, the observer had a subtle positioning .... As the exploration continues within the boundaries and different spaces inside and outside, see if there is an observer that has a particular kind of positioning ... see whether there is a feeling of being positioned in certain moments .… The exploration of inside, outside, spaces, and boundaries continues ... either with or without an observer ....
. . . See whether this vision of the body is possible without being limited to a single angle or point of view. Can the body been seen from all directions simultaneously? . . . Can the body been seen from all directions simultaneously?
[TSK, exercise 11]
Now let awareness attend to any thinking that is happening .... Where does thinking comes from ? .... Does thinking come from someplace? .… Do thoughts pop up from nowhere, from space? ... ... ... Where do thoughts go? .… They are there for a time, and then what happens to them? ... Do they go someplace? ... or into space? ... Do they simply disappear? ...
[TSK, exercise 12]
Watch sensitively for the moment when one thought fades and another arises .... See if there is some kind of space in between thoughts .... Allow thinking to go on .... Let the breath be smooth ... free ... open ... and see if there is some kind of space between thoughts .... If there is such a space, see if it can gently be expanded somehow ... perhaps by closely marrying it with the breath ....
[TSK, exercise 13]
Now see whether thoughts might actually be space itself .... See if each thought is also some kind of space .... Is there something about thoughts themselves that is spacious? ... In the ordinary activity of thinking is there also space? ...
[TSK, exercise 14]
Now see if there is a bystander during thinking .... Is there a thinker or an observer doing the thinking? . . . a bystander that might be subtly positioned separate from the thinking? .... If there is, there is no need to change anything, ... just be aware of any such positioning during knowing of the thoughts .... During thinking is there a subject? ... or a witness, or an observer, or a thinker, or a bystander of any kind? .... The mind might be another bystander .... See if there is a mind separate from the thinking and the sensing and knowing .... Is there a mind positioning separate from what's happening? ...
[TSK, exercise 15]
Now attend to the presence of space outside the body ... and breathe in the essence of that space ... the pure openness of that space ... very relaxed breathing ... gentle ... through both nose and mouth ... allowing the essential openness to open up the body .... Breathing-in this space, the essential openness, allowing it to pervade every level of physical and mental organization .... Allow it to pervade the organization and open it up, .... until it's completely open and translucent, itself having the quality of the space .... Breathing in the essential, open quality of space, allowing it to open up any densities or pains, rigidities, anything that seems fixed in any way ... either within the body or the mind ... or within a bystander like a sense of self .... During the exhalation, let the breath merge with space outside, ... so that the interaction, the interpenetration between the inside and outside is unobstructed, free, and transparent .... Also let the space enter and pervade thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, memories ... and the sense of time that might be passing, .... so there's a complete commingling of space inside and outside, in and out ....
[TSK, exercise 16]
Now as we sit, or walk around with eyes open, we can be aware of positions, forms, and surfaces, and see those as space .... It's possible that all positions, forms, and surfaces might also be space ... and might be felt as very open ... as somehow transparent ... without fixed boundaries, or inaccessible insides .... By relaxing any ordinary sense of bystander that might show up as mind, self, observer, or witness, by relaxing those bystanders, knowing can be freed up to appreciate whatever is present without seeing it as other .... There can be a simple and immediate knowing and appreciation as experience arises ... without necessarily seeing from a position . . . . Perhaps objects can be known without subjects having to use acts of knowing to appreciate them .... Let all units, quantities, meanings, delineations, motions, actions be given as time .... These can be seen as time, flickering and flashing ... units, qualities, meanings , delineations, movements, actions can be seen as time .... Dynamics ... energy ... playfully presenting, without freezing anything in place ....
[TSK, exercise 17]
As we sit, or as we walk around, noticing objects that might first seem distant and separate from us, we might also explore the possibility that in a sense there might not be any such distance .... Perhaps space can also be seen to unite, rather than just separate objects .... What makes up the distance that we normally perceive? .... Is it fixed? ... Does it always feel the same or does this feeling of distance change? ... Awareness can explore the space in which subject, object, and distance appear .... Is there a sense in which from time to time, we feel more or less close, or distant, from people and things? ... Might there be a sense in which the subject or the bystander is like a glow of an object? ... inseparable from the object? ... without any ordinary sense of distance? ... where space might be said to unite subject and object? .... Might there actually be a field of space from which subject and object tend to polarize, and emerge as separate and distant? ... a polarization that never leads to complete independence? .... Are subject and object just two poles of a process that tends to present them as being separate and distant, but which also presents them together? ...
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