to enjoy a briefer companion Guided Meditation, please consider giving this a listen:
https://www.swellcast.com/t/O1UqU7tdfqeY9dO
Arrival
Take your seat near the soft hum of the fan.
The fan oscillates, steadily, predictably.
As you settle into a contrasting stillness.
The air is cool, comforting...
The fan's gentle breeze arrives, the fan's gentle breeze departs, the fan's gentle breeze returns...
Let the body rest in stillness, however the familiar stillness might welcome you home, today
Let your spine lengthen, expressing a quiet dignity.
Hands rest open.
Nothing needs fixing here - only noticing.
There’s nothing you need to perform - just arrive, as you are.
Notice the play of air around you. The quiet rhythm of breath. The somewhat distant turning of blades.
The air - sped up, chopped - arrives in waves. A cooling presence that comes…and that goes.
Feel the weight of your body, grounded. Supported. A simple, smooth altar stone settling into soft sands.
Introduction to Awareness
The eyes can be softly closed throughout this meditation. They can also be open softly, not searching - at rest. Lastly, the eyes can open when it feels natural and fall to a closed and soft position when that feels natural.
Settling the Breath
Allow your breath to anchor you.
Let each inhalation and each exhalation be unhurried.
Listen:
to the soft pulse of the fan as it sways.
This is your gong, your bell, your metronome.
Let the breath draw you inward.
Inhale through the nose. Exhale through the mouth - softly, naturally. No effort. Just return. Again and again.
The fan moves. And then it doesn’t. There is a rhythm here - a natural pendulum.
When the breeze touches your skin…that’s your call to turn outward. When the breeze is absent…that’s your cue to turn inward.
Wind on the Skin: Turning Outward
(External Awareness) When the moving air returns, feel it whisper to your skin - a breath from the world. In these moments, let the arriving breeze be an invitation to open your awareness outward, to the great, wide world outside of the small self:
• Notice distant sounds - maybe a bird, the hum of passing life • Sense the shape of the room, light dancing behind closed lids • Open the gates of perception, receptive and spacious
Feel the moving air touch your face, your arms, your neck. This is your signal: expand your awareness outward.
Take your time.
Calmly notice:
• 🌬️ The texture of air brushing skin - cool, dry, fresh • 👂 Ambient sounds: a car passing, birdsong, a creaking pipe, voices drifting • 👃 Scents on the air: maybe the fading power of soap, old books, something cooking nearby • 🌫️ Light beyond closed lids, or shadows playing behind the eyes • The shape of the space around you - walls, windows, unseen dimensions you can still feel
Let awareness bloom like a lotus in the pond of the world - open, curious, vast.
The Stillness Between Breezes: Turning Inward
(Internal Awareness) When the fanned air fades and stillness returns, feel the whisper from deep within yourself - an echo of the simple spirit - a song from the bones. In these moments, let the departing breeze be an invitation to open your awareness inward, to the great wide world of the small self:
• Follow the breath inward, like a leaf drawn into a quiet current • Sense thoughts as movement, feelings as weather • Let awareness rest behind the eyes, or deep in the belly
Now the air fades. The fan turns away. Your skin is untouched. This is your call to turn inward.
Let your awareness sink - slowly, gently, & without force. There is another world here, too.
Quietly return to the vast inner landscape.
Rest in:
• 🫁 The subtle movement of breath in the chest or perhaps low in the belly • 🧠 Thoughts rising like mist - perhaps impatient, serene, scattered, repeating • 💭 Emotions floating to the surface: perhaps related to hunger, jealousy, numbness, softness • 🪨 Tightness in the belly, the brow, the throat • The simple being-ness of the body: here, and not trying to be other than it is
Let inner space widen, not to analyze, but simply to hold. Whatever arises belongs - for now.
The Cycle Continues
Let this natural alternation be your guide. No need to grasp or resist.
Just follow the breath of the room. Follow the breath of your being.
The outer world visits the skin as the fan turns toward you; invitation accepted, the attention shifts to the outer world.
The outer world departs as the fan turns away; invitation accepted, the attention shifts to the inner world.
Let the rhythm unfold on its own:
Fan turns toward you - open to the wide world. Fan turns away - return to the wide world within.
Wind = outward. Stillness = inward.
Like waves brushing sand, this rhythm reveals: you are both ocean and shore.
You are not the thoughts. You are not the breeze. You are the space that holds both.
Closing (Integration) As the session draws to a close, widen your awareness to hold both inner and outer in a single field.
Let the purported boundaries blur.
The fan still hums, the breath still flows.
Fan or no fan, notice both inner and outer, held together.
Not as separate realms - but as one seamless, living field.
Let your eyes gently open. Notice how the room receives you. Notice how your presence receives the room.
Remember this rhythm - of out and in, touch and stillness -
Direct the mind.
Listen to invitations.
Know both realms, inner and outer.
Know both realms as one.
Thank you.
Share this post