-IBIS-1.5.0-
rx
meditation
pain (float free)
psychospiritual approaches

definition

Each of these meditations may be read very slowly to a friend or silently to oneself.

Letting it all float free:
Bring your attention to the area of discomfort.
Begin to soften all around that area. Let the pain just be there. Open around it. Let all the resistance melt away. Let the skin, the flesh, the muscles begin to soften all around the pain.
Let the fist that grasps pain begin slowly to open. Releasing tension, releasing rigidity around sensations. Let the muscles soften, relaxing. No tightness anywhere.
Let the pain just be there. Not holding it. Not pushing it away.
Soften the ligaments. The flesh. Let the sensations float free in the body. Without force. Without tension. Open all around the sensation. Gently. Pushing away nothing. Let all resistance melt from the body.
And in the mind. That same softening. That same nonholding. Letting go of thoughts. Opening into the spaciousness of awareness.
Whatever thought arises, let it float free. Whatever sensation arises, let it float free. Thoughts of pain, floating in the vastness of the mind.
Soften all around the thought. Experience the space in which it floats. Fear. Doubt. Softening. Floating free.
Each mind-moment, like a bubble, floating in the vast spaciousness of awareness. Whatever arises in the body, in the mind. Doubt. Confusion. Expectation. Fear. Just let it pass through. It's there one moment, dissolved the next.
Notice the ever changing flow of thoughts and sensations. Constantly arising and disappearing into the vastness of awareness.
Sensations float in the body. Changing. Moment to moment. Thoughts float in the mind. Constantly in change. Constantly unfolding.
The whole body soft. Open. Relaxed. Not holding. Not pulling back.
Let sensations arise into this openness. A soft, nonclinging space that just allows things to be as they are. No interference. Sensations arising. Thoughts arising. No resistance. No reaching out for them. No pushing them away. No tightening. Just soft, open space. Each moment experienced in vast awareness.
The sound of my voice arising and dissolving in the open space of awareness. Hearing happening all by itself. Nothing to do. Just sound changing, instant to instant, within your vastness.
Feel the spaciousness of being that expands outward in every direction, encompassing each sound and sight. A moment of hearing followed by a moment of seeing. By a moment of thought. All floating in the vast space of mind. The sound of my voice. A car passing in the street. An airplane crossing overhead. All occurring within the endless spaciousness of awareness.
Let the mind become like a vast sky. Each experience like a cloud floating, constantly changing, folding in upon itself, dissolving in the vastness. Feel how awareness exists everywhere at once. Boundaryless.
The edgeless space of being. No longer held to the outline of the body. To the space of the room. Awareness constantly expanding into unlimited space.
Let awareness become like the sky. Which holds nothing. Which creates nothing. Which allows all things to pass. Without the least clinging or interference. Observe sound. Sight. Memory. Feeling. Arising and dissolving in the open sky of awareness.
Notice that all sound is happening within this spaciousness. All thought. All feeling. All floating within endless awareness. No edges anywhere. All that occurs, occurs within your vastness. The limitless spaciousness of awareness.
Body soft. Mind, open and clear.
Let the edges of the body, of the mind, melt into the vastness. The body. Sensations. Feelings. Floating in vast space. Each moment of changing sensation floating free in pure awareness. A moment of memory. A moment of fear. A moment of joy. Ever-changing clouds in the open sky. Each thought, each sensation floating free in edgeless awareness.
In this vastness the mind and body are just thought bubbles floating in open, endless, space.
Awareness itself. Containing everything, holding nothing.
The whole mind dissolved into vast openness.
The body, sensations, floating, dissolving into space.
Dissolving.
Dissolving.
Just space. Just peace.
(Levine, p. 134-145)

see:
cancer treatments: immune enhancement (includes types of meditation)
compassion and healing
healing power of meditation
healing power of prayer
meditation: forgiveness
meditation: pain (beyond the body; exploration; float free; opening; relaxation)
mind beyond body
relaxation techniques
self-hypnosis
treatment of chemotherapy side-effects
treatment of pain


footnotes