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From an online class for the Sensory Awareness Foundation, January 6, 2024
In this class, I read a short piece from the chapter “On Silent Levels” from the manuscript of my biography of Charlotte Selver. Only a part of this is in the video but you may be interested in reading a bit more:
Read moreYou’ll get the most of out these videos when you participate.
From an online class for the Sensory Awareness Foundation,
January 6, 2024
This spontaneous guided meditation was inspired by my feeling a bit stressed out, restless and all over the place at the start of the Tuesday Meditation.
The other inspiration was Charlotte Selver’s words: “People who don’t love the moment are always trying to achieve something, but when one is on the way, every moment is ‘it.’” They are on the cover of the Sensory Awareness Foundation’s journal "Every Moment is a Moment,” and they had been on my mind in recent days for some reason …
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants.
This evening’s format was 15 min. sitting / 5 min. walking / 15 min. sitting, followed by a brief sharing, which I hope you’ll listen to as well. I was kindly given permission to include people’s voices.
This is an excerpt from the longer practice recording "A Gesture of Presence,” which gives you more of an opportunity to practice.
Responding to a comment by a class participant, I talk about how the "work with gravity makes it so immediately clear how everything is in relationship all the time."
For example: By touching and lifting a stone (anything, really) we enter a relationship – that of the stone with the earth.
Guided Practice Recording
An exploration of gravity and how we enter an already existing relationship between the earth and any object, as soon as we touch and hold it.
You'll need a couple of fist size stones to participate in the exploration. If no stones are available, try something else that fits in your hand and has a clear weight.
Breathing has been happening for millions of years, has sustained life for millions of years. Ants, do it, elephants do it, trees do it, each in their own way.
This meditation is not about paying attention - but about paying our respects for this aspect of nature. It’s also about connection, about exchange, give and take.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
While the 50 minutes are a whole, you can also just stay for the first part until the walking and/or do the other parts at a different time.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
While the 50 minutes are a whole, you can also just stay for the first part until the walking and/or do the other parts at a different time.
Guided Practice Recording
A simple gesture such as touching ones head can be a journey of discovery and transformation, if we're not focused on the outcome but open for the moment-by-moment unfolding of life.
You’ll get the most of out these videos when you participate along with me, rather than just watching.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
A guide to being present in this moment, not the next.
You’ll see that there are two versions.
One is the original 50 minute guided meditation. If 50 minutes are too much but you still want to practice along, you can use the long version and just do the first 8 minutes, or 20 minutes.
The other is all the instructions at once in 6.5 minutes. Use it for inspiration to then practice without the guidance.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
This is an exploration on being with physical or emotional pain and – more generally – meeting challenging experiences.
The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants. The general format is 20 minutes sitting / 10 minutes walking / 20 minutes sitting.
Suggestions for daily Sensory Awareness practices by Stefan Laeng.
This class was recorded as part of the Sensory Awareness Foundation's "Meeting Change" series, offered in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
This audio recording is from a recent Zoom meeting of the Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild.
We had planned to meet in Berkeley ahead of the Sensory Awareness Foundation’s annual spring retreat, which had to be canceled due to the pandemic. The meeting was also a test run for the series of Zoom classes which the SAF has been offering this spring and is continuing to offer in the coming months.
The edited recording of this class is 24 minutes long and it will give you a taste of Sensory Awareness in times of corona.
Read moreHere’s the recording of an online class I gave as part of the Sensory Awareness Foundation’s From Isolation to Connection class series in response to the Corona Virus pandemic, and, in this session, the persistent virus of racism.
In memory of George Floyd and dedicated to all victims of racism.
This article is based on the opening talk for the Sensory Awareness Conference at Mt. Madonna Center, Watsonville, CA, held in October 2006.
What is Sensory Awareness? I am using this question as a title for my opening talk to this conference, realizing very well that I cannot really give an answer but rather I want to use it as a tool for an exploration in what I see as important about our work at this time. If you explore this question, you will find different “answers” as I am finding different answers at different times. Asking questions is a crucial tool in our work. They help us to explore life – and ourselves, which, of course, are not two separate things. You will notice that in the course of my exploration today I will often talk about one thing and then jump to its opposite. In preparing my talk, these polarities kept calling for my attention.
A curious and confusing dichotomy runs (through) our lives. I call myself an “individual”, a whole that cannot be divided, even though this organism I call “I” houses countless tiny organisms, bacteria, etc., without which I would not be me. I am this whole only in the context of a web of life inside and out, in which countless “individuals” are inseparably interwoven. Life as we know it manifests in individual organisms - from the tiniest bacteria, to redwood trees, to the elaborate organisms we call humans, all interlinked as we share this planet that gave birth to us.
Read moreA "Sensing Sundays” Session, June 28, 2015, with Stefan Laeng
This video shows how we can work on posture playfully and deeply by very clearly connecting and interacting with the force of gravity, following our innate sense for balance rather than an external ideal. In this way, sitting becomes a living activity rather than a prescribed form.
A highlight of this video is seeing Charlotte Selver at 100 years of age participating gleefully.
I was not able to contact all participants to get their okay to be seen in this footage. At the time people signed a release form for use of their appearance in publications of the Sensory Awareness Foundation. I am using these videos courtesy of the SAF but this is not an SAF publication. If you see yourself and do not want to be seen, please contact me.
Pathways of Sensory Awareness LLC | Stefan Laeng
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Email: stelaeng@mac.com / Tel.: 603.540.1115