A 12-minute meditation to approach the world with an “unknowing mind”

We can find strength and resilience in familiarity—and use those feelings to explore the unfamiliar.

At the beginning of each meditation In the practice I teach, I offer a little postural guidance so that you can experience the practice as supporting your body as much as possible.

Meditation to approach the world with a “mind not knowing”

1. I would like to invite you to come to a place that is really comfortable and supportive of your practice. For some of you, this may mean sitting in a chair, on the couch, or even on cushions on the floor. This could mean standing up if it supports your back and your posture more. And for some of you, that might mean lying on the ground. Please take a moment to come to the place that awaits you the most sympathetic to your body.
2. Some of you may want to close your eyes completely to this meditation practice. And others may want to use what I like to call a “soft gaze,” which is looking at the ground about two inches in front of the knees or feet.
3. As you settle into a comfortable position, I’d like to invite you to take three deep breaths with me. As you take these three deep breaths, you may notice that your body begins to relax naturally. You may begin to feel a little more deeply connected to any place that is in contact with the earth. For some of you it will be your legs and for others it may be your back. Pay attention to which spot is in contact with the ground at that moment.
4. Begin to bring your attention and awareness to the connection between your body and the earth. Another deep breath in and out may seem helpful at this point. When you’re done, bring your breathing back to its natural cadence and rhythm.
5. You can notice the sound quality in the room you are in. Maybe there’s some ambient noise coming from inside, wherever you are, whatever building you’re in. Or perhaps there are sounds coming from outside. Please feel free to make this part of your practice.
6. Start paying attention to the bottoms of your feet wherever they land on the ground. What do you notice? Does the right or left leg seem a little heavier than the other? If you notice the difference between your right and left foot, you may also become aware of other micro-adjustments within your body.
7. You may notice that the mind continues to create thoughts, and this is normal. The point of practicing meditation is not to stop thinking the thoughts you are thinking, but to simply become aware of the thoughts flowing through your body and mind. As you become aware of your thoughts, you can also bring your awareness to the rhythm of your breath flowing in and out of your body.
8. I would like to suggest that you turn your attention to the abdominal muscles and notice if they were pulled in a little tight against the spine. Is it possible to create a feeling of relaxation and even vulnerability in the abdominal muscles by allowing them to be soft? Don’t worry, no one is watching. How does it feel when you get a feeling of softness and relaxation in your belly? How does the rest of the body react?
9. While your attention is here, you may begin to visualize a person, place, animal, or object that is familiar to you. Perhaps this animal, person, place, or object reminds you of how you feel at home. Can you take them into the room with you right now?
10. Notice if this invitation affects your breath as it rises and falls from your chest. You may even feel a little safer in the space of this practice as you invite in the image of something that reminds you of being at home, of being held.
11. What is familiar, deeply familiar about this person, animal, place, or object that makes you feel as if you really know them? What is the feeling of knowing? What is the sense of familiarity and how does it get inside the body? The invitation is to bring your attention back to your breath whenever you find yourself caught up in the story.
12. Now think of an image of something that reminds you of what it means to be strong and resilient. Maybe there’s someone you really look up to, or a place you’ve been to that made you feel really strong and resilient when you were there. Can you bring embodied feelings of strength and resilience into your mind? Do small changes and shifts occur in your body when you remember how you feel?
13. Now we will experiment a little. I hope it will be fun. There is a term called “not knowing mind” that is sometimes used in meditation to evoke a sense of curiosity.
14. How is it to approach the world with “not knowing the mind?” You may find that this is a bit of a contrast to the sense of familiarity we began to explore at the beginning of this practice. The feeling of familiarity is the feeling of, “Oh yeah, me to know. I know this man. I know this place. I know this animal or this object. They are deeply familiar to me.” Perhaps the way we view things that seem familiar to us can begin to shift and change ever so slightly when we apply the pure curiosity of the “I don’t know mind.” How does it get into the body? Is this a study of ignorance, not quite certainty?
15. At this point in your practice, you may notice if there are places in the body that begin to shrink as we explore the feeling of not knowing the mind, and that’s okay. This is the intelligence of the body. Can we combine this exploration of the “unknown mind” with that same sense of strength and resilience so that we know that, no matter what, when we face moments of uncertainty and not knowing that we have all the strength and sustainability inside our body to meet this moment? How does it feel to meet strength and resilience with ignorance? Can we really be interested in what comes up in our minds with this practice? Let’s spend a few minutes in silence together and find out how you feel.
16. When you are ready, please bring your entire body into your mind and notice the difference between how your body feels now and how it felt when you first entered this practice space. Take a moment to notice how the feet are slightly different in the way they connect to the ground.
17. Let’s all take another deep breath.
    
18. When you are ready, at your own pace and rhythm, please begin, very slowly and carefully, to open your eyes, without looking at anything in particular. Let the colors and textures come back into your consciousness.
19. From here we can begin the process of reorientation in the room we are in. Gently start turning and twisting your head and neck, and take in the colors and textures of the space you’re in. Notice if there is anything new, different, or alive in the space. What has changed since you started this practice?