Insight Meditation 31

Learning to observe awareness of smell creates a grounding for mindfulness within daily life and also the ability to observe attraction or aversion as they arise towards what is smelt. 

This sensitivity allows you to soften into your relationship towards what is smelt, deconditioning any habitual pattern of attraction or aversion through mindful non-participation.

• Develop understanding of the relationship between the mind and the nose.
• Decondition habitual attraction & aversion towards smell.
• Disentangle awareness from the six sense fields – smelling & mind.

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• Length: 60 min, 1-2 times daily.
• Developing Insight: Become familiar with the experience of awareness of awareness of smelling and how to soften the effort of habitual grasping towards it.

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Conditions: Burn some incense / oil and notice the fragrance arise within your nose as smell.

Step 1: Sit in meditation, gently closing your eyes.

Step 2: Establish mindfulness of your body as you sit in meditation.

Step 3: Observe the fragrance contact your nose, its change in experience between the in and out-breath.

Step 4: Develop mindfulness of breathing, observe the fragrance draw your attention away and gently soften that pull.

Step 5: Notice the fragrance fill and leave your body with each breath. Soften any attraction or aversion towards the smell.

Step 6:  Align awareness with the flow of the smell then align the smell and the length of each breath as one. 

• Observe awareness and the smell as two separate experiences. 
• Apply GOSS, using awareness as your grounding point, to disentangle awareness from the smell.

• Be curious about habitual movements within the focus of awareness towards smell. 
• Observe and soften any attraction or aversion. 
• Notice the relationship towards smelling and commentary, also between smelling and the speeding / slowing up of the functions of the mind. 
• Be curious in regard to your mind aligning the experience of all senses as one known world. 

You are ready to progress to Insight 32: Mindfulness of Tasting when:

You can clearly experience:

1. The autonomous nature of tasting in regard to contact, the nose, the smell field, and mind created images and perceptions.
2. You can observe awareness of awareness of smelling, and you understand what it means to disentangle awareness from it.

• SoundCloud: Guided Meditation.
• Insight Timer App: Guided Meditation.