Enhance Your Mahamudra Practice through Space Awareness

Space Awareness will be offered on site at this year’s Summer Institute (for details, check out the Summer Institute Enhancement Activities page).

I wonder, how would we be able to experience the “spaciously relaxed” quality of Mahamudra meditation without having a sense of space?

How big is your sense of space? As you go about your day, do you feel the space behind your back? Are you aware of the space above and below you as you walk, talk or wash the dishes? Or do you go through most of your day only aware of what is in the visual field directly in front of you and utterly unaware of how incredibly expansive space is? And what is your experience of “spacious” when you practice Mahamudra meditation?

When you consciously expand your felt sense of space, being present takes on new meaning not only in daily life but also in meditation practice. When we come across concepts in Mahamudra texts such as spaciously relaxing into innate space, how do we know how to do that?

Thanks to Mitra Lee Worley’s teachings on Space Awareness, those words have more meaning for me now because my experience of space has become clearer and more personal. And, since Mahamudra meditation is a uniquely personal experience, developing our own individual sense of spaciousness enriches our practice.

Space Awareness exercises have also deepened my Mahamudra meditation. I can now connect more meaningfully when “resting spaciously.” They have helped me to further settle into what is practically indescribable in words, but what the teachings refer to as “open, spacious and relaxed.”

In my view, Space Awareness practice can not only help us to find spaciousness within and around us but can also help us to overcome our constant habitual split between subject and object.

Mitra Lee is one of the few experienced practitioners trained in teaching these exercises. Join us on site this summer in Boulder and take advantage of a precious opportunity to experience Space Awareness with Mitra Lee Worley, and enhance your Mahamudra practice!

(Please note that due to the nature of this practice it will not be possible to offer Space Awareness online. Click here to learn more about this year’s Summer Institute.)

–by Brigitte Lause