Relaxation

Abstract

A deep sense of relaxation is one of the most common characteristics coemerging with the experience of pure awareness.For example, one of our participants conveyed the feeling figuratively, ". . .as if I was floating in water, on my back, under a bright sun" (#2065), while another described it quite simply and literally as a feeling of "Okayness" (#172).Perhaps pure awareness is something like a previously unnoticed baseline state of conscious experience, an inner surface on which we are always "floating," even though our attention is almost always captured by something else, like the bright sun above us?Perhaps meditation is what enables us to become aware of this invisible inner surface and then move onto it, learning how to effortlessly glide along from moment to moment, like a paraglider who has discovered a thermal, a thin layer of heated air to ride on?In any case, to judge from the phenomenological material that we have gathered, it seems clear that the nonconceptual awareness of awareness itself is something one can relax into (or onto the surface of) by gradually letting go, gently dissolving all residual tensions in body and mind.One of our participants figuratively described this way of accessing pure awareness as " gently 'sitting back' into it" (#2619).The phenomenology of relaxation and ease is so salient and widespread that I will give just six introductory examples here: 1647 [. ..]Like the more I can quiet my physical and mental stress and anxiety the more I can uncover of this baseline real ity of experience.It did not feel like something I could strive to achieve through hard work . . .but more like something I could relax or ease into.1870 A feeling of complete ease, well-being, and presence with waves of bliss, effortless and with almost no thoughts.