Cultivating basic trust and supporting deep healing

Session 4 Part 1 - Meditation

Guest: Hameed Ali

Disclaimer: The contents of this interview are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for
professional psychological advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This interview does not provide psychological advice, diagnosis, or
treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a
medical or psychological condition.

[00:00:05] Alex Howard

Welcome everyone to session four of Trauma and Awakening. I can't believe how fast the last month
has disappeared. But this feels like really the climax of this program where we have Gabor and
Hameed together, and we really have the space to go deeper into some of the dialogue and the
questions that have been arising over the previous three sessions.

For the first half of today's session, there's going to be primarily Gabor and Hameed who are going to
be dialoguing together. And there's going to be the opportunity within that for you guys to ask
clarifying questions or questions where you'd like us to go deeper.

Then in the second half of the session, we're really going to open the floor for questions from you, the
audience. Again, there'll be the opportunity just to ask relatively simple questions if there's clarifying
questions, but also the opportunity to come on and to interact with Hameed and Gabor as well.

So, Hameed, you are going to lead us with a little meditation just to help everyone arrive a bit more
deeply.

Hameed Ali
Okay. Thanks, Alex. We'll start with our eyes closed, sitting with a straight back and with feet firmly on
the floor. And I want us first to start sensing our feet, the sensations in our feet, the sensation of being
on the floor, inside the foot, the feet, outside the feet, the pressure, the temperature. The sensation is
a kind of aliveness. It's kind of like a consciousness right there in the feet, something conscious right
there within the feet.

And then you start feeling, moving your awareness to feel those sensations in the legs, filling the legs.
The legs have all kind of sensations. For some of us, some areas might not have sensation, which is
fine. That is a sensation, no sensation. But it is consciousness.

And let the sensations arise all the way to the knees and then filling the thighs. So it's like there's
aliveness. Sensation is aliveness. Sensation is consciousness. And so our legs now are teeming with
sensations, with aliveness, with the consciousness of aliveness, which is the consciousness that is the
aliveness.

That continues into the pelvis, which is a critical area for many of us. Many of us might not feel
anything there, but you might feel still some sensation anyway, even a sensation of numbness or
emptiness. That is a sensation. It is an awareness. It is a consciousness.

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Trauma & Awakening, 2021
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And it continues into the belly, feeling the sensations, just the physical sensations. If you don't think of
them as brain-generated, they are just there in their location, present as sensation, where there's a
consciousness of something there. It doesn't matter what the sensation is about, whether it's heat or
tension or hurt or pleasure. The point is, it is a sensation, which means it is a consciousness.

And then you become aware that the sensations are in the belly and the chest and spreading
throughout the upper body. And then it goes into your arms, all the way into your hands, they're all
sensations, and your shoulders, into your neck and your head. And we're all full of sensation.

If you're aware of all the sensations in your body, then you realize the sensations are more
fundamental than your shape of your body, because the shape of the body comes from an image of
our mind, the sensation might actually dissolve those shapes, and sensations might spread beyond
the body. So that way, we become aware, it is really consciousness. That is not just the physical
sensation. It is a physical sensation, but the physical sensation, it's really the surface manifestation of
pure consciousness.

If you have followed this meditation of sensation filling our body with aliveness, with consciousness,
we are learning about consciousness. And for some of us, this consciousness, you might feel it as a
presence. Not all the sensation is a sensation of something here, a hereness, a presence, a fullness, a
texturedness.

And we stay with that. We stay with the sensation of the consciousness, with the presence, whatever
way we experience it, throughout the whole three hours we'll be meeting. That'd be great. Not to
forget to be sensing, especially your feet, but the rest of your body as it follows the sensation.
Because the main way we are aware of our body really is through sensation, which is very important
for both trauma work and for spiritual work. And we'll talk about the relationship of the two.

Now, just be quiet with it, and I will bring you back with the bell. Just stay with the sensations.

I hope we're all feeling ourself, sensing our consciousness, sensing our body, sensing our presence,
whichever level we are aware of.

Okay, we start.

Alex Howard
Thank you, Hameed.

Trauma & Awakening, 2021

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