Space: The Secret to Deeper Meditation

This is the fourth article in a series on meditation.

After guiding the body into a state of gentle relaxation and bringing awareness into bodily sensations, it can be helpful to invite an awareness of space. This isn’t about imagining outer space or distant planets. Instead, it involves sensing the simple, three-dimensional physical space that already exists all around you—and within you.

A useful map to keep in the back of your mind during this practice is that the body is made of atoms, and atoms are around 99 per cent empty space. In this meditation, we’re not creating something new; we’re simply connecting with the space that is already there.

This meditation is adapted from practices found in Buddhist Dzogchen and Open Focus.

Space Breathing

This meditation step has some similarities to the autogenic relaxation exercise. As with earlier practices, the attitude here is one of passive effort. Striving to achieve a particular state during meditation can be counterproductive.

Rather than inviting sensations of warmth and heaviness as with autogenic relaxation, the focus here is on the experience of space. Space, after all, is an absence. Allowing more space into awareness can naturally lead toward a quiet, open, and objectless quality of awareness.

Another difference in this practice is that the breath is used to help gently move the sense of space through different areas of the body.

Step 1

Take a slow breath in. As you exhale, imagine sending your awareness down into the ground beneath your feet. Sense a vast, stable space supporting you.

Step 2

As you slowly inhale, imagine that space moving up through your feet and legs. Silently say to yourself, “Legs — space.” Feel empty space filling and surrounding your feet and legs.

As you exhale, imagine the space returning to the ground beneath you, carrying with it any sense of tension or solidity.

Step 3

Slowly inhale and imagine the space moving up through your hands and arms. Silently say, “Arms — space,” and feel your arms filled with and surrounded by empty space.

As you exhale, allow the space to gently return to the ground beneath you.

Step 4

As you inhale slowly, imagine and feel the space moving up from the ground through your hips and torso. Silently say, “Hips and torso — space,” and feel this area filled and surrounded by space.

As you exhale, allow the space to return to the ground beneath you.

Step 5

Inhale and feel the space moving through your shoulders, neck, and head. Silently say, “Shoulders, neck, and head — space.” Sense these areas filled with and surrounded by space.

Exhale and allow the space to return to the ground beneath you.

Step 6

Inhale and feel the space moving through your whole body. Silently say, “Whole body — space.” Sense the entire body filled with space and held within space.

As you exhale, allow the space to return to the ground beneath you.

Step 7

Inhale and feel the space filling your body and the room at the same time. As you exhale, imagine the space gently expanding to either side of you, and then in all directions.

There’s no need to force anything here. Simply sense the boundless, formless space that is already present.

Step 8

Alongside the feeling of boundless space, notice that it can also be sensed as the silence underneath all sounds.

If thoughts arise within this space, allow them to gently dissolve back into the space from which they emerged.

Rest as this boundless, contentless, spacious awareness for a few minutes.

To finish the meditation, imagine awareness filling every part of your body. Feel presence radiating through the body, while at the same time remaining aware of the boundless space around and within you.

If you’re interested, a personal meditation coaching session can provide valuable support in learning to work with these subtle shifts in awareness.