Stefan Laeng 2/4/25 Stefan Laeng 2/4/25

Feeling Off – Being present when that’s the last thing I want to be

The Tuesday Meditations are guided meditations. We simply sit (and walk or move) in the presence of what is alive in and around us. They are not a Sensory Awareness class, though the approach is similar, a Sensory Awareness approach to insight meditation, usually a spontaneous improvisation on a theme requested by the participants.

Stefan Laeng 11/11/24 Stefan Laeng 11/11/24

Election Day Centering Meditation

I offered this meditation on the evening of Election Day, before we knew the devastating result. People – myself included – were hopeful but nervous, in need of a grounding, centering presence. It helped in the moment. It would be dishonest to claim that it helped on Wednesday.

But we can’t stay in despair. I think this meditation is still useful. We need to be centered and grounded more than ever. We’re still here. We may “go back,” temporarily, but we’re not going away.

Stefan Laeng 2/21/24 Stefan Laeng 2/21/24

Why Must There Be War?

Listening With Ears, Eyes, Hands, and Heart

From an online class for the Sensory Awareness Foundation, January 6, 2024

On Silent Levels

In this class, I read a short piece from the chapter “On Silent Levels” from the manuscript of my biography of Charlotte Selver. Only a part of this is in the video but you may be interested in reading a bit more:

Listening With Ears, Eyes, Hands, and Heart

From an online class for the Sensory Awareness Foundation, January 6, 2024

On Silent Levels

“Central to Elsa Gindler’s work was to become quiet,” Charlotte explains at her summer workshop in St. Ulrich in the Black Forest in 1992.” “As long as we are preoccupied with ideas and expectations we cannot be there for what is happening, for what could be happening.

Alfred Korzybski’s central question, stemming from his personal experiences of World War One, was, ‘why must there be wars?’ After years of research, which led him to the study of the origins of language, he concluded, ‘Because people don’t listen to each other.’”

I heard Charlotte speak about Korzybski many times and while I always had questions about her understanding of the principals underlying his work, General Semantics, especially with respect to its neurological foundation—the imagery she used seemed to stem from her study of photography rather than neuroscience—I was touched each time by her explanation of “how it comes to the word,” as she put it.

“Sensory cells are like photographic plates. When light hits receptors in the eye, they are impregnated with a pattern of shapes and colors. This information spreads throughout the entire nervous system. We begin to perceive, to feel, we experience in our totality. This occurs, Korzybski said, on silent levels, that is, in complete silence. It is only after this that we begin to put our experience into words.

But when there is all this thinking noise it is impossible for the impression to reach us in our totality, impossible to really perceive. To be really touched by what we see, or hear, or taste, we need to become quiet.”

“But that’s just the beginning, that’s just getting ready,” Charlotte added, “because once there is seeing, then you’ll see, once there is hearing, you’ll hear, but then you have to respond to what you see and hear. Then you have to play your part in the world, not just for yourself and your family.”

If you want to read the whole chapter, write me and I’ll send you a pdf: stelaeng@mac.com

Stefan Laeng 2/15/24 Stefan Laeng 2/15/24

Relating – The Heart of Sensory Awareness

You’ll get the most of out these videos when you participate.

From an online class for the Sensory Awareness Foundation,
January 6, 2024

Stefan Laeng 9/6/23 Stefan Laeng 9/6/23

Can I Give My Love to This Moment? – It may need it.

This spontaneous guided meditation was inspired by my feeling a bit stressed out, restless and all over the place at the start of the Tuesday Meditation.

The other inspiration was Charlotte Selver’s words: “People who don’t love the moment are always trying to achieve something, but when one is on the way, every moment is ‘it.’” They are on the cover of the Sensory Awareness Foundation’s journal "Every Moment is a Moment,” and they had been on my mind in recent days for some reason …

This evening’s format was 15 min. sitting / 5 min. walking / 15 min. sitting, followed by a brief sharing, which I hope you’ll listen to as well. I was kindly given permission to include people’s voices.

Stefan Laeng 7/26/23 Stefan Laeng 7/26/23

Everything is Related

This is an excerpt from the longer practice recording "A Gesture of Presence,” which gives you more of an opportunity to practice.

Responding to a comment by a class participant, I talk about how the "work with gravity makes it so immediately clear how everything is in relationship all the time."

For example: By touching and lifting a stone (anything, really) we enter a relationship – that of the stone with the earth.

Stefan Laeng 7/26/23 Stefan Laeng 7/26/23

A Gesture of Presence

Guided Practice Recording

An exploration of gravity and how we enter an already existing relationship between the earth and any object, as soon as we touch and hold it.

You'll need a couple of fist size stones to participate in the exploration. If no stones are available, try something else that fits in your hand and has a clear weight.

Stefan Laeng 7/20/23 Stefan Laeng 7/20/23

Sitting On the Shores of Breathing

Breathing has been happening for millions of years, has sustained life for millions of years. Ants, do it, elephants do it, trees do it, each in their own way.
This meditation is not about paying attention - but about paying our respects for this aspect of nature. It’s also about connection, about exchange, give and take.

While the 50 minutes are a whole, you can also just stay for the first part until the walking and/or do the other parts at a different time.

Stefan Laeng 7/11/23 Stefan Laeng 7/11/23

Breathing – Sitting in the Breeze

While the 50 minutes are a whole, you can also just stay for the first part until the walking and/or do the other parts at a different time.

Stefan Laeng 7/10/23 Stefan Laeng 7/10/23

The Journey is the Destination

Guided Practice Recording

A simple gesture such as touching ones head can be a journey of discovery and transformation, if we're not focused on the outcome but open for the moment-by-moment unfolding of life.

You’ll get the most of out these videos when you participate along with me, rather than just watching.

Stefan Laeng 12/6/22 Stefan Laeng 12/6/22

Moods – The Weather Within

Stefan Laeng 11/22/22 Stefan Laeng 11/22/22

Welcoming What Shows Up

Stefan Laeng 11/15/22 Stefan Laeng 11/15/22

Living Nature

Stefan Laeng 7/7/22 Stefan Laeng 7/7/22

Not the Time for Problem Solving

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Stefan Laeng 4/1/22 Stefan Laeng 4/1/22

Easy to Be Present

A guide to being present in this moment, not the next.

You’ll see that there are two versions.
One is the original 50 minute guided meditation. If 50 minutes are too much but you still want to practice along, you can use the long version and just do the first 8 minutes, or 20 minutes.

The other is all the instructions at once in 6.5 minutes. Use it for inspiration to then practice without the guidance.

Stefan Laeng 1/31/22 Stefan Laeng 1/31/22

Letting it Be

Being with Challenging Experiences.

This is an exploration on being with physical or emotional pain and – more generally – meeting challenging experiences.

Stefan Laeng 12/31/21 Stefan Laeng 12/31/21

Daily Sensory Awareness Practices

Suggestions for daily Sensory Awareness practices by Stefan Laeng.

This class was recorded as part of the Sensory Awareness Foundation's "Meeting Change" series, offered in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Stefan Laeng 6/23/20 Stefan Laeng 6/23/20

From Isolation to Connection

This audio recording is from a recent Zoom meeting of the Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild.
We had planned to meet in Berkeley ahead of the Sensory Awareness Foundation’s annual spring retreat, which had to be canceled due to the pandemic. The meeting was also a test run for the series of Zoom classes which the SAF has been offering this spring and is continuing to offer in the coming months.

The edited recording of this class is 24 minutes long and it will give you a taste of Sensory Awareness in times of corona.

Stefan Laeng 6/1/20 Stefan Laeng 6/1/20

In Memory of George Floyd

Here’s the recording of an online class I gave as part of the Sensory Awareness Foundation’s From Isolation to Connection class series in response to the Corona Virus pandemic, and, in this session, the persistent virus of racism.

In memory of George Floyd and dedicated to all victims of racism.

Stefan Laeng 5/22/20 Stefan Laeng 5/22/20

What is Sensory Awareness?

This article is based on the opening talk for the Sensory Awareness Conference at Mt. Madonna Center, Watsonville, CA, held in October 2006.

What is Sensory Awareness? I am using this question as a title for my opening talk to this conference, realizing very well that I cannot really give an answer but rather I want to use it as a tool for an exploration in what I see as important about our work at this time. If you explore this question, you will find different “answers” as I am finding different answers at different times. Asking questions is a crucial tool in our work. They help us to explore life – and ourselves, which, of course, are not two separate things. You will notice that in the course of my exploration today I will often talk about one thing and then jump to its opposite. In preparing my talk, these polarities kept calling for my attention.

A curious and confusing dichotomy runs (through) our lives. I call myself an “individual”, a whole that cannot be divided, even though this organism I call “I” houses countless tiny organisms, bacteria, etc., without which I would not be me. I am this whole only in the context of a web of life inside and out, in which countless “individuals” are inseparably interwoven. Life as we know it manifests in individual organisms - from the tiniest bacteria, to redwood trees, to the elaborate organisms we call humans, all interlinked as we share this planet that gave birth to us.

What is Sensory Awareness?

by Stefan Laeng

This article is based on the opening talk for the Sensory Awareness Conference at Mt. Madonna Center, Watsonville, CA, held in October 2006.

We all share a strong sense of individuality – manifesting in our modern world often as isolation – and with it comes a sense of permanence. However, being part of this web, we are subject to change – often without notice – and often without that change being noticed.

This is where the practice of Sensory Awareness comes in. One answer to our initial question could be that Sensory Awareness is about learning to notice and allow change – or should I say stopping to resist it? Life is change and resisting the change leads to discomfort and disease. But life is also form, stability. Let us not disregard that. We are all formed, if only temporarily, and we rightly cherish this form. Sensory Awareness is also about recognizing the form we are, impermanent as it may be.

In this work we often hear about the importance of the present moment. Now, it is crucial to live in the moment, because in a way this is all we have – but life is also history. Without a history we would not be here today, without it we wouldn’t even recognize each other. We come into this present moment with a history and part of our work of Sensory Awareness is to understand and integrate it in a healthful way. When I say that, I don’t mean to intellectually explore it but to recognize and understand that we have grown from something, that we come here not from nowhere but from somewhere.

The now ubiquitous word mindfulness is a modern translation of the Pali word sati. its original meaning was memory. To hear this for the first time not too long ago was a surprising revelation for me, especially because it came from a Buddhist teacher, Jason Siff, who proceeded to say: “there is no present without a past.”

The practice we call Sensory Awareness has a very rich history too. It is interwoven with the history of Charlotte Selver, who was a teacher and very important person in many of our lives; it is interwoven with her teachers Elsa Gindler and Heinrich Jacoby who, influenced by their times and history, passed down to us something very precious. What they gave us is not easily described. We do not call it a method – but it has method. It is a very specific way of exploring life and as such is quite unique.

To me, what is so precious about this work is that we are given authority to learn in a manner that respects our own experience and builds on it, rather than being taught how things should be. I would even go so far as to say that offering space for discovery is the very foundation of this work. We are hard pressed to find related teachings that give students as much authority to inquire and find solutions based upon their own experience.

Now, of course, as Sensory Awareness leaders we come with our own history, with our own background, with our own understanding and we will bring in our own being. But as much as possible we need to and we want to open a space for discovery.

Here is another interesting aspect of our work: those of you new to Sensory Awareness will soon notice that in our classes you are exposed to a never-ending stream of questions. Knowing how to ask questions is very crucial for students of Sensory Awareness (and when I say students I mean all of us who are involved with this work, especially those of us who are engaged in what we call leading). Maybe the most important thing we so-called leaders can “teach” is how to ask questions. This method has history. “Zweck-mässige Fragestellung” – let me translate this as “skillful questioning” – has from the very beginning been a central tool in our work. Those questions will ultimately not be posed by a teacher but emerge in the student.

Sensory Awareness is coming into alignment with the forces of nature. Especially, it is communion with gravity. It is opening up in each cell to what always affects us, every cell, everything that exists on earth, namely the mutual attraction of everything that has mass. Being exposed to gravity, being open to gravity, gives us direction in space. When we know up and down we can orient ourselves in all directions. Sensory Awareness is also opening up to the support of the ground – not that it isn’t there always anyway but the question is: are we responsive to it?

This brings us to another polarity, that of motion (the pull of gravity) and stability, form (that which stops us from falling down, namely the firm surface of the earth). Now, we could easily be crushed by these forces but in fact life as we know it has emerged thanks to them and is completely interwoven with these forces. Yet we feel challenged by them – in our joints, in our hips, in our shoulders. We struggle, we fight. Why? Because we are creatures of history, creatures of habit. But change is both possible and ultimately inevitable – in the present. That is where sensory awareness is necessary.

Without gravity – and without the supporting ground – we would not have the form we have; we wouldn’t have this marvelous muscle/skeleton/nervous system that allows us to move around on the earth; we wouldn’t have developed this brain. All of our millions of cells are affected by gravity, every single one finds its orientation in space through gravity. I believe the closing off from this pull is a main source of discomfort. When we hold on more than we need to – or let go too much, for that matter – we cannot feel the pull and we become (or parts of us become) isolated; on the other hand, when we come into balance with that pull, we find orientation and connection.

So, we come here to work with a particular practice which we call Sensory Awareness, but really it is the practice of living and of experiencing. It is not a teaching in the sense that we tell you – or ourselves – what’s right or wrong, but we find out what is called for in the moment.

To close this talk, I would like to say something about right and wrong: Very often, I hear that there is no right or wrong in this practice. I dare to disagree. There is right and wrong – but it is not the teachers’ right and wrong, our parents right or wrong or our cultures’ right or wrong. It is the felt right and wrong that we come to through our own experiencing as we connect again more fully with the world of which we are but a part. It is not ablslolute, not the “truth," and it may – it will – change as we change.