This is a guided meditation to help us find our center.
The center is a deep sense of connectedness to your inner body,
Your sensations,
The feeling of nameless peace.
Peace which has no cause,
Which has no beginning,
Which has no particular reason to exist,
Which is why this peace never goes away because it is unconditional.
This is your safe space.
Before we begin this meditation,
Find a comfortable place to sit.
If you are sitting on the ground,
Sit on a pillow or a meditation pillow,
Something that keeps your back straight and relaxed at the same time,
With your knees pointing towards the ground.
If you are sitting on a chair,
Make sure your chair has back support and you are relaxed as you sit here.
First,
We begin with breathing.
Notice your breath.
You will see that the state of mind you are in matches with the way you are breathing right now.
The more unsteady the mind,
The more unsteady our breath tends to be.
Our goal in this session is to have a calm breath and therefore have a calm mind.
You are going to take 20 breaths and as you begin,
Exhale about twice the amount of air that you usually do with each exhale.
Notice as you exhale that your body wants to breathe in as a natural reaction.
Continue exhaling and inhaling as a reaction.
And we search for what is called the rooting breath.
A rooting breath is a frequency of breathing which is between four and six breaths a minute.
Having said that,
Let's begin our breathing.
We begin with an exhale.
Exhale.
As you inhale,
Let your belly come out.
Exhale.
Inhale again.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Try not to move your shoulders.
Exhale.
Inhale again.
And exhale.
Feel the sensations of breathing.
Exhale.
Let your mind not wander to any thoughts but to the thoughts that surround your breathing.
And exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
We are on breath number 10.
10 more to go.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Very gentle.
Very easy.
No stream anywhere in the body.
And exhale.
Inhale.
Thoughts should stay here.
And exhale.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Bring your thoughts to the sensations you are feeling in your belly as your lungs expand and the air goes out.
Here it comes.
Inhale.
Here it goes.
Exhale.
In breath.
Out breath.
One last time.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Breathe in correctly.
Our thoughts and emotions clear up.
And our mind comes back to a neutral state.
Feel the peace spread in your body.
And now we are going to move to the next step which is listening.
If you are thinking right now,
You can listen to your mind chatter.
As if someone is speaking inside our own minds.
We are now going to teach ourselves to stop listening to those sounds.
And listen to the sounds in our physical reality.
As we were breathing,
There were certain sounds that our breath makes.
See if you can listen to the sound of your own breathing.
Keep your eyes closed.
Listen to the sound as the breath draws in,
Pauses and then draws out.
As you listen to your breath,
Expand your awareness and listen to the sounds inside your own house.
The hum of the air conditioner or the fan running in the background.
There are people in the house,
The sounds that they are making.
If there is a clock on the wall,
Listen to the way it ticks.
Listen to each sound one by one.
Pay attention and honor every sound that falls on your ears.
Now slowly expand your awareness to the sounds that may be outside your window.
You may hear cars driving by.
The rustling of the leaves as the wind blows.
The airplane humming above the clouds.
Maybe a dog barking in the distance.
The sound of birds singing.
Listen to every sound as if it were a song sung just for you.
Because it is.
As you connect to your sense of listening,
Notice your breath.
How it is smooth and easy and rooted.
How the mind is connected to the natural sounds around you.
And as you notice the sounds,
You realize that you are finding peace.
Because as the mind becomes aware of the sounds,
It also becomes aware of silence.
Feel the neutral nature of all sounds around you.
This is presence.
Embrace it.
Soak it in.
Let the mind become familiar with the silence.
We are no longer processing information.
We are no longer thinking.
We are only connecting with reality.
We are disconnecting from the mind-reality and merging with sound-reality.
Now we move on to step three,
Which is feeling.
As our listening deepens,
It begins to reach naturally within our own bodies.
As our mind becomes quiet,
We begin to perceive our own body clearly.
See if you can feel your own heartbeat.
See if you can feel the gentle pulsating in your chest and then in your fingertips.
Notice how as the heart beats,
The pressure in the fingertips changes.
How a ripple flows through the body with each beat of our hearts.
Now quickly scan your entire body,
Your whole body,
And see how much of it you can feel being alive.
And how much of it feels as if it has no sensations.
Can you,
For instance,
Feel what's happening in the toe of your left foot?
You can start from either toe and just notice how you have forgotten it.
Move to the other toes one by one and see if you can perceive their unique nature.
As you bring back these sleeping toes of your left foot,
See if you can do the same for your right foot.
Feel the way your feet are connected to the ground.
Notice how they've been carrying your weight for so many years.
Let your awareness naturally spread up your legs,
From your ankles,
To your calves,
To your knees,
To your thighs,
To your hamstrings.
If parts of your legs have been sleeping,
Wait for the awareness to return to those parts.
Move your awareness up to the genital area.
Keep bringing it up to the reach of the belly and the chest.
See if you can bring your awareness up your spinal area.
As you come back to your shoulders,
Notice the weight and the strain they are carrying.
Move that strain down your body through your hips into the ground.
Let your shoulders sink into the ground.
Move the awareness to your hands.
Relax your shoulders,
Your triceps and move the awareness to your fingers.
Again notice your heartbeat.
See how your heart is connected to your entire body.
Your body should now feel completely alive with sensations.
Notice the sounds once again.
Check in with your breath once again.
See you can breathe,
Listen and feel at the same time.
There is so much reality to experience and none of it requires a single thought.
Notice all the sensations,
The sounds that you are experiencing and realize how there is no judgment about them.
They just are.
There is no need to describe them,
No need to change them.
Now we move on to step four and with our internal connection established,
It's time to open our eyes.
Meditation is not yet over for it is now the time to honor our sense of sight.
Focus on any ordinary object lying around you,
A pen,
A book,
A plant,
An empty cup.
The more ordinary it is,
The less personal attachment you have to it,
The better.
Observe it as if you have never seen it before.
Don't label it.
See a cup without verbalizing the word cup.
See a plant without calling it so.
Let go of all the judgments,
Good,
Bad,
Beautiful,
Ugly.
Slowly scan its surface.
Look at its edges.
Observe its color.
Be with it fully.
Now look at the wall in front of you.
Notice its shade,
Its texture.
See how the light bounces off of it.
Let go of judgments once again.
Look at each crack,
Each mark you see on it.
This is your connection with visual reality.
It has no interruption of mental images,
Memories or thoughts.
It contains no projections.
Relax into this new way of seeing.
Breathe.
Now look at your own hands.
See the lines on your palms.
See how soft or rough your hands are.
Notice the texture.
Find details on your own hands which you have never seen before.
Look at your fingers in detail.
Look how they show your age and experience.
Look at your fingernails.
Look at their color,
Size,
Shape.
Notice how they reflect light in different shades of red and pink.
Feel the aliveness in your hands.
Look at something now which is more than 20 feet from you.
The farther it is,
The better.
If you are near a window,
Look at the trees outside.
Rest your eyes.
Rest your facial muscles.
Release the pressure you feel above your nose,
Under your eyes.
Close your eyes.
If your eyes want to go out of focus,
Allow them.
Stop trying everything.
Now close your eyes and breathe.
Notice this peace.
It flows through you.
It envelops you.
Let it fill your mind.
Let it fill your body completely.
If this peace is what you want,
Nothing more and nothing less,
Know that this peace is yours forever.
