Make This Your Own Sitting Meditation (45 Mins)

Sitting meditation.

In this session we'll be sitting for 45 minutes,

So finding a time and a place where you won't be disturbed and sitting in a chair,

A cushion or a meditation stool,

Taking a moment or two now to settle your position,

Feeling into the support of the chair or the cushion.

If you're sitting on a chair,

Coming away from the back of the chair as best you can so that your spine can be self-supporting,

With your head and neck balanced on your shoulders and the shoulders dropped and quite relaxed,

With the back upright,

With the crown of the head pointing towards the ceiling or the sky.

Coming into a position which embodies the sense of stability and awakeness,

A sense of dignity,

Of being present in each moment as it unfolds and coming to this period of sitting meditation with an intention of respectful,

Gentle,

Wakefulness to your own experience.

This meditation will focus attention on breath as an anchor for the practice.

You can choose to return your attention to this familiar anchor.

This might be breath,

As I'm going to be guiding,

Or the touch points of the body on the ground,

Or external sounds.

Any of these options can be familiar home base to promote a sense of steadiness,

Focus and present-time awareness.

Here we will be using breath.

This is a practice of falling awake to moment-to-moment experience and your sincerity and attention are more important than any particular body position.

As you direct your attention towards the sensations of breathing,

The sensations may be strong or subtle or sometimes completely undetectable.

We may find sensations we like or sensations we wish to avoid.

Thoughts and emotions can also be present.

Everything can be held in awareness of a sitting meditation.

The choices you make in terms of attention to breath and following the practice or focusing on your anchor point may change day to day depending on your mood or other factors in the day.

You are in charge.

The invitation is to explore within the sitting meditation with kindness,

Staying within your own limits and practice friendliness towards yourself.

Any particular direction in this practice is not as important as the attitude that you bring to this practice.

We are cultivating the possibility of being fully awake to our own experience,

Of being open and gentle with ourselves in our experience from moment to moment.

In this practice we are not trying to achieve any special state.

We are not even trying to relax.

So seeing if it's possible to let go of the tendency that we all have to want things to be a certain way and then to judge how we are doing,

Seeing if it's possible to let go of this judgment.

Let things be as they are,

However they are.

Be gentle with yourself to experience your own experience,

Not trying to create a particular experience,

Just being with what is.

As I guide you through this practice just remember that my words are just guidance.

Only do what is right for you in each moment.

Make this your own practice.

So focusing now on the feeling of breath where you might find it most vivid.

Maybe the awareness of breath moving in and out of your body at the nostrils,

The sensations of breath and then in and out breath at the tip of the nose.

Or you may be aware of the passing of the breath at the back of the throat or in the chest.

You may follow the breath all the way down into the abdomen and in the belly.

And as you sit just noticing the sensations of breath,

Noticing how your abdomen moves on each in-breath and each out-breath.

The movement of air through your nostrils,

A slight movement of the chest and the shoulders,

Bringing your awareness to whatever part of your breath cycle or whatever part of the breath is most vivid.

Whether it be your tummy,

Your chest,

Your shoulders or the movement of air through your nostrils.

Noticing the entire cycle of breath from the movement of the air coming in and filling the lungs,

Extending the abdomen slightly and the movement of air going out.

And being aware of the pause,

The stopping point in between the in-breath and the out-breath.

The out-breath and the next breath in.

This is all one movement even though the changing of direction.

Just notice where that pause is and seeing to what degree you can be aware of your whole cycle.

Recognizing that each part of the cycle is different from the other part.

And this time through the breath may be different than the last time through.

And each one is absolutely unique in its own way as you pay attention.

The sensations that accompany your breath may be quite subtle,

May be difficult to detect sometimes.

And if this is so for you,

Seeing if it's possible to tune in to whatever is there and perhaps just registering a blank for now and remaining aware.

Simply tuning in as carefully as you can to sensations of breath following one upon the other.

I'm beginning now by bringing your attention to sounds.

Sounds from within your own body,

From the room,

From outside the room.

Sounds from in front or behind or from the sides.

Not going out to search for sounds,

But allowing them to come to your body,

To your ears and allowing them to be just as they are.

Staying with the sound long enough to notice the quality of the sound.

The sound is vibration,

Tone,

Volume and intensity.

Being aware of the mind to label the sound as traffic or voices or music.

And coming closer to the actual experience of the sound as it hits your eardrums.

The qualities or pitch or rhythm.

Separating out the actual reception of sound from the labels we put on it.

And if you've been paying attention to sound or noticing that you've gone off to noticing the perception of sound,

Bring your attention back once again to the breath and letting your breath be the anchor of awareness.

So that each time your awareness goes somewhere else,

Just gently direct attention back to the breath without judgment or upset.

As you breathe and attend to the breathing,

You may notice your attention shifting to body sensations of achiness or discomfort,

Of tensions.

And as you notice these strong sensations of discomfort,

There are several things which can be done with just the sensations.

Moving or shifting a little bit one way or the other to deal with the sensation is to allow yourself to shift.

But in doing that,

First become aware of the sensation.

Noticing precisely where this tension is or the achiness might be.

Once you're aware of that,

Developing an intention to move and moving mindfully with full intent to make that motion.

Alternatively,

You can notice that sensation,

Noticing it in its fullness and being curious about the extent of it.

How you can experience of it,

The actual physical sensations of tension,

Tightness or pulling,

Tingling or achiness.

This is just to notice that it is possible to stay a moment longer with the sensation and experience it as pure sensation without labels or discomfort of tension.

Just noticing where it is,

Noticing your experience of it,

Staying with it without having to react.

Just for the moment be curious about it.

How big it is,

How long it is,

What qualities does this have,

How is this changing over time.

If your attention keeps getting called back to an area of intense sensation,

Knowing that you have these choices,

Forming an intention to do something about it and mindfully doing it and attending to the sensations and sitting with the sensations for a moment before again returning your attention back to the breath.

Tending to the breath where it's most vivid,

Noticing its qualities or fullness,

Shallowness.

Notice this is a fast breath or a slow breath,

What sensations do you notice with this breath,

This breath.

Following the cycle of the breath with your attention,

Breathing in,

Pause,

Breathing out,

Pause and breathing in again.

Perhaps notice the subtle difference between each breath.

Tending to the breath as you breathe in,

The throat,

The chest and the shoulders,

The abdomen,

The pause and then the breathe out,

Abdomen,

The diaphragm moving up,

The chest moving in a little,

Throat.

Following the cycle all the way through,

Breathing in and breathing out,

Breathing in and breathing out.

Not trying to change or alter the breath,

Just notice how it is,

Allowing it to follow its natural cycle of breathing in and breathing out.

If at any time you notice that your mind has wandered,

Perhaps you have gotten involved with thoughts and plans,

Daydreams or whatever,

Just notice very gently that and bring your attention back to the anchor of the breath.

It is in the nature of minds to wander,

So not thinking of this as a mistake or a fault of any kind,

Just simply noticing that you are experiencing a mind wandering and then bringing the attention back to the breath.

Noticing the tendency to have thoughts and judgments about things,

About liking the way things are going right now or not liking it,

Find it uncomfortable.

That too can be an object of awareness,

Just noticing that you're having an opinion about things,

So that my liking mind,

My critical mind,

Is liking this or not liking this.

I would rather have things in a different way.

That too can be noticed,

Building the capacity to notice liking and disliking and not having anything to do about it.

As you notice that this is happening,

Just bring your awareness to the physical sensations of the breath,

Wherever that is most visit for you,

Attending to the entire cycle of the breath,

One cycle after the other,

Allowing the judgments of liking,

Disliking to fade into the background and attend to the breath and into the breath in and the breath out.

Sensations of the breath,

The qualities of the breath,

The feel of it,

Being curious about the breath,

Observing that no two breaths are exactly the same and as the mind wanders once or a hundred times or a thousand times,

Gently and firmly direct the attention back to sensations of breathing in and sensations of breathing out.

And wherever the mind goes in terms of thoughts of to liking or disliking,

Perceptions or sensations of hearing sound,

Of feelings of peace,

Feelings of sadness or frustration,

Anticipation,

Just noticing these and guide awareness to the sensations of movement of the breath,

Sensations of the breath as you breathe in,

The sensations of movement as you breathe out.

If your attention keeps getting called back to an area of physical tension or intensity,

Knowing that you have the choices of forming the intention to move and adjust to relieve that tension or to attend the sensation of discomfort or pain or tightness,

Noticing it for a moment and then returning your breath,

Attention to the breath.

Now as you continue to breathe,

Attend to your breathing,

Open and broaden the attention to the whole body.

As you sit here,

Feeling the breath in the whole body,

Feeling the head,

Shoulders and arms,

Back of the shoulders and upper back,

Front of the torso,

The abdomen and the lower back,

Bottom,

Pelvis,

Legs,

Knees,

Lower legs and feet and the floor.

As you sit here breathing in and out,

Being aware of the entire breath in the entire body,

Complete and whole in this moment,

Letting go of any control of the breath,

Allowing to lie in stillness in the natural cycle of breath,

Residing in awareness of how things are for you in this moment and opening up to things just as they are.

This attitude itself is a healing expression of your choice to care for self,

Nothing to do but follow the waves of the breath.

As we bring this practice towards an end,

Taking care of the self in the transition from this to your daily life,

Taking care of the transition and allowing your next moments to be infused with this sense of kindly attention and care of the self,

Seen if it's possible in these moments when your awareness is centered at present time,

To infuse the next activities of your day,

Nourishing and strengthening your ability to be with whatever comes your way,

Building the capacity for opening to the senses,

To the vividness and aliveness of this present moment,

Expanding your skill to be curious and available about whatever presents itself without judgment.

When you're ready,

Allowing the eyes to let some light in if you've had them closed,

Permitting yourself to shift or stretch in whatever way feels comfortable as this sitting meditation ends with the tone of the bell in just a minute or so.