Hello my friend.
Welcome to your meditation.
My name is Stephen Dalton.
And it's my great privilege to meditate with you today.
You find me today.
In a beautiful woodland.
Far away.
From all that you know.
The trees are all around me.
Tall and green.
The light coming down soft through the leaves.
And you can probably hear the gentle sound of the wood.
Going about its day.
And I'd like to share this place with you for the next while.
Wherever you are.
You are welcome here too.
You don't need a wood.
You only need to be where you are.
And to be willing to sit.
A little while.
And pay a gentle kind of attention.
The full length of this meditation is one hour.
But there will be two opportunities for you to leave.
One after 20 minutes.
And one after 40 minutes.
So it's up to you how long you sit with me.
Let's begin by settling.
Find a position that's comfortable.
And upright.
But if you want to lie down,
I won't stop you.
But sitting is good for this one because we're here.
Staying awake and aware.
Not drifting off to sleep.
But however you are is fine.
Let the body be at ease.
And let your eyes close if that feels right Now take a moment,
Rest.
Just to arrive.
You've been somewhere.
Doing something.
Before you sat down here?
Let that settle behind you now.
There's nothing to do for this time.
But be here.
Now begin to notice the sounds around you.
Or the ones around me.
Here in the wood.
I can hear the leaves.
And the birds.
You'll have your own sounds wherever you are.
Perhaps the hum of a room.
Traffic far off.
Voices somewhere in the house.
Don't label them.
Just notice them.
I'll leave you a moment.
Don't try to shut any of the sounds out.
Sometimes people think that's what you're supposed to have in meditation.
Complete silence.
But that's not really the case.
The sounds are part of it.
Just like your thoughts.
So let them come.
The main thing is.
.
.
To notice them.
I leave you another moment now.
A sound comes.
You hear it.
It passes.
Another comes.
You don't have to do anything with any of it.
You are simply here.
Listening.
The way the word listens to itself.
And now,
Gently,
Let your attention come to the breath.
Don't change it.
This is important.
We're not breathing in any special way.
We're just noticing the breath that's already happening.
The breath the body is taking.
All on its own.
Find where you feel it most clearly.
Perhaps the cool air at the nostrils as you breathe in.
And the warmer air as you breathe out.
Perhaps the gentle.
Rise and fall of the chest or the belly.
Breathing in.
And knowing you're breathing in.
Breathing out.
And knowing you're breathing out.
That's the whole of it.
That's the practice.
To be here for this breath.
And then the next one I leave you with your breath for a while now.
All you have to do is notice it.
If so,
It's come.
Don't fight them.
Season for what they are.
Try not to follow them.
And just come back to the breath.
Maybe your mind has wondered.
That's perfectly okay.
It's completely normal.
That's not you failing at this.
That's simply what minds do.
You'll be with the present.
And then.
.
.
Without noticing.
You'll be somewhere else.
A sword.
A memory.
Plan a worry.
And then at some point you'll realise you've drifted.
And that moment of realizing.
That's the moment that matters.
That's the practice working.
Not the staying.
But the noticing you've gone.
And the gentle coming back.
Because you see.
In real life.
When you're going about your business.
This is why meditation is so helpful.
Because the more you notice those thoughts,
The more you won't be led by them.
The more they won't affect your emotions.
So when you notice you've wondered There's no need to be hard on yourself.
No frustration Just a quiet kind.
Ah,
There I went.
And you come back to the breath.
As many times as it takes.
I leave you again for a while.
Noticing the breath.
Noticing the sounds as well if you want to and I'll be back in a few minutes.
Do you hear the sounds around you?
The randomness of them.
As they come and go like a source.
You are just a conscious being witnessing these things.
You have no control over them.
The only thing that is in your power.
Is how you react to them.
How you react to a sound.
To a sword.
To a breath.
We're now nearly at 20 minutes of quiet attention.
And that's a real thing.
Kindness to yourself.
So if you want to leave the meditation now,
That's 20 minutes.
Well spent.
So if you are going to leave Allow your eyes to open.
Take in the place you're in.
And carry a little of this calm with you.
Into the rest of your day.
And I'll see you soon.
And if you're staying with me.
We'll go on.
Let's go a little deeper now.
We've been treating thoughts as something that pulls us away from the breath.
Now let's turn and look at them directly.
Because they don't have to be the enemy of a quiet mind.
They can be something we simply ignore.
Watch.
So far so good.
Let go of the breath as your anchor.
And instead.
Let your attention rest.
In the space where thoughts arise.
And I'll leave you for a few minutes.
A sword has probably appeared by now.
Or many.
They always do.
And when they do.
See if you can notice it.
As a soul.
Not getting caught up inside it.
At seeing it.
The way you'd see a bird cross the gap between two trees.
There it goes.
And then it's gone.
Keep going now.
You are not your thoughts.
You've probably heard that one before.
But it's a line that Really changed my life,
I have to say.
To realise that I am not my thoughts.
That they are simply random occurrences in my brain.
That I can choose to believe or I can choose to let go of.
Where I can choose to follow.
I can choose to dismiss It's a liberating thing when you grasp it.
And meditation.
Is really the way to do that.
You are not your thoughts.
This is one of the oldest and quietest discoveries of this practice.
The swords come and go.
All day long.
But the awareness that watches them.
That stays.
You.
Or the one watching.
You.
Are the sky.
And the thoughts are only the weather.
Moving across it.
So let them come.
And I'll leave you another few minutes.
A thought arrives.
You notice it?
You don't follow it.
You don't argue,
Is it?
You just let it be there.
And let it pass.
Like a cloud.
Like a sound.
Like a leaf coming down.
And if you find you have followed one.
If you look up and you're deep in some story some plan.
That's fine.
That's the practice again.
You notice and you come back to watching.
Now find the anchor of the breaths again.
Just noticing the breath if you haven't already returned to that anchor.
Very simple.
Don't do anything different with it.
Just notice your breath.
Enjoy the ease of Noticing your breath.
That's all you have to do right now.
What a lovely task!
And I'll leave you for another few minutes.
Air in the wood.
The trees don't hold on to anything.
The wind comes through the leaves and moves them.
And then it passes.
And the leaves go still again.
They don't carry the wind with them.
They let it move through.
And let it go.
See if you can let your thoughts move through like that.
Coming.
Keep going.
Leaving you still.
We're nearly at the end of another 20 minutes.
If you'd like to finish here.
This is a good place to stop.
And let these be the closing words.
You've spent 40 minutes.
In quiet awareness.
Watching the breath.
Watching the mind.
Letting things come and go.
That's a deep rest.
Of a kind we rarely give ourselves.
So if you're leaving me now.
.
.
When you're ready.
Let your eyes open gently.
Feel the ground beneath you.
Notice the place you are in.
And carry this.
Stillness with you.
And if you're going for the full hour of meditation.
We have one last movement together.
So if you've stayed.
.
.
Then let's finish in the simplest way of all.
No more instructions.
Almost.
We've practised the breath.
We've practiced watching thoughts.
Now we just sit.
Open to everything.
Holding nothing.
And I leave you for a little bit of a longer time now.
Thank you.
Let your awareness be wide.
As wide as the wood around me.
As wide as the sky above the trees.
Whatever arises.
A sound.
A sword a feeling in the body.
The breath itself.
Let it arise.
And let it pass.
Without choosing.
Without pushing anything away.
Without holding anything back.
This is the most natural state there is.
Not concentrating hard on one thing.
But resting in open awareness.
The way you rest when you sit by water.
Or look at a fire.
Or gaze out at a view.
The mind isn't grasping.
It's just here.
Aware.
At ease.
Listen to the sounds.
Mine.
Here in the wood.
The leaves,
The birds.
The wind in the high branches.
Yours.
Wherever you are.
All of it arriving in the same quiet awareness.
That you are.
I'll leave you for the final few minutes.
Before we end together.
Now.
Gently.
Let's begin to come back.
There's no hurry.
Lets the breath deepen a little if it wants to.
Begin to notice the body again.
The weight of it.
The place where you're sitting.
The ground holding you up.
Let the sounds around you come back into the foreground your room.
Your home.
Your own corner of the world.
And when you're ready.
Only when you're ready.
Let your eyes open.
And let the light back in.
Take a moment before you move Notice how you feel whatever you've found here.
A little stillness.
A little space.
A little rest.
It's yours.
You made it.
By sitting and paying attention.
And you can come back to it.
Anytime you like.
It's always here.
It's always been here.
Thank you for sitting with me.
Here in the wood.
Take care of yourself out there.
And let me know in the comments.
How you enjoyed this session.
I love to hear from you.
And also.
If you'd like to.
Even just right.
One kind word in the comments.
That someone else can read.
And feel.
A little bit of goodness.
Coming from you to them.
Thank you.
And see you soon.
