I'm Bodhi Bhakcha and today we'll be arriving.
So I assume that you've already set up for meditation,
That you're sitting perhaps in an upright way that is comfortable,
That allows you to breathe freely,
Or maybe you're lying down,
Which is fine,
Although it can lead to sleepiness,
And if the eyes aren't closed,
Then just letting them gently close now,
And with our attention still in the eyes,
Let's allow the muscles supporting the eyes to be at rest,
Let's allow the focus within the eyes to be soft,
So you're almost letting the eyes go out of focus,
Really it's just a very light focus within the eyes,
And this helps us to change the way that we are aware,
So our internal focus of attention isn't narrow,
It's not like a flashlight,
It's more like a lamp or a candle illuminating many things,
And so we can be more open to the richness of the breathing,
A lot of us often just observe one small part of the breathing,
But right now with the eyes soft,
Just allowing ourselves to be open to the full range of experience arising in the body,
There are sensations deep inside the body,
Like the diaphragm pushing down and relaxing,
The diaphragm creating a wave of pressure down in the abdomen,
And that pressure releasing on the out-breath,
Air being drawn through the body's airways down into the lungs,
The bone and muscle,
The ribcage,
The spine,
The muscles in the back,
The muscles in the ribcage,
The muscles that run from the front of the belly round the sides of the body and into the spine,
You can even feel the breathing on the skin,
The skin on the belly,
Skin on the chest moving against our clothing as we breathe in and out,
And any sensation of the breathing that you happen to notice is connected to every other,
So you can notice how the breathing forms soft waves of movement and sensation that sweep through the whole body,
On the in-breath and the out-breath,
So we are arriving with soft eyes,
Arriving in the body,
Arriving in the breathing,
Arriving perhaps in fascination and appreciation of the richness of our experience,
Arriving into an endless series of moments of experience,
As the in-breath reaches a point of fullness and turns into an out-breath,
As each out-breath reaches a point of emptiness and turns back into an in-breath,
The breathing,
The never-ending cycle,
Our experience of the breathing,
A never-ending series of moments of sensation,
So just keep coming back to soft eyes if you need to,
We tend to be very habitual and so the eyes can tighten up again and when that happens we get distracted,
If you do get distracted,
Softening the eyes,
Letting your mind rest once with the richness of the breathing,
Arriving in the breathing in this way,
With the fullness and richness of the breathing,
Connecting with the breathing as soft waves of movement and sensation sweeping through the whole body,
Connecting with the breathing as an endless series of moments of sensation,
The more we can observe this,
The more it has a calming effect on the mind,
Just letting the mind rest with an awareness of the breathing and just know that the breathing is always there for you,
At any moment you can let the eyes be soft and let the sensations of the breathing flood your attention and you can just stay with this practice,
With soft eyes,
With the richness of the breathing for the next five minutes or so,
Until you hear the bell
