Let's take a moment to settle in.
Just observe loosely how it feels to sit,
To close your eyes.
How's the transition between intending to meditate,
Sitting down to practice,
Closing the eyes?
It's all a continuum.
Quite naturally,
We'll bring attention to the body.
And throughout this practice,
Regardless of the instructions,
Keep feeling the body.
That means feeling the posture,
Feeling the edges of the body,
Just keeping a loose sense of how it feels to have a body.
Now,
As we keep feeling the body,
We'll bring the breath to attention.
Notice how the breath appears in the body.
How do you know that you're breathing?
What are the sensations that allow you to know that you're breathing?
Just be attentive to those while keeping a full sense of the body.
Now,
We might get the sense that we are breathing.
This is one way of looking at it.
Let's try an alternative way of looking at breathing.
Let's take it as if we were just observing nature.
Breathing happens.
You don't have to do anything.
Watch breathing in the body,
Just like if you were to watch a sunset in the sky.
It's just happening naturally.
It doesn't need you to adjust it or fine-tune it.
Breathing happens because of causes and conditions,
And you can let it happen very naturally.
Watch the breath naturally unfold.
Watch it as a phenomena happening in nature.
We are watching the body.
We are watching the body breathe.
The body is just one manifestation of nature.
All these things that are appearing and disappearing,
Different sensations,
Are all happening without your input.
Naturally unfolding,
Appearing,
Disappearing,
Cause and effect.
How freeing that is.
No need to steer sensations in a specific direction.
No need to push and pull against pleasant or unpleasant sensations.
Just let them be.
And as I ring the bell,
Know that you are free to keep practicing,
Watching the breath unfold very naturally,
As a manifestation of nature,
And not as something that the self does.
You are also free to end the sit at that point,
When the bell rings.
