In this 24-minute meditation session,
We'll be focusing on a variety of methods for meditation on the breath.
This will help us improve our attention and focus,
While at the same time create a sense of peace and calm.
Make yourself as comfortable as you can,
Either sitting or lying down,
Eyes open,
Closed or hooded.
We begin by acknowledging our positive motivation in coming to this meditation session,
Whether that be to improve our own lives or the lives of those around us.
We acknowledge our positive intention.
As we begin this meditation session,
We settle into a comfortable position,
Allowing the tension to release from our body,
And we spend a short amount of time settling our body speech and mind into their natural states,
Relaxing our body in its natural state,
Letting the tension release from our muscles,
Feeling the sensation of our body against the ground,
The chair,
The bed,
Now allowing for our speech to fall into a natural silent state,
Not our verbal speech,
But our internal speech,
The voice in our mind.
We notice that voice,
And as if slowly turning down the volume,
We allow that voice to recede into the background and settle into silence.
We've set aside this time to focus on cultivating our attention,
Awareness,
Practicing our mindfulness,
So we don't need to be focused on the past,
The future,
Things we need to be doing in our lives,
We can come back to that.
Right now,
We can be free to set all of those thoughts and dialogue aside,
And the last step,
Settling the mind into its natural state,
Allowing all the mental proliferation to cease,
Calm,
And recede into that natural expanse that we call the space of the mind.
Not only the voice in our mind,
But memories,
Images,
Feelings,
Anything that's arising in the space of your awareness,
And again,
Like turning down the volume,
We let them recede into the background and dissolve back into the space of the mind from which they arose.
We now turn our attention to the main focus of this practice,
Which is mindfulness of breathing.
With three variations,
We start by remembering,
Remembrance being the core of these meditations,
Focusing your concentration,
Your awareness on the sensations of breath,
And remembering to do that over and over again is the essence of this practice.
So ever so gently,
Bring your attention to the sensations of breath in your entire body,
Checking in for any sensation you can notice related to breathing,
Which includes the rise and fall of the abdomen,
The sensation of breath moving in and out of the nostrils,
The rise and fall of your lungs,
Noticing that whole sensory experience in your entire body of breathing in and out.
There's no need to intervene in your breathing,
You can allow it to do what comes naturally without forcing your breath or regulating your breath in any way,
Just noticing those sensations as they arise naturally.
In this method of focus concentration,
We're not grasping tightly to our focus or our concentration,
Rather we are concentrating with three key elements,
Relaxation,
Stability,
And clarity.
We require all three,
Allowing ourselves to relax while focusing and concentrating,
But not such that we lose clarity,
That clearness,
And maintaining some level of stability in that we are not constantly,
Continuously being knocked off the focus of our attention.
More than likely,
Your attention has already strayed,
Perhaps many times,
From sensations of breath in your body,
And this is completely normal.
This is what the mind does.
Each time we notice we've moved away from the focus of our attention,
We note that and we return to our practice of focusing on the breath.
This is the essence of meditation,
The remembrance,
The returning back deliberately to the focus of our attention,
Without being judgmental,
Without being critical,
With kindness and compassion for ourselves.
That no matter what stage we're at,
We simply notice when our attention has been wandering and we return it to the focus of our attention.
As our mind and body system becomes more calm and relaxed,
We can now move to a second form of mindfulness of the breath,
A more subtle form.
Instead of focusing on the entire body,
We now focus just on the sensations of breath in our abdomen,
The rise and fall of the belly.
Focusing just on those sensations to the exclusion of all else,
Paying attention to the rhythm of the breath in the rise and fall of the stomach,
Like a calming wave,
Moving in and out,
Up and down.
If you've noticed again that you've become distracted,
That is something to celebrate.
You have noticed that you've lost your attention.
That act of noticing is progress,
That's to be celebrated.
Simply bring your awareness back to the rise and fall of the abdomen.
We now move to a third style of mindfulness of breathing.
This time we move our attention to the sensations of breath at the nostrils.
Notice the feeling of the air as it moves in and out of the nostrils.
Focusing your awareness just on that subtle point,
Not following the breath into the lungs or out into space,
But like a guardian or a sentinel at the tip of the nostrils.
You're watching each breath and the sensations associated with them as they move in and out of the nostrils.
Each time you find yourself distracted,
Noting that and bringing your awareness back to the sensations of breath at the nostrils.
If you find you're losing clarity,
Perhaps getting a little sleepy,
Refresh your interest.
Refresh your mind,
A resolve to return to your practice of focusing your attention with stability,
Relaxation and clarity.
We are training our subconscious mind.
Each time the subconscious reminds us that we have lost the focus of our attention,
We improve our ability to stay focused.
The greater our ability to focus our attention,
The more peace,
Calm and relaxation we cultivate as a result.
As we come to the end of this session,
We let our relaxation flow away from the nostril and let our attention expand back out,
Back to our abdomen,
Then to our entire body and gradually begin to bring our awareness back to the space around us.
As we end the session,
We acknowledge any positive merit we may have created and we dedicate that to the benefit of ourselves and all beings.
In this session,
We have looked at three variations of mindfulness of breathing that you can now use at your leisure.
Choosing the one that feels right for you and practicing cultivating your attention with stability,
Relaxation and clarity.
