Hello and welcome.
In this meditation,
We are going to go back to the beginning,
The foundations,
And whether you are new to meditation or you've been practicing a while,
I find that it's always a beautiful practice to come back and remember the beginning,
The foundations.
So let's take our seat together and the posture here is gently upright.
You can be sitting on the floor with your legs tucked under you in lotus or half lotus or on a cushion or you can sit in a chair.
If you need to,
You can lay down,
But sometimes you fall asleep,
So the reason in meditation that we sit upright is to support the body to remain awake and alert.
Feel like a little string is pulling upright at the top of your head.
And then cup your hands gently in your lap with the tips of your thumbs touching lightly and lightly close your eyes.
We will begin by bringing attention gently to the breath as a way to gather ourselves and gather our attention from all the distractions of the mind and thoughts into one single place.
So you can bring that awareness either into the belly or at the tip of your nose.
And as you bring your attention to the breath,
The goal here is not to control the breath,
But in fact to just allow or watch the breath that's happening in you.
There is a natural rhythm or cadence to the breath.
And as we become aware of the breath,
Our body responds like a kind of calming or relaxation.
Just by the simple act of bringing our focus to the breath.
And we'll do this for several minutes.
And if your mind wanders,
It's perfectly natural.
Just gently bring your attention back to the breath with as little commentary or guilt.
It can be 5 times,
10 times,
20 times.
It doesn't matter.
Just gently come back to the breath.
Just bring your attention back to the breath like you're riding it like a wave.
Surfing a movement of the breath within you.
Now we're going to shift our attention from the breath to the context,
To the awareness of breath itself.
Expanding to feel and take in the entire field in which not only the breath,
But all sound,
All sensation in which everything is occurring.
And there's nothing to understand here.
Awareness isn't a concept.
So it can be hard to describe.
But simply just open yourself to the experience of being aware.
Trusting that you know this.
Awareness is what you are.
But it's not something you can do.
Requires a great deal of trust.
Trust that you know.
Without needing to confirm it with the thinking mind.
Remembering that in every moment you are aware.
You can't not be aware.
So here we're just returning the mind and sinking our attention into that which we already are.
And thoughts and sounds and sensations will continue to arise as they do.
None of that's a problem.
Your job is just simply to rest gently back into the awareness that you already are.
Awake.
Open.
Receptive.
Returning the mind to its natural state.
And I invite you to continue this practice for as long as feels good to you.
And we will gently close this meditation here.
And if you're ready,
Then gently open your eyes.
And even with your eyes open,
Notice that you can hold your attention in the space of awareness.
Continuing to allow everything to arise.
Alert.
Awake.
But not caught in the drama of what's unfolding.
This is true meditation.
And the goal,
If there is one,
Is to practice this often enough that you carry this awake,
Alert presence off the cushion and into your life.
Remembering that when we remain connected to this essential peace that we are,
We have greater capacity.
We have greater capacity to handle the weather of life.
We become the sky in which everything arises.
Clouds,
Rain,
Wind,
Sun.
We remain in contact with the peace of our true nature.
Thank you.
