In this session,
We'll review the basic practices of mindfulness meditation.
Begin by finding a comfortable,
Alert posture,
Sitting or lying in a relaxed way.
Just being here,
Nothing to attain or do.
Nowhere to get to.
Just resting in a natural presence,
Here,
Now.
Bring your attention to your body and simply by moving your awareness through your body,
See if you can relax any obvious or subtle areas of holding or tension.
Letting your eyes close and relaxing the muscles around your eyes.
Relaxing your jaw,
Shoulders and upper back,
Belly.
Feel how it is to be here.
Aware of your direct experience.
The warmth or the coolness,
Pressure,
Dryness,
Pulsing,
Sounds,
Whatever experiences are present.
Aware of the direct experience rather than thoughts about your experience or being lost in daydreams or stories.
Just this breath,
This feeling,
This sound,
Here,
Now.
Let your attention come to your breathing,
The sensations of the body breathing itself.
Cool air entering your nostrils,
Going down into your lungs,
Your chest and belly,
Rising and falling with the in-breath and the out-breath.
And the sensations of the out-breath at the nostrils or the mouth.
Meeting your breath just as it is,
No need to control or change it.
As you breathe in,
Know that you're breathing in.
As you breathe out,
Know that you're breathing out.
If it's helpful,
You can focus your attention at the place in your body that you're most aware of your breathing.
For some,
It's the nostrils or upper lip.
For others,
It's the belly or chest rising and falling.
And for some,
It's more like riding the waves of the in-breath and the out-breath.
Come back to the present when your mind drifts into thought.
When you find you're planning the future or remembering the past or having conversations with yourself or with somebody else in your mind,
Daydreaming,
See if you can come back without judgment,
Without criticism.
It's not a problem when the mind wanders or when your attention moves from the object of your awareness into thought.
It's a natural tendency of the mind.
So we just keep coming home,
Coming back again and again.
And in this way,
We train our minds.
If you notice that you're being pulled into recurrent thinking,
Perhaps thoughts about a situation in your life that you're anxious or worried about or something that happened that you keep revisiting,
It may be more helpful,
Rather than coming back to the breath,
To bring awareness to any bodily sensations or emotions that you're aware of and open as fully as you can to them.
You're then able to open to the underlying emotion,
Fear or worry or guilt,
And directly experience it and let it come and go.
If the thoughts are not so recurrent or don't have a strong pull to them and are more like distractions,
Daydreams,
Then the most helpful thing may be to come back to the breath.
In breath,
Out breath.
Bring an attitude of friendliness and kindness to your experience,
Particularly toward the difficulties that arise.
In the words of the poet Rumi,
Welcome the guests,
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows.
Our attitude is a really important part of the practice of meditation.
We're cultivating qualities of openness and acceptance,
Allowing what's here to be just as it is.
We recognize what's present and allow it to be as it is and let it come and go.
We're also cultivating qualities of openness and acceptance,
Allowing what's here to be just as it is and let it come and go.
When difficulties arise,
Bodily pain or discomfort,
Or difficult emotions or mind states,
See if you can move towards the difficulties with kindness.
See if you can recognize what's present and allow it to be just as it is.
Allow it to come and stay for a while and go without resistance,
Without holding on,
Without judgment.
Here we relax.
Be aware of positive and wholesome states of heart and mind,
Peace or joy,
Calm,
Love,
When they're present and you can also cultivate them,
For example by inviting one of these qualities to arise.
Inviting calm to arise or sending wishes of kindness and peace to yourself.
Just use a word or a phrase,
Calm or joy.
May I be happy,
May I be peaceful.
Or you might take a moment to reflect on something you're grateful for or that brings feelings of joy.
Allow yourself to feel and experience these positive and wholesome states that are present in meditation.
And in your daily life,
Take moments to come home,
To come back to your experience,
To come back to awareness of the body,
Awareness of breathing,
Awareness of whatever is present in your experience,
Coming out of thoughts of the future and the past,
Coming home to yourself.
