Welcome to this contemplative meditation on kama and rebirth.
Assuming a comfortable position with an upright spine,
Shoulders relaxed,
Arms at your sides and hands together in your lap or comfortably resting on your legs,
Your head straight with eyes gazing forward and down to a spot on the floor about three feet in front of you.
Take a slow deep breath in through your nose,
Close your eyes and release.
Take a few more slow deep breaths to calm and relax your body.
Notice the physical sense of relaxation as you release the tension in your forehead and around your eyes,
Your mouth and jaw.
Feel that same sense of relaxation as you release the tension in your shoulders,
Your arms and your legs and focusing on your spine,
Rock ever so slightly from front to back and side to side to find your center and then using only the muscles needed to hold your spine centered and straight release any tension elsewhere in the back.
Notice the weight of your body on the floor or chair,
Feel the pressure of gravity where your bottom,
Legs and feet make contact with the floor or seat you are in.
Notice the weight from your hands on your legs and where they rest.
Notice all points of pressure and contact throughout your whole body.
Feel yourself grounded like an immovable object,
Perfectly still,
Perfectly at rest.
Now move your awareness to your breath as you just breathe normally,
Noticing the flow of air through your nose.
Notice the sensation of your diaphragm pulling the air into your lungs,
Then releasing and relaxing as you exhale.
Notice the expansion of your chest as you inhale and the contraction as you exhale.
Now notice the more subtle movements in your shoulders and back as you breathe,
And even try to detect any movement or sensations in your arms and legs related to the breath if you can.
Now bring your attention back to the sensations of breath at your nose,
Be aware of the sensations moment by moment as you breathe normally,
Effortlessly in and out.
Try to detect the brief pause between the end of the out breath and the beginning of the in breath,
And also the pause between the end of the in breath and the beginning of the out breath.
Focus closely and precisely on the minute,
Ever changing sensations in the nose as the breath flows.
As you are closely focused on the sensations of the breath,
You may begin to have difficulty keeping up with each moment of sensation as it arises and passes away.
The instant you become aware of a momentary sensation,
It has passed onto the next moment and then the next,
And on and on.
Keep trying to follow and be aware of each sensation of the breath as it arises and passes away.
At this level of direct attention,
We may begin to see the frame by frame motion picture like nature of our experience.
It may be more like snapshots of individual moments quickly passing by and giving the effect of perfect continuity like a movie film.
Now allow yourself to relax your direct attention on the breath and let it move into your peripheral awareness,
Keeping your body grounded in your posture and your mind grounded in your peripheral awareness of the breath like an anchor.
Begin to focus your direct attention on your thought stream.
Try to notice the momentary nature of thought which is changing moment by moment.
A thought may arise,
Linger and pass away,
Eventually giving birth to a new thought that lingers,
Passes away and gives birth to yet another thought.
Eventually we are often pulled away and lost in these thought streams.
This is comma in action.
A thought as action or cause occurs,
Resulting in a reaction or effect,
The continuation of thought.
Your current thoughts are a direct result of the causes and conditions of your previous thoughts,
Both conscious and subconscious,
And your future thoughts will be a direct result of your current thoughts,
And so on.
In daily living,
The content,
Feeling and intent of progressive momentary thoughts result in more thought,
Content,
Feelings,
Intentions and eventually actions.
Mental and verbal actions in the outer world create actions and reactions like vibrations.
The chain of cause and effect resulting from causes and conditions will affect both our inner and outer environments.
Mindfulness allows us to stop the chains of bad comma and nurture the chains of good comma at any given moment.
Good intentions give rise to good thoughts.
Good thoughts give rise to good feelings,
And good feelings give rise to good actions.
Good actions nurture good comic causes and conditions for you,
Your loved ones,
And the entire planet.
Through these practices,
We can create Nibbāna for ourselves and others.
Just on this,
Each and every moment should be considered the birth,
Death and rebirth of its own specific causes and conditions,
Actions and reactions.
In each moment,
The self of that moment is born,
Dies and is reborn into the next moment.
Through the practice of mindfulness,
You have the power to shape your next moment,
Your next rebirth,
Your very next self.
Now,
Bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath,
And allow thoughts,
Feelings,
Sounds and bodily sensations to fall back into peripheral awareness.
Practice maintaining your attention on the breath,
Allowing everything in your peripheral awareness to pass by untouched.
If you notice that something does distract you and take your attention away from the breath,
Use it as an aha moment and victoriously return your awareness to your breath.
Each time you become aware of your distractions,
You will gain the ability to return to your meditation more deeply and without as much effort.
With more practice,
The distractions will begin to occur less and less frequently.
Continue to focus on your breath,
Putting all of these skills into practice,
And then you may open your eyes at the sound of the bell.
