So as the bell rings it just tones the subtle body to prepare for the practice as we just walk through the doorway of mindfulness through the first foundation which is mindfulness of the body.
Using the sensation body first as an entire container of experience of the whole organism.
The flow of chi that reverberates through you and is enmeshed within the boundary of your skin.
The doorway in is often mindfulness of the body first.
And we'll direct our attention to the particular hub of awareness at the low belly.
We're just priming that fertile field so that it becomes a safe house that we can return to.
When the habits of distraction and the parts of ourselves that want to pull us out of the practice sphere can be hosted.
And so by inviting a sense of belonging there,
Those agitated or hesitant parts of us will have a place to feel like they belong.
So that they won't have as much sting or sway on the system.
Feel this space of clarity and calmness and courage at the Hara Center.
These are the qualities of the inner Buddha.
It's inherent within you that's clear and wide,
Uncluttered.
And from body-based awareness we can move to the inquiry around the emotional body.
And just see if there's a particular hurdle that's present in maintaining a vivid stability of ease.
If there's too much yin in the system and we're feeling apathetic,
Lethargic,
Or just a general tone of dullness to the energy body,
Then we'll pull ourselves back to the Hara Center.
And just simply notice the occurrence of the breath.
Now if there's too much yang in the system,
There's a frenetic energy to the mind stream and an excess of stimulation,
Anxiety,
Or rigidness,
You would apply the same antidote resting at the low belly and noticing,
Observing,
Rather than manipulating the breath of life that's born there.
So the function of Samatha becomes a way to stop the momentum of our habitual distractibility.
And then the self-soothing technique,
The calming,
Where we learn to hold the burdens and the buoyancies of the emotional body.
And then like a round dark stone that you just plop into a running river,
Sensing the weight of the stone dropping through the fields of the water essence and down to be deposited the riverbed.
And as that stone drops into the basin of the belly,
You just rest there.
We sink naturally,
Effortlessly.
And the calming allows us to rest.
And the rest is a precondition for healing.
This is Samatha.
A continuous return to the anchor.
