Welcome to this meditation on freeing yourself from your mind.
In traditions such as yoga and Buddhism it is mentioned that there are certain mental states of being that keep us trapped and block our natural happiness and essence from shining forth.
And in yoga these defilements are known as the kleshas.
These kleshas are ignorance,
Identification with the ego,
Desire or attachment to pleasure,
Avoidance,
And clinging to life.
And in Buddhism these mental disturbances are known as the hindrances.
And these hindrances are sensual pleasures,
Aversion,
Sloth,
Restlessness,
And doubt.
And by removing these mental states through the practice of concentration meditation we can then experience deeper levels of happiness and bliss.
And in fact in Buddhism to experience the jhanas,
Which are meditation absorption states,
The requirement is for the hindrances to be removed in that time.
And in the Yoga Sutras in verse 11.
1 Patanjali states that these states of mind reduced by the kleshas are eliminated by meditation.
And in your practice these certain defilements may be experienced as a certain clinging or a pushing away quality or tension found in the mind.
So we'll work on relaxing into these tensions.
To get started please find a comfortable and upright posture and start to draw your attention inwards.
Begin to scan your body from head to toe.
Notice if there's any physical tension in your muscles and where possible relax into these muscles and let go and soften into these areas.
Once you've scanned down to your toes,
Return your attention back to the crown of the head.
Once again scan your attention downwards,
Down to your toes,
Softening and relaxing into any muscular tension you may observe.
Now bring your attention back up to the head area.
Notice any mental tension.
You may experience a certain tightening due to an emotion feeling or perhaps a feeling of distraction or perhaps a sinking tightness feeling experienced in states of dullness and boredom.
Simply just bring the spotlight of your attention to where you feel these sensations and soften and relax just as we did before.
You experience your mind starting to sink into drowsiness.
Simply just open your eyes,
They're closed,
And bring more attention to where you notice these sinking feelings.
By bringing more and more attention to these areas,
They start to melt away and more energy is generated.
If on the other hand you're experiencing restlessness,
See where you can soften and relax into these areas where you notice restlessness.
You may experience these feelings either in the forehead or chest for example.
Continue to scan the body.
Once again just relaxing and softening into any areas that create resistance from relaxing and softening into the present moment.
If you find that your attention is getting lost in your thoughts,
Simply just observe them as clouds in the sky that come and go and soften and relax into any tension or turbulence created by the mind.
If your mind wanders,
Simply bring your attention back and start to scan your body once again,
Softening and relaxing,
Enjoying the present moment with ease.
If any restless thoughts come up,
Simply just soften and let go of them.
As we approach the end of this practice,
Bring your hands to heart center and notice the current state of your attention.
Notice the state of your mind.
Examine how you feel in this present moment and thank yourself for taking the time to meditate today.
