Mindfulness of Breathing, with Guidance and Silence

Taking some time now to let your body settle.

Sitting comfortably upright,

With your back easily erect,

Your chin just slightly tucked so that the back of the neck is long.

And feel the crown of your head reaching toward the ceiling.

Also feel that your legs and your buttocks,

The lower part of your body,

Are all grounding downward,

Forming a stable posture.

And allow your attention to settle into the feeling of your whole body sitting here and breathing.

Just simply feeling the life in your body,

The breath moving through the body,

The sensations in the two arms,

The two legs,

The head,

And the torso all connected.

An integrated volume of feeling space.

Your body,

Your whole body,

Sitting here now.

No longer a human doing or a human going.

Right now,

Simply a human being,

Human breathing.

And of course,

The mind may still be active.

The mind may be pulling you away into thoughts about the past or the future.

And that's fine.

We're just going to keep gently coming back to the feeling of the body breathing.

Thoughts and images may still be present.

You are not trying to make your mind a blank.

Instead,

You are choosing to focus your attention systematically on one thing at a time.

Right now,

For now,

It's the feeling of your body breathing.

And you simply keep coming back to that feeling.

No matter how many times your mind wanders away,

You gently return to the feeling of the body breathing.

Now,

There are two traditional places that you might choose to focus your awareness on to feel your breathing most distinctly.

You might feel the breath at the nostrils,

Where the air moves in and out.

Just notice there,

As you place your attention just at the nostrils,

The feeling of the air as it flows in and flows out again.

Feeling perhaps that subtle sensation of coolness as you inhale and of warmth as you exhale.

And this is breath awareness at the nostrils.

Allow your face to relax,

The jaw to soften,

And just rest any attention there,

The flow of breath at your nostrils.

Not thinking about the breath,

Not analyzing it,

Just feeling,

Direct experience of the feeling of your breath,

Your object of meditation.

Now you could also choose to focus your attention on the feeling of the rising and falling of the abdomen as you breathe in and out.

So letting your attention come down towards the abdomen,

And noticing how it gently swells on the inhale and subsiding on the exhale.

Knowing that you are breathing in by feeling the abdomen expand on the inhale,

Knowing that you are breathing out by feeling the abdomen gently contracting on the exhale.

And if it helps to keep your mind focused on your breathing,

You could mentally repeat breathing in on the in-breath and breathing out on the out-breath to help keep your attention fixed there.

Gently resting the attention on the feeling of the breath as the abdomen rises and falls.

The breath is always your anchor to the present moment.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Just for now,

Not being concerned with the content of thought,

But simply letting your attention be absorbed by the feeling of the breathing.

Until you hear the bells again,

Choosing one place,

Either the nostrils or the abdomen,

And keeping your attention resting there,

Absorbed by the feeling of the in-breath and the out-breath and the transitions between the breaths.

Gently breathing in,

Mindfully breathing out.

And again,

Just for now,

Not being concerned with the content of thought,

But simply letting your attention be absorbed by the feeling of the breath.

Gently resting the attention on the in-breath and breathing out.

And again,

Just for now,

Not being concerned with the content of thought,

But simply letting your attention be absorbed by the in-breath and breathing.

And each time you notice that your mind has been pulled away,

And you've forgotten about the breath,

Acknowledging this,

And then gently and matter-of-factly,

Without beating up on yourself,

That only wastes energy and creates tension.

You simply,

Gently,

Matter-of-factly refocus your attention back on your breathing.

This concentration that we are developing is not a stern or harsh one.

It's more of a light touch,

Simply aware of the breathing process.

So don't bear down on it.

Keep the face relaxed,

Intentionally developing non-reactivity to the activities of your mind.

The mind pulls you away into thinking of this or that,

Whether important or mundane,

When you notice it's been carried away.

Gently return.

Gently return.

Gently return.

Gently return.

Mindfully breathing in,

Mindfully breathing out,

Developing concentration,

Calmness and clarity.

Gently return.

Gently return.

It's part of the practice to notice when your mind has left your object of meditation.

It's part of the meditation practice to gently,

Matter-of-factly return your attention back to your object of meditation.

For now,

It's the breath.

Gently return.

Gently return.

The breath is always in the present moment,

In the here and the now.

So each time you reconnect back with your breathing after noticing that your mind has been pulled away,

Each time you reconnect back to your breathing,

You're coming back to the fullness – the only moment we ever truly have – this moment,

This here and this now.

And in the here and now,

Developing concentration,

Calmness and clarity that will be with you for all the here and now,

For every moment.

The strength and presence of mind you're developing here will be with you,

Will stay with you and inform all your actions.

Meet.

Meditation is not doing nothing.

Meditation is a radical act of non-doing.

It is mental development.

In the finest and truest sense of the words,

Meditation is mental development.

Systematically developing your mind in the same way that you develop your body,

In the same way that you cultivate your health,

Meditation is for mental development and good mental health.

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And now to conclude our period of formal practice today.

I'd like to share with you a quote from one of my favorite philosophers,

Mr.

Alan Watts.

We see the external world in the act of its flowing through us.

But this us that it flows through is not some sort of pipe that's different from what's happening.

Again I refer to the image of a river and there is a whirlpool in it.

The water never stays there,

But the form of the whirlpool remains.

And each one of us is like that.