Welcome friends.
This is for you if you are new to meditation practice.
So a little bit of frame first Meditation is the English word for what in the Buddhist tradition is in Pali or Sanskrit the word Bhavana,
Which could possibly be more usefully translated as cultivation,
The way a gardener cultivates the garden and And in meditation we can cultivate many beautiful qualities of being that will serve in different ways What all meditations have in common wherever at some points they might diverge or cultivate different things they will have in common the cultivation of the abiding here and now the capacity of presence the capacity to be in our location in Our body with our body through our body where our mind our heart our body our imagination our ways of knowing are harmonized in this location and so that's what I'll be offering today some simple ways of supporting that capacity of abiding and abiding isn't an on-off switch abiding can be deepened as we go along and Probably all of you know and I certainly do that as a modern person I think quite quite clearly many of us are more trained to value the intellect and Often have withdrawn attention from the body and the heart Many interesting and complex reasons for that which I won't go we won't need to discuss.
I'm sure you're aware of some of them so there's a restoring of attention for many of us a gathering of attention in and with the body a collecting of attention and Nourishing this space of the whole body and heart with attention It is not apart from our mind our mind comes with us our mind is part of so One principle attention you could say meditation is the training of attention Where our attention goes and what it gets busy with is powerful I know we know with our mind if our attention gets caught in a thought that is really painful and kind of burrows down that rabbit hole We end up in a really bad place a really difficult place Attention is key and the good news of meditation is that attention can be trained It's an incredible gift and another thing to remember the orientation in this particular practice is for abiding for cultivating abiding doesn't mean we're gonna perfectly be able to abide by the end and As with any training we will run into obstacles at times our resistance our mind going all over the place.
That's fine we can we stay also with an intention to stay for the 20 minutes for the Whatever agreement we have made with our staff and this starts to steady and cultivate this gift of attention So I will offer five short supporting exercises that go from being a little bit more active with our attention to along a spectrum to being more receptive with our attention with attention and I would encourage you to practice this meditation maybe ten times and And see which ones work for you and maybe after ten times select two and spend longer with them You'll get a sense for what's supportive for you,
Hopefully so setting up our posture is important.
I'll start with that and I'll guide us in so take a seat Please take a seat and if you're on a chair,
Let your feet rest On the ground and really giving your weight to the ground.
So your legs aren't crossed You're on the chair if you're on a meditation cushion,
Then I'm imagining you've done it before so I'll leave that to you but Finding a posture that's stable on the meditation cushion really letting your backside your buttocks really land in your seat Right now like you're really wholeheartedly giving your body to this location That's your intention.
Even if your mind goes in all kinds of directions and from that base of your seat letting your spine rise up upright Letting yourself sit a bit more upright Even if you're sleepy or resistant you can really brighten the attention and let the front of the body be soft your belly The jaw be soft.
You might want to relax it a little bit Intentionally opening and closing and let the palms of your hands be soft.
Nothing you have to do with your fingers Let them be really soft and you might want one palm in the other resting on the lap or the palms face down on the thighs First exercise is counting within the breath.
So we're gonna follow your body's breath and offer the counting one as it comes in as the breath is born two as the in-breath is rising three at that peak four as the out-breath begins and it's middle towards its end and at the very end of the out-breath as the breath fades into the silence and then pausing Waiting for number one the new breath to be born.
So let's try that with the principle that the breath leads and the numbers follow So the mind isn't leading with the numbers yanking the breath breath leads and the number is Some simple tool for us to let our attention follow Okay,
So whatever kind of breath You are aware of.
You don't need to hurry the breath along with the numbers.
They're a humble servant to you This organic expression called your body breathing.
So waiting for the new breath as it comes in one two three as it reaches its Some breaths will be longer some shorter Stay calm,
See if you can stay Right to the end of the breath.
You're a kind of intimate witness You might notice that pause at the end of the out-breath before the new breath comes in and when your mind wonders That's really okay.
Minds do when you recognize that just soften the hands again Soften the belly and wait for the new breath One the breath is rough or smooth doesn't matter shallow or deep doesn't matter and you start Remembering what's on your to-do list or wondering how this is gonna serve our world.
It's remembering the agreement with yourself Just to practice for this short period.
You can assess it afterwards or at the end of the end of the training softening the hands breathing out and waiting for the new breath the mind and the body and the breath Come into a harmonization.
There is a calming that starts to happen and a steadying And you might start to notice the calming steadying doesn't have to be dramatic something that Allows you to be here a little more too.
Sometimes the numbers will go slower and sometimes quicker studying the mind collecting attention second exercise is breathing up from the ground so imagine Using your imagination now forgetting your anatomy lessons and the anatomy of respiratory system Imagine with me that you are an outcropping of the earth and that your breath enters From below and on the in breath it enters up through Your seat and enters just as high as it does in the body and on the out breath There's a softening of the body and the breath is given back to the ground Through the backside maybe through the thighs through the seat through however many floors you are inhabiting in your apartment and imagine with me now playing with this idea that the breath is Is originating from below and as you breathe in there's a sense of Filling up just a little bit sense of livening up Reaches its peak and the body softens and the breath imagining the breath Descending on the out breath and being given back to the ground Breathing up from the ground below as if the breath could very gently Lovingly enter from below breathing in and it might only come up as far as your hips or maybe your chest doesn't matter On the out breath body softens becomes more Loose the breath is given back to the ground.
So your training here is to stay as an intimate witness You know from the ground and letting the breath the breath the exhale naturally offer itself back to the ground
