The Zoom Sessions No 8: Saturday Meditation Drop In 16th May 2020

Hello my name is Matt Albury.

The following meditation session is a recording of a Zoom meditation session that took place on the 16th of May 2020.

This was due to the coronavirus pandemic.

We were unable to meet in person so we continued to meet on Saturdays using Zoom.

Tonight's practice consists of a body scan and a five-stage observation meditation based on the koshes and then the practice will end with an ending of the day meditation using the examine model.

So to begin our practice just take your awareness to the bottom of the feet.

Just really enjoy that physical sensation of the feet on the floor.

Notice in places where you have contact with the floor and where you don't.

And then when you're ready take your awareness then up to the chair supporting your body so notice in the contact.

Maybe with the thighs and the backside and the lower back.

Just feeling that physical sensation.

And then when you're ready take your awareness then out to the sounds that you can hear around us.

So firstly the sounds that you can hear outside of the room you're in.

And then take your awareness to the sounds you can hear inside of the room.

And then we'll start our practice with the two breaths.

So we take a breath in through the nose,

Nice deep breath and then sigh out through the mouth.

So take a lovely breath in.

And we do that again,

Lovely deep breath in.

And just allow yourself just to settle for a moment.

And before we start the body scan just allow yourself to set an intention for your practice.

So what is it you need from this practice we're going to do now?

Maybe it's a time of just resting or maybe it's a time of just allowing yourself just to be accepting things as they are.

Just take a moment to think what you want this practice to be for you.

And then when you're ready we'll start to do our body scan just to pick up what's going on around us.

So take your awareness to the bottom of the feet,

The toes,

The tops of the feet and the ankles,

The shins,

The calf muscle,

The knees,

Which is in the front of the knees and the back of the knees.

Flowing the awareness up onto the thighs,

The hips and the back side.

And just take a moment just to notice the physical sensations in your limbs like this time.

And then flow your awareness up through from the hips up onto the belly and the lower back,

The upper back and the chest.

And just take a moment just to notice the physical sensations there.

Then take your awareness then up onto the shoulders,

The shoulder joints.

Taking your awareness then down through the upper arms,

The elbows,

The forearms,

The wrists,

The backs of the hands and the palms of the hands.

Just notice that little hollow that forms there,

That little dish that forms in your palm.

And then take your awareness out onto your thumbs.

First fingers,

Second fingers,

Third fingers and fourth.

And then when you're ready flow your awareness then up through the arms.

Notice and again the physical sensations present as you do that.

And then take your awareness to your throat,

The back of the neck.

Your awareness around onto your jaw,

Your mouth,

Your lips,

Your teeth,

Your gums,

The insides of the cheeks and the roof of the mouth,

The tongue and the space underneath your tongue.

And just notice the taste and physical sensations present there.

And then flow your awareness up to your nostrils and your nose,

Your ears.

Taking your awareness around onto the eyelids and the eyelashes,

The eyes themselves.

Taking your awareness up onto the forehead,

The back of the head and then the crown.

And then as if someone's just open to tap on your big toe,

Just allow yourself just to scan all the way through your body as if you've been emptied out.

And just as you're being emptied out just let go of anything you want to let go of.

If there's anything being troubling you just allow it just to drain out.

Just picture the earth absorbing it,

Taking it away as you flow all the way through your body.

And then when you reach the bottom of the feet just allow yourself to be filled afresh.

So picture yourself being filled afresh with light or a new liquid or an oil press but just being filled afresh all the way up through the body scanning as you go until you reach the crown of the head.

And when you reach the crown of your head just take a moment to notice what it feels like to be in your presence,

In the space that you're in,

In the body that you're in.

It's really bringing that awareness to your existence there.

And then when you hear the bell it'll start to guide us through the different koshas.

And the first kosha we will look at is the Anna Meher kosha,

The physical body.

So when you hear the bell bring your awareness to the physical presence of your body and what it feels like at this time.

Just observe what's going on with a sense of acceptance,

Not judging ourselves or judging what's going on,

We just accept the physical body itself and observe our body.

So one of the things you can do with this is just notice places of tension perhaps in your body.

Just noticing anything that's occurring in your body at the moment.

But the key here is we just observe the body.

So that sense of acceptance.

Yes.

You you you just continue now just allowing yourself just to watch physical body just noticing what's present at the moment and then when you hear the next bell what we're doing then is we're just going to bring our awareness there now onto the breath so just continue with what you're doing now just allow yourself just to settle watching the body just noticing the physical sensations and then when you hear the next bell we'll move on to the observation of the breath this is the prana maya kosha so it's the energy body the breath so with this stage of the observation drop your awareness then away from the body to the breath coming in so in the apana sheds they talk about the breath being the life the life energy that comes into the body and so we watch this breath rolling in into the body and noticing all the lovely physical sensations of the breath move in the body and when I do this practice I picture the breath coming up into the tops of the lungs up in the shoulders and to the back of the body the back ribs moving the chest moving the belly moving so you just really watch that breath coming in expanding your whole body fill in the lungs and then just watching the breath and rolling back up so we bring our observation to there until we hear the next bell you you you you we're just watching that lovely movement in a way we get ourselves lost in that rhythmic movement of the breath rolling in and rolling out just enjoying that subtle movement of the breath just as even that quality of that lovely breath coming in and going out you you you you you and now we start to bring our observation to the Manomaya Kosha so this is the mind so we're just observing the mind doing its thing so the key here is just to just watch the thoughts that come and go just as if like they were bits of debris floating on a stream just going by or clouds in the air or cars on the road but the key is here just to watch the mind doing its thing and we don't worry about what they are don't think them as good or bad we just notice them as thoughts and we just watch the mind is flowing through and if you get caught on a thought again don't worry about it just notice that you've been caught by the energy of that thought and then just come back to watching the mind doing its thing you you you it's quite interesting as we watch this stage this observation of the mind how we just realized how transient the thoughts are there's calm and calm and good sometimes same thought coming round again and again as you realize that these things aren't solid they're not consistent they're not constant just constantly flowing rather than being fixed let's continue just keep watching the thoughts watching the mind until you hear the next bell and then we'll move on to the banana mya kosher the emotions just now just bring your awareness to your emotions some of these emotions are instinctive instinctive knowledge that's within us it could be things that we're just feeling at the moment because it's the current climate that we're in but again like all of the coaches when we do the vinana kosher just bring a sense of acceptance to whatever emotions are there and I'm good and they're not bad just the emotions what we're feeling so again bring yourself to that place of acceptance with them a slight variation a slight karma you can bring to this practice is that you welcome them so as you notice the emotions that come up you might say to yourself so if you're feeling fearful you might just say welcome fear just doing the opposite of that instinct of pushing away the emotions were actually just watching them accepting them you just allow yourself just to settle in that place now until you hear the next pep.

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And then we now just bring our awareness now to the final Kṣa.

The Anada Mayakosha.

So the Anada Mayakosha is the sense of bliss or it can be the sense of stillness that you sense within your body.

And the teaching of this is that basically this is constantly always in you.

This place of bliss that doesn't get rattled by life is deep within us,

Deep in our core.

We just allow ourselves just to settle into there.

So we've dropped through all the layers now,

We've dropped through the physical layer,

The energy,

The mind,

The emotions.

We just drop into that stillness.

Just allow yourself just to get lost there knowing that I'm keeping an eye on the time.

And again when I do this practice I notice that if I just allow it to come,

Just allow myself to settle,

Not trying to do anything.

That sense of stillness comes,

That sense of bliss comes.

Just allow yourself just to settle there.

You you you you you and then when you're ready then just come away from observing that place of bliss.

Bring your awareness then back to the breath,

Moving the body.

And as you do this as well bring your awareness to the feet,

Firm on the floor.

So we're coming away from that deepest layer,

Back to the feeling of that floor beneath you and the sensation of the breath rolling in your body.

And then I will lead us through the examine.

I'll begin by lighting a candle.

You you you Come home to yourself.

Come home.

Lovingly welcome into your home the person that you are.

Come home.

Let your hands find rest and allow your hands to hold the weave from your day.

Come home.

As we remember the day as it was,

Remember a moment that brought life or light into your day.

Gently revisited again in your mind.

Focus on particular about what it was of that experience that brought life.

Be still.

Be grateful.

And again as we remember the day as it was,

Remember a moment that might have been a darker moment,

Maybe a frustrating moment,

A disappointment.

And gently revisit this too and if possible without judgment.

Just allow it to gently live again in our mind.

Be still.

Be accepting.

Now gently take the moment of light and life and the darker moment and just allow them to be absorbed by the divine love within you.

Just letting them sink deep into perhaps that bliss that you felt.

Just allowing that divine love,

That bliss,

To take those moments from you as we release them for the day.

Be still.

Be still.

And in the closing moments of our practice now,

Think of tomorrow.

Maybe the things that you hope to achieve or the things you need to do.

Or even maybe taking this time to set some intentions for your day.

Just thinking how you want to be tomorrow.

What qualities you would like to see in your day.

And then we'll just allow that to be trusting for our tomorrow.

And then as I gently blow out the candle,

Just return your awareness back to where we started the practice with our breath.

So until you hear the three bells,

Just watch your breath coming into the body and leaving the body.

And then when you hear the bells,

We will then do our grounding technique and open our eyes together.

So the CEO will call out tocampers.

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Take your awareness to the sounds around you.

Firstly,

Notice the sounds inside of the room.

And then be aware of the sounds you can hear outside of your room.

And then take your awareness to the sensation of the chair supporting your body.

Notice the contact with the thighs and the backside and the lower back.

And then take your awareness then to your feet on the floor.

Just noticing that firmness of the floor again and if you like give your toes a bit of a wriggle.

And then we'll take two breaths before we open our eyes.

Take a lovely breath in through the nose.

And we'll do that again.

Lovely deep breath in.

And then just open your eyes when you're ready.