Mindfulness Of Breath (Samatha)

So just take a good posture and gently close your eyes.

Super informal,

We'll get to the formal part in a bit,

But we're just gonna warm up as it were.

And in a very simple,

Honest,

Clean way,

Just notice your starting point,

What it's like to be in this body,

What kind of feelings you're carrying around with you,

What kind of thoughts are running laps in the head.

Just get to know who you are in this particular moment.

Make space for who you are in this particular moment and forget about who you're supposed to be,

Forget about what meditation is and how that's supposed to go.

And then take a moment to reflect upon why you're here.

What is the confusion that needs to be clarified?

What is the joy that is wanting space to reveal itself?

And if you are here not feeling well in any way and you came here to feel better,

I want you to notice that that's a struggle.

Give up and let yourself be just how you are even if it feels awful right now.

Strangely enough,

That's the key to feeling better.

So take a big deep breath down to the belly beneath the navel yet above the pubic bone,

Really fill up on air and let a long sighing exhale out through the mouth.

Ha,

Good,

Beautiful.

And then a big deep belly breath again,

Puff it out,

No one's looking.

And then ha,

And then a third trimester shaped breath.

And even slower,

Longer,

More delicious.

And then another.

We're going to keep this going for two more minutes,

I hope you guys.

It's scientifically shown to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system,

Which is going to help you to let go.

The inhale wakes you up,

It's energizing.

The exhale has the quality of surrender and relaxation.

These are the two poles of meditation,

Right?

Showing up and letting go.

You are flooding your body with oxygen as you go.

Oxygen drives the plasma in your blood,

Which carries all the nutrients from all the green juices and baby kale you've been eating.

That nutrition affects the mind,

Affects your practice.

This time take a big deep belly breath and we'll hold at the top.

For five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

And let it go.

Take another and we'll hold again.

And this time breathe in deep and lift your shoulders up to your ears as you breathe in.

Hold and drop the shoulders.

Same thing,

This time lifting the shoulders,

Holding the breath,

Dropping the shoulders,

Then exhaling.

You breathe in and lift the shoulders again.

And that supports the torso as you drop the shoulders and then you breathe out.

Let's do that once just on the right shoulder.

Hold,

Drop,

Exhale.

And then let's do that on the left shoulder.

Once more for both.

And this time breathe in and lift both of your hands straight up towards the sky,

Really stretching the arms up.

And as you exhale you're going to twist over to the right,

Placing your right hand on your or your left hand on your right knee side.

And just breathe here.

Deep belly breaths.

Twisting the spine,

Hollowing out the belly as you exhale,

Twisting from the belly.

Lower back holds so much emotional tension it's ridiculous.

All of your interpersonal chaos is hanging out here.

And then breathing in to lift the hands again.

And we're going to come to the other side.

Very simple.

Don't be ambitious.

That will ruin you.

Learning that the hard way right now.

Kindness towards the body,

Gentleness towards the body,

Empathy for yourself and how hard this life is,

Even for those of us who are very privileged to have it so good,

Very hard.

So breathing in,

Lifting the hands again.

And then letting them fall to your lap right at mid-thigh,

Facing down,

Finding a nice width in the collarbones,

Shoulders not falling forward nor pinching back,

Elbows can dangle freely.

Gaze is lowered towards the ground,

Five to six feet in front of you.

And then if you would like to close the eyes,

Fantastic.

Open-eyed practice is very much allowed and can be a good thing.

If going within the body is too much for you,

If there's trauma held there.

So notice what's different.

Notice what's shifted.

Let any sensations you feel,

Any tingling,

Kind of eat away at any of the tension you're holding and begin to relax you.

Lengthen the back of your neck by lifting the crown of your head.

Straighten the back of the neck by letting the forehead tilt forward just a little tiny bit.

And letting the chin move in and down towards the throat just a little tiny bit.

So we begin by imagining the sun is shining on our face.

Knowing that the brain won't know the difference between imagination and reality.

So just imagining the bright brilliant sunlight shining right on your face and you are basking in it.

You are feeling that warmth.

You are feeling your cheeks begin to heat up.

You are feeling the sun on your brow.

The sun on your chin and on your jaw.

So much so that the colors on the backs of your eyelids begin to brighten to a lighter shade of black and purple.

The warmth of the sun so wholesome,

So good,

So nourishing,

So clean.

It warms the face,

It melts the muscles of the face,

The brow becomes unfurrowed,

The cheeks drop,

The jaw releases.

The tongue relaxes along with the jaw.

It's quite subtle,

You can feel the shift in your awareness as the face melts.

That's the brain responding to the condition of the body.

So basking in the sun,

Absolutely melting,

Taking it in.

Taking it in past the layer of skin and into the head,

Into the brain,

Into the cranium,

Into the infinite space behind the palate.

It's shining down into the throat and neck.

It's melting the shoulder tops,

The upper arms,

The elbows,

The forearms,

All the way into your super sensitive palms.

The fingers.

Feel the sun shining and melting,

Warming the chest and the back of the heart.

Lungs and the ribs,

The shoulder blades.

Down now through the solar plexus,

Down the side body,

Down the elegant S curve of the spine.

Melting,

Melting,

Releasing,

Softening.

Feeling the warmth in the belly.

Literal warmth,

Which actually correlates to emotional warmth,

Doesn't it?

So warmth in the belly,

Touching the organs,

Touching the tailbone.

Melting away the bands of tension held in the pelvis and the space between the hip points and hip flexors.

And the complex webs of tension in the glutes and the perineum.

Warmth through the legs,

Down the thighs,

Knees,

Lower legs.

Down through the feet,

Down into the earth.

And then from here we feel the whole body.

We notice that the body is breathing.

We set the breath in its natural rhythm by releasing and surrendering the exhale with no pushing.

Letting there be space,

Sweet,

Gentle space while we wait for the inhale to come by itself,

Wait for the impulse of the body to breathe in.

And then very gently breathing in,

No pressure to get it right,

No pulling.

Next exhale initiates itself,

Space,

Out into space.

Letting the mind drop in that space.

And this is the final instruction for a little bit.

Refine your attention of the body,

On the body.

And then narrow in at the tip of the nose,

The openings of the nostrils,

The region above the upper lip where you can feel the breath entering the body and flowing out from the body.

This is the space where you end and the universe begins.

This is where the body recedes into infinite space,

Blends with infinite space.

So feel the tingling of the breath on the way in and on the breath on the way out.

Your only job is to hold the breath right here in this region with your mind,

With your attention,

Holding with your attention.

And when you get lost,

You just come home.

Please be kind.

Please enjoy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

With the breath.

Noticing all the stories.

All the sensations.

All the sensations.

All the sensations.

All the sensations.

And to conclude our practice today,

I want you to imagine your body now like the sun.

You've taken in all this good breath,

All this good sunlight,

All this conscious activity.

Now your body is expressing that sunlight.

Imagining the rays of the sun emanating out in all directions around you.

The privilege of being here,

The privilege of practicing entails a responsibility and that's to share it energetically.

Bringing kindness and warmth with you wherever you go for the rest of today and then tomorrow and then the next day.

Please join me at least energetically in sending out a wish that may the merits of this practice shine out in all directions to touch living beings wherever they are.

May there be an end to confusion and fear and violence.

May the great joy that is our truest nature be found by all.

And may our practice today in some way have made a contribution towards those ends.

And then transitioning very gently from your practice.

Thank you.