The sitting meditation.
Settling down in a comfortable way on a cushion or a chair.
Sit in a dignified manner with your back in an erect and comfortable posture.
If you are sitting on a chair,
Let both feet rest flat on the floor.
If you feel comfortable,
Close your eyes.
If you prefer to keep your eyes open,
Let your gaze fall unfocused on the floor in front of you.
Sitting here,
Bring your awareness down in your body,
Starting with your feet on the floor.
Exploring whatever sensation might be there.
Contact with the floor.
A feeling of touch and pressure,
Perhaps maybe warmth or coldness.
Whatever is there.
And slowly letting your attention rise up in your body.
Your buttocks contacting the cushion or chair.
And going up with your awareness,
With your open posture.
Shoulders softened.
Your hands on your knees or in your lap.
And your chin chucked slightly down.
The back of your neck lengthened.
Just being aware of sitting here in the present moment.
You don't have to achieve anything,
You are just sitting here.
Aware of sitting here as a whole.
Aware of breathing.
Just following the breath through your nose,
Towards your lungs and back out.
Aware of the breathing in,
Followed by the out breath,
And every out breath followed by the in breath.
And you might even notice a small pause between each in breath to the out breath,
And a pause between the out breath to the in breath.
Try not to change your breathing,
Just observe the sensations of breathing.
There is no special way of breathing.
The intention is to simply allow your attention to gather around the sensations of breathing.
And if your mind wanders,
As it will,
Simply bringing your attention back to the breath.
And when your mind wanders,
Just notice where it went.
You might inwardly say to yourself,
Oh there is thinking,
Thinking.
Or there is planning,
Planning.
Or whatever it is that is there.
And then gently and kindly bring your attention back to the breath.
And if your mind wanders off a hundred times,
Just kindly bring it back a hundred times.
Just breathing.
Just following the breath.
And when the mind wanders,
Just seeing where it went.
And gently and kindly bringing the attention back to the breath.
And the attention of this meditation is not only being constantly aware of your breath,
The intention is also to simply being aware of your mind wandering.
Noticing that your mind did wander off.
And bringing the attention gently and kindly back to your breath.
And now we will expand our attention from the breath to your body as a whole.
With breathing in the background.
Aware of your entire body.
Just like it is in this moment.
With the skin as an outward boundary and everything within.
Just your body as a whole.
And your mind might wander off to thoughts,
Planning,
Memories,
And you don't have to judge yourself.
Be kind to yourself.
It's okay.
You notice that you wandered off.
And just gently and kindly bring your attention back to your body.
To your body as a whole.
And while you are aware of your body,
There might be a place that is drawing your attention.
Maybe a pain or discomfort.
A tingling.
Maybe just an itch.
You can choose to give this place your full awareness.
Exploring this area with curiosity.
How does it feel?
And where do you feel these sensations?
Is there a clear boundary or is it more vague?
Does it change in time?
Then maybe you will notice thoughts or emotions regarding this sensation.
You can try breathing towards this area.
On an in-breath going towards it and on an out-breath going away from this area.
Not with the intention to get rid of these sensations or to change them.
But just to lead kind attention to this area with the breathing.
And in time you can bring your awareness back to your body as a whole.
Until another sensation in your body asks for more attention.
And you again can choose to bring your attention to this area.
Now when you are ready bring your attention to your ears.
To hearing.
To sound.
Sounds that enter your ears.
Aware of the sounds without judgment.
Just aware of the tone height and the volume.
And without labeling it as oh that is a car or it is a bird.
Just aware of sounds.
And not judging the sounds if you like it or not.
Not judging if it is nice or noise.
Just being aware of the sound.
And you don't have to search for sounds.
Just be receptive to sounds that come to your awareness.
Aware of the sounds that reach your ears.
Or maybe aware of the absence of sounds.
The sound of silence.
Then when you notice that your mind is distracted.
Just kindly and gently bring it back.
Either to your breathing as an anchor.
Or directly to the sound of the hearing.
Aware of hearing.
Aware of the sounds.
Just sitting in silence.
Aware of sounds.
Aware of the sounds.
Aware of stillness between sounds.
From moment to moment to moment.
And now as we sit here once again.
Allowing your field of awareness expand.
And this time we will expand the awareness to include thinking.
To include thoughts that move through the mind.
We will now focus and open up to the observation of the thinking process.
Allowing the thinking process to be center stage at this moment.
And just as the sounds came by one at a time.
And they went.
Thoughts can come.
Thoughts can go.
And thoughts can be about everything.
The future.
The past.
Your body.
Eating.
Whatever.
And just aware of the thoughts that are coming and going.
For some it is easier to visualize clouds that pass by.
And see the thoughts as such.
For others it is sometimes helpful to visualize a movie screen.
And seeing the thoughts pass by there.
And whenever you find yourself wandering off in a thought.
Just notice this and bring your attention back to observing the thoughts.
Just observing the thoughts without pursuing it or without rejecting it.
Just not seeing the thoughts that come and go.
And just be aware of the thoughts that are coming and going.
