Breath, Body & Awareness

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for joining me in this meditation.

This is a basic breath-body meditation.

Guided meditation is a technique that has become popular in the West.

That is what you're listening to at this moment,

Guided meditation.

The alternative is silent meditation.

Reading is very easy.

It's entertaining,

In fact.

It can be.

It can be very useful in calming a person,

But it can be very useful in giving instructions and leading a person into a deeper stillness,

A deeper presence.

And generally this is done by calming the mind and relaxing the body,

And then bringing the person to their meditation object,

And following that,

If everything has been going well,

To sit in silence to a certain degree and or a certain length and watch what arises without attachment.

And this is the learning experience behind the meditation.

This is a very basic practice and the type of practice that has been used for thousands of years,

Excluding the guiding aspect.

So guiding has really been a development that has been a big part of meditation for the last 30,

40 years.

And it's growing in popularity.

It's here to stay.

A person that guides in meditation doesn't necessarily mean that they're a teacher,

Maybe a facilitator,

But sometimes just a helper or a friend.

And we can even guide ourselves,

And we should learn to guide ourselves through meditation and keep that in mind when we are practicing meditation and listening to somebody guide us,

As we will be doing in a moment here.

So again,

Anytime you hear somebody guiding you through a meditation,

Whether it's a recording or in live situation,

Think in terms of how you can use that to deepen your own practice when you're not relying on another individual for your practice.

Again,

Guiding is very useful.

It has its place,

But you want to create a very solid home practice of meditation,

And that should include a great deal of silence.

Please make yourself comfortable.

Sitting in a chair or a cushion with a straight back,

Place your hands in your lap or on your knees.

Close the eyes and take a few nice deep inhalations of the breath.

Gently exhale.

Do this several times.

Deep inhalation.

Gentle exhale.

Deep inhalation.

A gentle exhale.

Throughout this meditation,

We'll just use the breath in a very natural way,

Not manipulating it,

Not changing it in any way,

Just allowing it to breathe and move naturally in and out.

I'd like to have you bring your attention to the top of the body around the forehead.

We're going to do a little scanning meditation to kind of relax the body as well as we can.

This is something that you can do on your own,

And you probably have done this many times if you've meditated in the past.

But I would like to have you incorporate the breath with each relaxing moment that we move through the body.

Inhaling,

Exhaling,

Relaxing the forehead.

As you inhale and then exhale,

Relax the eyes.

We'll move down the body around the side of the head.

Let this relaxation move down into the cheeks as you exhale.

Inhale and exhale,

Relaxing the jaw and the tongue.

Relaxing the tongue relaxes the entire body to a certain degree.

On the next exhalation of the breath,

Relax the neck and allow that relaxation to move into the shoulders.

Let that relaxation move down into the arms,

Relaxing the biceps,

Moving down into the forearms,

Relaxing the wrists.

Now the hands and the fingers,

Allowing that any kind of tension to leave the body through the fingertips,

If you like.

Give it a color,

A texture.

Bringing this relaxation into the upper torso,

The upper part of the body,

The chest and the upper back.

Relaxing the chest area with the exhalation of the breath.

We're not forcing,

We're not manipulating,

We're just breathing normal.

And as you exhale again,

Relax the back,

Upper back of the body.

Now we'll move this relaxation down into the middle of the torso,

The middle of the back,

Area of the spleen.

Inhaling and as you exhale,

Relax the lower abdomen,

The stomach and the lower back.

And this is an area where a lot of people carry a lot of stress and tension.

Be aware none of this stress or tension has to be here at this time.

Giving yourself permission to completely relax.

Allow that relaxation to move down into the hips,

Maybe kind of sink into the chair or the cushion a little bit.

And now allow that relaxation to move into the legs,

Relaxing the thighs,

The hamstrings.

These are the largest muscles of the body.

Let this relaxation move into the knees,

All the way down into the shins and calves of the legs.

And now down into the ankles and the feet,

And even the soles of the feet.

With each exhalation of the breath,

Allow a sweeping movement,

A sweeping area of relaxation move throughout the body from the top all the way down to the bottom of the feet.

Imagine any kind of negativity leaving the body through the feet,

Through the toes.

Helps to visualize this.

Give it a color,

Give it a texture,

Maybe a smoke kind of film.

Some of the tension or negativity within the body could be leaving the body through the fingertips.

All of this goes out into thin air where it harms nobody and maybe can be even beneficial for plants and certain animals,

Giving them more energy,

More power.

Now focusing on the breath alone,

Using the breath as your meditation object if you choose to do so.

Find that portion of the breath that you really connect with.

Is it a feeling of the breath against the body someplace,

The tip of the nose,

The upper lip?

Perhaps inside the body,

Somewhere in the sinuses,

Somewhere in the windpipe,

Perhaps.

Maybe the movement of the abdomen,

The up and down movement.

Keeping the spot on the body that you connect with the most.

Focus on it for a few moments.

Something that you really resonate with.

Something that you feel as if it could be your friend perhaps.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

When I meditate on the breath-body connection,

My attention immediately goes to the area between the tip of the nose and the upper lip.

I can just feel a little bit of movement there,

Very subtle.

Something for me to focus on.

I can become very present by doing this.

Find what works best for you.

Basic breath meditation.

But there's another aspect of the breath we can use.

We can visualize the breath coming into the body and leaving,

Sometimes in a vertical line at the top of the inhalation or the bottom of the inhalation.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

The breath rising and falling.

Finding the top of the inhalation,

Finding the bottom of the inhalation.

You can try finding the middle of the inhalation as well.

And if we can stay connected with these points of interest,

These points of focus and concentration,

We can surely become very still and very present in this practice.

And of course the advantage of that is discovering that this is our true nature,

Who we are beyond the obsessive thinking mind.

We're just simply breathing.

Something that we do all day and all night.

We've been doing it all of our lives.

Something that we're asking ourselves with intention to connect with,

The breath.

Something so simple.

But something that can be very,

Very delightful in that it can become a friend of ours,

A tool for this presence,

This identity of who we are.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Who's aware of this activity of breathing?

The body is breathing.

We're trying not to manipulate it,

Not to change it.

And who's aware of the fact that we're not trying to manipulate it?

After a while,

When we become very present in the practice,

It becomes obvious that we are the awareness that is watching.

We are the witness.

That which never is born and never dies.

Continue breathing,

Using the breath as a tool.

It might not seem like it's anything sacred or anything spiritual,

The breath,

But it is a tool that we can use to discover our true nature.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Do this practice with me for as long as time allows.

Please try to practice daily.

Please try to make a commitment to do this practice for your benefit,

But even more so for the benefit of others in your life.

And know that as you practice meditation,

You're practicing love,

You're practicing goodness,

You're practicing understanding and compassion for you.

Thank you.