So we'd like to start by finding a comfortable position for yourself for meditation.
You're sitting on the floor then with your right leg over your left leg,
Your right hand on your left hand,
With the index finger of your right hand touching against the thumb of your left hand,
With your hands palm upwards on your lap.
If you're sitting on a chair then sit with your back fairly straight and find a position of poise for yourself by which you feel alert and yet relaxed,
Not leaning too far forward nor too far back,
Not leaning to the right nor to the left.
And make sure your eyes are only very gently closed,
Never squeeze your eyes closed but close your eyes gently in much the same way you'd close your eyes to go to sleep.
And make sure there's no heaviness on your eyelids.
If you notice that your eyes are closed too tightly or if there's any heaviness around your eyes then you may need to open your eyes and close them again more gently still.
From there you can slowly scan down through the whole of your body to make sure each and every muscle in your body is as relaxed as possible.
Relaxing the muscles of your face,
Of your neck and letting your shoulders drop to their natural height.
Upper back should be fairly straight,
More or less at a 90 degree angle with the floor and with your head and your neck upright.
Scanning further down by relaxing your torso,
Both of your legs all the way down to your feet and your toes until you're fairly satisfied that no part of your body remains with any sort of stress or tension anymore.
If you do notice anywhere where tension still seems to linger on you can do your best to relax it as far as possible allowing you to let go of your body,
Let go of any concerns about your body,
Allowing you to turn your attention inward to focus instead on the feeling inside you,
Allowing the relaxation of your body and mind to lead you back to the present moment.
And we turn our attention to relaxing the mind,
Conjuring up a sense of happiness and joy in the mind and allowing that sense of refreshedness inside us to perfuse the whole of our body and mind for a few moments,
Washing away any worries or concerns,
Unburdening our mind to leave a sense of lightness and lightness and expansion and wholesomeness,
Just putting aside all the things that belong in the past together with whatever will be in the future and for a few moments we remain in the here and now which is a useful way to take back control of our own mind which in the present day is a luxury and a gift in our lives so we need to embrace any opportunity for this as we gradually bring our state of mind toward a state of bliss and ease and relaxation with the same simplicity of bringing a gentle smile to our face,
Noticing how a smile might relax the muscles of our face and extending the same feeling to our whole body and mind like some sort of special medicine that doesn't cost a penny and as with many things in meditation,
Approximating to happiness will pave the way to actual happiness just by reconnecting with the feeling,
It's like bringing ourselves back from the normal stresses and worries of our lives,
Otherwise our life can be something that's no longer truly our own,
Almost as if we were sleepwalking through life or functioning on autopilot with no awareness of the present moment but if we're able to stay in the present just for a few moments,
Immediately we start to heal ourselves both in body and in mind,
Paving the way toward more subtle inner experience and the secret of meditation is to do it with joy,
With contentment because generally anything that we don't take pleasure in will not lead us very far and when we feel relaxed and refreshed both in body and in mind,
Very gently and using no effort at all,
We allow our attention to settle and to center to a point within the empty space of our body,
Almost as if our whole body had been transformed into some sort of hollow shell and an object of meditation which is convenient for us,
Might be something visual,
Might be something that we feel is there,
We allow it to slowly gravitate down within the space of our body until it comes to a comfortable place somewhere around about the level of our solar plexus,
So it's visual,
It might be something bright and clear and clear and rounded like the sun or the full moon or a star,
If it's more tactile then it may be an object that we know is there by its weight and texture,
Its temperature,
We allow it to settle gently at the center of ourself at the same time letting any thoughts in the mind gradually settle out,
Gradually slow down and grind to a standstill until no further thoughts arise in the mind anymore,
A state known as the standstill of the mind,
If any thoughts should crop up in the mind we do our best to ignore them and generally they will die down into silence all by themselves,
But if we feel the need to use a mantra as a mechanism to run interference on our thoughts and basically block those thoughts from the mind we might make use of that traditional phrase over and over again,
With the source of the sound coming up from the center of ourselves gradually lulling the mind towards a state that is increasingly free of any thoughts and the two things hand in hand,
That is the inner object and the sound of the mantra if necessary will help to lead the mind to a place of focus within us while eventually freeing the mind of thought.
A standstill of the mind means that the mind comes to rest inside the body with no further thinking anymore.
Some people think that the mind is nothing without the thinking process,
But in fact in your meditation you'll find out that the mind without thought is much more powerful more powerful than a mind caught up in concepts.
The mind that is free of thought can start to draw upon consciousness at a deeper level,
Consciousness that we might call the gut feeling of the mind or the inner wisdom of the mind and once we switch on to these things it will be like a sense of illumination within ourselves that literally sheds light on the mysteries of the world around us because wherever there's light there will also be knowledge wherever there's knowledge no ignorance can creep in and all the other impediments to such knowledge whether it be a sense of greed or fear hatred or delusion no longer have a place to hide themselves anymore.
Once we've seen how things are for ourselves then no one else will be able to persuade us otherwise.
So now for a few more moments in silence we cultivate a sense of intuition within us freeing the mind of thought allowing our mind to settle at the point of focus within us activating the mind in this way lightly and gently just for a few more moments in silence until we come to the appropriate time.
You find your mind has wandered off on to other things each time you realize just bring your attention back again to the center of your body as before bringing your attention back to the center of the body as many times as it takes it takes to build up that sense of continuity between your awareness and that special place at your center as you continue to cultivate the mind in this way you'll find that the number of thoughts become gradually less with or without the mantra you'll find that the gaps between the thoughts become gradually longer until the gaps between the thoughts become longer than the thoughts themselves and you start to be able to see through to what lies beneath the thoughts in the mind beneath that superficial layer of rational thinking giving you access to more intuitive places in the mind a deeper level of the subconscious gut feelings inner wisdom until at the point where the thoughts die down completely start to have a permanent connection to those deeper functions of the mind sometimes when we're new to meditation we may find that there are so many things popping up in the mind as if our mind is still busy rather like the ocean with one wave after another but if we're able just to accept that this is how the mind is rather than getting worried or upset the way our mind behaves then we will starve those thoughts of attention simply acknowledging and bringing our mind back to the object inside us until gradually we'll start to master the mind rather than be slave to our own distractions for now we keep our mind on track lightly and gently keeping our mind in place with nothing more than a featherlight touch a featherlight touch each to our own practice for a few more moments in silence until we come to time for some loving kindness meditation so we continue to keep our mind at a standstill at the center of ourselves at the center of whatever inner experience we've built up for ourselves as a result of the meditation so far today for some people it may be like a clear bright sphere of brightness at the center of the body for others it may be more like a feeling of warmth or well-being again centered around the middle of ourselves or whatever sort of inner experience we have attained we touch with our attention very gently at the center of that experience touching gently with the same lightness of a feather floating down to touch on the surface of some water so lightly that there's not even a single ripple on the water surface in the same way we touch gently with our attention at the center of the inner experience within ourselves and soon we'll find that the inner experience of the mind whatever form it takes will gradually expand outwards in size expanding outwards until it is the same size as our whole body almost as if we were sitting inside a sphere of our own well-being or the sphere of our own light and we can make a wish to ourselves that may we be well and happy free of all suffering and touching again with our attention at the center of the body the sphere of well-being or the sphere of light will spread outwards beyond our own body outwards in all directions just like the moonlight shines outwards from the full moon in the night sky or just as a block of ice spreads coolness in all directions around itself into the surrounding atmosphere the same way our loving-kindness spreads all around us extending a sphere of loving-kindness outwards into the room in which we're sitting for meditation as we make the wish that may all living beings here in this room be well and happy free from all suffering we can extend the loving-kindness further still outwards from the center of the body to encapsulate the whole of the building in which we are sitting for meditation with the wish that may all living beings here in this building be well and happy free of all suffering we just spread the loving-kindness further still outwards into the neighborhood with the wish that all beings in this neighborhood be well and happy free of all suffering further outwards to the whole city around us and if you find it easier you might imagine it as a map seen from above extending loving-kindness almost in bird's-eye view spreading loving-kindness outwards to cover the whole map of the city in all the directions all around there's no part of the city not touched by the coolness and radiance of the loving-kindness while again while again making the wish that may all living beings here in the city be well and happy free from all suffering we can spread loving-kindness beyond the city limits to the whole country outwards to the borders in all directions all around spreading loving-kindness without exception to the very borders of our country in all directions all around again making the wish that all beings in this country be well and happy free from all suffering before extending loving-kindness to neighboring countries outwards in all directions to living beings without exception with the wish that may all living beings be well and happy be free from all suffering outwards to the whole continent every country on this continent so that our loving-kindness spreads its coolness and radiance to the citizens of every country with the wish that all living beings on this continent be well and happy and free from all suffering outwards to every continent of the world whether it be Asia,
Europe,
Africa,
North and South America,
Australia or Antarctica there's no corner of the world not touched by the radiance and coolness of our loving-kindness extending loving-kindness to every place on the surface of our planet again with the wish that every living being without exception whether on the land in the air or in the sea be well and happy free from all suffering allowing all beings to live together in peace and harmony so that true peace may prevail on our planet and we can also extend loving-kindness in all directions outwards into the universe to the front and the back right and left above and below extending our loving-kindness outwards into the universe around us with the wish that wherever there be living beings they too be touched by our coolness and radiance of loving-kindness in this way we extend loving-kindness without limits without exceptions to the galaxies and the cosmos around us and in the days of old there were certain ascetics who used to specialize in the spreading of loving-kindness retiring to the seclusion of the forest in order to meditate one particular ascetic used to favor the practice of loving-kindness especially practicing it on a daily basis by day and by night whenever his mind was at ease he would spread loving-kindness sometimes in the eastern direction with the intention that may all living beings in this direction even from the smallest creatures two-footed four-footed with many legs or no legs at all be pervaded by my loving-kindness on another day he might spread loving-kindness in the same way to the western quarter to the northern quarter to the southern quarter upwards or below and by spreading loving-kindness consistently and regularly in this way he found that when he slept he slept in happiness slipping into deep meditation would bring him joy the whole the time and he would have a dreamless sleep or if he did dream it would be of auspicious things on waking he felt refreshed free of sleepiness and he always had a radiant complexion because of his practice there was danger in his midst there would not be any danger in his sleep because of his practice there was danger in his midst that would never harm him and he was loved and respected by humans and non-humans alike he was able to enter upon meditation easily and attain higher meditation with ease because he was able to let go quickly of external events bearing no anger or grudges towards anyone his mind was bright at the center of his body the whole the time as a result of his loving-kindness practice the forest where he lived soon became abundant with fruit even humble animals that were sworn enemies like deer and tigers coming into the vicinity of the forest were able to coexist in harmony because even their minds responded to the purity and clarity of the loving-kindness meditation having spread loving kindness in this way we can condense our awareness back down again to the center of our body taking careful note of the brightness the clarity feeling of peace and joy at the center of the body and the sense of well-being remembering this feeling as well as we can because this feeling represents the state of progress in meditation that we have made up until now and if we can remember this feeling as well as we can the next time we sit down to meditate again we can start again from this feeling start by conjuring up this feeling and we can continue to make progress next time from where we left off over the last few moments of this meditation we take a few moments to make a mental note of the state of our progress in meditation remembering the feeling as well as we can for a few more moments now in silence
