So,
If you'd like to start by settling yourself into a comfortable position for our meditation practice.
Closing your eyes as gently as possible and allowing your whole body to settle into a comfortable but upright position by which you feel you could sit for as long as you like without needing to adjust yourself and without getting sleepy.
Take as long as you need to scan down through the whole of your body making sure each and every muscle is as relaxed as possible all the way from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes and relaxing all the muscles in between until it feels as if your whole body has melted away into the atmosphere around you Put aside any worries or concerns in your mind,
Any thoughts of the past or the future remaining as much as possible in the present moment with the here and now and to relax your awareness further bunger up a relaxed joyful and happy state of mind When you're ready,
You can let your attention come to rest somewhere within the empty space of your body and reconnect with the sense of peace inside yourself by bringing the focus of your attention gradually down to a place inside you somewhere around the level of your solar plexus or diaphragm and gently anchoring the mind in place either reconnecting with the peaceful feeling there or picturing inner brightness something like a full moon,
A twinkling star,
Or a sparkling diamond If your mind wanders,
Just bring it back to the inner object If the object disappears,
You can conjure up a new one If the object changes,
Just follow it in its new form If thoughts bother you,
Simply ignore them or run interference by imagining you hear the sound of that traditional mantra repeated silently in the mind with the words sammah arahang,
Over and over again coming up silently from the center of the body until the thoughts are pacified So,
We continue with our meditation focusing inwardly,
Lightly,
And gently for a few moments more now in silence and as we meditate more,
We become increasingly familiar with the idea of there being a space between our thoughts a space between where one thought ends and another one begins because we start to find that we're able to step back from the thought we always take for granted and this allows us to gain access to that sense of spaciousness in the mind spaciousness that lies beyond those thoughts allowing us to touch upon that sense of clarity in the mind that brings with it a sense of resilience and stability and as we engage with that sense of spaciousness more and more we'll also notice the way in which any previous stresses and strains in the mind seem to gradually melt away leading us to yet deeper levels of inner peace but in the meantime,
We still have to work with the phenomenon of the wandering mind and the thoughts arising we need to learn to observe these mental phenomena reading them as nothing more than the manifestation of impermanence in our mind observing without interfering interfering how the thoughts and emotions arise and pass away naturally in the mind without getting caught up in these reading them as no more significant than clouds or turbulence passing through a blue sky that is essentially clear sometimes it's as if we were just resting in the trough of a wave between the thoughts and if we are silent,
We can just keep our energy at the low part of the wave noticing the shape of things and the flow just accepting the drift of things and shifting away from the endless temptation to get entangled in that thicket of thoughts so staying with the space between the thoughts instance when the mind is still inventing the next thing it's going to think and by identifying with the stillness that is the backdrop to all these thoughts we learn to access something deeper it is of the nature of deep,
Peaceful intuition and wisdom and once we have our first glimpse of it then it will be something we recognize in future meditations motivating us further to continue to develop these skills to the point that even if a sense of restlessness arises in the mind we can even learn to watch the restlessness while disassociating from it while remaining all the while in contact with that sense of spaciousness in the mind and as our mind becomes unhooked from that restlessness or angst allowing us to settle yet more deeply as we meditate for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time for some loving-kindness meditation so we continue to rest the mind gently at the center of the body with the awareness resting at the center of our body we extend a loving-kindness initially to ourselves especially if you think you've messed up forgive yourself for not meeting your own unreasonable expectations again,
Resting the mind at the center of the body but extending loving-kindness further outward to everybody around you wishing all beings,
Human beings and non-humans alike be happy,
Live in peace and harmony further outward to cover the whole world wishing all the people of the world to be happy,
To be free from suffering free from illness spreading the loving-kindness further out into space,
The stars and all the galaxies we fill the whole universe with loving-kindness and happiness from the center of the body and at this time you might turn your mind to loved ones who you know are going through difficult times at the moment holding them close in the brightness at the center of ourselves bringing their names or their faces to mind and with a wish that they manage to overcome their suffering with good grace and serenity so we continue to make good wishes for ourselves and others while spreading loving-kindness for a few more moments now in silence Thank you
