Kayanupassana Breath & Body Scan

Beginning the meditation,

You can make yourself comfortable.

Finding a nice seated posture or if it's not comfortable,

Finding a place to lay down.

Making sure that you have let others know that you're going to be meditating and that this is time that you have reserved.

And that this meditation is for exploration,

It's for understanding,

It's for deepening your insight of the body.

As we begin many other meditations,

You can start by checking in with your senses,

So taking in your surroundings,

Noticing your sense of sight.

And as you are checking in with your senses,

You're becoming aware of what you can actually perceive through that sense.

So noticing sight,

Noticing that the eyes and eye consciousness or the parts of the brain that are responsible for seeing can pick up on light and shadow.

And see color and shapes.

Even noticing as your mind floats off to other things besides light and shadow,

Color and shapes.

If it starts labeling things,

If it starts making up stories,

Things that are not right in front of us.

So as we go through this vipassana meditation,

We're going to be looking at things that are right in front of us that actually are there and we can perceive in this moment.

Light shadow,

Color and shapes.

And when it's comfortable for you,

You can close your eyes,

Bring your awareness to your sense of sound and slowly let go of the sight,

Sense of sight,

Coming to sound.

You may hear the sound of my voice,

You may hear sounds that are in the room that you're in or nearby,

Wherever you're listening to this meditation.

Sounds that are happening now in the present moment and staying in real time with the sounds.

So our mind likes to hold on to things and then think about them,

Seeing if you can let go of that process a bit and just stay in real time,

Noticing what you can hear now.

You may also notice sounds far away or originating from far away.

And sounds that the body is making,

A ringing in your ears or artifacts in your hearing.

One ear might be clogged.

You may even hear yourself swallow,

Your heartbeat,

Digestion.

And then noticing your mind float off somewhere else and coming back to sound.

Next we're going to come to feeling just for a moment.

Noticing the state of your body,

Noticing any emotional feelings that are present.

So allowing that to be,

Being curious of where you are,

The state that you're in.

Noticing the posture of your body,

Any tension in the body.

And like you to notice your body creating the breath.

And noticing how the body is creating the breath.

The movement of the belly,

The movement of the lungs.

Movement of the chest or shoulders.

Really noticing all the movement in the body that happens with the breath.

And also noticing how the state of the body,

State of your nervous system,

How aroused it is.

Is it stressed?

Is it relaxed?

Is it sad?

Is it happy?

Is it scared or anxious?

Is it content?

And how that affects the kind of breath that is happening.

How your body is creating the breath.

Has the body just eaten?

Have you just eaten?

How well have you slept?

And all the other,

Did you go to the bathroom?

The other needs of the body.

Feel like you've drank enough water today.

Very general,

Healthy.

Have you exercised?

Noticing all those variables as the body creates the breath.

And noticing is it a deep breath?

Is it a shallow breath?

And not trying to change it.

Not trying to breathe correctly.

Just being aware of how what the body's been through in the day affects how the body's breathing.

There's a good reason why the body's breathing the way that it's breathing.

And there's tremendous insight that can come just from noticing the way that the body breathes.

Feeling the in-breath and feeling the out-breath.

And we can begin as we let the body breathe.

We can begin at the toes and slowly we'll go up through the body,

Feeling the different parts of the body.

Starting with your toes,

Noticing sensations in your toes.

And feeling nails of your toes.

And the bottoms of your feet.

Going up through,

Feeling any tingling.

And as you go through the body,

I'd like you to notice what you can actually feel.

So not imagining a picture of the body,

Not imagining a picture of the toes,

But just noticing what's actually there,

What you can actually sense.

Noticing sensations on the bottoms of the feet and the tops of the feet.

Might notice tingling,

Coldness.

Might feel sensation of your socks or shoes.

Feel softness,

Pressure.

Coming up through your shins and calf muscles.

And feeling clothing on the outer skin.

Again,

Noticing the posture of your body,

Feeling yourself seated on a meditation cushion or laying down,

Feeling sensation of the pelvic area.

Lower belly,

Again feeling clothing on the outside of the body.

Your skin,

You might even feel hairs on your body.

Your warmth,

You might feel roughness of clothing against the skin or softness.

Coming up,

Feeling sensations around the chest and back.

You might feel hardness of the spine holding you up.

You can feel clothing,

Back and arms.

All the way down the arms,

Feeling the elbow,

Hands,

Fingers.

Feeling warmth,

You might even feel moisture in the hands.

Noticing the state of your body changing as you become aware of sensations in your hands.

You might even feel more warmth there.

Again feeling sensations around the neck,

Feeling sensations around the throat.

And you might even be able to feel sensations all the way down the throat,

Down the esophagus,

All the way to the stomach.

Feeling sensations around the jaw,

The base of the skull,

The teeth,

Gums and tongue,

Chin and lips,

And the cheeks,

And the eyes,

Nose,

And all the facial muscles to release.

So you notice all the different parts of the face,

Eyes,

Eyebrows,

Forehead,

Scalp.

And then as you come back down,

Again we're aware of what we can actually perceive,

Not an image of the body or mind.

So noticing sensations around your scalp,

You might notice tingling,

You might notice,

Actually you might even feel hair.

Feeling all the sensations in the muscles in the face.

Feel muscles around the brow,

Feel tension around the jaw.

Feel your eye and eye muscles,

Feel movement around the eye,

Eyelids,

Muscles around the outsides of the eyes,

The cheeks and around the nose.

And feeling the sensation of the breath around the nose,

The nostrils,

You might even be able to feel the nose hairs.

You might feel the coolness of the breath in the back of your neck.

Feel the air going through your nose all the way through your throat,

You might be able to feel your sinuses.

You might feel mucus in the nose,

Saliva in your throat.

Feeling the movement of your tongue,

You might even feel roughness on the top of your tongue,

In your taste buds,

The smoothness of the bottom of your tongue,

Your teeth,

Feeling muscles around the lips.

You might feel dryness around the lips or softness.

Sensations around the chin,

Again throat.

What can you actually feel?

Sensations around the throat and neck.

Feeling the chest moving with the breath,

You might feel emotional feelings around the chest.

And you might feel nothing.

Just being clear about what's actually there.

And as you go through the body,

Images,

Memories,

They come up,

But I'd like you to come back to what you can actually feel.

It's actually there.

And notice tension in the body holding.

Might just feel the body creating the breath.

Feeling internally,

You might feel your lungs moving,

You might feel your heart beating.

Your stomach digesting.

You might feel pressures,

Maybe even pains.

Shapes of different organs in the body and your rib cage.

You might feel muscles,

You might feel fat,

You might feel skin.

You might just feel the firings of nerves get down to the belly,

Stomach,

Intestines.

You might feel fullness,

Partially digested or fully digested food.

You might feel pressure of urine in your bladder.

This is our body.

Sometimes we try to avoid thinking about it,

But getting back in touch with the body and listening.

And feeling the sensations in the lower belly,

Feeling our butt seated.

Feeling all the sensations in the pelvic area.

Feeling again the thighs,

The hamstrings,

The internal muscles,

Hardness,

Softness,

In the knees,

In the shins and calf muscles all the way down to the feet.

And you might even be able to feel the bones,

The hardness of the feet,

The softness of the flesh.

You might feel the bones of your shins and knees,

You might be able to even sense the bones of your thighs,

The pelvic girdle,

The spine,

Holding up the body,

The rib cage as the breath expands and releases.

The shoulders and the collar bones,

Your arms,

Your arm,

Forearm,

Feeling the stiffness of bone,

Your fingers,

If you move them slightly,

The creakiness of the fingers.

The bones underneath,

And the neck and the jaw,

Teeth,

Your skull sitting on top of your spine,

All the muscles that are holding and pulling and keeping your skull afloat on top of your head,

Your eye sockets and nose,

Feeling the hardness in your sinuses.

And for a moment,

Allowing the body to breathe and feeling the breath.

And as you continue the meditation,

You can continue to scan the body,

Slowly going up and down and noticing new parts and sensations,

Noticing the outer sensations of the body and the inner ones,

Noticing clearly what you can actually feel and what your mind tries to fill in,

What it can't feel.

And as we practice the pascin of the body,

Becoming more and more aware of what we can actually feel,

What's actually there in the moment,

And drawing more and more insight and information about the body.

And as you continue the meditation,

Both on this meditation cushion and off,

Becoming more and more aware of the processes of the body,

Not just the static sensations,

The interconnection of all these different parts of the body.

So this meditation will go for another five minutes or so in silence.

Among the rest of the session.

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