Mindfulness Of The Breath (Anapanasati)

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Beginning the meditation,

You can start with a warm up coming to your senses.

And we can start with our eyes open,

Tends to be the most gross of our senses,

So becoming aware of sight.

Just the fact that you can see.

And this is your first object of meditation.

So noticing your room that you're sitting in,

Or if you're sitting outside,

Noticing what you can see outside.

Coming to your field of vision.

And you can begin by noticing different colors.

Part of mindfulness is letting go of labels and concepts and just experiencing.

So I'd like you to let go of labeling the different colors because honestly,

Every color is truly different.

And seeing if you can savor that.

Seeing if you can stay with the experience of the different colors that you can see.

And when your mind floats off somewhere beyond your sense of sight,

To feeling,

To sound,

To the thought,

Noticing that and then coming back to just seeing.

Even savoring the sensation of sight.

Noticing different shapes.

Seeing light,

Angles of light,

Shadows.

And then starting to let your attention rest.

So you can let your eyes go a bit downcast.

And noticing your peripheral vision.

The limitations to your sight.

You can't see behind you.

The sense is limited.

And then when it's comfortable for you,

You can close your eyes.

If that's not comfortable,

That's fine.

You can just keep your eyes a bit downcast.

And next I'd like you to come to your sense of hearing.

So this is your second meditation object.

Your sense of hearing.

So you may be able to notice different sounds coming from within the room that you're in.

You of course hear the sound of my voice.

You may be able to hear heat or a fan or air conditioning or sounds that are coming from outside of the room that you're in.

Or if you're outside,

Sounds that are not just coming from nearby but far away.

And noticing if your mind tries to imagine what it is that you're hearing.

If it tries to tell a story about what it is that you're hearing.

Or imagine.

Noticing that and then coming back to the present.

Coming back to what you can actually hear and savoring the sound.

Staying with that one object of attention.

Your sense of hearing.

You can even notice sounds that your own body is making or artifacts in your hearing.

So digestion,

Swallowing,

Breathing,

Any movement or ringing in your ears.

Allowing all of that to be part of the soundscape.

And then beginning to let go of the sound.

And coming to the body.

Your next object of meditation.

So to start I'd actually like you to notice any unpleasant feelings.

Those are often the ones that grab our attention first anyway.

Is there any pain in the body?

Is there tension in the body?

Are you uncomfortable the way that you're sitting?

And I might even use this as an opportunity to find a more comfortable seat.

So if your posture isn't very good,

Maybe finding a way to sit up straight.

If your legs are kind of uncomfortable you can shift around a bit to a position that might be more comfortable for longer sets.

And again this is going to be something that you're going to have to play with.

And then noticing kind of the position of the body.

What is the shape of your spine and your neck?

Where are your arms?

What are the shapes that your legs are taking?

Maybe even checking in with more internally how your emotions are.

You know what's going on in your life right now.

Just checking in with yourself.

Emotions are a felt experience.

Feel that in our body.

And in the vein of mindfulness I'd like you to allow whatever is there to be there.

If you're sad,

Okay.

That's where you are right now.

We're going to be curious about that.

If you're angry,

Okay.

We're going to let that be.

Not trying to change it,

Not trying to make things better,

Not trying to make things right,

Not trying to do what you should do.

Just allow it.

And being curious.

That we're moving closer to experience instead of moving away from it.

And if you're feeling joy,

You're feeling peacefulness,

Great.

Allow it.

If you have feelings for somebody,

Thinking about somebody,

Okay,

Great.

Allowing that to be there.

And being curious.

Noticing where in your body that you feel emotions.

It might be around your heart,

It might be around your stomach,

Throat.

You feel that in the body.

So let's go through the body a bit more systematically.

You'll notice also a lot of neutral sensations.

So starting with the toes,

Feeling sensations in your toes.

That's not somewhere we usually notice feeling,

But being aware of sensation in your toes,

Tops of your feet,

Bottoms of your feet.

Might feel tingling,

Might feel pressure,

Might feel bones,

Hardness,

Softness,

Roughness of the tingling,

Of the fuzzy feeling.

Feeling sensations in your ankles,

Shins,

And calves.

I feel clothing,

Again temperature.

And as we go through,

You also might not feel much.

That's okay.

Just going through the process,

Being curious,

Noticing if you feel anything.

Sensations in your knees,

Left knee,

Right knee,

Maybe there's a change in temperature.

Do you feel the stretch of clothing?

Sensations in your thighs and hamstrings.

Feeling your butt on a meditation cushion or chair,

Whatever it is that you're on.

Feeling sensations in the pelvic area and lower belly.

Now we start to move into sort of feeling external and internal sensations.

You might feel sensations on your skin,

Outside of your body,

Might feel the movement of your lower belly,

Feeling the clothing move as you breathe.

You might feel internal tension.

Again,

Tension allowed to be there.

If it automatically releases,

Great.

If not,

It's fine.

Our body is beginning to feel safe in the meditation.

It's often to protect ourselves in some way.

Eventually,

As you go through the meditation,

You'll release.

You'll start to feel more safe,

More at ease.

All sorts of things are going to release.

Feeling the movement of the body breathing,

So feeling the lower belly,

Feeling the stomach,

Starting to feel the movement in your chest.

You might feel internal sensations of digestion,

Movement of the breathing,

Heartbeat,

Filling of your lungs with air,

And feeling the spine supporting your body.

Feeling clothing on your torso,

Temperature.

You might feel a smoothness of clothing,

Smoothness of your breath.

Again,

Feeling internal sensations,

Emotional sensations around the solar plexus,

Stomach,

Around the heart,

Throat.

You might feel other sensations in your shoulders,

Down your left arm,

Down your right arm,

Temperature,

Clothing,

Pressure.

Feeling sensations in your left hand,

Maybe tingling,

Temperature,

Pressure.

Feel sensations in your left thumb,

Forefinger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky,

And your right hand,

The same,

Thumb,

Fingers.

Feeling sensations in the throat and neck,

Your jaw,

Even your teeth,

Gums,

And tongue,

Chin and lips,

Cheeks,

And your eyes,

Forehead,

All of your facial muscles,

Scalp,

And ears.

You're really feeling the whole body,

Global awareness,

And allowing your body to relax and to release into stillness.

Really allowing the sense of stillness to settle in,

And that stillness from letting go of doing anything.

And in that stillness,

Your body continues to move with the breath.

And I'd like you to allow that breath to be very free,

Letting it be an involuntary breath.

So that means letting go of any intentional breathing.

So you're not breathing in for account and breathing out for account,

Not trying to breathe deeply.

In fact,

Your breath might be very shallow.

That's okay.

Resting the body,

Letting the body do whatever it needs to do,

And being curious.

Just for a moment,

Watching your body breathe,

Noticing how the belly moves with the breath,

How does your chest move,

What are the sensations that are happening in your body as you breathe?

How do you even know that you're breathing?

Where do you feel the breath?

Okay,

Undress.

So starting with feeling the breath in the whole body.

And then beginning to rest your attention just in one place.

And generally I use around the nose.

You might not feel it first,

But eventually it will arrive and you'll feel the sensation there.

You'll feel the sensation around your upper lip,

Around your nostrils.

And it's easier for your mind to have a location that it goes back to.

So bringing your attention to the area around your nose.

And you're going to feel the sensation of the in-breath and out-breath from that area.

Noticing the difference between the sensation of the in-breath and the sensation of the in-breath and out-breath in the area around your nose.

Continuing to let your body breathe naturally.

And at first this is a little bit like patting the head and rubbing the belly at the same time.

It's a little weird to let the body breathe naturally and pay attention closely to the sensation of breathing.

But you'll get used to it and it will be easier and easier to allow your body to breathe and feel the sensation in the area around your nose.

So to help you to stay more focused,

You can also use counting.

And what you can do is feel the in-breath in the area around your nose,

Feel the out-breath,

And then count.

So it would be feel the in-breath,

Feel the out-breath,

Feel the out-breath,

Feel the out-breath one,

Feel the in-breath,

Feel the out-breath two.

Really allowing the body to create the pace,

Really feeling the sensation.

So that continues to be the main focus.

So the counting is secondary,

Just supportive.

The most important thing is you stay with the sensation of breathing in one area.

So that's what we keep bringing our attention back to.

And you can count all the way up to eight is usually a suggested number,

Somewhere between five and ten.

Letting the body set the pace and counting.

Then noticing when your mind floats away and then coming back.

So we'll do a few rounds of that.

If you lose the counting for a while,

Coming back.

And also expecting a lot of distracting thoughts at the beginning.

This is what the counting is to help with.

Starting to get a structure in there.

So we'll continue with the counting for a few minutes.

And noticing where your mind is and coming back to feeling the sensation of breathing.

And you can continue counting if you'd like.

Once you feel like you're able to stay with the counting for a little while,

It might take you ten,

Fifteen minutes.

Once you feel like you're able to stay with the counting,

You can begin to let go of it.

And you'll let go of that structure as you start to feel a continuity of paying attention to the sensation of breathing.

You'll stay with the breath for longer periods of time,

For eight breaths in a row or something like that.

Then you can start to let go of the counting and just start savoring the sensation of breathing.

So really feeling that breath just in the area around the nose.

Feeling the in-breath all the way in.

Feeling the out-breath all the way out.

And that's not following the breath into the body and out of the body,

But staying in one place.

So in the same way that if you were a guard guarding a castle and you were standing at the door to the castle,

You'd watch as people came in and went out of the castle.

But you didn't follow the people into the castle or out of the castle.

You just stayed at your post and watched as people came in and went out.

In the same way,

Keeping your attention posted just in the area around the nose where you feel the breath.

Feeling as the breath comes all the way in and then feeling the breath all the way out.

Feeling the full body of the breath just from that one place.

Or another analogy is keeping your attention on the sensation of breathing in the same way that if you were sawing a piece of wood,

Keep your attention just on the place where the teeth of the saw hit the wood.

You don't follow the handle back and forth,

Moving your head back and forth.

Just keep your attention right where the teeth of the saw are hitting.

The same way you keep your attention on the sensation of breathing in the area around the nose,

Just that one spot.

Notice where the mind goes and then coming back to that one spot.

Savoring that sensation.

Keeping a continuous awareness,

Feeling the breath all the way in,

Feeling the breath all the way out from that one spot.

We'll do this for a good 10 minutes or so,

Each time you notice when your mind is away,

And then bringing your attention back.

Noticing where your attention is.

And if you notice your mind is really scattered,

You can always come back to using the sensation of breathing and counting.

Counting tends to help you to maintain a continuity of awareness of the breathing.

And if you feel sort of disconnected,

Not really able to be with the breath,

You can come back to allowing the body to breathe naturally for a little while.

And then when it makes sense,

You can let go of those and come back to savoring the sensation of breathing.

Just savoring and enjoying.

And if you notice that your butt is starting to ache a bit from sitting,

You can always lean a bit forward,

Way forward,

Just relieving the pressure for a little bit.

If your leg is tingling,

You can do that.

Just continuing to stay with the breathing as you do this.

And then coming back to sitting in your normal position,

Or if you feel like you need to move your leg at this point,

Or make any adjustments,

That's fine.

Just continue with coming back to the breathing.

And then continuing with the breath even if you have to move.

And then coming back to the breath for the last sort of 15 minutes or so.

Really making the sensation of the breath the most important thing in your world right now.

Letting go of everything else.

Gently,

Persistently returning to the breath and being kind to yourself.

The edge of the Truth Tarot Thank you.

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Five more minutes.

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And savoring the breath for ten more breaths.

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And using your body breathing,

All the sensations of the breath in the body.

And bringing your awareness back to all of your scalp,

Facial muscles,

Shoulders,

Arms,

And your body.

And bringing your awareness back to all of your scalp,

Facial muscles,

Shoulders,

Arms,

Hands,

And fingers,

Your torso.

Feeling yourself seated on the cushion,

Your legs.

Noticing the state of your mind.

The state of your mind has changed.

The impact that the meditation has made.

And bringing your awareness back to your sense of hearing.

You've seen the whole soundscape.

And staying in the meditative state of mind,

Maybe even continuing to feel the sensation of breathing,

You can slowly open your eyes.

Notice your environment.

And if you're ready,

You can take a small stretch,

Deep breath.

And if there's anything helpful from the meditation,

Anything that you want to remember,

Anything you realized,

You can take a moment to jot that down.