So,
Sitting comfortably,
With your eyes closed,
And we're going to be breathing,
If comfortable for you,
Through your nose,
With your mouth closed.
So,
This is evening time for you.
This is time to start preparing both the mind and the body.
Start preparing,
Quietly easing in to the period where you will be falling asleep.
So here,
In this moment,
There is absolutely nothing to do.
You can be still and present,
And here,
In this moment.
So bring all the senses,
All the awareness,
To being here.
Not what happened during the day,
That's all finished now.
Be here.
And in this presence of here-ness,
We can quietly settle into the body,
Be comfortable,
For there is nothing to do.
So anything that may have been,
During the day,
Is no longer relevant.
So you can just let go,
Let go,
And come back to an awareness of just being fully present,
Where you are,
Where you are sitting,
The space around you,
And know that this moment,
This collective experience of being still and present,
Is one that is going to support the very quiet and relaxed way that you will fall asleep.
Now this is important,
Because you go to sleep with a still,
Quiet,
Relaxed mind,
Then the quality of that sleep,
When you wake the next morning,
Will correspondingly be one of quietness and stillness and clarity.
So our evenings are times where we can make a few adjustments.
We can nurture an environment which creates softness.
For example,
Turn off all overhead lights,
And just have a soft side light.
Turn off anything,
Tablets,
TV,
Whatever it is,
Turn them all off.
Be comfortable to be sitting still,
In silence,
Because silence is not the absence of anything.
It is the presence of everything.
It is the presence of all that is not the activity of a thinking mind.
Silence is the very essence of our being,
Of our own inner essence,
And it's in this silence,
It's in the recognition of this silence as being the essential nature of our being,
That gives us the capacity to fully relax,
To move away energetically from the thinking and doing,
To being the stillness of being.
And this stillness presence,
This calm,
Spacious awareness,
Has no agenda.
It simply is spacious awareness,
Where nothing is happening.
All is still,
All is quiet.
And to help focus,
To draw our recognition of this essential nature of our being,
We can work with the breath,
We can work with the quiet,
Relaxed,
Peaceful way of quietly breathing,
Bringing this calming energy into the living presence of our being,
And this then,
Energetically,
Engages the parasympathetic nervous system where we become,
We recognize the awareness of our deep meditative states,
And by doing that we are shifting away from the thinking and doing physical mind.
We are coming into the recognition of the boundless freedom of our natural mind,
The natural mind of spacious awareness.
And to do this,
There is a method of breathing which is something that takes a little practice in the beginning,
But then it becomes automatic and totally natural.
So your capacity to come into a space of deep relaxation and mental stillness will become automatic every time you sit and apply this practice.
Every time,
Or at some point when you come home,
And also in the morning before you start the working day.
It brings all of the discordance,
The noise,
The activity,
The outer activity,
The energies which drive momentum and doing.
It gathers all them up and returns them back to the source of their energy which is silence.
And the way we do this is,
And you can follow along at your own pace,
Your own rhythm,
Nothing rushed,
Be here with your breath,
And be relaxed as we breathe in together.
Now,
As we breathe in,
We breathe in very slowly,
Calmly.
And what we're aiming for is a full breath.
So as we breathe in,
We're breathing into the very top of our lungs.
And as we do that,
You will notice as you're sitting with a straight back,
That the chest will expand as the lungs fill to the maximum.
Then,
At the top of the breath,
Pause,
Then exhale.
And allow the outgoing breath to be as equally quiet and relaxed.
And endeavour,
As you breathe out,
To make the outgoing breath slightly longer than the length of your incoming breath.
And at the end of the outflowing breath,
Just pause again.
Then we repeat.
So all of your mental focus,
All of your energy is focused on your breathing.
100% attention to following the path of the breath.
Now,
If thoughts arise,
Which they will,
It's perfectly okay.
Don't bring them into the experience of breathing.
Let them go.
Again and again.
As they come in,
There'll be awareness of a thought.
Ignore it.
Don't bring it in.
Don't give the mind something to do.
Don't focus on the content of any thinking.
Just let them go.
Again and again and again.
And that discipline of letting them go is the success to any meditation practice.
Never feel frustrated because thoughts are there.
Never feel frustrated that thinking arises from time to time.
Sometimes it might be really noisy and persistent.
Just ignore it.
Just ignore it.
Again and again.
And keep the focus on the flow of your breath.
That's all you have to do.
And never feel as though you're a failure or you can't meditate because you can't stop your thinking.
You're not meant to stop your thinking.
What happens is that you simply ignore the thoughts and their capacity to be a distraction becomes less and less.
And that's all that is needed.
So we're coming back to the breath.
Nice,
Long,
Slow,
Relaxed breath in.
As you come to the top of the breath,
You will feel your lungs expanding.
At the top of the breath,
Pause.
And then exhale.
And as you exhale,
This can be almost a pointer to where the breath is landing in a spacious presence.
That is indefinable.
That is boundless.
You are coming into the recognition of your own spacious awareness.
Where there is no individual.
There is no personality.
It's whole.
It's free.
It is the grounded presence of our essential nature.
And this stillness,
This spaciousness,
This impersonal awareness is the very source of your boundless potential.
This is the source of your wisdom,
Of your intelligence,
Of your compassion,
Of your kindness,
Of your self-giving,
Of your joy,
Of your love.
Self-giving,
All of it flows effortlessly and timelessly and eternally without any boundaries or hindrances.
It is like a waterfall,
Constantly present,
Making its energy available to all.
But each of us identifies we are an expression of this.
We are each a unique expression of that energy.
And this is recognized in the stillness of being still,
Of being here,
Of being in the now.
All is fully available in the wholeness and the spacious freedom of your own impersonal awareness.
There is nothing that is missing.
There is nothing more that you have to achieve.
You are fully present and your infinite potential is right here,
Free of anything external to yourself.
And you are the silent witness of this,
Your own inner landscape,
In whichever way it presents itself to you.
Through inspiration or moments of timing where something just comes in quietly into a space and you go,
Ah,
That's a pointing,
Okay.
And this you recognize more and more and more when you come back to this disciplined practice of being still and present in the now.
Free of the frenetic activity outer world,
The noise,
Constant action,
Constant drive and momentum of doing and achieving and wanting and desiring and seeking,
Driving,
Driving,
Action,
More and more.
That is the nature of the physical mind.
But we are not present as the physical mind.
We are present as the natural mind in this spacious stance.
This is quiet and calm.
This awareness is beyond any sense of a physical body and mind.
We are not even consciously aware any longer that we are actually breathing.
We are fully present in the timelessness of our eternal nature.
And we can just relax.
Just relax in the fullness of our being.
Some may recognize this as a light or recognize it in the warmth of the heart.
For others it may be just a simplicity and a joy.
You may have a sense of having an imagining of something which helps you identify with this a little more,
Especially if this is the early stages for you.
That's fine,
Bring that into your awareness,
But ultimately there will be no need for any imagery,
No need for any imaginations.
All that will fall away.
And what will be present will be unique to the individual.
But when in the formless,
Then there is no objective reality.
This spacious freedom is uncaused.
It is permanently present as the silent background behind all that we do,
All that we perceive,
Behind all points of view.
And now that we are home,
Quietly preparing for the evening ahead,
Which is simply in a space of lightness,
Of stronger heart connection,
Of self-giving and kindness and patience.
Be the softness of the heart.
Buy some flowers on the way home.
Light some incense.
Arrange the space where you are to be less cluttered.
Create the energy of openness,
Of lightness.
Meditate while you are preparing,
Meditate while you are eating.
Eat without any other distractions.
Flip the iPhone over.
Close the tablet,
Don't turn the TV on.
Be still in your own presence.
Recognize your own stillness presence.
Get away from the habitual thinking of mind and the habits that we sometimes are totally unaware of until we sit back and look.
Oh my goodness,
I did that so often.
Okay,
Alright,
Yes,
I can adjust this.
Yeah,
I don't have to turn the TV on as soon as I walk in the door.
I'd rather go and make a smoothie and sit down with a book of poetry.
Or go and play my musical instrument,
Or put up the easel and create a new piece of artwork.
All these are elements of the self-expression of our creative self.
And to do them all in each of them in our own way is actually a form of meditation.
Of reconnecting back to the essence of our being.
Be conscious of everything that you do and everything you think and every action you take.
Go for a walk on the park.
Go for a light run.
If it's raining,
Go and stand outside in the rain.
Take your shoes off and stand in the grass.
Bring the aliveness back.
You have no idea of your potential.
But you will begin to recognize this the more you come back into this self-recognition of your own awareness.
Be here.
Be present.
Nurture the self.
Sit in loving presence with your partner.
Acknowledge each other for what they mean to you.
How they touch your heart.
How you recognize the little things that they're doing that you may have never mentioned but how much it means to you.
Be soft.
Be open.
Be the expression of love.
When we're simply quietly sitting,
Relax.
Spaciously open and free.
Nothing can touch.
Nothing can impede.
Nothing can interfere with the wholeness of this recognition.
It is present before mind even came into awareness.
Mind is an appearance in this spacious awareness.
Thoughts are an appearance.
Temporary appearance.
Mind is a temporary appearance.
Look to the eternal.
Recognize that which is infinite.
The unborn essence of our true nature.
This is the I-ness.
This is the true self.
And yes,
Mind will struggle with some of this.
But we're not engaging the mind in this space.
We're not engaging the physical mind.
That will come tomorrow when we go back to work.
Here.
This is your self-recognition time.
Your self-awareness time.
And it's essential for not only having a beautiful long deep sleep but also in the natural healing.
Physically,
Emotionally,
Spiritually.
When we can just relax and be still.
Relax.
It's okay to be not doing.
And that essence of not doing is not something that we need to take something for.
Be fully present in the natural essence of your being.
Be naturally spacious.
And it's in this stillness that you really start to recognize your own potential.
Which is absolutely boundless.
You can't imagine what is possible.
You will the more you are fully present.
But from this point of view,
If mind,
Physical mind is still very active then no,
You can't fully appreciate and comprehend what is just,
What is infinitely possible.
You cannot imagine what you can achieve.
What you are.
Just relaxed.
In the moment.
Fully present in the now.
Remember,
Silence is not the absence of something.
It is the presence of everything.
To be silent for regular periods is like a golden elixir.
The body thrives and all of the energies realign and rebalance and come back into harmony.
