Come to a comfortable position,
Seated if possible,
Perhaps on a bolster,
The floor,
A chair.
Get yourself as comfortable as possible.
Settle in,
And start with looking around you,
Look up,
Look down,
Look left,
Look right.
Is it a spot far away from you,
Perhaps through a window or the other side of the room?
See how far away you can look.
Now bring your gaze to something very close to you,
Perhaps your shoulder,
Your arm,
Lap,
The details of the back of your hand.
Really observe the minutia,
The details,
And when you're ready,
Slowly close your eyes.
Now imagine the space,
The room that you currently occupy.
Draw to mind where you are in this room,
And where the things in this room are in relation to you.
What surrounds you,
What is under you?
Feel where your body connects to the earth.
Feel the air as it cools against your warm skin.
Feel what is touching your skin,
Clothing,
Blankets,
Grass.
Now try squeezing your fists together,
Balling up the fingers,
Squeeze,
Squeeze,
Squeeze,
And release your hands down to rest somewhere on your lap.
Sense your mouth,
Glide your tongue along your teeth,
Starting with upper teeth,
Moving down to lower teeth.
Prod the sides of your cheeks left and right.
See if you can touch your tongue underneath your tongue.
Awareness of whole inside of the mouth.
Lick your lips,
Let them smooth out,
And let's exhale.
Release all tension in the jaw,
And let the tongue rest in the mouth.
Awareness of breath.
Feel your breath as it comes in and out through the nose,
Nice and smoothly,
Not forced.
Feel the expansion in your chest,
Ribs,
Abdomen on the inhale.
Feel the release of the abdomen,
Ribs,
Chest on the exhale.
Breathe here with this awareness.
Hear the sound of the breath as it comes in through the head.
Sound of breath as it leaves through the head.
Hearing sounds within the body.
Now expand your sense of hearing outside the body,
Into the space you are in,
Listen,
Reach with your ears to every corner of the space you currently occupy,
And now see if you can expand that sense of hearing to outside the room or the space that you occupy,
Above,
Below,
Around.
Can you stretch that sense of hearing?
Now bring that sense of hearing back into yourself,
Perhaps hearing your digestion,
Your heartbeat,
Or once more your breath.
That inner hearing,
That inner sense.
Guide your attention to the space between your eyebrows.
Feel as though someone has gently pressed an anointment of oil to the space between your eyebrows.
Feel the coolness,
The awareness brought to this space.
Now in this same place,
Or perhaps a few inches away from your face,
Conjure the image of a candle flame.
See it flicker and dance in your mind's eye,
Gaze into it with eyes closed.
Keeping a passive attention on this flame,
Notice now the contents of your mind.
Notice thoughts as they pass through,
Thoughts as they spring into being,
And try taking each of these passing thoughts and feeding them into the candle flame.
As a thought comes,
Drift it slowly into the flame of the candle in the space between your eyebrows.
Watch as the fire consumes it.
Feed all thoughts into the candle flame.
I'll come back in one minute.
And don't worry as your mind wanders,
Just draw your attention back to the flame and feed these wandering thoughts into it for one full minute.
Take a deep breath in,
Exhale release,
Release concentration on the flame.
We'll do this flame exercise two more times.
For now,
Bring your attention to the space in your mind directly behind your forehead.
Allow your thoughts to gather here in this place and observe their quality.
Take 30 seconds to allow all thoughts to be as they are,
Not controlling,
Not changing or trying to think,
Just allowing.
I'll be back in 30 seconds,
Let your thoughts run free.
Take a deep breath in,
Exhale release,
Ignite the flame once more,
The space between your eyebrows.
See the dancing flickering candle flame.
Feed all remaining thoughts into the flame.
Begin once more to guide and burn all thoughts into that flickering candle flame between your eyebrows.
Notice how the thoughts ignite.
Does the candle change in any way as thoughts pour into it?
Stay here with this concentration for another minute.
Feed all thoughts into the flame for one minute.
Take a deep breath in,
Exhale release,
Concentration on the flame.
Bring your attention back to the space inside your mind behind your forehead.
Let your thoughts come and go as they please for the next 30 seconds.
There's only one more round of feeding thoughts into the flame,
But for now,
Let your thoughts and mind wander as they please.
Take a deep breath in,
Exhale ignite the flame for the last time,
Flickering candle flame in the space between the eyebrows or just in front of this space.
Direct all thoughts into the candle flame,
Let them be consumed by the fire for one minute.
Our final push of concentration,
Feed all thoughts into the flame.
Take a deep breath in,
Exhale release all concentration on thoughts,
Guide your attention to the sounds in the room around you,
Sounds outside the space you are in,
And draw that awareness back into the sounds within your body,
Digestion,
Heartbeat,
Breath.
Finding your breath,
Notice once again how the body expands and contracts with each breath.
Feel the cool air coming into the nostrils on the inhale,
Warm air as it brushes the upper lip on the exhale.
Notice the jaw,
Perhaps wiggling it to loosen it,
Awareness of tongue,
Releasing tongue from top of the mouth.
Noticing the taste within the mouth,
Waking up awareness of the mouth in your body.
Stick out your tongue,
Lick your lips.
Feel where you are connected to the ground through your seat,
Feel the parts of you touching the earth,
Notice where you're not touching the earth,
The feeling of your clothing on your skin,
Feeling of the air on your skin.
Imagine once again the room that you are in,
Where you are in this room,
The space you occupy.
In your mind's eye see all the walls and furniture that make up where you are right now.
When you're ready,
Slowly begin to blink your eyes open.
Keep your gaze soft as you slowly look around the room,
Drink it all in with your eyes,
And take these last few moments to notice how you're feeling right now.
You might find it helpful to journal,
Or just take a few extra minutes after this meditation ends,
To settle back into your space,
Into your body,
And to continue with the rest of your day.
Take as much time as you need before getting up.
Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti
