Body Scan Meditation

Guided body scan meditation with Fleet Maull, Ph.d., co-founder of the Engaged Mindfulness Institute.

Fleet Maull, PhD, CMT-P, is an author, meditation teacher, consultant, coach, seminar leader, motivational speaker, social entrepreneur, and peacemaker. He is the founder of the Prison Mindfulness Institute, the National Prison Hospice Association, and Windhorse Seminars & Consulting. He is a senior teacher in two Buddhist traditions: the Tibetan Buddhist Shambhala lineage and the Zen Peacemaker Order and Soto Zen lineage, where he is a Roshi (Zen master).

Transcript

Welcome back.

You're invited to establish your sitting posture now.

And if you have your cameras off,

Please turn your cameras back on.

Ideally,

Finding a sitting posture that for you feels relatively uplifted,

Upright,

Upright,

Awake,

And at the same time relaxed and stable.

And we'll talk more about posture as we go along.

If for any reasons of physical limitations,

You need to do the practice standing or lying down or leaning against the back of a chair for support,

You can of course do that.

But if you are able to sit upright without the support of the back of a chair,

That's ideal.

When we're giving mindfulness instruction for others,

We want to make sure that we are inclusive so that if someone has physical limitations,

They can still feel comfortable doing the practice in a way that works for them.

I'm going to ask you to close your eyes to begin with,

Although generally we teach eyes open practice.

But we're going to work on really connecting with the body during this session so it can be helpful to close the eyes.

Again,

We will be teaching generally eyes open practice and when you're teaching or sharing the practice or guiding the practice,

It'll be very important to practice with your eyes open so you can see the people who you are guiding and you can have a sense of what's going on in the room and how people are receiving the instruction,

The guidance,

And so forth.

So it's going to be very important to learn to practice with your eyes open.

Different traditions practice in different ways.

Many of the Vipassana traditions emphasize closing the eyes.

In Zen and Tibetan traditions,

They tend to practice more with the eyes open.

Various secular traditions do it one way or the other.

And ideally,

You're going to be learning to do both so you become comfortable practicing with either the eyes closed or the eyes open.

And again,

When you're teaching or guiding,

It will be very important to keep your eyes open.

So you'll notice that I'll be teaching and guiding with my eyes open all the time.

But again,

In this session,

We're going to emphasize the direct experience of body inside and out.

So I think you'll find it helpful to close your eyes to begin with.

In terms of posture,

It can be helpful to have a sense of extending the crown of your head towards the ceiling or the sky a bit,

Elongating the spine,

And having a slight concave quality in the lower back so you're not hunching out,

But you're really sitting upright.

There's a slight concave quality of natural curvature of the spine.

So again,

Extending the crown of the head up towards the ceiling a bit,

And then letting the rest of the body relax around that.

You could drop your arms to the sides for a moment.

Just let your arms hang loosely in the shoulder sockets so your shoulders are really relaxed.

And then you can just lift the hands up,

Pivoting at the elbows,

And just let the drop on the thighs wherever they land.

So all our bodies are slightly different.

If you move the hands too far forward,

You're going to start to roll the shoulders down,

And that tends to collapse the posture and also our awareness.

If you pull the hands too far back,

That tends to put too much tension in the chest.

So just find that spot for the hands that works for you so you have a nice open posture.

The legs,

If you're sitting on a chair,

Can just simply be in front of you,

Shoulder-width apart,

Feet flat on the floor.

If you're sitting on a cushion and you can sit cross-legged,

You can just simply cross the legs in what's sometimes called the tailor position.

We don't need to do a half lotus or a full lotus or anything like that.

If you're able to do that and you've trained that way,

You're accustomed to that,

It's fine.

But again,

When you're teaching,

It's probably not so helpful to do that because most people cannot do that,

And they may then feel like they're not doing it right.

So it's just a simple cross-legged posture when sitting on a cushion.

It can be ideal.

Or if you're seated on a chair,

Just placing your feet flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart.

You could have a sense of moving the head back just a millimeter or two so the head is really squarely over the shoulders,

Ears lined over the shoulders,

And then maybe tucking the chin just ever so slightly.

What we're really looking for here is good alignment,

Good spinal alignment,

And a sense of upliftedness,

Uprightness,

And at the same time wakefulness,

And also a relaxed quality.

If you like,

You can let the lips part slightly.

That'll relax the jaw muscles,

And you can let that also let the breath move freely through the nose and the mouth.

If you like,

You could also place the tongue on the upper palate,

The roof of the mouth,

Just behind the upper front teeth,

And that will reduce the amount of salivation,

Which can be a distraction.

It also kind of connects up some of the internal energy circuitry of the body,

Having the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

Having said that,

There are many different meditation techniques.

Some are intentionally done with the tongue on the roof of the mouth in that way,

Which we're suggesting now,

But there are also techniques where we let the tongue just float freely in the mouth,

And there are techniques where you let the tongue rest on the floor of the mouth,

And they all have different purposes and different effects.

But for now,

The suggestion is to have the lips partly separated slightly and the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

And the breath,

We just let be.

Just let the breath find its own rhythm.

Just let the breath find its own natural rhythm.

And in this session,

We're going to focus on mindfulness of body and breath,

Which means we're going to focus on feeling the body,

Feeling the breath.

The approach we take to offering the practice is a deeply embodied approach and a trauma-informed approach.

So,

Giving you permission and giving students who work with permission to find a posture that works for them if they have physical limitations,

And also to titrate the experience of embodiment,

Such that if bringing your awareness into the body in any way starts to become too difficult or too triggering,

There is always permission to shift your attention to another place in the body or outside of the body altogether.

One could open the eyes and focus on an object in the room or what have you.

So,

Always giving permission for people to titrate their own experience,

To be empowered to work with the practice in a way that's workable for them.

With the invitation to,

Over time,

Gently reclaim the embodied experience as they're able to.

So,

We can always have this sense of leaning in and leaning out,

Leaning in and leaning out.

This is true of the body scan as well.

I didn't mention that so much in the body scan.

I probably could have.

It's important for both the body scan,

Really any practice we're doing,

To give people permission to sort of lean into embodiment,

And if something becomes too challenging and difficult,

To lean back out or even open the eyes and shift the attention externally.

So,

We're always giving permission for people to be empowered to really work with their own practice in a way that's workable for them,

With the invitation to gradually come more and more into the body.

And the body is really where healing of trauma occurs.

And at the same time,

We need to approach that in a gentle way and allow each person to approach it in a way that works for them.

In Peter Levine's work,

Somatic Experiencing,

He calls this pendulating,

Leaning in and leaning out.

Leaning in and touching,

If there is discomfort,

Touching that,

Increasing our tolerance a little bit,

But if it's too much,

Then leaning back out.

Leaning in and leaning out.

In this way,

We gradually can reclaim our embodied experience and increase our tolerance,

Such that we're over time allowing the body to metabolize any trauma that may be present and reclaiming our home,

As it were,

In the body.

So,

For now,

I invite you to simply feel the body as deeply as you can with curiosity and openness and non-judgment,

Just being with whatever's there.

And also,

That aspect of the body we call the breath.

And with both body and breath,

Which are both just words or concepts,

What we're pointing to is the actual moment-to-moment lived experience of tactile physical sensations that make up the experience we call body or breath.

Again,

Remembering that there is this layer of conceptual overlay,

The psychosomatic by the conceptual body.

And so,

We're gently dropping beneath that layer of concept into the actual direct experience of tactile physical sensation,

Which includes all the sensations on the surface of the skin from head to toe,

And also all of the internal sensations within the body,

All the way down to the bones and including the bones.

You may wish to begin focusing on external sensations,

Like the sensations arising at the contact points between your body and the chair,

The cushion,

Your feet,

And the ground.

Perhaps the sensations arising with the contact between your skin and your clothing,

The weight and texture of your clothing.

Perhaps sensations arising on any exposed skin surface areas in relation to the temperature of the air in the room where you are or movement of the air.

And as well,

The passage of air across the nostrils and part of the lips with each in-breath and out-breath.

Being very curious about and willing to feel the actual micro sensations,

Realizing that our tendency,

Our habitual pattern is just to collapse it down into,

Oh,

There's the breath,

Or,

Oh,

There's the in-breath or the out-breath.

Again,

Those are just concepts.

Even sensation is concept,

But there is a lived experience that we can feel directly,

The actual little micro sensations that we feel as the breath flows across the nostrils in and out,

Flows across the part of the lips in and out,

All the sensations all across the surface of the skin from head to toe.

So we're making a gentle effort to really feel with detail,

Vividness,

Clarity,

Precision,

Curiosity,

Deep curiosity.

As we feel these sensations all across the surface of the skin from head to toe,

There can be a quality of sort of connecting the dots and then feeling ensheathed or enveloped in an entire field of sensate experience on the surface of the skin from head to toe.

The contact between our body and the space surrounding us will begin to feel enveloped in this overall field of sensate experience on the surface of the skin.

And generally,

We regard space as empty,

But upon reflection,

We know that actually it's not empty.

It's made up of gases and so forth,

And it's tangible.

And the invitation here is to feel supported by the space surrounding us.

And to regard that space as benevolent,

Such that we feel held by the space,

Embraced by the space.

And moment to moment,

Cultivating this increased awareness of that entire landscape of sensate experience on the surface of the skin,

We're creating a kind of womb-like structure in which we feel supported,

Nurtured,

Held,

Embraced,

Just like a mother or father embracing their child.

And we can relax further with that,

Feeling held,

Feeling held by the space surrounding us.

And then within that,

We can begin to explore the internal landscape of sensate experience,

Activating this capacity known as introception or internal perception,

The body's capacity to feel itself from the inside out,

So to speak,

Feeling the overall weight and mass of the muscles and bones,

The force of gravity holding us down on the earth,

Feeling all the sensations that arise and fall away with each in-breath and out-breath,

Sensations related to the contraction and relaxation of the diaphragm muscle,

The abdominal muscles,

The intercostal muscles between the ribs,

Feeling the belly rising and falling,

The chest expanding and contracting,

The air flowing in and out of the lungs,

The air flowing across the surface of the nostrils and the part of the lips,

This entire flow of actual tactile physical sensation,

Sensate experience as the air flows in and out of the body in its own natural rhythm,

Just like waves lapping at the seashore,

Flowing in and out,

Feeling the dynamic flow of energy throughout the body,

Dr.

Dan Siegelman talking about what do we mean by mind for which we really have no established definition in the West,

He describes it as a flow of energy and information within and without,

A flow of energy and information within the body and then without in exchange with others in the world,

Dropping ever more deeply into feeling,

Realizing that we're basically this matrix of energy situated within a larger matrix of energy,

The phenomenal world,

And we can feel,

Feeling is one of our profound capacities,

Our ability to feel and to be conscious of that feeling,

Aware.

As we tune into sensation,

Physical sensation further and further at subtler and subtler levels throughout the body,

We'll notice that sensation arises across a spectrum from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant,

So we're just willing to feel it as it is,

Comfortable,

Not so comfortable,

Neutral.

The practice is really a practice of simply being,

Allowing ourselves to simply be as we are in the moment without needing to change anything or adjust anything or manipulate anything,

Just being,

Allowing,

Just being,

Allowing and willing to feel whatever is there.

If we find ourselves getting caught up in thinking or any other distraction,

The minute we notice that,

We just let that go and come back to feeling the body as deeply as we can.

Feeling the sensations that make up this experience we call body and breath as deeply as we can.

We'll likely notice that there's often a lot of cognitive activity,

Thinking,

A lot of that has to do with labeling things.

This is that,

That is this,

This feels that way,

This feels that way.

Continual labeling and kind of talking to ourselves about our experience.

So here the imitation of the practice is just let that go,

No need to label anything,

No need to describe anything,

You could just drop into not knowing.

Rather than getting into a conversation,

What is this and what does that mean and how does that relate to that,

We just let all that go and just relax into not knowing.

Open awareness,

Curiosity,

And a willingness to simply experience things as they are moment to moment.

Just allowing ourselves to be.

Our lives are so caught up in doing,

Continual doing and doing and more doing,

Especially in our modern lives,

And that doing has tremendous speed and momentum and stress and tension.

So here we're just relaxing into being,

Just allowing ourselves to be as we are.

To rest,

To be,

And to feel.

Simply being,

Pure presence,

Being and feeling,

Feeling and being,

Nowhere to go,

Nothing to do,

Nothing to evaluate,

Nothing to compare.

Simply being,

Pure presence,

Being and feeling,

Feeling and being,

Feeling ever more deeply with curiosity,

Openness,

Non-judgment,

Willingness to simply feel whatever arises moment to moment,

Being and feeling,

Feeling and being.

The more deeply we feel this sensate energetic landscape we call body and breath,

That direct feeling anchors our awareness,

Anchors our attention in nowness.

Cultivating this deeply felt physical presence anchors us in the moment,

In nowness.

Over time,

The deeply felt experience of embodiment in the vast internal somatic landscape of the body becomes more compelling than any distractions or cognitive activity that might draw our attention away.

The deeply felt experience of the body holds us,

Anchors us right here,

Right now.

Feeling and being,

Being and feeling.

There's a gentle effort,

An intention for presence,

Beingness,

And it's very gentle and relaxed.

It's almost like we simply open the door or open the window to this internal landscape of sensate experience and it emerges naturally into our awareness.

This profound sensate experience emerges more and more powerfully into our field of awareness and anchors our awareness in nowness.

Simple presence,

Pure presence,

Beingness.

Feeling and being,

Being and feeling.

Nothing more,

Nothing less.

And as we're simply being,

We may get a sense of a presence that's always been there ever since we can remember.

My earliest memories as a child was a quality of being,

Presence,

Awareness,

Consciousness.

It's always been there.

Often obscured by distractedness,

By doing,

But it's always been there.

Coming home,

Coming home to that pure presence,

Consciousness,

Awareness.

Feeling and being,

Being and feeling.

Just that,

Just this.

In a moment we'll have another session of walking practice,

Walking mindfulness practice.

This time it'll be for 15 minutes.

So please be back by 11.

15.

And then we're going to explore the practice in various ways.

So when you hear the gong,

You could transition into walking practice.

And be curious as you stand up,

Notice how the mind tends to take off and see if you can stay with the body.

And have a smooth and body transition from sitting to walking.

And remember that throughout our entire retreat,

Everything is practice.

Sitting,

Walking,

Drinking water,

Using the restroom,

Taking a break,

Meal breaks,

Eating.

It's all practice.

And whenever we notice we're less than present,

We just come back.

No need to criticize ourselves.

That's not helpful at all.

We just come back.

We just notice,

Oh,

The mind wandered.

Okay,

We bring it back.

Return to presence,

To feeling and being.