Embodied Mindfulness & Silence

In this lightly guided meditation, Matthew begins with establishing embodied mindfulness and then invites the practitioner to continue with whichever meditation object feels most beneficial - the body, breath, sound, or heartfulness. The guidance lasts for about nine minutes and then flows into uninterrupted silence for the remainder of the meditation. This meditation is offered for people who want to begin with simple guidance and then transition to self-directed practice.

It was offered live at Insight Meditation San Jose in November of 2025.

Transcript

Now I invite you to take some deep,

Slow breaths.

Relaxing and letting go on the exhalation.

And bringing a sense of acceptance with whatever remains.

Right now,

It's like this.

And allow attention to rest with the touch points beneath the body.

Places where the body makes contact with the earth.

Beneath the feet or legs or back.

These sensations of pressure.

And bring attention to the touch points on top of the body.

Sensations of touch where objects make contact with the skin.

This could be clothing.

This could be hair or jewelry.

It could be other parts of the body.

Or even the air.

And allow attention to move inward.

To any sensations there may be within the body.

It might be tension or softness in the muscles.

There might be digestion or even a heartbeat.

There may be pain or discomfort.

Or just the sensations of movement of the breath.

And all of these sensations together,

Those inside the body,

Those outside the body,

On the body's surface.

All of these sensations might be put together into the sense of the whole body.

Can attention just rest with this whole body through this whole body in the seated posture?

This isn't an opportunity to think about the body.

But an opportunity to rest in the body.

To experience the body as the body.

What's that like?

Does the body feel like it has a texture?

Or maybe even a shape?

And having established some degree of mindfulness with the body,

Feel free to remain with that as your object of meditation.

And when the mind wanders,

Return to it.

Or take up whatever object feels most beneficial for you at the moment.

It could be breath,

It could be sound.

It could be a heart practice if you have one.

Never feels best.