Bring attention to the posture of the body.
Settle in to a posture that is alert,
But not so alert that you might become uncomfortable.
A posture that is comfortable,
But not so much that you might become sleepy.
Something in between,
A middle way.
Allow attention to rest with the touch points beneath the body.
The places where the body makes contact with the earth.
Sensations of pressure beneath the feet,
Beneath the legs or back.
Allow attention to rest with the touch points on top of the body.
The places where objects make contact with the body.
This could be clothing.
This could be jewelry,
Hair or glasses.
Even other parts of the body.
The air and the atmosphere also makes contact with the body.
This may show up as warmth or coolness or something in between.
It may show up as sensations of movement or stillness.
Allow attention to move inward towards sensations inside of the body.
This might be tension or softness in the muscles.
This might be the movement or stillness of breath.
This might be digestion or the heart beating.
It might even be pain.
All of these sensations together,
The touch points beneath the body,
The touch points on top of the body and the sensations within the body might give a sense of the whole body.
All of these sensations together might give a sense of the whole body.
Might all of these sensations combined give a sense of the whole body?
What's it like as a body?
Just sitting,
Just breathing,
Just being.
Does the body feel like it has a shape?
Does it feel like it has a texture?
Whatever it's like,
It's just fine.
Whatever it's like,
Right now,
It's like this.
And having established some degree of embodied mindfulness,
Allow that sense of the body to move into the background of attention and allow the mind itself to move into the foreground and turn attention to the quality of mindfulness.
What is this sense of presence like in the mind?
Perhaps there's a sense of openness or softness.
Perhaps there's a sense of alertness and receptivity.
What is mindfulness like?
What qualities are present in the mind when mindfulness is present?
And here we are developing intimacy with the state of mindfulness.
And in developing this intimacy,
We might see clearly when it is present and we might see clearly when it is lost.
Mindfulness will eventually be lost.
Distractions will arise.
There might be reminiscing about the past.
There might be chasing the future.
There might be some other type of daydream.
There might just be worry about whether we're doing this thing right.
Whatever the distraction,
Smilingly,
Non-judgmentally,
Return attention to the mind and reestablish mindfulness.
With short and momentary distractions,
Just return to the present moment.
With attention to the quality of the mind.
But with longer distractions,
Feel free to briefly inquire into the undercurrent of the mind.
Not the content of thoughts,
But the undercurrent behind them.
Was there pleasure-seeking,
Aversion,
Delusion and distraction?
Perhaps there was a feeling tone of pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
The goal here is not to go on a deep investigation,
But to simply note what's behind any thoughts or distractions that may arise and then return attention to the present moment.
And so we become intimate with the quality of mindfulness and we might become intimate with the qualities of distraction.
Intimate with the qualities of having lost mindfulness.
And so we might recognize the simple presence or absence of mindfulness and we might recognize the presence or absence of hindrances,
Obstacles to mindfulness,
Obstacles to awakening.
And so when distraction or turbulence arises in the mind,
We might scan for sensual desire.
We might scan for anger or aversion.
We might scan for sloth and torpor,
Dullness and sleepiness.
We might scan for restlessness.
Worry,
Regret.
We might scan for doubt.
And simple mindfulness may often be enough for a hindrance to pass.
But when it's not,
There are practices we can turn to,
Practices we can return to in order to re-establish mindfulness.
With sensual desire,
We might contemplate the impermanent nature of pleasant sensations.
We might contemplate the anatomy of the body.
With anger or aversion,
We might contemplate the impermanent nature of unpleasant sensations.
Or we might contemplate the elements in the body.
With sloth and torpor and dullness and sleepiness,
We might bring attention to the subtle pleasant tone of the present moment.
Or we might contemplate death.
With restlessness and worry,
We might turn attention to embodied mindfulness.
Or contemplate the tranquility of letting go.
With doubt,
We may briefly investigate what could be left unaddressed for the moment and then resolve to practice with one method to see how it works out before moving on to something different.
In this way,
We may begin to explore conditionality.
We might begin to explore what causes the hindrances to arise and what causes the hindrances to pass away.
In time,
The mind will eventually come to have fewer hindrances.
They might arise less often.
They might last less time when they do arise.
And this would be a good point to begin to notice the spaciousness between the arising of hindrances.
What's it like right after mindfulness causes a hindrance to dissipate?
What is the mind like in that stillness in between?
What is the condition of the mind when it is free of hindrances?
Is there joy?
Is there calm?
Is there lightness?
Is there spaciousness?
Allow attention to rest with the mind that is temporarily free of hindrances.
Rejoice in this mind.
Rejoice in this mind.
And when a hindrance arises again,
Arouse mindfulness,
Arouse presence once again.
And letting go of any strategies for practice,
Letting go of any specific focus for attention,
Letting go of the mind itself or the hindrances.
Allow attention to just rest with whatever happens to be arising.
To just rest in open awareness.
Continue to practice in this way.
