This meditation was recorded by MBSR teacher Adele Stewart live on Zoom in Wununna,
June 2020.
So finding yourself a comfortable seated posture,
Either on a chair or kneeling on a meditation stool or sitting on a cushion.
Taking some time to settle into your chosen posture.
Perhaps really starting by noticing the base of your body.
Perhaps that might be the soles of your feet or your lower legs.
That sense of being really grounded,
Rooted into the floor or earth.
Noticing the position of your sit bones.
Perhaps even having a little wriggle or using your hands to spread your sit bones out a little bit.
So once again there's that real sense of sitting on the earth.
Feeling the spinal column rising out of the pelvis.
Perhaps you may even be able to find another half a centimetre of height in the spine.
Feeling the sense of the head nicely balanced on the spinal column.
With as little tension as possible.
Perhaps the sense of the string pulling you up gently from the crown of your head.
Your chin tucked back in a little.
Feeling the shoulders soften,
The shoulder blades drape down the back.
Feeling the arms and hands gently resting in the lap.
Taking another few moments to notice if there's any tiny bits of tension anywhere in the body that can be very gently released.
And if there's some areas that are difficult to release tension,
That's fine.
Just allowing them to be as they are.
Feeling the sense of steadying and relaxing the body.
Taking our awareness now to the breath.
The in and out flow.
Noticing wherever the breath feels clearest to follow.
Noticing if there's a steadying effect on the mind.
Feeling the breath.
No need to control or manipulate the breath.
Just allowing it to be.
Feeling the breath.
And perhaps there's some steadiness and mindfulness developing.
Perhaps we can refine that mindfulness a little by really getting intimate with the breath.
Actually noticing the start of the in breath,
The middle,
The end of the in breath,
The little gap,
And the start,
The middle and the end of the out breath,
And the other gap.
Staying with the felt experience of the breath.
Exploring the sensations of the breath cycle one half breath at a time.
No need to strive.
Just having the sense of settling back and receiving the breath as it flows in and out.
And perhaps the mindfulness is strong enough to examine other parts of the breath.
Any sensations connected to it.
The depth,
The speed,
The regularity,
The texture,
The tone.
Beautiful mindfulness of the breath.
And perhaps the breath cycle one half breath at a time.
No need to block out any other experience that arises.
See having the breath in the foreground of the awareness.
Experience in the background.
Makka.
U91.
And perhaps there's enough steadiness and mindfulness now to expand that field of awareness to the whole body.
Perhaps noticing the effect of the breath on the whole body,
Nostrils,
Throat,
Chest,
Back,
Sides,
Maybe even the upper arms,
Maybe even subtly in the lower half of the body.
And if at any point through the rest of the meditation,
The mind starts to feel scattered and the mindfulness week,
Feeling free to come back to just noticing the breath for a few seconds or for the rest of the meditation.
If you are noticing the whole body,
Again,
Having that sense of settling in and receiving sensations of the body,
Perhaps tingling vibration,
Tightness,
Looseness,
Heaviness,
Lightness,
Different temperatures,
Any sensations within the body or on the surface of the body.
Perhaps taking a simple Wilks the ever constant changing flow of body sensations and now perhaps there's enough steadiness and mindfulness to expand our awareness to the sense of hearing no need to go out looking for sounds or labelling them,
Analysing them having that sense of receiving sounds perhaps as though you're sitting in a soundscape of ever changing pictures and volumes and tones no sound perhaps sounds coming from your device from the room that you're in or the outside environment perhaps even from within your body receiving sounds perhaps you might even notice that for a fraction of a second there might be some spaces between sounds continuing to notice sounds and the spaces between sounds no sound and perhaps the steadiness and mindfulness is refined enough now that you might be able to be mindful of sounds within your head perhaps a harsh critical voice perhaps a to-do list as best you can,
Receiving these sounds in the same way that you receive the external sounds no need to block them out,
No need to go chasing them either and also paying attention to the spaces between these sounds that our inner voices or thoughts make no need to strain or force this in any way always the option to come back to the home base of the breath perhaps you can have some sense of the coming and going,
The constantly changing flow of the thoughts no sound perhaps the spaces between those sounds in our head steady,
Relaxed,
Receptive no sound no sound now if it feels right for you,
Letting go of any object of attention and again,
Settling back in that relaxed,
Steady state and receiving whatever is there to be received no need to do anything,
Just being constant flow of sensations,
Both physical,
Heard thoughts maybe like that mountain with all the weather patterns,
Coming and going imperfect,
Impermanent and impersonal no sound no sound no sound no sound no sound no sound
