Hi,
My name is Adriana DeFazio,
And this is a 20-minute guided shamatha meditation.
Shamatha is otherwise known as peaceful or calm abiding practice,
And we use our breath as an object of attention to settle our mind and body.
Let's start off by taking a tall and comfortable seat.
If you're seating in a chair,
Bring yourself to the edge so that both your feet can firmly plant on the ground beneath your knees at a right angle.
If you're seated on a cushion or on the floor,
I invite you to begin to bring your awareness to your sit bones,
To your shins and calves,
The tops of your feet that are making contact with the earth beneath you.
Place your hands palms down on tops of your thighs,
Then imagine as if there's a gold silky string running along each one of your vertebrae,
And there's someone right above you gently lifting you up.
As you grow tall,
You begin to feel spaciousness through your belly,
Ribs and chest expanding.
Resting your shoulders down your back,
And then tucking your chin in ever so gently to make sure the back of your neck is long and aligned with the rest of your spine.
You may find that your jaw naturally opens,
Lips part,
And that's okay.
Relax your cheeks,
Nose and ears.
Then you have the option to either gently close your eyes or to rest your gaze about three to five feet in front of you,
Downcast,
Not looking at anything in particular but as if you're resting your eyes on cool,
Fresh water.
Smoothing out through the delicate skin around your eyes,
Relaxing your eyebrows,
Temples and forehead.
Let's begin with three deep breaths to relax the nervous system,
Allowing some of the energy of the mind to trickle down and redistribute into the rest of the body.
Start off with a deep inhale through your nose,
Filling in through your belly,
Ribs and chest,
And then exhale,
Release,
Letting everything go.
Again,
Inhale,
Lengthened,
Deep,
Full breath,
And then exhale,
Release,
Relax,
Letting everything go.
One last time,
Inhale,
Filling up,
And exhale.
Release,
Settling further into your body,
Allowing the natural rhythm of your body breathing in and out to arise from this more grounded and settled place.
So our practice in Samatha is to simply rest our awareness on the sensation of our body as it breathes,
Dropping from our thinking mind into a felt sense,
Our bodies,
The ebb and flow of your in-breath and out-breath.
You may feel your breath most noticeably at the tip of your nose or the back of your throat,
Your chest,
Or even your belly.
There's no wrong or right way to feel where your breath is arising.
And it may take a moment to begin to notice the subtleties of your breath as it flows in and out.
As you do so,
I invite you to bring a light touch of awareness to your breath.
As you follow your breath as it flows in and out,
You can imagine that the quality of your awareness is like a light feather floating with that natural ebb and flow.
Letting go of the to-do list,
The things you may have to do after this meditation practice or what you were doing beforehand,
And giving yourself full permission to simply be here.
Be with your body,
Be with your mind and heart,
Letting this be enough.
Continuing to breathe in and out.
You may notice that your mind will naturally wander off to some other object of attention.
And this is normal and a part of our meditation practice.
The technique is to simply notice that we're no longer with our bodies and breath.
And then with a sense of unconditional friendliness,
Patience and gentleness with ourselves,
The same tenderness we would show a young child or a puppy who's first learning how to walk on a leash,
We simply bring ourselves back to the in-breath and out-breath.
We'll practice like this for a few moments,
Applying the technique in silence.
Continuing to rest your awareness on the sensation of your body breathing.
What's helpful,
You can re-relax your jaw,
Re-soften the delicate skin around your eyes.
And re-establish your posture.
Reconnecting to the strength and dignity of an upright but relaxed spine.
Feeling into the confidence in your inherent worthiness as a human being.
The expansion and broadening of your chest.
And then reapplying yourself with a gentle discipline and precision.
Inviting a childlike curiosity to the sensation of your body breathing.
You can gently let go of your breath as your object of concentration.
Now,
Allow your mind to rest in open,
Spacious awareness.
Noticing the sensations of your environment,
Your body.
And we'll close our meditation by bringing some sense of appreciation for yourself.
For choosing to spend 20 minutes in this way,
Cultivating your mind and heart.
Acknowledging your exertion and presence.
And then you can dedicate some of the goodness and the merits of your practice to some person,
Being,
Or group of people that you feel like could benefit from the seeds of mindfulness and loving-kindness that you have.
That you've just cultivated through your practice right now.
Sending and sharing some of that goodness.
And then we can close with three deep breaths,
Just like we began.
Taking a deep inhale through your nose,
Filling up through your belly,
Ribs,
And chest.
And then exhale,
Releasing,
Letting everything go.
Two more times.
Deep inhale.
Inhale.
In your own time,
You can flutter your eyelashes open or raise your gaze.
And bring your awareness back into your immediate environment.
Thank you so much for joining me for this 20-minute guided shamatha practice.
