Cultivating Samadhi

In this profoundly calming practice we become deeply grounded to the present, invoke a sense of supportedness and safety, sample the feelings of an enjoyable and restorative breathing practice, and resonate with the body in all of it's sensations, until breathing becomes apparent. Embrace this soothing practice and absorb the ‘sigh;’ the felt impression.

Transcript

So I'd just like to offer a guided theme on calming or steadying or calming the mind.

The theme of calming often we say calming down but actually I'd suggest it's more like calming up from the ground and being able to enter from a fairly simple place,

As simple as possible and using that tone,

That sign,

That quality of grounded simplicity to help the mind to first of all divest itself of particular topics and then also to divest itself of particular ways of working and even a particular speed of working,

Which we would generally refer to as to the conceptual sense,

Going to the conceptual sense which works at a fairly rapid speed.

And we want that,

You know,

You want to deconstruct some of both the topics that it carries and even the behaviours that it has,

Which is often very quick and running on.

So there's a much more process of resonating and pausing and how's that,

And lingering in effects,

Lingering in effects,

Sampling it,

Returning to it.

So it's really like the whole quality of one pointedness,

Really one theme is to be able to stay with one particular sense and resonate with it,

Steady it,

Till it also becomes part of this grounded quality.

So just to begin with the most simplest way of,

The simplest kind of behaviour to access ground,

Ground beneath us,

Acknowledging physical sensations,

The seat,

We want to sitting cross-legged or on a chair,

Firm foundation,

And dwelling in that,

Whether it's just the physical sensations and perhaps even taking a bit longer to really get the sense as if you're handing your body over to the ground in that place,

You're not resisting,

You're actually spreading and widening into that.

Physically nothing much seems to happen,

Not because of slight change,

But tonally it's a little more rested than just if we're kind of perched here.

Grounding,

Then sensing how,

You know,

This is firm,

Am I really just with this,

Kind of slow my mentality from and the next to taking that no next,

There's no next,

Take that out,

Sensations,

And what we call a mental tone or a felt sense of hmm,

This doesn't really ask anything,

Doesn't go anywhere.

As if when you're sitting on the ground or sitting on your chair,

Also get a sense of widening as if there's a peripheral,

You might say,

Sense of well,

How far out,

How far does this go,

Is the space around me also free from any kind of intrusion or obstruction?

So that the mind has got no sense of having to deal with anything or be on guard against anything or hmm.

Around and then it's taking your time to check and to ask all of your,

What you sense as your body,

How is it in this space?

It's going to be simple enough just to notice there is space,

There's a body here and the space hmm.

There's a body here,

How do you know that?

How do you really get that?

I think with some firmness in it,

Warmth in it,

Certain textures,

Vitality,

Movements.

And being very sketchy about the anatomical details,

We might know there's a body here and there's a bottom and a top,

Front and behind.

And destructuring the mental apparatus around this.

What we really want to know is grounded and is it balanced so it doesn't require a lot of continual shifting or holding,

Can it find a balance where it more or less holds itself?

The top and the bottom are in line and there's a sense of connection and that connection is that ComCom is present in this.

And a kind of firmness or purposefulness which says to.

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We know this isn't a lot to do,

Holding this still we say to.

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You know,

We want to use that simplicity to simplify our mental behaviour so we're not dealing with lots and lots of things.

So the firmness says through other topics,

You know,

People,

Events,

Futures,

So forth,

Could you just wait outside the door for half an hour?

You know,

Get back later,

Just wait outside,

Make yourself comfortable,

Go and sit by the fire in the kitchen and we'll get back there later.

And just being quite kindly but firm about that,

Now it's not the time now.

Making that.

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You want any kind of mental behaviour,

That's what you want,

That simple repeated firmness to that and then repeated affirmation,

There is this body and the ground and the space.

Any themes or topics that seem to have an embodied sense to them?

You don't really need to understand them or give them any thought,

But just feel the bodily sense,

How that seems to you and place it into this light open bodily form,

That's not a lot of details,

I.

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And just you can also let it sit,

Let it touch the ground,

Welcoming in and use your breathing like an out-breath to invite it and to change its energy from rushing up to settling down,

Bringing the ground up to meet these obstructions.

Just subduing the ideas or the concept of breathing or any background perceptions of that,

Just if we don't even know what that word means.

Just tuning into this body,

Sensing within that anything that's got rhythmically and intimately exerts a kind of swelling pressure and subsides and first you don't even need to know where.

Swelling,

Slowly swelling pressure slowly subsides to something quiet and then there is again.

And holding back on the conceiving mind,

Sensing just simply this pressure,

This subsiding within this bodily experience,

How that affects things.

Just as if you're beside a river,

You can feel the flowing,

Surging of that,

Certainly energy in that,

Surging,

Flowing quality,

But something about this one is it seems to go back one way and then return.

So it's more like a pulse in nature,

But so much slower than normal pulses we might read.

Imagine this is like a pulse,

A slow pulse of nature,

Of nature at the very primary level.

There's something about that and different tones to that.

There's one aspect of that which seems to push and draw,

It's got some vigor in it.

This is called in breathing.

There's one phase which seems to be slightly different,

Which is,

Doesn't pull,

It just subsides,

It's softer and perhaps even slightly longer.

It's called out breathing.

How long are those phases?

How long is the pulling in phase?

When does it begin and when does it really itself seem to have finished and completed?

When does it seems to,

If it runs out of energy,

Does what it does and then it seems to hover and pause?

Just noting,

If you're sensing it with your fingers,

Like a thread running through your hands.

First of all,

If we drag through or pull through for a certain period,

Then it seems to pause,

Hover,

Flows back,

It's slightly different.

It's softer on the return,

Softer on the out and a bit more stronger on the in phase.

How does that thread change from being drawn?

Pulled in?

Where's the point when it changes into hovering and then running out or trickling out or easing out?

Change over.

Okay.

And the other end,

Maybe that's obvious to you,

Running out,

How that subsides,

Perhaps seems to disappear.

If the thread runs out,

Disappears,

And notice where,

When is the tugging,

The pulling in,

The moment of that beginning.

If we really allow the thread to run all the way out,

And even wait,

Pulling.

So the mind will operate at the rhythm of natural breathing,

Changing its behavior,

Changing its attitudes.

It's now just a custodian of a process,

A willing servant,

Handler of a process,

It's not leading a process,

It's just allowing a process to flow through it.

Seeing what it takes to just see to other things,

No,

Not now,

Not now,

Just wait outside with the others for now.

There's a firmness to its protective quality,

A custodian.

There's also an inner softness,

It's got a firm outer edge to say to other things,

No,

Not in here.

And it's got a soft inner quality to receive and be pleased or care for this life thread,

Which is what it is.

Okie dokie.

So,

The custodian,

Which we will call mindfulness,

Just like the back of the hand,

Acting as a shield or as something that can frame,

And his inner quality,

Called sampajanya,

Or fully aware,

Fully alert,

Fully sensitive to,

Receiving this life thread,

Like the palm of the hand,

The inner surface.

So,

If you get that impression,

That image,

We're not chasing,

Breathing,

We're allowing it to run through,

Like a thread running over the palm of your hand,

Like contact.

It's rippling into you.

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It could be something as simple as a soft warmth that has a swelling rhythm to it that you just like to be with.

It's really handling and getting the,

Looking out for what does the Chitta actually adopt.

Not,

Was it,

Oh yes,

That's what I like.

Oh yes,

That's what I like.

That fits.

What does it adopt?

Willingly.

So that.

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Reviews

Good talk, but I wish there was some ambient noise because I had a few times when there was a large gap in the monologue and I thought I might have fallen asleep, so I checked the app.

Very evocative for me and brought a sense of wellbeing and contentment.

Ajahn Sucitto is amazing

A compassionate, gentle guidance, brilliantly offered.

🙏🏻❤️

Impeccable

Always helpful.

Lovely clear meditation instruction - not sure on some of the Buddhist terms but easy to move around them. Thank you for this practice!

I am drawn to that gente knowingness, wordlessness source.

A solid and calming meditation. Helped me with anxiety attacks.