Welcome!
This is the 9th of a series of 10 meditations on being present now.
I am Italian and I speak English as a second language,
So if my accent and my grammatical errors interfere too much with your mindfulness practice then I'm sorry but these meditations are not good for you.
In this meditation we will focus mainly on cultivating healthy mind states and letting go of unhealthy mind states.
Realize that everything flows and that we can gently experience everything that appears in our consciousness without grasping things that we like and without fighting against things that we don't like.
As this is done using awareness of breathing and of bodily sensations,
Let's start bringing our attention to our breath.
We can feel the movement of the breathing in the abdomen,
The rising and falling of the abdomen,
Or we can feel the chest expanding and contracting.
Or we can feel the air coming in and out through the nostrils.
You can choose one of these three points of awareness,
The nostrils,
The chest or the abdomen.
And in that point follow the breathing,
The process of the breathing.
The air coming in and going out.
In breath and out breath.
If we need we can take a deep breath or a few deep breaths and also maybe hearing the sound of the breathing.
Every time we breathe out we let go of all the tensions in the body and the mind.
Breathing in I'm following the process and breathing out I let go.
The face is relaxed,
All the muscles of the face,
In the forehead,
In the eyebrows,
The eyes,
The jaw.
And down the neck,
The throat,
The shoulders,
The back.
Let's feel like during every out breath the body softens.
All the muscles become softer.
Maybe there is a warm feeling in the hands,
In the arms,
In the cheeks or in the legs.
If we can we keep our attention,
Our non-judgmental attention to the breathing,
Just following the breathing.
Or if we feel that we cannot really follow the breathing we can always pay attention to the sensations in the body.
Maybe in the neck or in the feet,
The knees or the buttocks pressing against the cushion,
The seat.
We are training our mind to stay here in the present moment.
By following the breathing or going into the sensations by knowing the sensation very closely.
Knowing the quality of each sensation,
Feeling it deeper and deeper,
Going inside the sensations with awareness.
And if the mind drifts away into thinking we become aware,
Happy that we are aware that we are thinking.
Probably some time ago we were not even aware that we are thinking all the time.
So let's be happy.
Now we are aware of our thoughts and we let them go.
We let go of all kind of thoughts.
Pleasant thoughts,
Maybe a fantasy,
A nice recollection,
A good memory.
Or not very nice thoughts,
Maybe a nasty memory,
Something not really good.
Any kind of thought we let go.
We let go of pleasant thoughts,
Unpleasant thoughts,
Or neutral thoughts.
Maybe there is thinking that has not a strong quality attached to it.
It doesn't matter.
We are not judging.
We are just training ourselves to become aware to whatever is passing through our consciousness.
Everything flows through our consciousness but usually we are not aware of all the things that are passing through our consciousness.
Through meditation we can train awareness.
And so be present to all that arises.
Be it pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
And to help the mind develop healthy mental states we can use the loving kindness to help this meditation that consists into developing a specific attitude of the mind towards good intention,
Goodwill.
We can either feel this in the heart or repeat a few words that help connect to that attitude of the mind.
And so always in touch with our breathing I repeat may I be well.
And breathing out I let this well-being,
Feeling spread across the body through the arms till the tip of the fingers,
Down the legs till the tip of the toes.
And up till the top of the head.
Feeling up the entire body.
Maybe it is a warm feeling or maybe just a little vibration.
Breathing in may I be well.
And breathing out I let this well-being flow through the body in every corner of the body reaching every cell.
Breathing in may I be well.
And breathing out I let this well-being spread all across the body.
Breathing in may I be well.
And breathing out I feel the sensations in the body like a tickling,
A softening of the body.
May I be well.
May I be at peace.
Breathing in and breathing out I can keep on repeating these words.
Peace.
Well.
Happy.
Safe.
Through the mindfulness of breathing we become able to widen our heart,
To embrace all that appears into awareness,
All that surface into our consciousness.
But as sometimes there are things that we don't like,
For example fear,
Anger,
Hostility,
Sadness or other things that we don't like,
It is good to develop this healthy state of the mind through the loving-kindness meditation.
That's why we use the awareness of breathing in connection with those words of kindness.
May I be well.
May I be at peace.
May I be happy.
May I be safe.
May I be free from danger,
Coming from inside or outside.
May I be free from hostility.
May I be free from suffering.
May I be free from all conditioning.
So it is really important to be grounded into awareness of breathing.
Between the breath,
The in breath and the out breath.
And then awareness of sensations,
Feeling the different parts of the body,
The burning,
The vibration,
The itching,
The warmth,
The cold,
The sweat,
Whatever is present here right now,
In this very moment,
In my hands,
In my neck,
In my back,
In my legs,
In my face,
At the top of the head,
Because the awareness allows me to see clearly inside of me,
To know myself deeply,
Without illusion,
Without any built ideas,
And seek things clearly also outside of me,
And so be able to choose better for myself and others.
Something so simple like awareness of breathing and of bodily sensations can open up the doors of wisdom.
We just have to let go of all the judgments,
All the ideas,
And if we become aware of judgments,
Hostility,
We just simply let go,
So not adding judgment to judgment or hostility to hostility.
If I become aware that I am irritated or annoyed,
That my mind is into a negative state,
I just let it go.
Everything flows,
And I can replace the negative attitude with a positive attitude through the loving-kindness meditation.
So we actually have three tools – awareness of breathing,
Awareness of bodily sensations,
And loving-kindness meditation,
Which consists in developing a sweet,
Warm heart,
Sincere openness to goodwill towards myself and others,
Towards all beings.
And to facilitate this openness of the heart,
I start first repeating well-being wish to myself,
And then letting it flow outside of my body in all directions,
Embracing all the people that I care about.
May all people that I care about be well.
And opening up also to the people that we meet in our lives,
But towards which we don't have any special feeling.
May all be happy and at peace.
And without losing awareness of breathing,
But feeling the breath in the abdomen,
In the chest,
At the nostrils.
May I be well,
And may you all be well.
May all the people that are present in my life right now be happy and well.
Breathing in,
May I be well.
And breathing out.
I let this warm feeling spread across the space around me,
In all directions,
Feeling the entire space around me.
May all people be happy.
May all people be well.
And now let's get mentally ready to go back with our eyes open,
But first let's stay still a little longer to feel the body,
To take a note about our perception of the body,
The space inside and outside.
And let's thank ourselves.
Thank you,
Thank me for being here,
Training the mind to be in the present moment,
Training the mind to develop a goodwill attitude.
And let it go of all the attachments to ideas,
To concepts,
Thoughts,
And just be,
Being present to what we are right now.
So if we need,
We can move our fingers or shoulders or stretch a little bit.
And slowly we open our eyes.
