So even if you're in your own home,
Perhaps you could take some of that imagery or perhaps the imagery of being in a secluded cave,
Taking that in to your meditation,
Recognizing that now you are alone and you're supported in that aloneness by the presence of company of spiritual friends,
A community of hermits as Ajahn Brahm likes to refer to his monastery.
So it's wonderful to have the support of other like-minded people and that safety that allows us to go deep inside.
And perhaps just for a moment recognizing all of those busy worldly activities that you've now set aside,
Whether a trust meeting,
A work meeting or a ride home through transport,
Maybe even just cooking your lunch for dinner,
All the sights have disappeared.
The main sound hopefully for you now is the sound of my voice.
And there's lots of silence in the spaces between the words.
The eyes and the ears and gently turn inward,
Turn off.
Where slightly smells,
Tastes are not too disturbing.
So all the sense doors in the head can cool down.
And this helps to bring you more in contact with the physical bodily sensations,
Sense the door,
The physical touch,
Sensing your body sitting,
Hopefully grounded,
The weight supported by your chair or cushion,
And perhaps a sense of extension through the spine.
As though your head were gently reaching up to the light,
Just like the top of these beautiful redwood trees,
Their roots are spread into the earth,
Not so deeply as I expected,
But they're spread firmly and stably.
And the head is reaching like the trees and the branches reach towards the sky.
So you feel upright yet grounded.
Just noticing any sensations that you feel predominantly in your body.
If there is any tension or pain,
Strain,
Particularly around the joints,
Or maybe due to an uneven distribution of weight,
You can gently adjust it at this stage.
And this gives your body a signal that it's in a very kind and friendly presence of your own mind.
You're not here to push it around or contort it in ways that are really unnatural for you.
You're just listening to your body and allowing it to find some ease.
You might wish to roll your shoulders gently back.
Whenever I do that,
I get these clicks in my shoulders.
It just reminds me to release that tension or that strain that may have been caused by sitting at the desk for too long.
And then gently,
If it's good for you,
Just doing a very gentle body scan to really check through each and every part of the body.
And as your mindfulness illuminates,
Whatever sensations you're aware of over there,
Perhaps starting from the top of the hand or if you prefer from the tips of the toes,
As the mindfulness reaches those areas,
Make that mindfulness a medium through which your kindness,
Your care,
Your deep listening can flow.
Just staying inside the body.
Not concerned with any sights,
Sounds,
But committing all your awareness to the experience of the body and the sensations that you feel right now.
So they were the most important thing in the world.
Your only job is to care for them right now.
And to use a simile from the Buddha to help you remain within yourself.
I'd like to just summarize a little story that the Buddha told.
He said,
And this is addressed to the monastics,
Monastics in the past,
Tortoise was searching for food along the bank of a river one evening.
And that same evening,
A jackal was also searching for food along the bank of that same river.
When the tortoise saw the jackal in the distance searching for food,
It drew its limbs and neck inside its shell and passed the time keeping still and silent.
The jackal had also seen the tortoise in the distance searching for food.
So he approached and waited close by thinking when this tortoise extends one or another of its limbs or its neck,
They will grab it right on the spot,
Pull it out and eat it.
But because the tortoise did not extend any of its limbs or its neck,
The jackal failing to gain access to it,
Lost interest in it and departed.
So too,
Meditators,
Mara,
The personification,
If you like of our own defilements or unwholesome states is constantly and continually waiting close by thinking,
Perhaps I'll gain access to this person through the eye or through the ear,
Through the tongue or the nose or the body or through the mind.
Therefore,
We dwell guarding the doors of the sense faculties.
Having seen a form with the eye,
We do not grasp at its signs and features.
If you left the eye faculty unguarded,
Bad unwholesome states of craving and aversion might invade you.
Similarly if at this time any visual images arise in the mind or any sounds or odours,
Tastes or any tactile sensations arise,
We don't grasp at its signs and features.
That means we're not running after these things with craving or with aversion,
Trying to push them away but just let them be and stay inside,
Inside with the mind.
In a similar way,
We guard the mind itself,
Noticing what the mind is inclining toward.
Is your mind inclining to peace,
To silence,
To stillness?
Or is it thinking in ways that disturb that peace,
That stir up water on the clear pool of the mind?
So then in the sutta,
The Buddha says that when we thus dwell guarding the doors of the sense faculties,
Mara,
That is any unwholesome qualities,
Fail to gain access.
Mara loses interest in us and departs,
Just as the jackal departed from the tortoise.
Let's see if we can continue to practice staying with the physical feelings in the body or perhaps the breath or even just the silence,
The peace in the mind.
Noticing any time that your mind is pulled outward,
Accepting it and just drawing yourself back in like the tortoise passing the time,
Keeping still and silent inside.
It's now ready.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As we sit here,
Quietly like tortoises in our shells we know that the jackal will get tired pretty soon and depart.
So long as we stay mindful,
Aware,
With an attitude of kindness and patience,
Respect.
We are safe inside our shell.
That the outside can harm us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Every time we reconnect with the body with the breath,
Even just part of one breath.
Mara cannot find us.
Turning away from the five cents.
Turning towards simplicity,
Contentment,
And turning towards peace.
Thank you.
Just enjoying two or three more breaths.
As long as you wish you don't have to open your eyes,
Just recognizing the peace that you feel right now,
Compared to when you began.
Sometimes we look for great results,
But they can be just simple quietening the mind quietening the senses.
Not quietening is happiness.
There is a sense of peace.
So I will ring the bell,
And hopefully get a little bit of a resonance on it this time.
And at the end of the third ringing,
If you wish,
You may gently open your eyes and notice when you open your eyes.
How the mind is pulled.
Perhaps towards wholesome things,
Or perhaps that site,
The impressions of the eye,
Vision,
Forms are disturbing to the peace,
In which case you're very welcome to close your eyes again.
Oh,
Great.
