I feel inspired to welcome you and to support you and lift up your commitment to practice and the fact that you're here now,
Choosing to hit play so that you can come home to yourself.
And we'll use the practice of the sensation of breath in the body as the anchor for coming home.
So beginning by finding a posture that's supportive,
A posture that allows for ease and relaxation,
As well as alertness and wakefulness.
We don't want to be so comfortable that we're falling asleep.
And we don't want to be so alert that we're tense.
It's a balance somewhere in between the two.
A relaxed alertness,
Something that we might call presence,
Cultivating our ability to be present.
And if the eyes close naturally,
Whenever,
Now or in the future,
That's great.
And if they stay open,
That can be supportive too,
If they close and join the darkness that comes with the closed eyes.
And while they're open,
Allowing the gaze to rest onto something that supports your practice.
Sometimes it might be a candle.
Sometimes it might be a spot on the wall or spot on the floor.
Sometimes it might be a flower.
You might choose to place a flower in front of you or a plant.
In the Plum Village monasteries,
Rather than an image of the Buddha at the front of the meditation hall,
We have flowers and candles,
Light and beauty,
Nature.
So whatever object that eyes might rest onto to find ease.
With curiosity,
With interest,
That's what that alertness is about.
Something that we can tune into and care about a little bit.
Allow the gaze to settle on the spot.
If the eyes are enjoying being open.
After we found the posture that supports us,
It might be sitting in a chair,
It might be sitting on a cushion,
Could be standing or lying down.
In that case we might not use a flower or a candle.
But if we're seated,
Whether on the floor,
On a cushion,
On a chair,
We want to ground down through our coccyx or our tailbone,
The tip of the spine.
Ground down.
And through our knees and our feet,
Rooting down to the earth.
Feeling the embrace of gravity.
Experiencing that hug of Mother Earth.
Rooting down,
Being held.
Maybe feeling a softness in the lower body as it lets go into the earth.
And with that softness and letting go that supports ease and relaxation,
We also bring in weightfulness and alertness.
So rooting down in the hips and the legs and lifting up out of the pelvis,
Through the spine,
The crown of the head,
Lifting up toward the sky,
Which allows the chin to tuck ever so slightly.
Broadening the shoulders,
Opening the chest,
Expanding out to the left and right,
Broadening,
Lifting,
Grounding.
We sit here,
We stand here,
We lie here,
Taking up our full dignity,
This present moment human experience that is here.
Awake and alert,
Relaxed and at ease.
We become aware of this precious present moment.
And for this practice period,
We will use the breath as the anchor of our focus that will support us in becoming more and more aware,
More and more awake.
Noticing where we feel the breath most easily.
There's no right place to feel it.
One day there might be greater awareness of the breath and the nostrils.
Another day it might be the little belly.
Another time we come into practice,
It might be awareness of the breath in the chest that's supportive for settling,
For arriving here.
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Noticing for now,
For this practice period,
Where is it most easeful or most pleasant to rest attention on awareness of the breath?
It's not a right answer or a wrong answer,
Just a noticing.
And then choosing that as our resting place,
As our anchor,
As our focus of attention.
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Attention wanders.
That's its nature.
It's not a problem.
The purpose of meditation is to come to know ourselves.
Learn to be what things as they are.
It's not about making things,
Making ourselves any particular way.
So focusing on attention of the breath.
A very powerful way to settle,
To support the heart,
Mind,
And body in settling.
We give it an object.
Just as if a baby has grasped onto something that's not wholesome.
We give it something more wholesome and then it lets go.
It attaches to the more wholesome object.
That's what this attention of focus on the breath is about.
It's a more wholesome object for the mind to attend to.
That's not because the breath is the real end all.
It's a doorway into presence.
We practice so we might be more present in our lives.
And all that time we spend off the cushion,
Not formally meditating.
Allowing that intention to be present to the moment of our life to settle in as we close this period of formal practice.
Thank you.
I'm following a little wake up sound.
I'm in these two full invitations of the bell to arise and pass in awareness.
And once you can no longer hear the bell,
Gradually bringing in movement and light and continuing on to whatever is next in your day.
Keep silence.
RA
