Living AWAKE – Guided Foundation Meditation

A daily 24-minute guided meditation rooted in the First Foundation of Mindfulness. Reconnect with your body, soften tension, slow your breath, and rest in your innate wisdom. Great for beginners and experienced practitioners alike.

Transcript

Hi there,

This is Eric with Living Awake.

I'd like to welcome you to a guided meditation practice that you can use every day.

And we'll start the meditation in about a minute.

Just a little background is that this practice is based on the first of the four foundations of mindfulness.

It comes from a sutra from the Buddha.

So 2,

600 year old tradition coming right to you through me from all my teachers.

I'm so grateful for everyone who's shared the practice with me and now I'd love to share it with you.

So four foundations of mindfulness if you haven't heard of them.

The first one is mindfulness of the body.

And that's what this meditation's gonna be mainly about.

We may get into a little bit of the second foundation of mindfulness,

Which is mindfulness of feeling tones.

So in the West,

We may say I'm anxious or I'm angry or I'm stressed.

But in the East,

In these teachings,

You actually go into the present moment experience and feel what you're feeling in your nervous system.

So say anxiety,

That's just a label,

Right?

What's really going on?

Oh,

My chest feels tight.

My breath feels short,

Right?

So that's vedana is the Sanskrit word it comes from.

But that's the second foundation of mindfulness,

Mindfulness of feeling tones.

We won't get to this today,

But just so you know,

The third foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of mind.

And then the fourth is mindfulness of object of mind.

That one's really interesting because it matters what you're thinking in your mind because that creates your life.

But this meditation is designed to be something you can practice every day,

Very foundational.

And it doesn't mean just for beginners,

Actually.

We've been doing,

I've been practicing 25 years.

And this practice is something I start my practice with every morning,

No matter what other practices that I've been given to work on.

So yeah,

Let's jump in.

So just to give you a little sense of something here,

You could put your hand out and kind of hold it,

Grasp it,

Right?

And maybe it make it a little tight,

Right?

So this is mainly how we feel in this culture in the world right now,

Right?

It's,

There's so much going on.

There's so much demands on our time,

Political stuff,

Environmental stuff,

Right?

Our nervous systems are feeling like this,

Right?

This meditation is just designed to go ahead and soften your hand.

And then you can even let it like hang down,

Right?

That's all it is.

That's what today's about.

It's just we're running around this world like this,

Trying to fix stuff,

Trying to figure things out,

Trying to solve problems,

Right?

But the problem is,

Is our mind isn't gonna be the solution.

This,

Let it go,

Rest.

Because when you let go of the busyness of mind and all that grasping and efforting and trying so damn hard to figure everything out and make everything right in the world and in your own personal life,

That letting go might let go into some tension in your body or emotional pain,

Physical pain,

But I guarantee and I promise that underneath that,

As you know,

If you've practiced for a while,

Underneath that is your innate wisdom.

And that is the space that makes the trees and the rivers,

Whatever you wanna call that,

Source energy,

Your innate goodness,

Buddha nature,

So many words for it.

But you have the wisdom that has created this whole universe.

That's who you really are.

And it's hiding underneath the confusion of mind,

Guaranteed.

So let's practice together,

Letting go of mind tension and physical tension so that you can relax into your innate nature.

And then you can be of best service for your own life and for others.

Yeah.

So let's kick it off with three breaths.

Yeah.

So we'll be breathing in through the nose.

We'll hold at the top and then a big old sigh out the mouth.

So we're going for audible exhales.

Big inhale of fresh energy through the nose.

Rest at the top.

Notice how your mind might even give you a little break when you hold.

Exhale out the mouth.

This next one,

Biggest inhale of the day so far.

If you like an extra sip at the top.

Now hold a little longer this time till it's a little uncomfortable and you really wanna let go.

And when you let go,

Let go of all that worldly tension that we all carry.

And then just simply let your breath return to normal.

No longer controlling the breath.

And for starters,

Just notice that you have a body.

So that might sound strange,

But if we're honest,

We spend most of our time in our heads.

So let's go into the body,

The other 90% under the neck.

And I have a fun little trick for you.

One way to look at it is,

Imagine if you just got a body,

You never had a body before this moment.

And it's like,

Wow,

There's so much to notice in the present moment.

So just take a few moments to notice your body.

Notice the tingling of your skin.

Feel the butt on the cushion,

Back of the legs.

Notice your feet contacting the ground,

The earth.

Maybe notice places body is making contact.

And that could be as simple as your skin touching the air.

Maybe something we rarely notice is skin making contact with clothing.

Maybe you're just noticing maybe notice what gravity feels like,

Like the gravity hold you in your seat.

Just let yourself be heavy.

Sometimes it feels we're so in our minds,

Spinning,

Racing,

Doing.

So just starting to feel what it feels like to just be heavy with gravity.

And since we're practicing mindfulness of body,

The first foundation of mindfulness,

You want to include all the senses.

So a good one is often hearing since eyes are most likely closed.

There's not a lot of seeing going on.

See if you can just hear some sounds.

Maybe some of those sounds seem far away.

Maybe some seem closer.

Just do your best not to label the sounds.

It doesn't matter if you would label it like a car passing by,

That's too much.

Just see what it feels like to hear.

So rest your awareness right on the ear where the sound vibrations go into your ear and just see what it feels like to hear for a little while.

And you could do the same with all the senses.

Just one more to practice with is maybe sense of taste.

So just rest your awareness on the taste buds.

And it doesn't matter if you would label it like coffee or tea or toothpaste.

It's just noticing,

Tasting,

Tasting.

You can even notice how mind feels this morning.

So in the Buddhist path,

There's six senses,

Not just five like they teach us in the West.

So mind has a felt sense to it.

And that's also included in this first foundation.

How does mind feel in this moment?

Is it spacious?

Is it tense?

And you don't answer the question,

You just notice.

And then just come back into tactile.

Continuing to feel that you have a body.

And at this point,

Be sure that you allow all the sensations to have a seat at the table.

Meaning some sensations might be unpleasant.

I know I get busy in this world and my jaw can be tight,

My throat,

Chest,

Belly.

So just allow any uncomfortable feelings as well,

Unpleasant feelings.

And it's almost like if a dear friend came to the door of your house and knocked and they were having a hard day,

You would drop everything and you would really just be there for them.

And that's just what you're doing for yourself right now.

So just for a few more moments,

Really being with all the sensations.

They could be pleasant,

It could be kind of neutral,

They could be unpleasant.

So just being okay as best you can with whatever's arising.

So a little example,

If there was some tightness in the shoulders,

Just recognize there's some tightness.

And instead of pushing it away,

Just allow it to feel tight.

See if you can lovingly just stay with your experience.

And then perhaps you wanna move to a new sensation that you're noticing.

They say there's a lot of tension in the shoulders.

There's 20 sensations per second.

So there's plenty to notice.

Could be emotional,

It could be more physical.

And another word for love is where it comes from is just paying attention.

So just recognize,

Allow.

And then just soften.

Let all the tensions of the world just melt down.

So let your shoulders drop away from the ears.

Let your chest release.

Let your belly hang out and down.

Maybe release any holding on in the pelvic floor.

And use whatever breath feels best for your nervous system.

So this first part has been really getting embodied,

Really getting in touch with your body and sensations,

Feelings.

And just recognize,

Allow,

Soften.

And then we'll get into the breath.

Breath is a great object.

Because as long as you're alive,

It's always moving.

So just start to know that you're breathing in.

Know that you're breathing out.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

And if mind's extra busy in this moment,

You could note inside your mind for just a few rounds of breath.

Simply breathing in.

As you feel all the sensations of the breath coming in.

And you could simply note breathing out.

As you feel that nice release,

That letting go.

And you may notice I haven't said anything about thoughts yet.

So of course,

Thoughts will arise during your practice.

Thoughts are not a problem.

You're not trying to make thoughts go away.

Instead,

You just let them arise and let them move through like little fluffy clouds in the spacious sky-like mind that you have.

So just don't get attached to the thoughts.

Try not to follow them.

And instead,

Put all your energy,

All your awareness into the present moment.

Just observing the breath and how it moves your body,

Your upper torso.

You feel like the expansion is like an expanding balloon.

And then it settles back down.

And just continue to stay with the breath.

And if you get pulled away by a thought,

No big deal.

You could just say in your head if you like,

Thinking on an inhale,

Thinking on an exhale.

And then just come back to the object of the meditation,

Which right now is the breath and how it feels as it moves in the body.

And now we're moving on to another stage in this meditation which revolves around interdependence.

So if you allow the exhale to slow down a bit,

Allow the exhale to become smoother,

A bit longer,

It'll start to slow the mind down.

And it will also start to relax the body.

So for a minute or two,

Just see if you can allow the breath to become slower,

Smoother.

It's definitely not forceful.

Real gently if you want,

You could start to breathe more down into the belly on the inhale.

You feel the belly first,

The middle,

The upper lungs with air.

And then you let it empty out from the top down.

And no need to count the breath,

But if you were,

It would be a few counts longer on the exhale.

Just slowing down right in the middle of this busy culture.

It's the best thing we can do.

Slow down,

Tune in.

And going a little deeper,

You'll notice there's actually four parts of the breath.

So you have that inhale.

Then there's the pause at the top.

There's the exhale and the pause at the bottom.

Let's see if you can add that in,

Leave a little more space between breaths.

So you're lengthening the exhale,

Nice and soft,

Like a leaf slowly falling to the ground.

Let's see if you can just start to rest in the pauses between breaths,

Another second or two.

So just about three minutes left.

I'm gonna be nice and quiet for three minutes and just wanna give you the last instruction here to work with in your daily practice.

You could do this every day for the rest of your life.

This whole practice is very foundational and will lead you to a full awakening and peace and all the wisdom to lead a very,

Very happy,

Good life.

So for the next three minutes,

You're just gonna stay here with your breath,

Continue to soften the muscles,

Continue to let the breath get slower,

Deeper.

Let the pauses between breaths be longer.

And what's predictably gonna happen is thoughts will arise and you may get hooked by a thought and start thinking of a to-do list or something.

Your job is to catch it as quick as you can.

And just say,

Thinking,

Thinking.

And then just come back to the breath and continue to be here.

If you get caught again,

Come back again.

And the goal is just stay here as long as you can.

You get caught,

You come back,

That's meditation,

Doing great.

So I'll be quiet and I'll let you know when we're done in about three minutes.

And as we move towards wrapping up,

I invite you to do one more big inhale with me,

Hold at the top and a big exhale.

We'll do that in one moment.

But when you breathe in,

Really fill the belly first,

Middle chest,

Upper chest,

And then let go from the top,

Middle,

Bottom.

And this is just one more part of your practice called vase breathing.

So whenever you're ready,

Breathe in through the nose,

Down into the belly.

Fill it up to the top.

Rest at the top,

Let your mind expand.

When you exhale,

Release any remaining tension.

Well,

Thank you.

And I hope you can really bring this practice into the world today.

Lots of love.