Let Go, Let Be, Laying Down the Burden

Basic guided meditation instructions on mindfulness of breathing, lead by Bhante J during a retreat at Bhavana Society.

Transcript

And so we begin by taking a comfortable position,

A comfortable posture.

With your upper body erect,

But not tight,

You should have the natural curvature of the spine.

You want to set up your body in a way that will be comfortable for a long period of time.

So it's not taking you away from your practice.

And as you're setting up your body,

Bring your awareness to your body.

What is the feeling of your legs crossed,

Or not your hands?

The balance of your upper body.

Be aware of these things as you're setting up your posture.

And we begin with taking three deep breaths.

When you make it a habit to start your meditation out with these three deep breaths,

You train your mind to know that now it is time to spend with our mind,

With the object of our concentration or practice.

From here on in,

Allow your breath to come and go naturally.

We do not try to control our breath in any way.

We put our awareness just on the fact that we are breathing in and breathing out.

We remind ourselves that we are here to spend time with the breath.

Friends,

We come to our meditation with many responsibilities,

Many burdens,

Many things that weigh heavily on our minds.

Family,

Friends,

Work,

School,

All of these things.

Just like the mighty Atlas holds the world on his shoulders,

We too hold our world on our shoulders.

Just for the time of this meditation,

We practice putting our world down,

Letting go of the burden.

There will be plenty of time after this retreat,

After this meditation,

To pick up the burden again,

Which our mind likes to do.

But for now,

We practice letting go.

We let go of a burden just as if we had a heavy backpack.

And we take it off as a feeling of lightness,

Of freedom.

Letting go as we follow the breath.

If a thought from the past comes up,

We remind ourselves,

Let go of the past.

Let be the past.

If a thought from the future comes up,

Let go of the future.

Let be the future.

And as these thoughts arise,

We don't try to push them away or develop aversion towards them.

We acknowledge that they're there.

And we let them go.

Going back to the breath.

Whenever you get distracted away from your breath,

That's okay.

That's natural.

No need for judgment,

Self-criticism.

Acknowledge this distraction.

Let it go.

And put your awareness back on the breath.

You don't need to focus on any particular point.

If you feel the breath coming in and out of the nostrils,

You can focus there.

If not,

That's okay.

If you feel the breath in the chest or the diaphragm as it expands and contracts,

You can follow it there.

Or you can just keep your basic awareness that you are breathing in and breathing out.

This body does not need you to breathe.

This body has been breathing since the moment it was born and will continue to breathe until it dies.

Whether you're paying attention to it or not.

So let the breath do what it does.

And your job is to observe it.

Observe the breath coming in.

Observe the breath going out.

As your focus increases and your mind begins to calm down,

You might begin to notice various characteristics of the breath.

Sometimes you breathe in short or breathe out short.

Sometimes you breathe in long or breathe out long.

Sometimes you breathe in long deep breaths or breathe out short shallow breaths.

Whatever is happening,

You're not controlling this.

You're observing as it happens naturally.

Observe these characteristics of the breath.

Observe the breath coming in.

When you observe the breath,

You observe impermanence in action.

All things rise for a time.

They persist for a time,

Always changing.

And then they cease.

Now,

As you begin to notice the basic characteristics of the breath,

Focus your attention on the full cycle of the breath as you breathe in the pause when the lungs are full of air,

The tension.

Tension that is then released as we breathe out.

And then after there is no more air left,

The anxiety of lungs that are empty.

And the happiness that arises as the lungs begin to full with life once more.

Breathing in and the pause between.

Breathing out and the pause between.

Follow this full cycle.

Rewards and cannonballs.

If something arises like pain that is very,

Very strong and takes your full attention away from your breath,

Observe that pain or that itch.

Look deeply into it.

Watch as it changes and fades away.

If you need to adjust your posture,

Do so slowly and mindfully with clear awareness of how your body moves.

And then we let go and come back to the breath.

Whenever we're distracted,

We come back home to our breath.

It's always there,

Whether we're paying attention to it or not.

As we practice this concentration,

This focus,

We develop calm,

Tranquility,

And peace.

This leads us towards deep concentration,

Which allows us to see more deeply than we ever could before.

Observe the characteristics of the breath.

Find yourself to let go of what arises.

That is your craving.

It is showing you what you're attached to.

We practice letting it go,

At least for the duration of this meditation.

And then we come back to the breath.

We come back to our real home.

We take this home with us wherever we go.

It's always waiting to welcome us back.

Let go.

Let be.

Havefully.

You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you

Reviews

This was such a good meditation on the breath, many thanks

Thank you so much for this great meditation. I feel very connected and grounded. After 'let go, let be' I thought it was complete because the ambient background noise went out and it was silent, the longer period of silence at the end came as a surprise to me. Thank you!

A beautiful, spacious and gentle practice. Thankyou.

Excellent guideance with blissful long silence at the end.

Das hat sehr gut funktioniert, vielen Dank dafür!!

Well done. Many thx.

Thank you teacher. I was able to feel e peacefulness after the sitting.

Good instructions

My first 25 minute meditation! Truly enjoy your voice. I feel amazing. Thank you.

Calming, grounding, will come back to this. 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 Let it all just be!

Best guided meditation ive found for cultivating a practice that focuses on the breath. Thank you

Clear, practical instructions and flexible enough to accommodate a wide audience. Enough time to practice throughout and at the end makes the meditation top notch paired with wording. Will be trying Bhante’s other meditations because I loved this one.

Straight to the view of meditation. It makes me drop all burden we usually carry. Will come back again to it. One of my favorite 🙏

Feeling Peaceful thank you 😊

Helpful for me. My hindrance tends to be restlessness, with the mind often planning. The occasional guides here bring me back to the breath.

Lovely, basic but calming. Letting it go.

Thanks for the guided meditation, Bhante Jayasara!

We (my mother and I) really enjoyed this meditation. Thank you!

Great setup and guidance on what to pay attention to!

This is 30 mins long with a bell at the end. The last 5 mins of silence is pure bliss for me. Thank you.