The Veda Na meditation,
A 43 minute seated meditation.
Just gently allowing the body to be held.
Held and supported by gravity as we rest here.
Gently practicing stillness,
A poised,
Alert posture.
At the same time,
Grounded and relaxed.
Dropping deeply into the body,
Onto the breath,
Sensations in the body.
Practicing awareness of all the different sensations of the breath in the body.
Allowing the body to be breathed by the breath.
A natural breath.
Gently flowing in.
Expansion.
Gently flowing out.
Coming back,
Coming home.
Feeling the breath in the belly,
The chest,
The throat,
The nose.
The whole body breathing.
And so within the body becoming curious of any physical experiences.
Maybe gently noticing that some have the initial arising of pleasure.
Some the initial arising of unpleasant.
I know there's none.
Boring.
Neutral.
Just getting to know our Vedana.
The hedonic tone.
The initial arising of pleasant.
The initial arising of unpleasant.
The initial arising of neutral.
So just gently practicing getting to know our actual experience as it arises.
Letting go of the automatic response,
The unaware response,
To the unpleasant with aversion of pushing away.
So letting go of this aversion.
And at the time maybe letting go of craving.
This arises when we're not aware of the initial pleasant.
And another time getting to know our neutral,
Our neutral Vedana.
When we're not aware of the neutral this can cause confusion.
So with kindness,
Curiosity,
Receptivity,
Just gently investigating our Vedana.
Unpleasant Vedana.
Pleasant Vedana.
Waking up to areas of neutral,
Of dullness.
Sort of defrosting the neutral areas of the body.
And then resting in a more open,
Fluid awareness.
Open awareness.
Where we allow everything to arise and pass away.
Free of craving.
Free of aversion.
Free of confusion.
So firstly investigating unpleasant sensations in the body.
And maybe there's an automatic wanting this to go away,
Pushing this away,
This whole dimension of awareness.
And just maybe saying to ourselves it's okay.
Let everything in.
Arriving fully.
Maybe just scanning the body,
Noticing any areas where there's subtle contraction or resistance or gross resistance.
Behind or beneath that resistance there will be unpleasant sensations arising and passing.
So gently softening.
Coming closer to the actual sensations in this part of the body.
Softening.
Softening.
Softening.
Softening.
Maybe breathing into these sensations.
Breathing out of these sensations.
Softening the contraction.
Getting closer and closer to the bare awareness of sensation.
This hedonic evaluation of unpleasantness.
And to the best of our abilities,
Allowing these sensations to arise and pass away,
Moment to moment.
If at any point we feel overwhelmed,
Coming back to a safe anchor.
Back to self-compassion.
And just noticing the arising and the passing.
Letting go of resistance.
Letting go of aversion.
Free of resistance.
Free of aversion.
Now shifting our awareness to pleasant sensations in the body.
Are we clinging or wanting more?
And if so,
We tend to shut it down.
So practicing what happens if we simply rest our awareness in these pleasant sensations as they arise.
And pass away.
Maybe a softness in the belly.
Pleasant.
Peace in the room.
Pleasant.
Bringing our awareness to bear on these subtle ordinary things which often go unnoticed.
Leaning our awareness in towards subtle pleasant sensations in the body right now.
Letting go of craving.
Letting go of clinging or grasping.
And practicing a more open relaxed awareness of what is actually happening.
Pleasant sensations free of craving.
How does that feel?
Letting go of preferences.
Accepting whatever.
Looking to know our awareness.
Now shifting our awareness to neutral vedana.
Maybe this parts of our body we've never paid attention to.
We're gently investigating the dull,
The numb.
And if we notice ourselves zoning out,
Drifting off.
Recognizing that this too will have its consequences,
Confusion,
A dull mind.
So practicing a clear awake mind.
Letting go of dullness.
Letting go of confusion.
Getting closer and closer to what is actually happening.
These moments of arising of experience,
The beginning of a new experience.
And catching it with our awareness.
And practicing letting go of automatic reactions and maybe choosing a different response.
Practicing wakefulness.
Practicing kindness.
Mad sparked human receptivity.
And now if you choose,
Moving to a lying down posture or staying as you are if you're happy where you are.
Slowly and slowly.
And just gently settling down into our new posture.
Gently opening up to a more open awareness.
Just breathing.
Just noticing.
Just noticing our vedana.
Unpleasant vedana.
Softening our resistance to it.
Acknowledging.
Loving.
With our pleasant vedana.
Allowing without clinging.
Getting into the details of pleasant.
Without grasping or holding on.
Exhaling.
Exploring neutral vedana.
Allowing neutral in.
Aquanimity.
Aquanimity.
Walking into deep sound.
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Sometimes unpleasant.
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