Sitting tall,
Whether on the floor or bench or cushion,
Or in any posture that allows you to release effort and trying and striving.
Relax into a bright,
Wakeful attention.
Begin with an invitation of kindness for ourselves and others here and far.
The gesture of setting aside the stories that are unfolding through our life,
Inviting the mind into silence and rest for a few moments,
Is a kind of embodied kindness.
To say that whatever it is that's pulling our attention,
Usually the various challenges,
The painful aspects of life and relationship,
We set those aside for a few moments.
We direct the intention of loving kindness,
Of love,
Of intimate,
Sweet friendship toward ourselves and then toward others.
To bring the body and mind into rest is embodied kindness.
To awaken mindfulness so that attention comes back to the body,
Back to this moment when it's pulled away by story,
By difficulty,
Is an embodied kindness.
Mindfulness itself,
The quality of knowing what's happening without being lost in story or analysis or complaint or judgment,
Is an embodied kindness.
Bring the attention to the body in its posture.
Connect with breathing for a moment and invite the breath to be as comfortable as possible.
Maybe deepening the breath or relaxing around it.
Maybe relaxing the musculature of the ribs and belly,
Low belly,
Or softening back into your seat,
Letting the bowl of the hips carry you,
Floating the upper body,
Buoyant with breath.
To breathe in a way that's comfortable as best we can is an embodied kindness.
The process of sitting is a process of learning to resist the pull of those parts of the mind,
The psyche,
Our culture,
Our history,
That pull us only into complaint,
Judgment,
Analysis,
Worry.
The impulse to lose ourselves in that which is difficult is natural in the way that trauma is natural.
But it's not inevitable and it doesn't need to be agreed to.
If you find story or image strong or ever overwhelming,
You might play with opening your eyes,
Letting there be a little movement in the head and neck.
Or deepening into the central column and brightening the breath,
Bringing strength or force more brightly into the body.
There's no one way to gather the attention.
In the same way that there's no one way to dance,
But it's always possible to fall,
There's always gravity,
Other bodies,
The architecture around us.
No matter how you dance,
You watch out for the walls,
You watch out for the rough spots in the floor,
You watch out for other people.
In the same way,
In meditation,
The rough spots and the architecture and the other people around are these qualities of mind we call the hindrances.
Grasping,
Fearing,
Hatred,
Restlessness,
Worry,
Doubt,
Dullness.
Watch out for them.
Dance away from them.
Learn where they are in your psyche and learn how to not bump into them.
All of the techniques are simply different ways to dance,
Such that we don't fall into the holes,
The traps,
The rough spots,
The old wounds.
This is not avoiding,
But a kind of intimacy that stays embodied and kind even as we know where we are.
This is what's happening in my life.
This is what feels good.
This is what's painful.
And I gather the attention into the body to rest here and let the energies of this moment move through.
The general guideline is to gather the attention in an easeful and consistent way into the present,
With the body,
Breath as the anchor,
To come back again and again when we get scooped away or we slip on a rough spot in the mind-heart.
And the sweet moments in the dance are when we know where we are fully enough that our vigilance relaxes and that grace fills the body.
For a moment there's just dancing,
The mind quiet and clear,
The heart open and present,
And the body is the body.
Let the body be comfortable.
Let the mind be comfortable.
And the heart filling with kindness.
This is an embodied kindness.
