Before we get started,
What I'd like you to do is just consider your posture.
The Buddha taught
that you can meditate in four different postures,
Sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Or walking.
I'm
assuming most of you are sitting,
You may be lying down.
What I'd like to recommend is that you just
the free flow of your breath and see if you can be situated in such a way that as you breathe,
You can feel your abdomen,
Your belly,
Expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale.
I'm
going to give you a moment to just situate yourself.
When you find yourself in a comfortable
position and your breath being able to flow in the inhalation and the exhalations smoothly,
Deeply,
The belly expanding and contracting,
Then take just a few good deep breaths and
feel yourself come to a sense of presence in this moment,
In the place where you are.
If it helps you to do that,
Take a moment and just feel your body against whatever it is that
is supporting you.
Your legs on the chair,
Feet on the floor,
Head on the pillow.
Your eyes can be open or closed.
It's your choice.
The Dharma teaches us and our literature tells us
that we have suffering in our lives.
We have discomfortability.
We have things in our lives
that make things uneasy.
This word dukkha that we hear,
The meaning of the word is simply a wheel
that doesn't fit properly on the axle.
It makes the ride rough.
Whether we're dealing with violence
in our lives,
A child who's unhappy,
Marriage is difficult,
A job that's uncertain,
We all have
something happening.
We also know that our cravings make it worse.
Our cravings and our
sense of aversion,
Things that we want but can't have or shouldn't have,
Things that we don't want
and try to desperately push away.
We get caught in this cycle,
Clinging and aversion.
We forget
to simply experience the joy of the moment.
I'd like to do just a simple body and breath
meditation.
In recovery,
We need to bring mindfulness to our clinging,
To our aversions,
And the ways that we help to create and perpetuate our own sense of suffering.
To
bring that kind of mindfulness into our lives,
We have to take conscious effort to develop that kind
of mindfulness.
And in my experience,
Mindfulness is best developed through the power of the breath.
So again,
Take a good,
Deep inhalation and let it go.
You can even make a little sound if you'd
like.
Just exhale deeply.
And as you inhale,
Feel your belly expand.
As you exhale,
Feel your belly
contract.
And then allow a sense of mindfulness to come to this process.
Not a sense of evaluation,
Am I doing it right?
Am I doing it wrong?
Am I breathing deeply enough?
But just simply mindful
of your breath.
The inhalations,
The exhalations.
Your breath is your closest friend,
Your closest
ally.
It was there at the beginning of your life.
It will be there when your life ends.
And it's there every day,
In each moment,
Waiting for you to greet it with mindfulness,
And to let the breath do its work in helping us to understand how our suffering feels in our body,
Our feelings,
And our thoughts.
We ground ourselves in our breath.
And when your attention
wanders,
Because our brains begin to think and pursue thoughts,
Greet that with compassion.
Just know it's what our brains do,
We think.
You don't need to hold on to a thought.
You don't
need to push it away.
Just return to your practice.
Return to the breath.
The Buddha's
instructions for meditation were remarkably simple.
Breathing in,
I know that I'm breathing
in.
Breathing out,
I know that I'm breathing out.
Just that simple.
And when you find your
attention wavering,
Without blame,
Without any feelings of failure,
Simply return.
Over and over,
Breath after breath.
And as you continue to settle,
Let your awareness,
Let your mindfulness
extend out into your body.
Awareness of the breath still there,
But perhaps now on the
periphery in the background.
Be aware of your whole body as you breathe.
Your breath.
Your
body.
This moment.
This place.
And as you hold your body in breath and mindful awareness,
You may begin to feel a sense of contentment.
I encourage you to hold yourself open to that.
There's a beautiful simplicity here.
Nothing we have to worry about.
Nothing we have to accomplish.
Nothing that has a time frame or judgment.
Just breathing.
Just presence in the body.
Such relief.
We can practice in this way whenever life feels too fast,
Too rough.
But this is also a foundational practice.
We have sufferings in our life.
We each play a
role in creating and perpetuating our own discomfort.
And we need to see those things
dispassionately,
Clearly.
And so we set the stage with mindfulness of body and breath.
That our feelings can become clear to us.
Experiences that are negative or positive.
Emotions that are difficult and why.
With mindfulness,
We see these things.
We feel
these things.
We explore these things.
As we come toward the end of this meditation,
I encourage you to bring your full attention back to your breath.
Take a moment to readjust
your posture.
See if you can feel your belly expand and contract with the inhalations and
the exhalations.
Let your breath be deep.
