In this meditation,
We are seeking a very personal retreat in our own breathing,
Centered around the area of our nostrils,
Which is a traditional object of concentration in the Mahavihara lineage of Theravada Buddhism.
And to begin the practice,
We settle our body,
Speech,
And mind in their natural state of relaxation,
Stillness or stability,
And vigilance or clarity.
In order to do that,
We simply attend to the sensations of our body as we relax all the muscles deeper and deeper.
To establish greater levels of relaxation,
We can do an abbreviated body scan,
Where we direct our awareness to our feet and toes,
Our hands and fingers,
Our pelvic floor,
Our pelvic floor,
Along with our buttocks,
Our shoulders,
And eventually our face,
Relaxing the facial muscles as we breathe in naturally,
And then bringing our awareness to our body as a whole,
Letting go of tension,
Noticing the stability and stillness in the body,
Allowing the breath to move naturally,
Without any impediments from the side of our mind.
Uncontrived breathing.
In this state of natural relaxation and stability,
We establish a positive motivation for this practice,
Thinking about our highest spiritual aspirations,
In our more immediate goals,
Such as greater levels of relaxation,
Stability,
Certain levels of serenity,
And so on,
Making our motivation expansive and altruistic,
Since it encompasses the benefit of others.
And with this as our foundation,
Coming back to our body,
Which becomes the main field of our awareness.
In order to undertake this deeply personal micro-retreat,
A retreat from all objects of distraction and stress,
We bring our awareness to the area of our nostrils and our upper lip,
This area where we start to notice the sensations associated with the breath,
Sensations arising,
Changing and passing with each in-breath,
Each out-breath,
And in the short natural pauses between the two,
The background sensations still present even when there is no obvious movement of the breath.
We are now retreating into this area,
Taking this precious time,
These fifteen minutes,
In order to cultivate our concentration,
Our mental stability,
Our internal serenity,
In order to let go of the mental hindrances,
Such as neurotic desire,
Ill-will,
Dullness,
And so forth.
And in this observation,
In this very simple retreat,
What we are doing is being aware of the sensations on our upper lip or in the apertures of our nostrils,
Resting in this area with our clear,
Vigilant awareness.
Once the novelty of this practice wears out,
Unless we have cultivated a great deal of attentional stability,
We will naturally start to get distracted.
Whenever that happens,
Our job is to simply notice the distraction by applying introspective awareness.
Once we have noticed it,
We relax,
We let go of the distracting object,
And we return to our tiny retreat house in the area of our nostrils,
Continuing the observation,
Resting there,
In this safe haven.
Whenever we notice that the mind is succumbing to a lethargy,
Dullness,
Certain laxity,
We need to increase the acuity of our awareness by attending more closely,
With greater interest,
Greater zest for practice,
Knowing that this very simple process of observation will yield great results in terms of bringing us greater levels of stability,
Clarity,
And even bliss,
Bliss coming from a thoroughly balanced state of mind.
With this understanding,
We continue attending closely.
In this observation process,
It's important to make sure our face,
Our shoulders,
And our body are completely relaxed.
So whenever we notice certain tension rising up,
We let go,
Relax deeply,
And continue attending to the breath.
The sensations of the breath in our nostrils and on our upper lip.
Usually we just pick one area and stick with it,
Exploring it with our clear awareness.
Any other questions?
Once again,
Attending to the breath with greater acuity and greater levels of relaxation for one more minute.
Now to very gradually conclude this very short retreat,
The short meditation practice,
Bringing our awareness to our entire body once again,
Noticing the entire network of sensations,
Their dance in our body.
And then when we feel ready,
Finding certain joy in the fact that we have just done this wonderful practice.
We have spent this time cultivating our awareness,
Our attention,
Our mindfulness,
Our introspection.
So with this joy and appreciation,
Mentally dedicating all of this effort,
Through liberating my own mind,
May I bring greater happiness and joy to all beings.
And may I bring all beings to freedom from suffering.
We also remind ourselves that this awareness of our breathing is always available to us,
Wherever and whenever.
So when we need to rebalance our mind,
When we need to retreat into our beautiful,
Relaxed and spacious awareness,
We can always come back to the breath in this area,
Finding greater and greater levels of peace and clarity.
With this understanding,
We conclude the practice and invite the bell.
