So if you haven't already,
Take a posture that's comfortable,
Upright,
As well as relaxed.
Just allow the body to settle the best you can.
And then we're going to take three deep,
Slow breaths,
And especially exhale slowly.
This just calms the body down a little bit.
And the mind follows the body.
Then we can just allow the breath to be natural and let go of any desire or sense of control of the breath.
Paying attention,
Just how the body inhales,
How it exhales.
The effort should be towards just noticing the whole body breathing.
What does the mind do when the awareness is on the breath?
If you notice busyness of mind,
Of thoughts arising,
But not passing,
Use wise effort to cultivate non-judgmental attitudes towards these thoughts,
Towards this mind.
The way we accomplish this is by just noticing that thoughts arise and they fade away.
And they don't require us to do anything.
Just to be kind to ourselves,
To be kind to your mind.
If you notice the desire to get involved with these thoughts,
The thoughts that have arisen,
Instead of feeding that desire,
Simply maintain present-time awareness.
You can also turn towards the breath again,
When we just pay attention to the breath.
Just know that there is a breath.
It helps us from getting tangled up in the web of thoughts that come and go.
Another way to experience and cultivate wise effort on the cushion is to turn our awareness towards this sensation of sitting still.
Where the body goes,
The mind follows.
When we pay attention to sitting still,
Really being aware of the body,
Often we notice sensation vying for our attention.
The pain of sitting on the cushion,
Numbness in our feet or our legs,
Sore back,
Itches,
Whatever.
Totally normal.
One way wise effort is incredibly important and helpful is two-fold.
One is putting the effort in to not readjust,
To not scratch that itch,
To just sit there aware of the sensation that's present.
With the understanding that that sensation is impermanent,
It will come and it will go.
And if you sit through the twitch and the itch and the little pain,
They come and they go,
A sense of ease will settle in.
The body will become more still.
As the body increases in stillness,
So does the mind.
Another way to use wise effort in relation to physical sensations is to avoid by avoiding moving or scratching,
By turning the attention back to the breath.
By breath awareness,
We learn to overcome little annoyances in physical sensation.
