31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 12

Welcome! This is the twelfth lesson to a 31-Day Meditation Challenge recently recorded in July of 2020 entitled "Seek and Find Within." The audio recording is divided into an opening discourse and a guided meditation.

INTERVAL MEDITATION REVIEW. It will help you build, discover, and create a perfect breath by reducing your meditation to just 1 breath. Think of it as one unit of meditation and a perfect practice is built through perfect units.

Enjoy.

Transcript

All right,

What's up everybody?

Good to see you all.

Day 12,

I believe.

Excellent work.

Congratulations.

We're almost two weeks into meditating daily,

And if this is new to you,

That's something worth commending every day.

You should be more and more proud of yourselves for committing to this and adding more to the plate of your lives,

Your responsibilities,

And your ambitions.

So what we're gonna get into today,

Again,

Is interval meditation.

And I'm gonna try to keep the intro discussion very short just to give you as much time as possible today and tomorrow to really sink your teeth into this technique,

Which we discussed yesterday.

All of these techniques,

They're there for you to practice at will,

Essentially sort of to sharpen your skill,

To sharpen your capacity to meditate.

And what we sort of like touched upon yesterday was that because these techniques involve a degree of explicit effort,

Because of that effort,

It's something to do technically.

They aren't necessarily meditation,

They're more meditative.

And I just wanted to take a second to sort of clarify that point.

There are many things that are meditative.

Arguably,

Anything,

Anything that a human being could possibly do could be meditative,

Depending on the relationship that the individual has to that action.

And so for this reason,

I think there's a lot of confusion on what meditation is.

What we often conflate meditation with is flow state.

And that's a fairly modern term that has been popularized.

Flow state is when you are fully absorbed in an action,

And in that you lose track of time,

You lose track of self,

Because you're so integrated into whatever it is you're doing.

And it doesn't necessarily have to correlate with being happy doing what you're doing.

You're just sort of fully engrossed in the process.

And the distinction between whether it's writing emails,

Or playing volleyball,

Or cleaning your home,

When you're in a flow state,

Unless you're meditating,

I just want you to sort of like imagine all of the possible things you could be focused on,

Or anyone could be focused on.

Unless you're meditating,

And now we know meditation involves distinct stillness,

Posture,

Closing the eyes,

Internalizing the self,

Restraining the physical body from responding to its environment,

Unless you're doing that,

Whatever it is you're doing,

You are more than likely interacting with the environment.

You are more than likely externalizing in some way.

Again,

If you're cleaning your apartment,

You have the cleaning spray,

You have the rag,

And you're moving through all of your possessions.

If you're playing volleyball,

You're at the beach,

You're hitting the ball,

You're interacting with your teammates and your friends,

You're feeling the sunlight,

You're sort of out there.

So what meditation is,

And again,

We spoke about this yesterday,

It is the internalizing of awareness.

And once you feel that in your body,

You feel what that means,

The second you close your eyes,

Whenever it is you're practicing,

You're like,

Oh,

Now I'm doing it.

And that's just a really meaningful detail and fundamental to understand.

And I hope this technique,

Interval Meditation,

Really clarifies it for you today.

And so that's going to be that.

I wanted to share a little metaphor to help you,

To help empower this technique for you.

If you want to build a nice house,

Really simple,

To build a well,

A beautiful home,

Every brick has to be laid with intention.

Every brick has to be laid perfectly.

And the same can be said for our practice.

If you want to build a perfect meditative practice so that it leads you to a perfect meditative experience,

Every brick has to be laid perfectly.

But what is that brick?

That brick is one unit of breath,

One unit of respiration.

And so if you approach your practice,

You know,

With the filter that it is a home to build,

And it is built through breaths,

All you have to do is understand for yourself what a perfect breath is and feels like.

And once you have that perfect breath in your body,

All you have to do is repeat that breath over and over and over again.

And at that point,

Meditation is confounding as it can be,

As,

You know,

Symbolic,

As personal,

As dreamlike,

As mythical,

As meaningful as it could be.

Once you know what that perfect unit is,

It is reduced and simplified.

And that's helpful.

And so when we get into this exercise,

Right,

We're going to take three breaths,

Inhale,

Open our eyes,

Disrupt our practice,

Exhale,

Close our eyes,

Take two breaths,

Inhale,

Open,

Exhale,

Close,

And then take this one breath.

As you sort of like funnel your breathing into a single breath,

I just want you to take that one breath as mindfully and as powerfully and as intentionally,

And most importantly,

Sort of like lock into this word,

As gracefully as you can.

That one breath from three to two to one,

It's one breath.

That's all it is.

And so for the first 15 minutes of this practice,

You are working to discover on your own,

Approach it like an art.

It's yours to craft.

It's yours to design.

You are working to discover on your own what a perfectly meditative mindful breath is in your body today.

And once you have that,

Again,

All you have to do is replicate it.

And if you do that,

Then whatever,

You know,

Whatever your practice is,

It will be perfect.

Okay,

And so that's it.

Let's spend a lot of time in practice today.

Let's get into our seated positions.

Maybe comfortable,

Maybe not so comfortable,

But certainly powerful.

Okay,

Cross legged or sitting on the chair or couch or at the edge of your bed,

Everyone tilt your hips forward,

Feel the spine lengthen.

Wrist resting on knees,

Eyes are closed at this point,

Spread your fingers wide and feel the skin of your palms buzzing and tingling with nerve sensation,

Electricity and flowing blood.

Bring a random finger to each thumb.

Before we get into the interval meditation,

Feel the grace of your hand gestures.

Now either relax your hands still holding these mudras,

Still holding the fingers to the thumbs or engage your hands,

Straighten your fingers.

But whatever you do,

Relaxing or engaging,

Make sure that it empowers grace to you.

Okay,

Tuck your chin in slightly,

Feel the decompression in the base of your skull.

Very quick overview of everything we've learned up to this point,

Posture and stillness.

From this moment on,

Besides your breath,

Besides the inflation and deflation in your chest,

Nothing else moves.

Maybe you swallow some spit,

Fine.

Maybe you readjust your spine or restraighten your arms,

Fine.

But nothing moves impulsively,

Nothing moves reactively.

Feel the seven directions of your breathing.

As you inhale,

The torso inflates forwards and backwards,

Left and right,

Up and down.

As you exhale,

Your torso recedes from front to back and left to right,

But you stay tall.

Now the more sensitive you are to the sensations and physiology of your body,

Suggests the more internalized you can become.

Imagine if you could feel the inner workings of organelles in your cells.

Imagine if you could feel the buzz of atoms inside your body.

That is unimaginable internalization.

But it provides a direction,

As extreme and fantastical as it seems.

So all you're trying to do is feel the reality of your respiratory system.

But it still suggests internalization,

Which is the definition of this practice.

And so now as you breathe in,

Try to feel a downward movement.

Just think about the air being pulled into your face and down into your torso.

And as you exhale,

Feel upward movement inside your body.

Think about the breath being squeezed out of your lungs,

Moving up your throat,

Out your face and nose.

Now instead of only feeling,

The muscular movements of your torso expanding and contracting while you breathe,

Think about trying to feel the space or the vacuum of your thorax inside the ribs.

Try to feel it as white noise.

Again,

The currents of blood moving through organ tissue,

Skin,

And even bone.

Think of the web of nerves that threads into every inch of your body,

Pulsing with electricity.

If you can't feel anything,

Ask yourself,

If what I feel is nothing,

What does nothing feel like?

Slow down the breath.

If you can't feel anything,

You're focusing on your chest.

I feel nothing.

Okay.

What tells you that you feel nothing?

What does that feel like?

Now in the same way that you felt nothing,

Held your hands with grace,

Whether that was through power or softness.

Start to breathe with grace,

Sincerity,

Mindfulness,

And intention.

Feel the white noise of the inner body.

Feel that nothingness with grace.

Don't be afraid of sincerity.

So this is high quality stillness.

You're taking high quality breaths.

Now the technique,

Three full breaths,

Graceful and patient.

Then inhale,

Open your eyes,

Exhale,

Close your eyes.

Two breaths,

Graceful and patient.

Inhale,

Open,

Exhale,

Close.

And then that one extra perfect,

Extra graceful,

Extra expressive,

Perfect unit of meditation.

One breath,

Inhale,

Open,

Exhale,

Close.

And then just repeat this pattern until I chime back in.

Let's all start together.

Take your first full breath in and a full breath out.

Off you go.

Now keep your eyes closed.

And that instruction should come with a sense of relief.

Like a bird being set free or a child being let out to play.

Slow down the breath and hone in to that sense of relief.

And so if you feel that,

This proves to you that you are curious and enticed with the internal in what yogis and mystics call the extraordinary world.

The world of the senses,

The world outside us,

The physical and external world is the ordinary.

By learning to traverse this inner wilderness,

Yogis move from asato to sat,

From untruth to truth.

From tamaso to jyotir,

From darkness to light.

And from mitrur to amritam,

Mortality to immortality.

Slow down the breath.

So all you have to feel right now again is this innate and inexplicable attraction to being still and quiet.

The profundity comes in time.

Now for the remainder of your session today,

Build the temple of your practice brick by brick,

Breath by breath,

By replicating the most graceful,

Deep,

Patient and balanced breath you can.

Let it be 100% physical.

Think of yourself as a sculptor building your breath in three dimensions.

Think of yourself as a singer vocalizing your breath through your throat.

Let it be 100% physical.

Let it be 100% physical.

Let it be 100% physical.

Let it be 100% physical.

Let it be 100% physical.

Now notice that it's only a small portion of the mind that wanders.

It's only the mind that is distracted and allured with desire,

Entangled in dissatisfaction.

Even if it's subtle,

It's only the mind.

The breath is pure grace as you control it.

And the body,

Besides minor discomfort,

Is buzzing with the hum of euphoria.

So it's only the mind.

Yesterday we spoke of viveka,

Discrimination,

Telling the difference between this and that.

Draw a line between the mind and the body.

Draw a line between that small portion of the mind that cycles in its dissatisfaction and the rest of the mind that simply observes openly.

And now as you start to experience,

To feel and perceive the territories of your being,

Mind and body,

Dissatisfied mind,

Tranquil mind,

Appreciate that this clarity is only possible because of where you now stand,

Which is within.

And so bring your hands to heart center,

Relax your shoulder blades down your back,

But still boost your posture,

Replicating these perfect units of meditation,

Graceful patient breaths.

This is the climax of your practice.

And at the end of our session today,

Alongside the grace of your breath,

Your artistic breaths,

Appreciate that you are attracted to this inner direction.

And in that a part of you is disinterested in some way with the external,

With identity,

With responsibility,

With reputation,

With ambition.

And as all needs ought to be fulfilled in some capacity,

This thirst for the internal is fulfilled through sitting still,

Closing our eyes,

Managing our breaths and internalizing our awareness.

So just a couple breaths here,

Acknowledging that.

Closing ritual,

Bring your thumb knuckles to third eye center.

How do we internalize more skillfully?

With greater precision,

Hyperfocus.

Feel your thumb knuckles pressing into the skin of your forehead,

Press with a little bit more strength.

And again,

Viveka,

Discrimination.

Try to feel the difference between the left thumb knuckle and the right thumb knuckle.

You can feel the mind dilating the way pupils might dilate as they look into light.

Focusing,

Feeling more,

Thinking less,

Entering a flow state.

Let's take a deep inhale and a deep exhale.

Hold the breath,

Empty lungs,

Release your wrist back to your knees,

Bring your fingers to your thumbs.

Think about the grace in your hands.

Let's hold our breath.

When you need to inhale,

Breathe slowly through the nose and again hold your breath when your lungs are full.

Eyes stay closed.

Once your lungs are full and you're holding your breath,

Focus on the tingling and buzzing,

The euphoric white noise of the inner subtle body.

From here,

Take a breath out if you haven't already.

With your inhale,

Open your eyes,

Repeating in your head,

I am still meditating.

I am still within myself.

Exhale,

Close the eyes,

Feel the relief,

The attraction to this inner space.

Last time,

Inhale,

Open the eyes,

I am still meditating.

I am still within myself.

Reviews

Another really good lesson. I've been meditating for quite some time and daily for well over four years but I learn something new every day. Really appreciate the technique and amazed at how little my mind wanders. Although I noticed when thoughts did break in, I totally lost track of my 3-2-1 breathing. But instantly and easily returned. Amazing how the time flies too. I have been applying these methods to my silent unguided sits and it truly makes for a better practice. Ready for the next one. Thanks!! ☮️💖🙏