Guided Meditation: Foundational Practice For Chan Meditation

The foundation of meditation is to learn to relax the body and mind while maintaining clarity. This technique teaches this. NOTE: Includes 25 mins of silence.

Transcript

Bell Always begin with a good foundation.

That foundation is a relaxed body.

As you are sitting,

Body upright yet relaxed.

Relax from the crown of your head down to your feet,

Section by section.

At the crown,

Relax.

Down to your forehead,

The space between your eyebrows.

Make sure that area is relaxed.

Your eyes relaxed.

Facial muscles,

Your cheeks relaxed.

Mouth teeth closed.

Make a gentle smile if you wish.

Chin tucked in,

Relaxed.

Now the back of your head,

Relaxed.

All the way down to your neck,

Your shoulders relaxed.

When you relax your shoulders,

Gently raise them up a little bit and let them drop.

Just to make sure they are relaxed.

Once the shoulders are relaxed,

Relax down your two arms.

Elbows relaxed.

Forearm.

Hands.

Resting on your lap.

Relaxed.

Thumbs gently touching.

Feel that sensation.

Hands must be supported.

If they are supported by your lap or a towel on your lap,

Resting on them,

Then your shoulders will be able to relax.

After the arms,

Hands are relaxed,

Now go to the chest.

Relax them.

And sweep down to the stomach area.

The lower abdomen relaxed.

Now the upper back relaxed.

Shoulder blades relaxed.

Mid back.

You may coordinate your exhalations with the sweeping of your body,

Relaxing the body section by section.

So as you exhale,

Relax and move on to the next section,

The lower back.

The upper body is naturally straight.

Erect,

Yet relaxed.

Now down to the buttocks.

Feel the sense of bodily weight,

The presence of your body sitting on your cushion.

Feeling grounded,

Stable.

Now to ensure your body is not leaning forward or backwards or to the sides,

At this time gently swing your body from left to right and allow it to stop finding that center place.

Now lean forward and backwards,

Swing,

Find that center place.

Once you find it,

Relax into it.

Continue on relaxing the thighs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Your feet,

And your toes.

The whole body is relaxed.

Not bright,

Yet resting on the cushions.

Feeling stable,

Settled.

You may do this several times,

Several rounds from head to toe by yourself.

Once you're done,

Then you can proceed on to your method.

So the body is relaxed,

Once it's relaxed,

Your breath now is natural,

Stable.

And the important thing is to have clarity of mind.

To do that,

We need a method.

And that method may be mindfulness of the breath or the practice of silent illumination,

The first stage,

Just sitting,

Awareness of the totality of the body.

Or for some of you,

You can begin meditating on your hua tou,

Critical phrase.

In other words,

Gong an.

And then we sit for 25 minutes.

Environmentally.

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Slowly move your hands.

A little bit.

The period is over.

Epidemic.

2011 in a circular motion in one direction and then in another direction and we massage.

Put your palms together,

Rub your palms together,

Make your palms warm.

Place your warm palm over your eyes,

Allow that warmth to come in.

Massage the eyes through the warmth,

Do it several times.

Sustain that meditative mind and use the massaging as a method of practice.

Practicing mindfulness of movements and sensations of the body.

Now use your fingers,

Squeeze your scalp,

Different areas of the scalp,

Your head.

Be aware of your own movements and sensations of the body.

Massage your temple,

Your forehead,

Your whole face.

You can make your palms warm again.

Place your warm palm over the whole face.

The whole head region is relaxed,

Massaged,

Go down to the neck.

Massage each shoulder,

Muscles,

Squeeze,

Joints,

Rub.

The other shoulder,

Down the other arm.

Once the two shoulders and two arms are relaxed and massaged,

Massage your chest.

Cross your hands,

Place over your chest with your palms and rotate in one direction first and then another direction.

Down the sides of your rib cage with your palm,

Slide down.

Now to the lower abdomen,

One palm above the other,

Rotating a clockwise direction.

Up,

Left,

Down,

Up to the right and top again in this direction.

Now the upper back,

Reach back with your fingers,

Cross over to the other shoulder and reach back.

Squeeze the muscles and then the other hand,

Squeeze.

Now alongside the two sides of the spine,

Use your knuckles and your fist and rotate in a circular motion.

Massage down the two sides of the spine,

Do not criss cross.

Now the lower back,

Use your palm and rub quickly the lower back creating heat.

Allow that warmth to be coming to the body.

Now your hips,

Massage.

The principle still is muscles,

Squeeze,

Joints,

Rub.

Massage one leg,

Thighs and knees,

Rub.

And alongside the shin bone,

Use your two thumbs to squeeze down while the other fingers on your calf,

Muscles squeezing.

And then the other leg.

Massage the thighs,

The knees and the calf.

Once you're done,

Straighten out both of your legs and you rotate your ankles together in one direction,

Feet together,

Rotate.

And then in the other direction.

And you're finished.

At this time you can stand up and do some yoga,

Exercises,

Stretches by yourself.

This concludes the whole set of the at home sitting practice.

Reviews

Excellent start to the day. A fundamental practice for any school of Buddhism, or for anyone wanting to learn how to do relaxing meditation. Deep bows 🙏🏻

Thank you Guo Gu for sharing this practice. Your book, Silent Illumination, continues to positively impact my practice. 🙏🏻

Wheee well

The flow of the lesson is smooth and comfortable. Let you easily focus your mind.

Simple, clear and very helpful. His calm presence is profound.

I enjoyed just practicing sitting. Namaste 🙏

Thank you, very great full for the foundation lesson.

Great. Thanks for the meditation.

Perfect length, and excellent transition out using self massage. I will use your recording several times ;thank you.

Love the silence, gimme space to contemplate and bring my mind back to a calmer state. Thank you.

Really enjoyed the difference between this silent meditation and what I'm used to.
Liked the narration and the simple yet effective explanations and directions.
Thanks alot

Unique! The massage was so helpful for body and mind

Perfect foundation. This breath, right now in this Body! ❤️🖖

Just what was needed, thank you

This is one of my favorites. It leaves me feeling so relaxed. Thank you.

Very soothing
Thank you
🙏🏼❤️

Very nourishing Meditation! nice ending!

Silent practice for much of this, but self massage at the end a nice way to finish

Always wonderful to revisit 🙏

Perfect meditation simple and effective