Welcome to the awareness of breath meditation.
Finding a really comfortable way to sit.
Sitting in a way that feels supportive for your body right now.
Finding any support you need through the back and the hips,
Perhaps under the knees.
And giving yourself some time to settle into this posture.
When you're feeling really gently closing the eyes or a soft downward gaze.
And feeling into the weight of the body on the chair or the cushions you've chosen.
Feeling the sense of gravity as it's falling through the body.
Feeling into the lower half of the body through the legs and the buttocks and the hips and down through the feet.
Maybe there's a sense of groundedness here.
This feeling of a supportive base underneath us.
And feeling into the torso now.
Maybe a sense of uprightness here.
Upliftment.
Feeling into the shoulders and the neck and the head.
Just noticing sensations here.
Allowing yourself to find a relaxed yet alert posture for your practice.
I'd like to begin this practice by reading a few very wise words from a meditation teacher.
His name is Bob Sharples.
Don't meditate to fix yourself.
To heal yourself.
To improve yourself.
To redeem yourself.
Rather do it as an act of love.
Of deep warm friendship to yourself.
In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement.
Nor the endless guilt of not doing enough.
It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people's lives in a knot.
Instead there is now meditation as an act of love.
How endlessly delightful and encouraging.
And just noticing how those words land in you.
Physical sensations.
The feelings that may arise.
The thoughts.
And now bringing your attention to settle on the sensations of breathing.
Feeling these rhythmic sensations of taking in air and letting it go.
Letting your attention to gently rest on the sensations of breathing.
Allowing your attention to gently rest on the sensations of breathing.
Allowing your attention to gently rest on the sensations of breathing.
Allowing your attention to gently rest on the sensations of breathing.
Resting the attention as best you can in the sensations of breathing.
Returning the attention over and over again.
Returning the attention over and over again.
And if you're finding your attention has wandered,
Not a problem.
Just allowing it to find its own way back.
Back to the breath.
Returning the attention as best you can in the sensations of breathing.
Returning the attention as best you can in the sensations of breathing.
Just being present to this breath.
We're cultivating this capacity for allowing and letting be.
Meeting what's here as best we can.
And if you're finding your attention has wandered,
Not a problem.
Returning the attention as best you can.
Noticing even though we're playing deliberate attention to the breath right now,
Really honing in on it,
We don't have to banish the sounds outside.
We're deliberately resting attention on the breath at the same time we don't need to banish other sensations in the body either.
The breath is in the forefront of our experience and in the background is everything else,
Thoughts,
Sensations,
Sounds,
Feelings,
Allowing it all as best we can.
Aware of the unfolding flow of your breath.
And for these final moments of practice,
Bringing renewed attention to the flow of the in-breath and the out-breath.
