Yourself balance between comfort and alertness,
Closing the eyes to keep out visual distraction,
Relaxing the body,
The shoulders.
Let tension come into the breath,
The natural breath in the body,
Noticing its simple characteristics.
Is it smooth?
Is it jagged?
Is it shallow or deep?
Inviting yourself into the space of your meditation,
Curiosity and calm,
Investigating what it is like for you right now.
The natural settling of the mind comes when we stop our activities,
A little time for pause,
Stop putting energy into the system,
Instead withdrawing that energy from thought,
Busyness,
Coming to rest in a natural way.
This meditation is an opportunity to consider the perfection of virtue,
Sila parami.
This is,
Virtue is wholesome conduct,
Self-control with respect to our impulses.
Buddha outlined external guidelines for conduct,
Conventions that we can follow in the form of precepts,
Guidelines for behavior.
These are helpful for directing us,
Directing our mind and our actions.
The heart of virtue or wholesomeness is a mindfulness of our intention,
Moment to moment intention,
Becoming skilled at recognizing the movement of our own mind and choosing again and again to move toward liberation,
Toward openness,
Toward ease,
To move away from contraction,
Craving,
Greed,
Confusion.
So notice any impulse to harm.
I could recall a time when you were angry,
Something specific,
Maybe something recently where you became frustrated,
Disliking a situation or a person.
Does it feel like an impulse to lash out,
Whether it's a slight irritation,
A faint impatience or a full-blown rage,
A movement of mind is a hardness,
Constricting,
Wanting to push,
Wanting to lash out,
Wanting to do away with.
In contrast,
Can observe heart or mind when it is open and relaxed,
When it is allowing,
When it is patient,
When patience is arising,
Compassion.
So again,
Considering a time,
Maybe recently,
You had a strong sense of loving,
Favoring,
Conditioned person or a situation that was heart opening.
In contrast to wanting to harm,
What is it like the impulse to harmlessness,
Open,
Clarifying,
Easeful.
You can investigate other types of movement of mind,
The tendency to crave or cling or grasp,
Wanting some situation to happen,
Wanting some object or person to be in our possession.
Does it feel like,
Bring an actual example to mind,
A time when you felt strong desire,
Must have,
Feel the discomfort in the heart,
Mind,
Feel the anxiousness,
Fear,
What if there's not enough for me,
What if I don't get my needs met,
What does that impulse feel like.
In contrast,
Bringing to mind a time when you felt generous,
Instead of being concerned with acquiring something,
You were involved with giving to others.
Really bringing to mind an act of giving from your recent past,
Be a material gift or could have been paying close attention,
Caring for someone,
Listening,
Taking someone's hand,
Comfort them.
Notice in the heart space,
What does that feel like,
The impulse to give.
Another area that we can focus our practice of virtue is on speech.
Bringing to mind a time when you felt an impulse to speak harshly or to gossip,
To tell a story about someone who was not present.
You can think of an actual example from your life,
Could be recently,
Could be further in the past,
You feel that urgency to speak,
Maybe unkindly,
Maybe unnecessarily,
Notice that impulse,
What it feels like.
We don't need to evaluate or deconstruct the context or the contents,
Simply feel that impulse to gossip or speak harshly.
You might consider the consequences of having gossiped,
Harming others,
Hurt feelings.
And in contrast to this,
Consider a time when you used speech wisely,
Kindly,
To bring others together to uplift and encourage.
A time when you chose to remain silent,
To restrain yourself from the impulse to give your two cents.
You can also consider what it's like when we listen deeply to others,
Kind of generosity,
Resolving for yourself to notice,
To live in a way that is awake to the movement of your own mind,
To its impulses towards greed,
Aversion.
Choose instead,
Whenever possible,
To move the mind toward openness,
Peacefulness,
Care,
Meditating now for as long as you'd like,
Enjoying the ease of your good heart.
