Guided Vipassana Practice

This gently guided practice invites us to explore how we can begin to meet our experience with acceptance. Together, we let go of attachments, and invite in stability and calm. There are no judgement or expectations in this practice, we simply recognise what is, and allow it to come and go in it's own time.

Transcript

But we'll begin with a period of meditation.

So I invite you just to settle into a comfortable sitting posture.

Just sitting in a way that's relaxed,

At ease.

With your back straight,

You might invite your shoulders to relax.

Let the chest be open so you can breathe easily.

Allow your hands to rest comfortably in your lap or on your knees or your thighs.

Whatever feels,

Feels easeful to you.

And again,

If it's comfortable,

You could let your eyes gently close,

Bring the attention inward.

We spend a lot of our time gazing out,

Looking around at others and at the world.

So the invitation is just to kind of relax that visual field and come more into the other senses,

Feelings,

Hearing.

If you like to keep your eyes open,

That's fine.

Maybe just look ahead of you a few feet with a relaxed,

Unfocused gaze.

Just feel the body here.

Let your attention come down into the body,

Dropping out of the thinking mode.

You might consciously put aside plans for the future,

Thoughts about the past,

And just let your attention be here.

Here,

Feeling your body on the chair.

You're feeling the weight of your body as it pushes down on your thighs,

On your buttocks,

On your feet.

You're feeling the sensations from the inside,

Maybe pressure,

Coolness,

Heat,

Tingling,

Pulsing.

Just whatever is here,

Whatever you're noticing.

And it can be helpful at the beginning of a meditation to take a few minutes to consciously relax the body and the mind.

So I invite you to do,

If you'd like to,

Just a couple of simple practices.

One,

Just to take a few fuller,

Deeper breaths.

So just invite a nice deep in-breath,

Filling the chest,

Filling the lungs.

Just hold it for a moment,

And then release.

Long,

Slow out-breath until all of the breath has been released.

And then a nice full,

Deep in-breath again.

Imagine you're inflating a balloon.

And then releasing,

Letting go.

Imagine you're breathing out any stresses,

Any tensions of the day,

Just letting them go.

And as you breathe in,

You might invite in a quality of calm.

You could say that word silently to yourself,

Calm or peace.

As you breathe in,

And as you breathe out.

Breathing in,

Calming the body.

Breathing out,

Calming the mind.

So you might take another full breath or two,

And whenever you're ready,

Just let the breath settle back into its natural rhythm,

Just however it is for you.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

And maybe the breath,

The deeper breath,

Feels relaxing.

Just notice however it is,

Not looking for anything in particular.

But it may be that during the meditation,

If you feel like you're tensing up,

You could just take a nice full deep in-breath or two,

Relaxing back into being here.

Just feeling the body here.

You might do a brief scan of your body,

Just see if there's any area where you might be holding tension,

Maybe unconsciously tensing up,

That you could relax a little more.

So perhaps the eyes,

The forehead,

Facial muscles,

Just inviting a relaxing of the face,

The eyes,

The mouth.

Coming down to the neck and the shoulders.

We often hold tension in the shoulders,

In the neck.

You might invite the shoulders to relax.

Imagine any tension just draining down through the body into the ground.

Imagine you're putting down a load,

A heavy bag you've been carrying,

Just relaxing the shoulders.

Maybe coming into the torso,

The chest and the belly.

We tend to tighten up,

Tense up when we're stressed or we're busy or we're in a hurry,

We kind of get into that fight-off-light mode.

So just noticing if there's any tension and just inviting a relaxing of the chest,

The belly.

Feel the breath coming into a relaxed,

Open belly.

Coming down into the arms and the hands.

You might feel the sensations in your hands from the inside.

Maybe there's tingling or warmth,

Pulsing,

Pressure.

Relaxing the hands,

Relaxing the arms.

Coming down to the lower body,

The abdomen and the groin,

The buttocks,

The thighs,

Knees and calves.

Down to the feet.

Just any area of the lower body where you might be holding some tension.

You might just bring your awareness to that area and invite a relaxing.

The tension often comes from unconsciousness.

We hold tense thoughts in our bodies.

And then just by bringing awareness to the area,

There can be a softening,

A relaxing.

So letting your awareness come to your body as a whole.

Just inviting the body as a whole to be at ease.

Be relaxed,

As open as you can be right now.

And now if you'd like to,

You might just invite a smile to your face.

Could be a slight smile or half smile.

Just enough to activate the muscles at the corners of your eyes and the corners of your mouth.

If it's helpful,

You could think about a loved one,

A dear friend,

Maybe a child or a grandchild.

Or a pet.

Someone or a being who can easily make you feel happy or joyful.

Enough to invite the smile.

And the smile can send a message to our brain and to our nervous system that we can be at ease.

We don't have to be hyper-vigilant.

Just relaxing.

See how that smile feels in the body and the mind.

And you can come back to the smile if you're feeling any tension or a difficult emotion.

See how it is to invite the smile.

Maybe make some space around it with a smile.

You might invite the smile down into your body,

Into your heart,

Into your belly,

Into your abdomen.

You might let the smile be an expression of how you wish to meet whatever comes up in your experience.

See if you can meet it with an expression or an attitude of a smile.

So noticing whatever is here for you right now.

See if you can meet it with a welcoming attitude,

An attitude of kindness and acceptance.

The Sufi poet Rumi,

Jalaluddin Rumi,

Speaks of welcoming the guests.

He says even if there are a crowd of sorrows,

Who sweep your home empty of its furniture,

Still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

So if this image of a guest welcoming the guest is a helpful one,

See if you can welcome or bring acceptance to or allow whatever is here to be here in your experience.

If it's helpful you can name what you're aware of.

Just keeping your awareness open and noticing.

Maybe there's a feeling of coolness.

Or there's a kind of wave of sadness or irritation comes up.

Just see if you can meet it with kindness.

Maybe a thought comes up and there's some excitement about something that you thought about.

Just see if you can hold that too with kindness,

With acceptance.

It's making space for whatever you're experiencing right now.

Maybe it's something difficult,

Maybe it's feeling restless or tired.

See if you can meet that feeling with tiredness,

Drowsiness if it's there.

With kindness,

Not beating yourself up or thinking you shouldn't be feeling what you're feeling.

Just meeting whatever's here with acceptance.

And if you are feeling drowsy or tired,

Could be just taking a few deeper breaths could help.

Or opening your eyes,

Kind of letting some more energy in.

Just recognizing what's here and allowing it to be here,

Allowing it to come and go in its own time.

Letting it come,

Letting it be,

Letting it go.

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You can,

If you wish,

Just rest in this open awareness.

Imagine your awareness as being like the sky with lots of experiences,

Lots of things passing through.

Just letting them come and go,

The feelings,

The emotions,

The thoughts.

Just letting them come,

Letting them be,

Letting them go.

But if the mind is very busy or very active,

If you find you're getting caught up in thinking,

It can be very helpful to have a focus for your attention.

And in meditation there's many different focuses we can use.

One of the most commonly used and for many people helpful focuses is our own breathing.

Just bringing awareness to the experience of breathing in and breathing out.

And so if it's helpful you might just bring a light awareness to the sensations of breathing in and out.

The in-breath,

The out-breath.

In-breath,

Out-breath.

Not controlling the breath or doing deep breathing,

Just aware of the breath as it is.

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You might notice where you're most aware of your breathing or most comfortable with the breath and just let the attention rest there.

The chest or at the belly or at the nostrils maybe.

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When you notice your attention has moved from the breath,

From your present moment experience into thinking,

Maybe into planning something or remembering something or daydreaming,

Problem solving.

Just gently,

Kindly let your attention come back.

In-breath,

Out-breath.

Not to make thinking in any way a problem or wrong.

Just notice that's what the mind will do on occasion,

Sometimes quite often.

And just the practice of noticing it and coming back again.

In this way we train our minds to be more present here and now.

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We can begin again in any moment,

No matter how long we've been off or where we've been travelling to in our minds,

We can just come back to this breath,

This moment.

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Reviews

I find this a helpful practice if i am out of practice! Thank you. The MP poem at the end always brings a tear to my eye & a tug on my heart 💓

Lovely meditation. Steady voice, even pacing, thoughtful cues. Thank you 🙏🏻

Perfect gentle practice! Don't need frilly practices, just the basics with some gentle instruction. Lovely. Thank you.

Great leader. Just the right amount of instruction/cuing to explain to less experienced mediators while not distracting more experienced mediators. Voice at a great volume and information very helpful. Have listened a number of times.

Just what I needed today from my dear teacher. Thank you Hugh❤️

Calming meditation with just enough guidance and space. Thank you Hugh. 🙏🏻

So comforting to practice vipassana meditation again and it was a reminder that we don’t need complicated practices to come home to ourselves. The poem at the end was beautiful ❤️

Wonderful! Just what I needed to hear this morning.
Let it come, let it be - let it go.
Thank you!

This was just superb. So many wisdom. The poem at the end spoke to me in such a loving and compassionate way. And i know now what acceptance mean - greeting everything with a smile. Even smiling (laughing) at things we want to harshly judge and disapprove of. It creates such a soft loving space around it, and as Rumi said - making it possible for a clearing to take place. Many thanks for this. With appreciation and love🌸

Tone and cadence was spot on, it took me to a deep place.

Hugh always offers amazing meditations. This is a wonderful way to begin my day. Thank you.

Very beautiful Vipassana guidance. Thank you for recording this and sharing. Loved all of the poems you integrated into this one as well! I hope to return again to listen ✨🙏

Excellent meditation, thanks. Calm voice. Gentle guidance.

Excellent very informative very relaxing very helpful
Thank you
Peace

Beautiful and I especially loved the poem at the end....😌

This was a really lovely gentle practice. I feel grateful for having coming upon Hugh this morning. Thank you for your guidence.

I just love the way you lead. There’s a sense of modesty, simplicity and ease to what you bring. High, you’re a pure breath of air. 🙏🏼

Thank you for your peaceful guidance and for this grounding meditation which creates the space for stability and presence...

Felt truly connected to myself with this meditation. Your guidance through it was very peaceful and your tone of voice was very calming.
The poem at the end was a nice touch.
Thank you!!

Mahalo for guiding us to a state of presence. 🤙🤙🙏🙏