Resting In Presence

A 25-minute Zen practice of resting in open presence. Recorded during a live class for more experienced meditators, so guidance is occasional and brief. A powerful technique to connect with here and now which encourages dropping into the moment during everyday life.

Transcript

So just starting to get comfortable.

Starting to allow things to settle.

And using this opportunity to bring the senses inside,

Bringing everything inside.

You're welcome to practice with the eyes open or closed.

And actually we could be practicing this standing or walking.

Just getting comfortable.

And perhaps making any last adjustments that you need to.

If it helps you can sway the body from side to side,

Left to right,

Forwards and backwards,

Just to come to your natural most balanced upright position.

And let's spend a moment just tuning into a sense of groundedness in the lower half of the body.

A sense of a stable base.

Allow the awareness to drop into the points of contact.

And noticing those sensations.

Letting go of the weight of the legs through the soles of the feet.

Letting go of the weight of the body through the sitting bones.

A sense of grounding,

A sense of becoming one with gravity.

Stable,

Rooted lower half of the body.

And just allowing the spine to grow from that base.

Free,

Open.

Natural curves all the way up through the crown of the head.

A sense that everything can hang off that central channel of the spine.

Dropping the weight through the sitting bones,

Growing through the crown of the head.

Tongue rests gently on the roof of the mouth.

Just spend a moment checking in with a global sense of what's going on with the body.

And get a global sense of the body.

Let's just spend a moment with the breath,

Noticing the breath moving in and out.

Begin with the whole breath movement.

Follow its journey in and out.

Allowing everything else to arise and pass.

Bringing the awareness now down into the belly,

Seeing if you can detect movement in the belly.

If you're having trouble tuning into that area,

Just resting the awareness on the lowest point you can detect breath movement.

Resting the awareness on the breath in the lowest part of the body.

Noticing each breath,

Allowing everything else to arise and pass.

Whenever you're distracted,

Bringing the awareness back to that breath movement.

Let's just spend a moment with the breath movement.

And if you become comfortable with just noticing the breath,

I'm going to invite you now to release the awareness from the breath and just allow the mind to expand.

Allow the awareness to expand.

Not using anything at all to anchor the awareness,

Just having wide open sense of presence.

A sense residing in awareness itself.

When you notice distraction.

Coming back to this sense of open awareness.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Mind is open.

Heart is open.

Our whole sense of being is open.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Providing a space in which anything at all can arise.

Everything can pass.

Every time we notice we're taken away,

That noticing itself can bring us back to the present.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Resting in this quality of awareness,

This presence.

Poised and yet relaxed.

Here and open.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

If you feel like you're drifting away a little bit,

Just coming back to that posture,

Grounded lower half.

Upright relaxed free upper half,

All the way through to the crown of the head.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Whenever it comes up,

Just allow this sense of arising and passing without any kind of holding on.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Free and flowing,

Here and now,

Just sitting and noticing.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Letting go,

Coming back,

Coming back to awareness,

To presence.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Be aware,

Relaxed,

Present,

Simply being with what is,

A natural sense of just being.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Let's just take a moment to relax.

Starting to notice the breath once again.

Perhaps picking up on sensations deep inside the body of breath movement.

Letting your awareness to rise to the surface of the body.

Notice how you're resting on the floor or the chair.

Noticing the touch of clothing or air on skin.

Opening up your sense of hearing.

And moving the awareness into the fingers and toes.

As you do so,

You can bring some movement into the fingers and toes.

If you'd like to,

You could exaggerate that movement into the rest of the body.

Doing whatever feels good to wake the body back up again.

Whenever you're ready to do so,

You can open your eyes,

Your meditation practice is complete.

Reviews

Fantastic all around💯

Very gentle clear instructions. Lovely voice 🙏

Love the simplicity and calm pace, great meditation!

Really great lead in and just enough prompting to help stay on track.. many blessings! 🙏🌻🐞

Wonderful pacing. Thx you.

Many long spaces of pause allowing a peaceful experience within.
Thank you for this gentle practice.

Wonderful, spacious and restful.

One of the best meditations to practice silent stillness. Thank you! 🙏

Simple and focused.

One of the best meditations I’ve experienced on this app. Clear concise…. No saccharine…..

Appreciate the space and time to follow instruction.

Absolutely stellar! Thank you. I mediate lying down because of chronic illness, so I substituted grounding through the bottom half of my body with the back of my body instead.

Thank you!

Thank you!!!

Thank you sir that was nice 💚

Excellent meditation. No distracting music and lots of silent periods. 🙏

Lovely and calming, thank you!! 🙏🏻💫😊

Wonderful guided awareness session - minimal and excellent