The three most important words in mindfulness meditation are simply,
Begin again.
We give the mind a simple object of meditation,
Like the breath.
Then we find before too long our mind gets lost in thoughts,
Fantasies,
Or daydreams.
This is not an unusual phenomenon.
We hop on these trains of association.
And often we don't know that we've hopped on the train.
We have no idea where the train is going.
And then sometime later,
It may be a minute or two,
It may be five minutes,
It may be ten minutes,
We wake up to the fact that we're thinking.
It's as if we hop off the train.
In that moment of becoming aware that we're lost,
We can actually delight in that moment of awareness,
Of remembering,
Rather than judge ourselves for having been lost.
And in that moment,
We recollect the breath and simply begin again.
We'll begin this meditation by again sitting in an upright posture,
The back erect but not stiff or tense,
Gently closing the eyes,
Softening and relaxing the eyes,
Relaxing the shoulders,
Softening the belly.
Settling into the awareness of the body and the body posture to sit and to know that we're sitting.
As we're aware of the body posture,
As we've settled into the body,
You will become aware of the sensations of the body breathing.
Connect with the sensations of the breath at whatever place in the body you feel it most clearly.
When it might be the sensations of the breath at the nostrils or the sensations of the movement of the chest or abdomen.
If you're feeling the sensations of the air passing the nostrils,
You can use a soft mental note of in,
Out,
In,
Out.
If you're feeling the sensations of the breath in the rise and fall of the abdomen or the chest,
You can make the soft mental note of rising,
Falling,
Rising,
Falling.
If you've noticed that the mind has hopped on trains of association,
Gotten lost in a train of thought,
As soon as you become aware the mind is thinking,
Notice that,
Reconnect with the breath and begin again.
Staying aware of the body posture and become aware of the sensations of your body breathing.
Feeling the sensations of the air passing the nostrils or the sensation of the movement of the chest or abdomen.
Breathing in,
Know you're breathing in.
Breathing out,
Know you're breathing out.
When you notice that the mind has wandered or gotten lost in a thought,
Simply reconnect with the world around you.
In this meditation we've practiced the art of mental noting.
This is using a soft word in the mind,
A soft mental label,
To acknowledge what the present moment experience is.
So for example,
If we're being mindful of the breath,
We might make a soft mental note along with each breath,
In,
Out,
In,
Out.
The note should be done very softly,
It's almost like a whisper in the mind.
But the note can help to frame the object so that we can be mindful of it more clearly.
Many people have found this tool extremely helpful to strengthen the continuity of mindfulness moment to moment.
Others may find that the simple awareness without the note serves just as well.
I look forward to continuing with you tomorrow.
