Beginning this sitting meditation by setting aside this time to allow yourself to turn inward,
Offering yourself this opportunity to cultivate a deeper awareness of your life,
Arranging so that you won't be interrupted,
Finding a comfortable private place to sit as much as that's possible for you right now,
And acknowledging the importance of taking this time for yourself to bring your body to stillness and non-doing.
And if you'd like to,
Setting an intention for this practice,
Maybe just to be with however things are from moment to moment,
Offering your care and your attention,
Cultivating this ability to be more aware of the movements of your mind while your body rests without needing to do anything,
And to just show up and be here for your experience as it unfolds for the next period of time.
And so establishing a posture now that is upright and not stiff,
That supports your wakefulness,
Sensing into this paradox of being upright and not stiff.
And if it's okay for you,
Letting your eyes close gently,
Or just letting your gaze be soft and a few feet in front of you resting,
Allowing yourself to turn your attention towards your experience,
The experience of your body sitting here,
Feeling the points of contact where your body meets the surface that you're resting on,
Where it's bearing weight,
Using your proprioception to sense the uprightness of the posture,
Noticing any areas of tension,
Perhaps allowing tension to be released on an out-breath,
If that's possible,
Softening the face,
Allowing the shoulders to be soft,
The arms,
Allowing the belly to be soft,
And beginning to turn your attention to the inside of the body,
Sensing into the breath as it moves through the body,
And just noticing where you feel the breath most easily,
The nostrils,
The chest,
The belly,
And just feeling this in-breath,
Feeling this out-breath,
And beginning to shift the focus of your attention to sensing the breath in the belly,
Becoming aware of the feeling of the breath in the belly,
Noticing how the belly expands gently on the in-breath,
And sinks gently on the out-breath,
Perhaps if you'd like to you could place a hand there for a few cycles of breath,
Just to feel the rising of the belly on the in-breath,
And the falling of the belly on the out-breath,
And just being with this breathing in silence for a few moments now,
Feeling the rhythm of the breath.
And of course you might become aware from time to time of the impulses of the mind,
How easily the mind wanders to plans and worries,
Other preoccupations,
And when you notice that,
Just simply and gently returning your attention back to the felt sensation of breathing,
Becoming aware of the sense of the breathing underneath all the busyness in the mind,
Gently coaxing attention back to the sensations of breathing,
Noticing the rhythm of the breath,
Noticing whether the in-breath and the out-breath are the same length,
Not necessarily,
Just being curious about all of the different qualities of breathing,
Whether it's smooth or coarse,
Long or short,
And allowing this interest to allow you to become more and more aware of the qualities of the breathing as you deepen your attention with the breathing as you sit here.
And when you become aware of something that's pulled your attention,
Thoughts,
Sounds,
Some other sensation in the body,
Offering your willingness to gently return your attention to the breathing,
Just as best you can,
Sustaining your attention on the breath from the very beginning of the in-breath,
Following the sensations all the way through to the pause and turn,
And the out-breath,
All the way through the out-breath,
As the sensations of breathing increase,
Sustain,
And fade,
Breath by breath.
Okay.
Every time the mind wanders away,
Just remembering,
As soon as you remember,
Your attention is already in the present moment,
And then this willingness to come back and beginning once again to expand your attention,
To include the whole body,
The sensations in the body,
Contact,
Just the amount of touch anywhere,
The warmth of the hands and what they're resting on,
The posture and tone of the body,
Feeling the breath in the body,
Being present with this breathing body.
Okay.
Simply sitting in stillness,
No matter what thoughts arise,
No need to respond to them right now.
Just simply sitting here with the body breathing,
Feeling the body as a whole and any sensations that arise in the body,
Being fully with this experience from moment to moment.
Okay.
Okay.
Noticing just where the attention is right now,
Whether it's with the body and the breath,
Or it's wandered off to something else,
Then this is simply now a moment possibly to return to the breath,
To the body more fully,
Bringing a sense of interest to each moment,
To each breath,
Each sensation.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
And at some times it may feel difficult to stay with the breath in the body,
Perhaps some intense sensations or discomfort or agitation arising that feels overwhelming,
That's pulling your attention.
And there are ways to practice with these experiences to offer the fullness of your kind attention to what wants your attention for a time.
And the first way you could mindfully practice with these intense experiences is see if it might be useful to shift or move to ease any bodily discomfort.
And just before you do shift or move,
Just being aware of the sensations for a moment and then slowly and gently adjusting your posture and staying in contact with the result of this adjustment and movement and just seeing if it has allowed some relief.
And another possibility is to remain in stillness and to offer the focus of your attention to that part of the body that's uncomfortable,
An area that may feel restlessness or agitation,
Some intensity,
Some pain,
And choosing to focus your attention in on that area in particular,
Allowing your attention to rest there and opening to this experience and seeing if it's possible to soften into the experience.
So perhaps on an in-breath,
Bringing your attention to an area of intensity,
And perhaps on an out-breath,
Seeing if it's possible to soften,
Perhaps releasing some of the tension that might be there or bracing,
And even if it's not possible to release any of the tension or discomfort,
Simply offering your attention and acknowledging your experience,
Being curious about just what this experience is that you might call pain or discomfort,
Noticing the actual sensations and the qualities of them as you sit here in stillness.
And when the intensity subsides or when you feel ready to,
Beginning to return your attention to the body and to the breath,
Feeling the fullness of the breath.
.
.
.
.
And for the next period of time,
Beginning to include sound as the focal point of the meditation.
So the breath and the body of course are still here and can be part of your attention,
But just a little more in the background and allowing the focus of your attention to be with receiving whatever sounds come to your awareness as you continue to sit here.
Not needing to look for sounds,
Just simply hearing each sound as it arises,
Continues for a time perhaps,
And then fades and ceases and then another sound is known.
Just being open and receptive to whatever sounds present themselves from moment to moment.
Aware of sounds,
Spaces between the sounds,
Sound of silence,
Letting the hearing be just of raw experiences,
Noticing how the mind may put labels on the sounds or try to figure them out,
Just seeing if it's possible to just be with the raw experience of hearing sound.
Whenever the mind wanders,
Just simply bringing your attention back to sounds,
Back to hearing.
Hearing sounds is just a raw experience.
And as we continue to sit here,
The invitation is to shift attention once again and to just acknowledge that so far we've attended to several different aspects of our experience.
We've attended to the breath,
Sensations,
To other sensations in the body,
To sensations of discomfort,
To sounds.
And so we've been developing this flexibility,
This ability to move our attention to different aspects of our experience and to let other aspects be in the background,
Cultivating this ability to gather our attention and to sustain attention on an object.
And so as we continue to sit here,
Of course thoughts have been arising this entire time during the practice,
And now we are going to focus to open to attending to the thinking process itself.
So now we'll let other aspects of our experience be in the background,
The breath and the body and sounds,
And now allowing thoughts to take center stage,
Becoming aware of thoughts as mental events,
Just as we attended to sounds,
Noticing how thoughts arise and linger for a while and then pass away.
And so as we sit here witnessing the thoughts as they come and as they go,
Not getting involved in the content of the story about the past or about the future.
Instead of hopping on the thought train,
Just as best you can,
Sitting back and watching the thoughts as they arrive,
As they pass and as they fade away.
Now when you notice that you've gotten drawn into the stream of thinking,
Gotten involved in the content,
Just pausing and stepping back and just observing this thought as a mental event,
Perhaps using the breath for a moment to stabilize your awareness in the present moment,
And then opening again to noticing just what thoughts are here right now.
Thoughts in the form of words,
Thoughts in the form of images,
Moment to moment awareness of the thinking process.
Perhaps noticing thoughts that seem particularly sticky,
That may have some strong emotional charge from time to time,
Thoughts with fear attached or anxiety,
Worries about the future,
Planning,
Ruminations.
Perhaps noticing how the mind is drawn to pleasant or unpleasant thoughts in particular.
And just as best you can,
Observing,
Letting the thoughts be,
Not pushing them away,
But also not following them.
Noticing how if we just let them be,
They can come and they can eventually go,
And some new thought comes up from moment to moment.
And as we continue to sit here,
The invitation is to expand your attention once again,
And this time a letting go of any particular focus on a particular object,
And opening to just whatever happens to be in your experience from moment to moment,
Whether the most predominant experience is thinking or hearing,
Sensation in the body,
Including the breath.
Simply sitting in stillness with all of your senses alive and receptive to your moment to moment unfolding of experience.
Sitting with this choiceless awareness,
Simply noticing your experience from moment to moment,
Open to just what's here right now,
And in this moment,
And in this moment.
Experiencing this capacity of knowing itself,
This awareness,
This sentient human being,
Excluding nothing.
Any part of our experience can simply be held and known in this awareness,
So welcoming just whatever comes from moment to moment as you continue to sit here breathing,
Using the breath as an anchor,
If the mind becomes too scattered.
It's always possible to just come back to feeling just this breath,
Just this in-breath,
Just this out-breath,
And then opening once again and just noticing your experience from moment to moment,
The thought,
The sound,
The feeling of contact somewhere in the body.
And as this period of formal practice comes to an end,
Perhaps returning your attention more fully to the breath,
And acknowledging just how it is in the body right now,
Any particular prominent sensations,
Subtle sensations,
And noticing the state of the mind right now,
The emotional tone,
The presence of thinking.
No one right way to be,
Just acknowledging how things are right now for you.
And perhaps offering yourself some appreciation for taking this time for yourself,
For just being,
For this intentional time of non-doing,
Which is really in a way a radical act of self-care,
And takes a certain kind of energy to sustain.
And however this time of meditation has been for you,
Trusting that in some way your commitment to this ongoing exploration in formal practice and in your life will carry forward in cultivating greater presence and well-being and ease.
And in a moment the bell will ring to signal the end of this practice,
Inviting you to carry this presence of mind into the next moments of your life.
And perhaps just sitting here,
Hearing the sound of the bell ringing,
Before moving into the next activity of your day.
