Sitting with difficulty meditation.
So settling the body into a comfortable yet alert sitting posture,
And bringing your awareness to the body in space.
Becoming aware of posture,
The front of the body,
The back of the body,
And everything in between.
Allowing the pubic bone to descend and the chest to be rising.
The chin is in line with the navel and the tongue is at rest behind the teeth.
Allowing your eyes to close or taking a soft,
Receptive gaze a few feet in front of you on the floor.
Noting the physical sensations by focusing your attention on the sensations of touch,
Contact,
The pressure in your body where it's making contact with the floor or with whatever you're sitting on.
Now bringing your awareness to the changing patterns of physical sensations in the lower abdomen as the breath moves in and out of the body.
Noting the expansion of the abdominal wall on the inhalation and the deflating on the exhalation.
So when we breathe in,
We know we're breathing in.
When we breathe out,
We know we're breathing out.
And also bringing attention to the pause at the top of the inhalation and the pause at the bottom of the exhalation.
Just attending to the breath as it is.
And then when attention wanders,
Just gently moving your attention to the breath.
And then when attention wanders,
Just gently escorting your wandering attention back to the sensations of breathing.
Now on the next out-breath,
Releasing the primary focus of attention to shift from the sensations of breathing.
And on the next inhalation,
Establishing awareness of sensations in the body as a whole as they present themselves to you.
When a particular sensation is arising and capturing your attention,
Bringing your awareness here and investigating it fully.
Its characteristics,
Topography,
Depth,
Shape,
Parameters,
Whether it's pleasant or unpleasant or neutral,
Noting if there's tension or ease.
Exploring the sensation fully.
And then waiting for another sensation to arise and exploring that one.
Rename.
Whenever your attention is being hijacked by other sensations in the body,
Outside the body or by thoughts or emotions,
Noting them and then returning to the focus in this moment,
Which is the particular sensation in the body.
And on an exhalation,
Releasing this primary attention on sensations in the body and on an in-breath,
Shifting your attention up to the ears and allowing the awareness to open and expand so that there's a receptiveness to sounds as they are arising and passing.
We're not searching for sounds or listening out for particular sounds.
Instead,
As best you can,
Opening your ears so that there is receptivity to awareness of sounds from all directions as they come and they go,
Sounds that are close,
Sounds that are far,
Sounds that are in front,
Behind,
To the sides,
Above and below.
Opening to sounds outside the room,
Inside the room,
And even inside the body.
Noting the characteristic of the sound without naming the origin.
Just hearing pitch,
Hearing tone,
Volume,
Spaces between sounds,
Discrete or continuous sounds.
Bringing awareness to obvious sounds and then more subtle sounds.
And if there are no sounds,
Then also noting that.
As best you can,
Being aware of sounds simply as sensations.
And whenever you're noticing that your attention is no longer focused on hearing,
Just gently acknowledging where the mind has moved to and then returning your attention back to sounds as they arise and pass away from one moment to the next.
Without harshness or a story,
Just gently coming back to hearing over and over.
And the exhalation,
Releasing your attention on hearing and on an in-breath,
Refocusing your attention on thoughts as objects of awareness,
Thoughts as sensations arising in the mind or as mental events.
Just as with sounds,
Noticing thinking as it's arising,
Developing and passing away.
So now as best you can,
Bringing awareness to thoughts that arise in the mind in just the same way,
Noticing when thoughts appear,
Focusing awareness on them as they pass through the space of the mind and eventually disappear.
There's no need to try to be making thoughts come or go,
Just let them be arising naturally in the same way that you relate it to the arising and passing away of sounds.
So,
When people find it helpful to bring awareness to thoughts in the mind in the same way that they might if the sounds were projected on the screen at the cinema,
You sit watching the screen,
Waiting for a thought or image to come into view and then when it does,
You pay attention to it so long as it's there on the screen and then letting it go as it passes away.
The mind can also be like the vast blue open sky and thoughts and feelings like clouds,
Rain,
Snow,
Hail or the sun but no matter what is passing,
Still the sky remains.
And now,
Focusing on some troubling thought or situation,
Some worry or intense feeling,
Worrying to bring up the 10 pound weight,
Not the 100 pound weight.
And simply noticing what is arising in this moment as best you can acknowledging and noting whatever is here.
So,
Noting the feelings that are around at the moment,
In particular,
Turning toward any sense of discomfort or unpleasant emotions.
So,
Rather than try to push them away or shut them out,
Just noticing them,
Naming them.
Now,
Shifting your awareness to the sensations arising in the body,
Focusing your awareness on the part of the body where the sensations are the strongest.
And if the sensations are particularly challenging,
Perhaps using the breath as a vehicle to assist in directing and maintaining your awareness to that part of the body.
Breathing into that part of the body on the in-breath and then expanding and softening on the out-breath.
Yes?
If strong sensations are present,
Becoming aware of the physical resisting,
The holding,
Pushing away,
Tensing or bracing.
Whatever is arising in awareness,
Perhaps saying to yourself,
It's okay,
Let me feel this.
It's okay.
It's already here.
Staying with the awareness of any feeling or body sensations and noticing your relationship to them,
Perhaps breathing into them,
Accepting,
Letting them be.
Perhaps on the out-breath continuing to be opening and softening to these events.
Perhaps on the out-breath saying,
Oh,
That's how it is right now.
Just staying with these thoughts,
Feelings and sensations.
As long as they attract your attention.
Holding them all in this more open awareness,
Bringing a gentle curiosity to your experience in this moment.
Presence or Goddess.
And when you're ready on an out-breath,
Letting go of this and on the in-breath bringing your attention to the sensations of breathing in the lower abdomen.
Noticing the stretch of the abdominal wall on the inhalation and its deflation on the exhalation.
And now on an inhalation,
Expanding your awareness to the entire body.
From the top of your head,
The tips of your toes,
Everything in between.
And then bringing this more spacious attention into the next moments and allowing your eyes to open.
