Take a comfortable seated posture so that you won't have to squirm or fidget,
And commit to physical stillness,
Not in a controlled way,
Not holding rigidly,
More of a relaxed stillness where you ease into being open,
Awake,
And aware.
Sit with a relaxed lift to the spine,
Both to keep your back muscles happy and to encourage your mind to be alert and clear.
Your awareness isn't hazy or dreamy,
But instead,
You're lucid.
Check in with your body.
Encourage everything to relax and open a bit.
Feel the places where your body is touching something solid.
Your chair,
Your cushion,
Or the floor.
Tune into all of these places at once.
Rest the mind here,
Feeling your connection to the earth,
That sense of solidity and groundedness.
Turn your attention toward the sensations of breathing,
Not trying to breathe any particular way,
Just feeling the rhythm of the breath,
Especially down in the belly.
Gather your attention around your relaxed breathing.
Soften the belly to allow the breath to be unobstructed.
Instead of simply being aware of the breath,
Feel the breath,
Feel the rhythm of it,
And the quality of it.
Attend to the breath,
Feel into it,
Sense into it.
Give yourself,
Give your attention.
Giving your attention is a different kind of feeling than just being aware.
And it starts with the acknowledgement of how important our attention is.
We generally give our attention to what we deem is important and valuable.
So our attention is like a gift.
It's like an offering,
Offering our attention,
Engaging more of ourself,
So that our meditation has an intimate quality,
Not cold awareness.
Have a heartfelt quality to your attention.
Stay here with the breath in the body,
Not forcing the attention to be in one place,
But relaxing into this space,
Releasing commentary,
Not grasping onto any trains of thought.
Thoughts come and go,
No problem.
Be interested in the relaxed rise and fall of the breath in the belly.
Offer yourself to this experience fully.
And gently ask yourself,
Can I be with this moment as it is right now?
Notice any craving for this moment to be different in any way.
Without denying the craving,
See if you can accept this experience as it is.
Notice any aversion to the moment as it is.
Without suppressing or denying the aversion,
See if you can accept the experience as it is.
Can I be with this moment as it is right now?
From the depth of your being,
From your calm center,
Relax any remaining craving or insisting that this moment be different than it is,
However strong or subtle.
Bring anything that's present,
That you find challenging,
Into greater and greater awareness.
To experience it directly and clearly with kindness.
Don't try to get rid of the difficult sensation or thought or emotion.
Ask yourself softly,
What would be a more caring,
Loving way to be than insisting that this moment be different?
How does this experience change internally when you drop your resistance?
When you simply acknowledge this experience deeply and hold it in awareness with care.
Tenderly,
Gently allow this moment to be as it is.
Allow any emotions to be as they are.
Don't judge any part of your experience.
Steadily and with care,
Look directly at things as they are.
Offer yourself to the moment.
Allow the moment to be as it is.
Allow the moment to be as it is.
Give this moment your attention just how it is.
Cultivate an attitude of devotion to this experience.
Allow the silent presence of unbounded care to subtly pervade the entire field of awareness,
Like subtle sunshine.
Intuit that it's kind to give yourself this opportunity to connect to the calmness that underlies our experience.
Feel how kind it is to be aware from the deeper ground of who we are.
The ground from which deeper intelligence and emotional health can unfold.
We're not trying to attain a particular state or to gain something,
But rather we're giving ourself to it.
Offer yourself to your own experience.
Don't resist any thoughts.
Don't try to control your experience.
Be sincere without forcing anything.
Give yourself to things as they are.
