We'll get in touch with your body and your breath.
Begin to notice and relax all of the kind of big muscle groups of your body and that helps us to get settled into more ease with that.
And bringing attention to the feeling of the breath in your nostrils.
Begin to let your awareness flow from the eyebrow center behind the forehead to the base of the nose where the nostrils meet the upper lip.
And when we do that,
One of the things we notice is what is our breathing pattern.
Allow your body to bet your belly especially to soften and let your breath be smooth.
And really let your mind get into that groove,
The slow exhale,
That continuity into the inhale and then right into the exhale.
Let your mind start to kind of drift up and down with that rhythm.
Smooth continuous rhythm.
Bring your mind in from everything else.
And now let your focus be on that flow from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose as well as the sound so hum.
We just listen to the sound in the mind on the inhale so on the exhale it's hum.
And then let that sound start to really flow with the breath.
Smooth continuous flow of awareness coordinated with the breath,
The sound flowing in your mind.
Inhaling so,
Exhaling hum.
And then letting that flow now in the back of your mind.
If you're visual,
If you can do a visual of this that's great.
If not,
It might not be actually like a picture,
It might be more something like a felt sense.
Bring to mind a still lake in the moonlight.
So whatever that might look like for you,
The waters are still,
The moonlight is reflecting on the waters in this kind of a stream of light across the water.
In the center of that light there's a spinning pearl and it's that mantra so hum,
So not coordinated with the breath anymore.
Pearl is kind of spinning,
The mantra so hum,
So hum,
So hum,
So hum.
Let that repeat in your mind,
Listen to the sound so hum,
So hum,
So hum.
Visualize this perfectly still waters of this lake,
Full moon shining onto that stillness.
And the mantra like a pearl spinning at the surface.
So hum,
So hum,
So hum,
So hum.
And then let that spinning pearl,
The sound so hum,
Start to float downward into the water.
Onward into the stillness in the depths of the lake.
Still listening so hum,
So hum,
So hum,
So hum.
Follow that into the stillness in your mind.
Sometimes we notice that we're involved in thought.
You can imagine that as ripples on the surface of the lake.
Bring your attention again to that gently spinning pearl on the surface.
The vibration of the sound so hum,
So hum.
Let the thoughts go,
Let them be on the surface as you bring your attention deep.
To be that spinning pearl just kind of drifting down.
Soft so hum,
So hum.
Let your focus be on the so hum,
So hum,
So hum.
Enjoying that stillness.
Let your thoughts come into your awareness.
See if you can let them be way in the background.
Way up there at the top level,
That surface layer with some ripples on the water and then we bring our attention back down.
But focusing only on the stillness.
Let everything else be up there on the surface.
The light of the full moon still reflecting into the stillness of the depths of the lake.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Your mind will likely get engaged in some thoughts.
Let them drift upwards towards the surface,
But your attention stay in the depths.
Coming back again and again.
Resting in the quiet.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
If you feel like you're really off track,
You could bring your awareness back into your body again for a moment.
Notice the flow of breath in your nostrils.
Relax the main muscle groups in your body.
Let your breath come back to an even,
Effortless,
Smooth,
Continuous flow.
You could be aware of that from the deep stillness in the mind as well.
You don't need to make all of that go away.
You're just focusing at a deeper level in the mind.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself to witness what's here without getting engaged in it.
What you're hearing.
A little bit of awareness of your breath.
Awareness of the light and the stillness of the lake.
Even if one layer of the mind is engaged in thought,
We can turn our attention to this deeper layer,
The deeper stillness.
Listening as the mantra repeats in the mind.
So hum,
So hum,
So hum,
So hum.
Even that gets very quiet at times.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
We're focusing on this direct experience of stillness in the deeper layers of the mind.
You might be aware of surface activity,
Waves on the surface of the lake.
There's a light shining on the lake,
The mantra,
That spinning pearl.
Coming back to this stillness that's always here.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
Letting yourself stay focused.
In a moment we'll be finishing the practice,
Although you could certainly continue for as long as you like.
Become aware now again of the breath as it flows in the nostrils.
Inhaling,
So exhaling,
Hum.
Bring your awareness back to the whole of your body from head to toes.
Over time we're able to keep our awareness in the deep stillness,
Even as we're observing or witnessing the thoughts that are going through the mind.
Open your eyes.
