This is a 15 minute basic vipassana.
This means clear insight or seeing clearly.
What follows is a simple introduction to this practice.
Find a sitting position that allows you to be alert,
Spine erect but not rigid and also relaxed.
Close your eyes and rest your hands in an easy,
Effortless way.
Allow your awareness to scan through your body and wherever possible,
Soften and release obvious areas of physical tension.
You might very consciously relax and let go of your shoulders or soften the hands.
Relax the belly.
Because we so easily get lost in thoughts,
Vipassana often begins with attention to the breath and using the breath as a primary anchor of mindfulness,
It helps quiet the mind so you can be awake to the changing stream of life that moves through you.
As you practice,
You might find that a different anchor,
One other than the breath,
Might be useful for you.
Perhaps sounds or maybe the whole field of bodily sensations or perhaps both listening and feeling your moment to moment experience.
What's important is that your senses are awake and attention with the breath as a home base or sounds or sensations can help you to know that you are here.
Take a full breath,
Aware of the inhale filling the lungs and slowly and gently exhale.
And then allow your breath to be natural.
This where you most easily detect the breath.
You might feel it as it flows in and out of your nose.
You might feel the touch of the breath around the nostrils or on your upper lip.
Or perhaps you feel the movement of your chest and the rising and falling of your abdomen.
Bring your attention to the sensations of breathing in one of these areas.
Perhaps wherever you feel it most distinctly.
Or you might feel a sense of the whole body breathing.
There's no need to control the breath or to grasp or fixate on it.
There's no right way of breathing.
With a relaxed curious attention discover what the breath is really like as a changing experience of sensations.
You'll find that naturally the mind will drift off into different thoughts.
But thoughts aren't the enemy and you don't need to clear your mind of thoughts.
So you're developing the capacity to recognise when thoughts are happening without getting lost in the storyline.
When you become aware of thinking you might use a soft friendly note or say thinking,
Thinking,
Thinking.
Or simply recognise this is a thought.
Then without any judgement pause and reawaken to the moment,
To this moment.
Listening to sounds.
Feeling the sensations that are here present.
Simply returning to the breath.
Let the breath be a home base.
A place full of presence.
Being.
Whilst you might notice other experiences,
The sounds of passing cars or feelings of being warm or cool.
An image of a future event.
Sensations of hunger or background experiences.
Don't let them draw you away.
Even the moment that you're experiencing right now.
Just be aware of the difference of being inside of thought or noticing a thought with senses open and present.
If any particular sensations become strong and you feel drawn to them,
Allow those sensations instead of the breath to become the primary subject of mindfulness.
You might feel heat or chills or tingling or numbness,
Aching,
Twisting,
Sharpness,
Vibrating.
But with a soft open awareness,
Just gently feel those sensations as they are moved to the edge of them.
Are they pleasant or unpleasant?
As you attend to them,
Do they become more intense or do they start to disappear?
Just notice how they change.
And when the sensations are no longer a strong experience,
Then return to mindful breathing.
Or perhaps listening and feeling to your moment to moment experience.
If you find it difficult to stay with unpleasant sensations,
You might breathe with them.
Let the breath help you find some balance.
Or if the sensations are so unpleasant that you can't be present with any balance or equanimity,
Any calmness,
Just feel free to return to your home base,
The breath,
Or listening to signs.
Whatever feels right for you.
A similar way when strong emotions arise,
Fear,
Sadness,
Happiness,
Excitement,
Or grief.
You can practice meeting each experience with a kind and clear presence.
Not pushing anything away,
Not judging,
Not resisting what's happening.
Rather simply notice and allow the experience just as it is.
Notice how this fear or hurt or difficult emotion fears,
Like the sensations in the body,
Like an echo in the body.
Where do you feel it most strongly in your body?
Is it still or moving?
How big is it?
Is there judgment in your mind about what's happening,
About the fear or restlessness or irritation?
Does your mind feel contracted or open?
As you pay attention,
Just notice what's happening and let it be as it is.
In this presence allowing awareness,
Notice how the emotion changes.
Does it become more intense or weaken?
Does it change into a different state,
Perhaps anger to grief or happiness to peace?
If the emotion is strong,
It's difficult to be with.
You might breathe with it,
But if it feels overwhelming,
Come back to your breath to the home base that allows you to relax in the present moment.
If you're confused about where to pay attention,
Just relax wakefully with the breath or perhaps listening to and feeling the naturally arising moment to moment experience.
The particular sensations,
Sensations,
Emotions or thoughts when we practice mindfulness are not so important.
At the outer weather,
There's no inherent goodness or badness to these inherent states.
What matters is our willingness to be awake regardless of the weather.
It's this unconditional presence that reveals the nature of reality.
Continue to be here and especially if the mind is not so distracted,
You may just allow yourself to be in the moment.
Allow whatever is happening to unfold in an awake,
Open awareness.
This brings the meditation to a close.
So gently awaken in your own time,
Maybe a little stretch.
Agree.
