MBSR Sitting As A Center

Staying mindful when life gets challenging is like learning to play an instrument: it requires regular practice. The mindfulness muscle is strengthened through sitting meditation during which we observe how thoughts, sensations, feelings, breaths arise, and pass. As we learn to notice and give space to all these different internal events, we experience that there is something in us - awareness, the inner observer - that perceives all of these things and yet is not completely consumed by them.

Transcript

Welcome to this 40 minute sitting meditation.

We start by sitting down in a warm and quiet space on the chair or meditation cushion.

Feeling the points of contact that the feet and legs make with the floor,

Chair or pillow underneath.

Closing your eyes if that feels comfortable.

Safely carried by gravity and maybe allowing yourself to give in to that feeling of being held here in this moment.

Making this your time for being.

Stepping out of the doing mode and busyness of our lives.

Noticing but letting go of the thoughts and stories we hold about what needs to get done for things to be different from what they are.

And instead getting curious in our real and direct experience.

Observing with humor,

Spontaneity and kindness how everything actually unfolds when we pay attention from moment to moment.

With this practice we train body,

Heart and mind to open to a space and when facing life's challenges instead of our habitual reactions to run,

Fight or switch off from this world.

Coming to the space of awareness where we cultivate through meditation a remembering of our freedom to choose a response to stress and difficulty that is wise,

Kind and creative.

Now for the coming moments as good as you can letting go of all ideas and expectations you might have about meditation or mental states that we think we should achieve.

To again open your heart and mind to be curious and receive each moment as it comes.

Bringing awareness into your sitting posture.

Coming into an upright and dignified but at the same time relaxed posture.

With a straight back,

Open chest while letting the shoulders relax back down.

The chin may slightly tilt towards the chest so that the very top of your head,

The crown of your head is pointing upwards toward the sky.

Taking a moment to find your center,

Your natural balance and disposition in the here and now.

Then very slowly letting your attention narrow and gently approach the breath.

Choosing a body part where you feel the breath today the most alive and pleasant.

That might be air traveling in and out your nostrils or the movement of the chest.

Or the rising and falling of the abdomen.

Like a discoverer on an expedition patiently moving closer approaching this natural phenomena of breathing and the body part that you have chosen.

Paying close attention to the entire breathing cycle.

Following the in breath,

Seeing the tipping point when it turns into an out breath.

Staying close until its last moments and being aware when the body gives this natural impulse to breathe in again.

As wild and as astonishing as it is.

As wild and as astonishing as the continuous formation of waves in the sea that break before rolling into the beach.

Inviting the same awe and wonder for the sensation of breathing.

As wild and as astonishing as the continuous formation of waves in the sea that break before rolling into the beach.

As wild and as astonishing as the continuous formation of waves in the sea that break before rolling into the beach.

Sooner or later the mind will wander away from the focus on the breath to thoughts,

Planning,

Daydreams.

Whatever this is perfectly okay.

Simply what minds do.

It is not a mistake of failure.

When you notice that your awareness is no longer with the breath congratulating yourself.

You have come back and are once more aware of your experience.

Then gently escorting awareness back to the sensation of breathing.

To this in-breath or this out-breath.

Whichever is here when you return.

You have come back and are once more aware of your experience.

You have come back and are once more aware of your experience.

You have come back and are once more aware of your experience.

Just this breath.

So often missed,

So worth noticing.

So often missed,

So worth noticing.

So often missed,

So worth noticing.

Then expanding the focus of awareness and sensing what other parts of your body are touched by breathing.

Slowly becoming conscious of the entire body breathing.

And opening the senses to its sensations.

It is our breath that is awakening,

Pulsating,

Itching.

Making the dance of sensations in the body the new focus of your attention.

Not picking or choosing,

But being open for any and all sensations that enter awareness.

Observing them until they move into the background or fade.

And with kind interest discovering which new body sensation arises,

Becoming your anchor in the here and now.

Also noticing the minds tendency to judge sensations as pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral.

And if any sensation becomes too unpleasant,

Reminding yourself that you have that freedom,

That we always have that freedom of how we relate and meet difficulty.

Allowing yourself to mindfully shift your posture if that is necessary.

Or sensing this as an opportunity to bravely explore what happens if you rest your attention on sensations that feel unpleasant and with kind and curious awareness investigating their quality,

Their center,

Their edges,

Their duration.

See how they're changing.

But whenever you decide that it is enough,

Knowing that you can always shift your focus of attention away from the body part that feels too unpleasant to rest awareness in another area of the body and feel the sensations there.

Maybe in the hands or feeling the abdomen rising and falling.

Just There is nothing left to do other than paying kind attention to your experience.

Thank you.

Then letting the feeling of body sensations fade into the background and opening your awareness to sounds.

What sounds can you hear?

From within your body?

Sounds in this room?

In this building?

From the outside?

Not hunting after sounds,

But letting them come to you,

Noticing them once they enter awareness.

What sounds can you hear?

From the outside?

From the outside?

Also being aware of the mind's tendency to judge sounds,

To want more of a particular sound or less of another.

Just noticing judgment or commentary and kindly but firmly bringing your attention back to the sounds that are now here to be heard.

What sounds can you hear?

From the outside?

From the outside?

See if you can listen,

Not just with your ears but with your entire body.

What sounds can you hear?

From the outside?

From the outside?

Opening awareness to include the most distant sounds.

Becoming aware of that feeling of wide space that this creates within you and around you.

Resting in that soundscape.

And just like sounds,

Thoughts may arise.

Stay a while in our awareness and then pass on.

And instead of now letting go of thinking,

Making the process of thinking the new focus of the attention.

Thereby not being interested in the content of thoughts.

We know that they aren't facts nor the truth.

But simply observing the process of thinking.

Some thoughts may come as sounds,

Others as pictures.

Just notice how they arise and pass like clouds through the sky.

Can you see your next thought entering your awareness?

Can you see your next thought entering your awareness?

And just like the sky lets all weather happen,

Not pushing any of it away,

Nor clinging to anything.

So we rest in spacious awareness,

Seeing thoughts clearly and letting them all pass through.

And just notice how they arise and pass like clouds through the sky.

Relaxed and alert.

Relaxed and alert.

Relaxed and alert.

Relaxed and alert.

Some thoughts seem more sticky than others,

Carrying our attention away.

And it's often the emotional charge that captures us.

We can become mindful of the current feeling and emotional state underneath thoughts,

Seeing where we feel them in our body.

So now,

When you're ready,

Opening the senses to the current mood.

What is the emotional weather like right now?

What feeling is predominant?

Which part of the body does it inhabit?

What body sensations are linked to that feeling?

Peace,

Fear,

Joy,

Sadness,

Whatever it is,

Making room for it now,

Kindly observing how feelings manifest as sensations in the body,

As the current anchor of your attention.

And again,

If this becomes too challenging,

Remembering your freedom to choose how to respond,

Maybe increasing the scope of awareness to include other body parts,

Not being too close and getting some distance to that feeling sensation in your body.

Or bringing awareness back to the breath or the sensations in the hands just for a moment and maybe later checking in again with that feeling.

Trying this out playfully.

And if there's no feeling currently to be felt,

That's completely fine.

Just being aware of that and continue resting your awareness in your body and its sensations.

Staying interested and noticing any mood or feeling that may arise as you continue sitting here.

Thank you.

Easily the mind wants to make sense of this experience.

But once you notice thinking,

Reconfirming your commitment to let go of mental activity for this practice,

And coming back to an embodied presence that is open to sensing and feeling.

Thank you.

Then letting go of any particular anchor and expanding awareness to include any and all phenomena that are present and can be known from moment to moment.

Being aware of and open to whatever enters awareness,

Sensations,

Sounds,

Noticing a breath or thinking and feeling as they arise.

Stay for a while and pass.

Resting in that wide open,

Spacious awareness.

Sensing it all appearing and disappearing.

Exists.

.

No pushing away,

No holding onto.

Simply observing anything that can be known and is entering awareness.

No pushing away,

No holding onto.

No pushing away,

No holding onto.

Staying awake and balanced in the midst of this life.

No pushing away,

No holding onto.

Then returning attention to the sensation of breathing.

Knowing that you are sitting here breathing.

Being aware of this body resting here midway between sky and the earth.

Feeling the sensations of contact that feet and legs make with the floor,

Chair or cushion.

No pushing away,

No holding onto.

Closing with the words of the poet Dana Falls.

You can ride the breath to go there.

As you soon continue this day knowing of that powerful presence that is awake within you.

That space from which you can notice it all and your freedom is born to choose how to be with it.

Peace in the wilderness,

Your true home.

Nothing left but the question,

Will you stay awake for this one wild and precious life?

Yes,

You feel it.

Reviews

Beautifully guided, attention training and open awareness secular meditation. Thank you.