Welcome to the first practice of anahata.
It is about finding the stillness within you.
Imagine a majestic mountain.
When you look at it,
You can feel the great stillness in the presence of that mountain.
And that very presence will bring a similar stillness inside you.
It infuses that stillness into your inner nature.
But in our daily life activities,
Our mind and emotions and sensations,
They are constantly reacting to external situations.
This reactivity creates a great deal of unrest within,
A great deal of flux,
Of changing sensations,
Impulses,
Drives,
Desires,
Cravings,
Emotions of liking,
Disliking,
Constant thinking,
Remembering,
Internal chatter.
This goes on and on and on.
Very rarely do we experience that majestic stillness of a mountain.
And yet it is there deep within.
It is the very nature of our true being deep within.
A deep stillness is there but it is covered up.
So how do we discover that and settle there?
That's what we will be exploring in this session.
So make yourself comfortable.
Sit in a posture that is helpful to stay long without moving,
A restful posture.
Gently close your eyes with a smile so that you can feel the smiling energy.
All over your face,
All over your body,
Connect with your entire body starting with the feet,
Legs,
Torso,
The shoulders,
Arms,
Face,
Back of the head,
Top of the head.
Behold them all together in a loving embrace.
Feel your body with a smile,
With loving attention and look at breath,
Your natural breath.
We can use breath as a means to enter deep into stillness.
It's like a rope.
Just observe your outgoing breath.
Lovingly to see where it is vanishing.
Go with the breath,
Moving with it,
Observing it without pushing or pulling.
Just be with your breath,
The outgoing breath so that you can see,
You can feel where and when it is coming to end and dissolve into a stillness.
Connect to that stillness and wait for the breath to return on its own.
And pull your breath,
Let the breath come in naturally,
In breath filling you up,
Filling the whole inner space,
Coming to fullness.
And there too you will discover a brief pause in stillness.
Then it returns as out breath,
Going out,
Out,
Out.
Trace it all the way where it vanishes.
As you go without breath all the way till the end,
It will take you to the stillness.
The more you are able to sense and feel the stillness.
Focus on the stillness,
Not on the breath but on stillness.
Feel the stillness.
Feel it with your whole body and within the body there is this deep foundation of stillness.
And your breath is arising from stillness and returning to stillness.
Your breath is only a surface movement.
Deep within is the foundation of stillness.
Feel it deeply so that your body feels the sensation of stillness.
Every tissue,
Every muscle,
Feel the sensation of stillness.
And let it permeate your whole being and surrender to that stillness.
Dissolve into it.
Be the stillness.
So that you are the stillness,
Completely at rest,
Effortlessly,
Relaxing and resting in stillness.
And your breath is only arising from stillness and returning to stillness.
Just a surface movement.
The ground is the stillness of your being.
Rest there.
Feel it.
Immerse in it.
Dissolve in it so that you become the stillness.
Just be there as a witness and feel it in your body.
And feel the whole body.
And bring your attention to your face,
To your eyes and gently open your eyes.
Feeling the stillness as your ground,
Feeling the stillness in your body.
You just took a deep within.
Going deep using your breath as a rope to drop into stillness.
This is your first practice.
Connecting to stillness and becoming the stillness.
The more you pay attention to stillness,
The more still you become.
And you can repeat this practice in coming days so that you can get a deep sensing and feeling of the stillness in your body.
Just bookmark it in your memory so that any time you just have to remember and connect with your body,
Recall the stillness and it is there deep within.
Always it was there.
When you move from the surface to the depth,
You can always connect with it.
So use this audio to connect with the stillness again and again in coming days so that the memory is reinforced.
The body knows stillness as a beautiful deep sensation and you can return to it easily.
The more you practice,
Easier it gets to come back to stillness.
So enjoy your stillness and enjoy the practice.
Rest in stillness.
Till we meet next time for the second step of Anahata.
Thank you.
