This guided sitting meditation will help you to learn to simply be and to look within yourself with mindfulness and equanimity.
As we enter this period of formal practice together,
Having carved out this time to be with and by yourself.
Establishing yourself as best as you can in a posture that is both comfortable and upright.
Whether you're sitting in a chair or on the floor or lying down,
Just allowing your eyes to gently close or for the gaze to remain stable and unfocused in front of you.
Establishing as well the gentle but firm intention to be as awake as possible.
To be as in touch as possible with the present moment just as it is and however it is for you,
This practice.
Using my words and the mindfulness bell as mere pointers to your own interiority,
Your own inner experience from moment to moment to moment.
And at this point bringing to mind what the deep motivation is for taking this time out for yourself in the first place.
As you do,
Gradually allowing your attention to lie gently on the breath as it moves in and out of the body.
Beginning to make the primary focus some region in the body where you feel the sensation of the breath.
This might be in the belly where you feel the rising and the falling of the diaphragm as you breathe in and out.
Or maybe it's the breath at the nostrils where you are actually feeling the passage of the air as it enters into and out of the body.
Or maybe it's a larger sense of the entirety of the breath as it enters into the nostrils and down into the belly.
Or any other place in the body where the breath is most vivid for you.
And without forcing or striving as best as you can just gently riding on the waves of your own breath moment by moment as a leaf might ride on the waves of the surface of a stream.
Feeling the sensations in the body associated with the breath coming in.
And the sensations in the body wherever your focus may be on the breath leaving the body.
Without pulling the breath in or pushing the breath out.
Without any forcing whatsoever.
Just allowing the breath to be as it is moment by moment by moment.
And breath by breath by breath.
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music felt experienced in the moment.
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music As best as you can moment by moment by moment.
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Being here resting in awareness itself featuring in this moment this breath.
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music And perhaps sensing that this very act of attention,
This very act of being present in this way,
This very act of persisting in aiming and sustaining of establishing yourself in a posture that embodies dignity and presence.
Is a deliberate and intentional act,
Nothing less than a radical act of kindness towards yourself.
Just to meet the breath,
To embrace the breath and the fluctuations of your own mind in this way.
Music So sitting or lying as if your life depended upon it.
Resting and knowing the breath moving as if your life depended upon it,
Which of course it does.
Music Fully awake with no agenda other than to be awake,
To be the knowing of this breathing.
Music Music Allowing each out breath to be a complete letting go,
Each moment met,
Each breath met in its original fullness.
Letting go of the future,
Even the next breath and simply being utterly present with this breath.
Music Music And in the few remaining minutes of this sitting,
If your posture has collapsed or if your attention has in some way collapsed,
Seeing if you can reestablish the lightest touches in your lying or sitting here,
In your embracing of the breath,
In your resting in awareness of breathing outside of time altogether,
Just this moment,
Just this breath,
Just this drinking in of the air,
This flowing of the air through the body,
This giving and receiving of the air,
This unfolding of life,
Moment by moment by moment in awareness.
Music Music Music Music Music
