In this meditation we'll be learning to attend closely to the changing sense of pleasantness or unpleasantness that unfolds from moment to moment.
So coming now to sit on a chair or a stool or a cushion with the feet flat on the floor and the spine erect but not stiff.
Checking your eyes if this feels okay for you or lowering your gaze.
Seeing if your posture embodies a sense of being aware,
Really being here for each moment.
As best you can,
Allowing the shoulders to drop,
The head to be balanced and the facial expression soft.
Now,
When you're ready,
Focusing your attention on one place in the body where you find it most easy to anchor your attention.
This might be the sensations of the breath as it moves in and out of the body.
If so,
Being fully alive to the sensations that are created by each breath as it comes and each one as it goes,
Noticing the pauses in between.
Simply receiving the in-breath and letting go on each out-breath.
Receiving,
Letting go.
If you choose,
Your anchor might be the contact of your feet on the floor or your body on the chair or stool or cushion or the contact of your hands with whatever is supporting them.
Whichever anchor you choose for this time of practice,
Abiding here,
Allowing yourself to receive what sensations are already here.
And if you find that your mind is being taken away from your anchor by other sensations in the body or by sounds or by thoughts or feelings,
Noticing the feeling tone of whatever takes you away and then,
If it's pleasant,
Saying inwardly to yourself,
It's okay to like this.
And if it's unpleasant,
It's okay not to like this.
Now,
At a certain point,
Deliberately expanding the focus of your awareness to the whole body,
Including the sensations of your anchor,
But now also expanding attention to include all the sensations that are occurring in your body as you sit here breathing.
And noting the feeling tone of sensations in the body as well.
At any one time,
Some may be pleasant,
Some unpleasant,
Some neutral.
Sensations arising from the surface of the skin,
The air moving across the skin on the cheeks or the hands or the contact of clothes on the skin.
Sensations inside the body too,
Changing from moment to moment.
And as the sensations come and go,
Seeing if the feeling tone changes as well.
If you notice that the sensations in the body are becoming too intense or uncomfortable,
Remembering that you have a choice,
You can shift position to ease the discomfort,
Noticing the effects of the movement on the sensations and on the feeling tone of the sensations.
Or if the sensations are not too intense,
You might choose to remain still,
Bringing your attention right up to or into the discomfort,
Cradling it in awareness,
Acknowledging the unpleasantness and saying inwardly,
It's okay not to like this.
However you respond,
Looking after yourself.
And now,
Keeping the whole body in the background,
Allowing your awareness to expand,
To register anything that makes contact with mind or body from moment to moment.
So you're aware of the body sitting here,
Breathing,
But also open to sounds or thoughts or feelings.
Noting the feeling tones,
Allowing them,
Pleasant or unpleasant or neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
Seeing if it's possible to tune in to how long any feeling tone lasts.
You might find it helpful to register this breath by breath.
Here's how.
On each out-breath,
Just towards the end of the out-breath,
As the breath is almost finished and there's often a short pause before you take the next in-breath.
At this point,
Making a gentle note of how this moment is for you.
Does it feel pleasant or unpleasant or neither?
No need to analyse or think back to what has created a feeling tone,
Simply registering a subtle sense,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or neither,
Breath by breath.
And if the moment is hard to register,
Letting it go and waiting for the next out-breath.
If it feels too difficult to notice feeling tone on every breath,
Letting go of this for a while,
Allowing the attention to return to your anchor,
Feet,
Contact with seat,
Hands or breath.
Then when you're ready,
If you choose,
Coming back to registering feeling tone on each out-breath,
Doing this for as long as you choose to,
Returning to your anchor from time to time if it feels right for you.
From time to time,
You may become lost in thoughts,
Or the body or mind may feel busy or restless.
If so,
There's nothing gone wrong.
It's just the body in the background,
Readying itself for action as memory,
Imagination,
Planning continue to do their work for you just below the surface of awareness.
When you notice you are lost or busy,
Perhaps saying inwardly on an out-breath,
No action needed right now.
No action needed in this moment.
No action needed right now.
Not trying to change what's already here.
It's not about judging or thinking.
It's more like a gut feeling of how pleasant or unpleasant any moment is for you.
And when you sense the feeling tone,
If it's pleasant saying to yourself,
It's okay to like this.
If it's unpleasant saying,
It's okay not to like this.
And if you choose,
Adding on an out-breath,
No action needed right now.
And for the last few minutes of the sitting,
Coming back to focus on your breathing,
Or your other chosen anchor,
Your feet,
Your hands,
Or the contact with your seat.
And remembering that cultivating the ability to sense the tonality of each moment as pleasant or unpleasant or neither,
Seeing your natural reactions to the feeling tones,
And becoming more clearly aware of all this in your daily life,
Gradually brings a deeper sense of how things are for you at any moment,
And a deeper willingness to allow things to be just as they are.
And in the very next moment of your day,
There's more choice.
You may even find new ways to respond with greater kindness and wisdom.
