'dγγ£ politiques what in millions any runs Hi A Becoming aware of our posture,
Where we contact the ground or our seat,
And by extension the earth.
Feeling a stable connection,
Making sure our posture feels balanced and supported by the whatever base we're sitting on.
And from that base,
Observing how the body is arranged on top of that,
How the weight is hopefully distributed in a balanced way.
Imagine the stacking of the vertebrae.
It is perfectly stacked to have the most ease in this seated posture.
All the way up to the head,
Just easily perched on top.
And through the top of the head,
Feeling the connection up and outward in a similar way as we feel the connection to the ground and the earth.
And we can notice the air,
The temperature,
Just aware of the body in this space,
In the way it's arranged right here.
Bringing balance to the body in preparation for a balanced mind.
One of the ways that we want the mind to be balanced is between alertness and ease.
We want to be fully awake,
Fully aware,
But also in a space of ease.
And this ease is part of what makes the awareness possible,
Makes it possible for it to be very full.
And let's turn our attention to the rising and falling of the breath.
At first,
Just catching the breath where it is.
How is the breath right now without any interference on our part?
Notice the duration,
Depth,
Is there texture,
Temperature,
Just tuning into this one object for the mind.
Seeing if now we can begin to notice where the breath is experienced most prominently in the body.
Just observing and finding that sort of center point for the breath,
Letting that be the very center of our focus.
I often choose someplace in the abdomen,
But it can really be anywhere.
Now beginning to observe the aspects of the breath that are characterized by ease.
Finding pleasure in the breath,
Searching for what might be considered interesting in the breath.
We can engage our will to find incentive for staying with the breath.
And once we start to see even the smallest amount of pleasure in the breath,
Ease,
Interest,
Begin to follow that.
And whatever small amount of ease and pleasure in the breath that we find we engage our imagination and our breath,
Our attention,
Awareness to make that grow,
To make that spread.
While we picked one small area to focus on to engage in the breath,
Now we begin to open to the awareness that the breath can be experienced in a very wide-ranging way throughout the body.
The more still and focused the mind becomes,
The more subtle we can,
Or the more subtleties we can pick up.
Just gradually keeping the breath as our center point and spreading ease throughout the body.
Letting the awareness begin to suffuse the entire body.
Gradually,
To whatever extent you can,
Just inhabiting the entire body with our entire awareness.
No matter where you are now,
There is a way in the path of truth.
There is map making and map reading and making adjustments as new landmarks appear.
We know the map is not it,
But there is a map.
And there is the peak of this moment,
Where we are meant to stand,
A vantage point,
Where we can observe ourselves in the barest possible way,
And from there look out.
