Hello my name is Matt Aubrey.
Thank you for using this meditation recording for your practice.
The practice we're going to do now is one I use where you just drop into the presence of being yourself,
Just as you are.
And one of the things I've learned over the years through some of the yoga training I've done and meditation teaching,
That a lot of the wisdom traditions try to tell us that if we go deep inside we're okay.
Everything is perfect and broken.
It's often what we believe about ourselves,
What the world has told us,
The stories we tell ourselves,
That we actually think that is who we are.
But a lot of the wisdom teachings tell you to come inside,
To sit,
Sit,
Be still and find this peace that dwells within you,
Which is your essence,
Your true nature.
So this will be the aim of our practice that we're going to do now.
So to begin with,
Allow yourself just to come make yourself comfortable.
So sitting in a position that's good for you,
Either cross legged or in a chair,
Ideally not lying down.
As for this practice,
It's better to be alert.
So to start off with,
Bring your awareness to your feet on the floor.
Notice the physical sensations there.
Notice the sensation of your sit bones and whatever you're sat on.
And then allow your ears to hear all the sounds that are around you.
This is recorded in an ordinary room in a house.
So you'll hear background noises from my recording.
But also notice what's around you,
Where you are.
And then take a lovely deep breath in through your nose and sigh out through the mouth if that's comfortable.
And then do that again.
And just allow yourself just to settle into this moment.
And if it's comfortable for you to do it,
Allow your eyes to gently close.
Otherwise,
Just pick a point in front of you and gaze softly at that point.
So to start to come into this practice,
Bring your awareness to the breath at your nostrils.
So here we're just going to focus on the breath coming in and out of the nose just briefly as our road into this practice.
And as you do this,
Remember that the human mind is always whirling away in the background,
Always busy for attention.
And at any time that you get caught up with a thought,
A physical sensation,
Or a sound and you find yourself running off with it,
That's completely okay.
That's quite normal.
So just notice you've done that and then come back to do a presence or whatever I've asked you to focus your awareness onto.
So we really do this without a sense of judgment at all.
Being distracted is part of our practice.
Some days are easier,
Some days aren't.
So for the meanwhile,
Just keep focusing on the breath at the nostrils.
And then when you're ready,
Allow your awareness then to lift from your breath and come and place your awareness down onto your physical heart center for a moment.
So here,
Just notice the awareness of your physical heart beating in your chest.
And again,
We're just bringing awareness to it.
We're not thinking,
Is it beating too fast or too slow?
Is there something going on?
What we're doing here is just bringing our awareness down to the heart center.
And from here,
Just allow your awareness to spread out to your body.
So perhaps first bringing your awareness up to your face and just notice the muscles in your face.
Notice the muscles around your eyes and your cheeks and your jaw.
And just allow yourself to soften your face as you breathe out.
Maybe even just allowing the jaw to part just slightly.
And from here,
Allow your awareness to drop down to your hands.
So if your hands are in your lap or on your thighs,
Just notice the softness in your hands.
And from there,
Allow yourself to bring your awareness to your whole body.
So what we're doing is we're actually just bringing awareness to what it feels like to be sat here at this time in our physical body,
In our space.
Some of the Zen teachers teach that when we're in this place,
This is what we do in meditation.
We just sit.
We're not doing it for any outcome,
For any goals.
Just allowing ourselves just to sit and be.
So just allow your awareness to rest here as you sit in this comfortable position,
Not having to do anything,
Not having to be anywhere at the moment.
Allowing sounds to come and go.
Any stories come in,
Any judgments come in,
We just notice them.
Just let them go.
There's a beautiful line in a Chan Zen poem about being like the cloud and flowing like the water.
So we just allow ourselves just to flow,
Just be.
Everything come,
Everything go.
We just sit here,
Just being aware of our presence.
A beautiful quote from Sri Nasagata Maharaj.
There's nothing to practice.
To know yourself,
Be yourself.
To be yourself,
Stop imagining yourself to be this or that.
Just be.
Let your true nature emerge.
Don't disturb your mind with seeking.
So as we sit here,
This is our practice.
We just allow ourselves just to be,
Allowing our true nature to emerge.
And then gently,
Just allow your awareness to lift away from your body and from being.
Bring your awareness back up to your nostrils.
Just noticing the breath coming in and out of the nostrils there.
Maybe noticing the temperature difference,
Cooler air coming in,
Warmer air going out.
And then when you hear the bell ring three times,
We'll come out of our practice together.
That'll be the end of our practice.
So gently,
Just allow your awareness to come away from the breath,
Back to all the sounds around you.
Notice the sounds you can hear over my microphone,
The sounds where you are.
And then drop your awareness down to whatever you're sat on.
Notice the sensation of being held by whatever you're sat on.
Notice your sit bones.
Notice the feet on the floor.
And then take a lovely breath in through the nose and sigh out through the mouth.
And we'll do that again.
If your eyes are closed,
Gently open your eyes,
Look around.
And that's the end of our practice.
Thank you for practicing with me.
