The Zoom Sessions No 16: Saturday Meditation Drop In 4th July 2020
This is a field recording of a live drop-in meditation session from Saturday 11th July 2020. Due to the Coronavirus, I decided to host a free Saturday night meditation sessions via Zoom whilst we are all locked down. The full session contains a detailed Body Scan, a compassionate awareness meditation practice, and an Examen, which is a reflection of the day to finish. Please note: The audio is recorded on a laptop and there is some background noise.
Transcript
Hello,
My name is Matt Albury.
The following recording was made on the 11th of July 2020 during the Corona pandemic.
Our meditation groups were unable to meet in person so we started a meet on Saturday evenings using Zoom to continue to enable us to practice as a group.
This is a live recording of one of those sessions using a laptop so the sound quality isn't perfect.
The following session contains a body scan,
A loving kindness meta practice and then ends with an examine of the day which is a meditation technique to help you review how your day has been.
So to start the practice then just bring your awareness to the bottom of your feet and if you're sat in a chair or a cushion just really feel the sensation of your feet on the floor.
Just enjoying that firm floor there which is going to support you all the time when you're practicing.
And then take your awareness then out to the chair itself so you're noticing the contact with the body.
Just noticing where it's touching the legs and the backside and the lower back and perhaps the upper back.
Just notice that sensation of being held.
And then take your awareness out to the sounds that you can hear all around you and we're doing this again with that sense of acceptance of whatever's there.
We're not pushing the sounds away we're just noting what's there.
So take awareness to the sounds you can hear outside of the room where you are.
And then take your awareness to the sound inside of the room.
And then we'll take two breaths just to settle this in.
So take a lovely deep breath in through the nose and sigh through the mouth.
Again lovely deep breath in.
And just allow yourself just to settle for a moment and just set an intention for yourself what you need this practice to be.
Maybe it's a time of relaxation,
A pure just chance to sit still and meditate.
Or maybe it's a time of rest and healing.
But just set an intention of what you need this to be now for you the next half an hour of practice.
And then when you've set your intention we'll do our body scan.
So take your awareness then back to the bottom of the feet.
Taking awareness up onto the toes and the tops of the feet and the ankles.
And just then feel the physical sensations in the feet.
And then take your awareness then up onto the lower legs,
The knees,
The thighs and the backside and the hips.
Just notice the physical sensations present there in your legs.
And then flow your awareness and up through from the hips up onto the belly,
The lower back,
The upper back and the chest.
Just noting the sensations there.
And then take your awareness then up onto the shoulders,
Shoulder joints.
Taking the awareness then down through the upper arms and the elbows,
Forearms and the wrists,
The backs of the hands,
The palms of the hands.
Just notice that lovely little hollow there in the palm,
The little dish that forms there.
And then take your awareness out onto the thumbs,
First fingers,
Second fingers,
Third fingers and fourth.
And then gently flow all the way back through the fingers,
All the way back up through the arms up to the shoulder joints.
Just noticing the sensations present.
And then take your awareness across onto your throat,
The back of the neck.
Taking your awareness around onto the jaw,
Up onto the mouth.
Noticing the lips and the teeth,
The gums,
The insides of the cheeks,
The roof of the mouth,
The tongue and then the space underneath your tongue.
And then just take a moment just to notice the tastes and the physical sensations present in your mouth at the moment.
And then take your awareness up onto the nostrils and the nose,
Flowing onto our ears,
Up onto our eyelids and our eyelashes and the eyeballs themselves.
And then take your awareness up onto the forehead,
The back of the head and then finally the crown.
And then as if a tap's been opened on the bottom of your toe,
Just allow yourself just to be emptied out.
So just flow through your body in your own pace,
Don't rush,
Just going through as if you're being emptied out.
And use this time to let go of anything you want to let go of.
So anything that's not serving you anymore,
Just let it flow out as if it was flowing out to the bottom of your feet.
And then when you've reached the bottom of your feet,
Just allow yourself just to flow all the way back through your body as if you're being filled afresh,
Just going all the way up,
Just feeling all the physical sensations that are present in your body at the moment.
As you flow all the way up to the crown of the head.
And then when you're at the crown of your head,
Just be aware of your presence.
Before we move into the loving kindness,
Just take a bit of a moment just to be aware of what it feels like to be in your body,
In the space that you're in.
Just feeling the physical sensations present,
The softness in your hands,
The softness in your posture.
And then when you hear the bell,
We'll start to do our loving kindness practice.
So this is just a reminder that loving kindness is about intention.
So we give kindness as best we're able to at this time,
So we again don't bring judgment into it and beat ourselves up if we're not feeling particularly kind to any character that we bring to mind now in the practice.
It's about intention.
So to start off with,
In your mind's eye,
Bring an image of yourself as you are at this moment.
And place this image of yourself as if you were sat opposite yourself.
And just for a moment,
Just bring awareness to the thoughts and the physical sensations that are present as you look at this image of yourself.
And the aim here is that we bring kindness to ourselves whether we think we're entitled to it or not.
Again,
It's about intention.
So as you look at this image of yourself,
Now bring your awareness to your heart centre,
The centre of your chest.
And picture your heart centre opening up like a flower.
And all these qualities of kindness come out of this flower like an essence,
Like a perfume.
So you picture kindness,
Compassion,
Empathy,
Goodwill,
Love,
All raising out without effort out of this heart centre.
And picture them passing from you to the image of yourself.
And as we picture this loving kindness moving towards this image of ourselves,
We repeat these words quietly to ourselves.
May I be truly happy.
May I be healthy and well.
May I be safe.
And may I be loved.
May I be truly happy.
May I be healthy and well.
May I be safe.
And may I be loved.
And as you picture these words washing towards this image of yourself,
Picture this image benefiting from the practice of maybe their face softening with a smile or the body language just relaxing.
I'm going to say these words again one more time to this image.
May I be truly happy.
May I be healthy and well.
May I be safe.
And may I be loved.
So gently allow the image of yourself just to dissolve away for a moment.
And then bring into your mind's eye an image of someone who's easy to love.
And this doesn't have to be a human being,
It can be an animal or a pet.
It's important to you.
Place this image in front of you.
And again take a moment just to notice what it is about this person or this animal that makes them so precious,
So easy to love.
And then again picture in all that goodness and kindness coming out from that heart centre passing towards the image of this person or this animal.
And then we say these words of kindness to them.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
We'll just say those words one more time to them.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
So gently let the image of that person just dissolve away for now.
And bring into your mind's eye a neutral person.
So this is somebody you don't know very well.
Might be a neighbour down the road or it could be someone who served you in a shop recently.
But it's somebody we want to benefit from our practice for no other reason than they are a human being and we want to extend kindness to them.
So as you have this image of this person in front of you then we'll extend our kindness to them.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
And I must say those words again to them.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
So now allow that image of that person just to dissolve away for a moment.
And in your mind's eye bring in the image of a person who is difficult.
Someone you find difficult to be around.
Perhaps someone who's frustrated.
But if it's your first time doing loving kindness just pick someone who's frustrated you a little bit.
Don't put the person who's wronged you most in your life in front of you.
Just start with someone who's a bit annoying.
And as we put this image of this person in front of us again picture your heart centre being open and loving kindness,
Compassion,
Empathy flowing towards this person.
For no other reason than they are a human being and deserve kindness just like us.
So we'll say these words to them.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
We'll just say those words one more time.
May you be truly happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be safe.
And may you be loved.
So then return now into this image of the person sat in front of you,
The image of yourself,
The loved one,
The neutral person and place them alongside the difficult person.
And then allow yourself then also then just to bring awareness then to other people you want to bring kindness to.
So in your mind's eye bring in an image of other loved ones,
Perhaps other difficult people or other people you've seen around today that you would like to bring kindness to.
And just allow this image just to form now in front of you of a whole group of people.
And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.
May you all be truly happy.
May you all be healthy and well.
May you all be safe.
May you all be loved.
And may you all live at ease.
May you all be truly happy.
May you all be healthy and well.
May you all be safe.
May you all be loved.
And may you all live at ease.
Let me just say those words again now.
May you all be truly happy.
May you all be healthy and well.
May you all be safe.
May you all be loved.
And may you all live at ease.
So just allow now all those images of those people just to dissolve away and in your mind's bring all that kindness,
That goodwill back into your heart centre.
So all that loving kindness we've generated comes back into our heart centre to actually benefit us as well.
So we've given kindness to the others who we actually bring kindness to ourselves in this moment.
And just picture as that comes back to you,
The flower closing around,
Just bringing that loving kindness back into your being and holding it safe.
And then when you're ready we just go into a time of stillness.
So allow yourself just now to bring your awareness then back to the sensation of your body in its stillness as it sits still.
Notice in the softness in your hands,
Softness in your arms.
Just bringing your awareness to the whole sensation of being still.
Watching the rhythm of the breath as it comes and goes.
Watching the rise and fall of the chest and the belly.
Just allow yourself just to settle there now until you hear a bell which will be me about to lead you into the examined part of our practice.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
If we just continue just watching the lovely rhythm of the breath flowing in and out.
Notice in the softness in the body.
If we get distracted by any thoughts or sounds or anything while we're in this part of the practice,
Just gently come back without effort just to watch in the breath.
Notice in the softness in the hands,
In the stillness.
Just continue to remain there for now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Come home to yourself.
Come home.
Come home.
Let your hands find rest and allow your hands to hold the weave from your day.
Come home.
As we remember the day as it was,
Remember a moment that brought light or life to your day.
Be revisited,
Letting it live again in your mind's eye.
Be still.
Be grateful.
And then as we remember the day as it was,
Remember a moment in the day that was perhaps disappointing or frustrating or discouraging and gently revisit that,
Letting it live again in your mind's eye.
But as you do so,
Bringing kindness and compassion to yourself.
Be still.
Be accepting.
And then take this moment of life and light and the moment of discouragement or frustration and bring them and let them settle in your heart center,
Allowing the divine love within you to take these moments away from you as you hand over your day to the divine love within.
Be still.
And as we come towards the end of our practice,
Think about tomorrow.
Is there any intentions you would like to set for your day?
Any qualities you would like to bring into your day?
Or take this moment to think of any things that you need to do or would like to do.
And then we hand these over again to the divine love within us,
Trusting for our tomorrow.
And then as I blow out the candle,
Just return back to where we started the practice,
Bringing awareness to your body.
So bringing awareness to your breath,
The sensations of your hands soft in your lap,
Awareness to your presence.
And then when you hear the three bells,
We'll do our grounding technique and that'll be the end of our practice.
Okay.
So return your awareness then back to the sounds where you are.
So hearing the sounds you can hear around you outside of the room and inside of the room.
Just taking awareness to there.
And then take your awareness then down to the sensation of the chair that's supported with your body.
As you do this notice the contact with your body.
Notice how your body feels and if you need to give it a bit of a move,
Move your shoulders and stuff.
Just allow yourself to just feel that movement and then come back and then bring your awareness to your feet on the floor.
So notice that lovely firm floor that's supported you the whole time we've practiced.
And then we'll end with our two breaths.
So taking a lovely deep breath in through the nose and sigh through the mouth.
We do that again.
Lovely deep breath in and then just gently open your eyes and move when you're ready.
