The Zoom Sessions No 5: Saturday Meditation Drop (25th April 2020)

This is a field recording of a live drop-in meditation session hosted on Saturday, 25th April 2020. Due to the Coronavirus, I decided to host a free Saturday night meditation sessions via Zoom whilst we are all locked down. This recording was made to enable group members to return to the session 'as and when' they would like to; or if they had missed the live session. The session contains a body scan, a compassion meditation, an observation meditation, and an Examen of the day.

Transcript

Hello my name is Matt Albury.

This is a Zoom recording of a meditation drop-in that happened on the 25th of April 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown.

The sessions were held to enable people to meet together to meditate whilst in isolation.

Tonight's session consists of a body scan,

A compassion meditation,

Followed by an observation of breath leading into a time of stillness or silent meditation and then the session will finish with an examine of the day.

So take your awareness then to your feet on the floor,

Taking your awareness up onto the toes,

The top of the feet and the ankles and just notice the physical sensations in your feet.

And then flow your awareness then up through up onto the lower legs,

Noticing the shins and the calf muscles,

Taking your awareness then up onto the knees,

Thighs,

Hips and the backside.

Just notice the physical sensations there.

And then take your awareness across up from the hips up onto the belly and the lower back,

Taking your awareness then up onto the upper back and the chest.

Flowing your awareness to the shoulders,

Shoulder joints,

The upper arms,

Taking your awareness down through the elbows,

The forearms,

The wrists,

The backs of the hands and the palm of the hands.

Just noticing that little hollow,

That little dish that forms there in the palms.

And then taking your awareness then out onto the thumbs,

First fingers,

Second fingers,

Third fingers and fourth.

And then flow your awareness all the way through the tips of the fingers up all the way up through the arms.

Just noticing the physical sensations that are present there.

And then flow your awareness then up onto the throat and the back of the neck,

Taking your awareness onto your jaw,

Up to your mouth,

Noticing your lips,

Your teeth,

Your gums,

The insides of the cheeks,

The roof of the mouth,

The tongue and the space underneath your tongue.

Just notice the tastes and the physical sensations present in your mouth.

And then take your awareness up onto your nose and your nostrils,

Taking your awareness up onto the eyelids,

The eyelashes,

The eyeballs themselves.

And just notice the sensations there.

And then flow your awareness around onto your ears,

Just noticing the shape of our ears,

Flowing your awareness around onto the back of the head,

The forehead,

And then finally the crown.

And then when you reach the crown of your head,

When you're ready,

Flow all the way back through your body as if you're being emptied out through the bottom of your feet.

So you just flow in one lovely movement all the way down to the bottom of the feet,

Down to the tips of the toes,

Tips of the fingers.

And as you do this just let go of anything you want to let go of.

Just allowing that just to just be absorbed by the earth as if it's flowing out through the bottom of the feet into the ground.

Just flowing,

Bringing awareness as you go.

And then when you reach the bottom of your feet in your own time,

Just flow all the way back through the body as if you're being filled afresh,

All the way up to the top of the head,

Flowing as you go.

Just bringing awareness.

And then when you reach the top of your head,

Just take a moment just to notice your presence,

What it feels like to be in your body,

In the space that you're in.

And then when you hear the bell,

I'll start to guide us through the compassion meditation.

Now the compassion meditation is a variation of the loving-kindness meditation.

So with this practice what we do now in our mind's eye,

Bring an image of yourself as you are today.

So in your mind's eye picture as if you were sat opposite yourself.

Just as you look at yourself,

Take a moment just to bring awareness to the thoughts that might be flowing there as you look at yourself,

Or the mental chatter,

Or even the physical sensations that are present in your body as you look at this image of yourself.

Regardless of how we feel about ourselves at this moment,

The practice is about intention.

So our intention is to bring kindness and compassion to ourselves when we need it.

So as you look at this image of yourself,

Think of anything at the moment,

Or maybe you've been overly harsh with yourself.

You've put a lot of shoulds onto yourself.

Or maybe there's fears.

Just take a moment just to look at this image of yourself as you think of these things.

As you do this,

Bring awareness to where they sit in the body.

If there's any physical sensations attached to these thoughts or these fears.

And then as you do this,

Allow the firmness of your heart,

The heart centre,

To start to open.

Just picture the firmness of the heart opening up.

And as it opens it starts to release goodwill,

Kindness,

Compassion,

Tenderness.

All these beautiful qualities of loving kindness.

Just picture these qualities leaving your heart centre going into this image of yourself.

And then we'll say these words of kindness quietly to ourselves three times.

Just quietly repeat these words to yourself as you continue to look at the image of yourself.

May I be safe.

May I be peaceful.

May I be kind to myself.

And may I accept myself as I am.

May I be safe.

May I be peaceful.

May I be kind to myself.

And may I accept myself as I am.

Just say these words one last time to ourselves.

May I be safe.

May I be peaceful.

May I be kind to myself.

And may I accept myself as I am.

So just look at the image of yourself now.

And just notice the image benefiting from your practice.

Maybe the face softening.

Maybe a gentle smile coming onto the face of yourself.

And then when you're ready just allow that image of yourself just to dissolve away.

Just gently dissolve in a way.

And then in your mind's eye bring somebody you know has gone through a tough time.

Maybe it's a friend or a loved one.

Someone you're worried about.

Maybe it's someone you saw on the TV or in the newspaper today.

But gently bring this image of this person into your mind's eyes if they are sat opposite you too.

And again when you look at this person if it's someone you care deeply about think about what the qualities are about this person and why it is so easy to love them.

Or maybe if it's somebody you're worried about a particular thing think about what it is and why you were worried for them.

And again noticing where this emotion sits in your body as you do this.

And again now picture your heart center starting to open again and the furnace of the heart opening and all the qualities of loving kindness coming out compassion and tenderness.

Goodwill.

Just picture these qualities leaving your heart center and going into the person sat in front of you.

And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

May you be kind to yourself.

May you accept yourself as you are.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

May you be kind to yourself.

And may you accept yourself as you are.

Just say these words one last time to them.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

May you be kind to yourself.

And may you accept yourself as you are.

And then in the closing stages of this practice now bring back the image of yourself.

Place them alongside this person you are concerned for.

And then allow your mind to generate images of other people who maybe go through a similar situation as you were concerned about or this other person.

So in a way it's a bit like the Tonglen practice where we think of other people going through similar things.

So just allow images to form in your mind of perhaps other people who are locked down around the world.

One of the loved ones that you're concerned about.

Just allow your mind to just generate an image of all these different people in front of you.

And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.

May you all be safe.

May you all be peaceful.

May you all be kind to yourselves.

And may you all live at ease.

May you all be safe.

May you all be peaceful.

May you all be kind to yourselves.

May you all live at ease.

May you all be safe.

May you all be peaceful.

May you all be kind to yourselves.

And may you all live at ease.

So just allow the images now of these people just to dissolve away.

And as you do this picture all those qualities of loving kindness coming back into your heart center.

So watching these qualities flowing back into you going into the furnace of the heart.

So they're now nourishing you in the same way that you've nourished others.

Just allow these just to settle deep in your heart center.

And then when you're ready bring your awareness to your breath.

Just watching the breath coming and going not trying to speed it up not trying to slow it down.

We're just bringing our awareness to this this area of our body.

And then when you hear the bell start to guide us then into the observation of the breath.

So follow the journey of the breath into your body.

So we've watched the breath coming up through the nostrils down the back of the throat and into the body.

And here we're noticing the movement of the ribs,

The movement of the chest,

The ribs on the back,

The belly.

So just watching that breath rolling in.

Notice the little pause that occurs before you start to breathe out.

And then we watch the journey of the breath as it goes out watching all those subtle little movements in the body.

And we notice the still point again before we start to breathe in again.

So just for the next five minutes just let this be your place of observation before we go into the anada,

Into the stillness.

So really just allow yourself just to get lost in that lovely rhythm of your breath moving in your body.

You you you you you you you So then when you're ready just allow yourself just to drop in then to this sense of stillness so you can either stay with the breath as the option there if that's a place where you really sense stillness but we allow ourselves just to drop down into that stillness letting ourselves settle.

Pantajani talks about how when we allow water to settle that's when it becomes clear and you can see the bottom we allow this just to happen naturally we don't try to make water become still just allow it to settle.

So this is what we do now in our practice we just allow ourselves just to settle as if we're dropping into the deeper water letting it become clearer.

We do this without any effort we just allow ourselves just to be.

If we get distracted at all by thoughts or feelings sensations you just notice that's what we've done and then we just come back letting ourselves settle in the stillness.

As you do this I will just gently chime the bell every five minutes.

You you you you you you you just continue to allow yourself just to get lost in that sense of stillness just letting it come up naturally when it does.

In the meantime is it just allows of just the settle just dropping your awareness down from the head down maybe to the heart center.

Again just for the next five minutes we just continue just being just lost in that sense of bliss that sense of stillness in order.

You you you you you you you you and then just now return your awareness back to where we started so taking your awareness back to the sensation the breath moving in the body.

So we're taking our awareness up onto the physical level of the breath moving noticing the ribs move chest move the belly as the air comes in.

Noticing that little still point that occurs before the breath starts to roll back out.

Then there's a little still point before you start to breathe in again.

So just allow yourself just to return to this place now for the next five minutes.

And then after the next bell I'll lead us in the exam of the day.

You you you you you you you you We begin by lighting a candle.

You Come home to yourself.

Come home.

Lovingly welcome into your home the person that you are.

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 of life a moment of light.

Gently revisit it and let it live again in your mind.

And focus on particularly on what it was that brought you that sense of life.

So be still.

Be grateful.

And as we remember the day as it was remember a moment that might have caused despair or disappointment or frustration.

And then gently revisit this too allowing that again to live in your mind's eye but without judgment as much as possible and with compassion.

Be still.

Be accepting.

And then gently take the moment of life and light and the moment of frustration or despair and bring them to the divine love within you.

Just allowing that divine love to take these moments of light and darkness.

As we just let go and release them into that divine love.

Be still.

Be still.

Be still.

And then in the closing moments of our practice think of tomorrow.

Think of the things that you hope to achieve.

Maybe the things you feel you need to do or maybe use this time to set intentions for your day.

Qualities you would like to see in your day.

And then trust for your tomorrow.

And as I gently blow out the candle just allow yourself to bring your awareness to the sensation of the breath again in your body allowing this to be your anchor until you hear the three bells.

Then we'll do our grounding technique and then our open our eyes.

Until you hear the three bells then we'll do our grounding technique and then our open our eyes together.

So gently bring your awareness back to the sounds around you.

And then take your awareness to the sensation of the chair or the cushion against your body.

And then we'll do our two breaths where we breathe in through the nose and south through the mouth.

So take a lovely deep breath in through the nose and south.

Do that again lovely deep breath in through the nose.

And then take your awareness to your feet on the floor.

Just notice that firm floor that supported us as we've practiced.

And then when you're ready just gently open your eyes and move very gently.

Reviews

A relaxing and supportive practise once again. Thank you Matt. 🙏😊