Hello my name is Matt Albury.
This is a live recording of a Zoom meditation session that happened on the 4th of April 2020 to enable our groups to meet together during the lockdown of the Corona pandemic.
This session will contain a body scan,
A loving kindness practice,
An observation meditation practice and it will close with an examine of the day.
So bring your awareness to your feet on the floor.
And just let this be your first observation.
So just notice the sensation of the feet on the floor.
And then take your awareness up to this chair that's supporting your body.
And then bring your awareness to the sounds.
So firstly notice in the sounds you can hear around you,
Outside,
Perhaps outside the rooms you're in.
And then bring your awareness to the wider sounds that you can hear.
And then we'll take two breaths in.
So take a lovely deep breath in through the nose.
And sigh it through the mouth.
And then we'll do that again.
Take a lovely deep breath in through the nose.
And then just allow yourself just to settle.
Just being aware of that stillness that's there.
And then we'll do our body scan.
So bring your awareness back to the feet on the floor.
Taking your awareness out onto your toes,
The top of the feet and the ankles.
Just notice the physical sensations present there.
And then take your awareness up through the shins and the calf muscles,
Up to the knees,
The thighs,
The hips and the backside.
And just notice the physical sensations present there.
And then flow your awareness up through from the hips up onto the belly and the lower back.
Taking that awareness up onto the upper back and the chest.
And then take your awareness then up onto the shoulders.
The shoulder joints.
And then flow your awareness then down through the upper arms.
The elbows.
The forearms,
The wrists.
The backs of the hands and the palm of the hands.
Taking your awareness then out onto the thumbs.
The first fingers.
Second fingers.
Third fingers and fourth.
And then flow your awareness all the way back up through the arms.
Just notice the physical sensations present there.
And then when you're ready,
Flow your awareness up onto the throat,
The back of the neck.
Taking your awareness around onto the jaw.
Up to the mouth.
Notice in the lips,
The teeth,
The gums,
The insides of the cheeks,
The roof of the mouth,
The tongue and the space underneath your tongue.
And just take a moment just to notice the taste and physical sensations present at the moment.
And then when you're ready,
Then flow your awareness then up through onto the nostrils and the nose.
Taking that awareness around onto the ears.
And flowing the awareness around onto the eyelids,
The eyelashes and the eyes themselves.
And just notice the physical sensations present there.
And then take your awareness then up onto the back of the head,
The forehead and then the crown.
And then gently when you're ready,
Just flow back through your body as if you're being emptied out.
And like we did last week,
That image from the chap in the fire series,
Nick,
Was saying,
Just like as if it's an old oil leaving your body as if you're doing an oil change.
Just letting everything go that you just want to let go of at this moment.
Just picture it going out through the bottom of the body,
Just into the ground,
Just letting the ground take everything away from you.
So just flowing all the way back through the body,
Noting what's there,
Just letting go as you go.
And then when you're ready in your own time,
Flow all the way back through your body as if you're being filled afresh with a lovely new liquid.
Flowing all the way from the tips of the toes,
Tips of the fingers,
All the way up to the crown of the head.
And when you reach the crown of your head,
Just take a moment just to notice the physical sensations,
What it feels like to be in your body at this time.
Just noticing that.
Just noticing what it feels like to be in that place of stillness within your body.
And then when you hear the bell,
It'll start to guide us in our loving kindness meditation.
And as I was saying to start using the words a gentleman called Darren Cockburn has done,
Especially for this time.
So bring into your mind's eye an image of yourself as you are at this moment.
So as if like you are sat opposite yourself.
And just taking a moment to notice what it feels like as you look at this image of yourself.
How you feel physically.
Maybe the mental chatter that's there as you look at this image of yourself.
And then when you're ready in your heart centre,
In the furnace of the heart,
The middle of the chest,
Allow that just to open.
In your mind's eye,
Like as if it's an opening flower.
It's just opening up,
Just allowing out this kindness and this empathy,
This goodwill that we're going to send to this image of ourselves.
And these are the words that we will say quietly to ourselves three times.
As we look at this image of ourselves,
We say,
May I be happy.
May I be well and healthy.
May I stay grounded.
May I experience peace.
May I be supported.
May I be accepting.
And may I have what I need.
So continue just to look at this image of yourself.
And we'll say these words again.
May I be happy.
May I be well and healthy.
May I stay grounded.
May I experience peace.
May I be supported.
May I be accepting.
And may I have what I need.
May I be happy.
May I be well and healthy.
May I stay grounded.
May I experience peace.
May I be supported.
May I be accepting.
And may I have what I need.
So just allow that image of yourself just to go for now.
And bring into your mind's eye an image of a person who is precious to you.
Someone who is easy to love.
Someone you care deeply about.
And bring this image of that person into your mind's eye.
As if they were set opposite you.
And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
Let me just say those words one more time to them.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you be grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
So just allow that image of that person just to dissolve away for now.
And bring to your mind's eye someone,
A neighbour.
Someone you don't know very well but someone you know who's obviously being affected by this corona virus.
And just bring this person to your mind.
So this is another human being you don't know very well.
And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
And just say these words one more time.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
So allow the image of that person to go.
For the time being and bring into your mind's eye someone you find challenging,
Someone you find difficult.
But again that the intention is that we bring them goodwill and kindness for no other reason really than that they're a human being.
Whether they we think they deserve it or not.
It's just by intention really.
So as you picture this person in front of you.
Just take a moment to notice the emotional feelings that come up perhaps the physical feelings might come up.
And then just say these words to this person as best you're able to at this time.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
Just say these words again one more time this person.
So just continuing to bring those feelings of goodwill towards them.
May you be happy.
May you be well and healthy.
May you stay grounded.
May you experience peace.
May you be supported.
May you be accepting.
And may you have what you need.
So in your mind's eye bring back the image of yourself,
The loved one,
The neighbour,
And put them alongside the challenging person.
And then take a moment now in your own time to think of all the people around you you'd like to bring back into this image,
So other loved ones,
Other neighbours perhaps.
Just bring these people in front of you like a whole community in front of you.
There's a picture in their faces.
And then we'll say these words of kindness to the whole group.
May you all be happy.
May you all be well and healthy.
May you all stay grounded.
May you all experience peace.
May you all be supported.
May you all be accepting.
And may you all have what you need.
May you all be happy.
May you all be well and healthy.
May you all stay grounded.
May you all experience peace.
May you all be supported.
May you all be accepting.
And may you all have what you need.
Just say those words one last time now.
So just in your mind's eye,
Just scanning over the faces of these people.
May you all be happy.
May you all be well and healthy.
May you all stay grounded.
May you all experience peace.
May you all be supported.
May you all be accepting.
And may you all have what you need.
So just allow those images of those people just to dissolve away for now.
And as you do this,
Picture the kindness coming back in to your body,
Coming in with the breath,
And coming back into your heart centre so that you physically benefit from the kindness practice you've done as well.
So you just picture this kindness coming back into you maybe as a light,
Coming right back into the heart centre and nourishing you.
As you've nourished others,
Now you're nourishing yourself.
And just allow that to come to you now.
And as you do this,
Just bring your awareness to your breath.
So just notice in that rhythm of your breath coming in and out of the body,
The gentle movements of the breath in the body.
As you do this,
Bring your awareness to your feet on the floor.
This floor that grounds us,
The floor that supports us.
And then just stay in this place until you hear the three bells.
And then we'll do our grounding technique and then we'll stop the rope a little bit.
So take your awareness then to the sounds around you.
Bringing your awareness to the chair or the cushion that's supporting you as you practice.
And then taking your awareness then back to this floor again,
Just noticing the sensation of the floor,
Maybe give your toes a bit of a wriggle around.
And we'll take our two breaths.
Take a lovely deep breath in.
And sigh through the mouth.
And we'll do that again,
Lovely deep breath in through the nose.
Okay,
So we'll bring our awareness then back to the feet on the floor.
Bring your awareness to the chair supporting you.
Taking your awareness out to the sounds again,
Just noticing what's around.
And then we'll do our two breaths.
Take a lovely deep breath in.
And sigh through the mouth.
And then just take another deep breath in again now.
And before we do go into the stages of this observation meditation,
Just take a moment just to set an intention for yourself what you want the remainder of this time to be for you.
Maybe it's a time of stillness,
Time of healing,
Whatever's right for you.
Just in your mind's eye,
Just set an intention for yourself what you need now.
And then when you're ready,
I'll start to lead us.
So the first place I'd like you to come to then is while we're bringing the breath into the body,
We will first come to notice the breath at the nostrils.
So just bring your awareness to your breath at the nostrils first.
Just noticing that cold air coming in,
Warm air going out.
And then when you're ready,
Bring your awareness then to your physical body.
So a bit like when we do our body scan.
So just notice what it feels like to be in your physical body at this moment.
You might notice there is a tension or your body might be fine.
You might have an old injury.
Just bring your awareness to the physicalness of your body.
What it's like to be in a physical body at this time.
And then when you're ready,
Then we'll bring our awareness to the breath.
Really watch that breath rolling and picture this life bringing energy coming into your body.
Really just feel the depth of that breath coming in.
So you're feeling it up into the lungs just below the shoulders here,
Right down into the bottom of the ribs and to the belly,
Into the upper back.
Just notice that breath,
That life breath coming in.
The breath rolling out.
Just really enjoying that sensation of this life breath coming in.
This pranayama rolling in to your body.
And then when you're ready,
Bring your awareness away from the breath for a moment.
Bring your awareness onto your emotions.
How do you feel in the emotional part of your being at the moment?
There's no right or wrong here.
You haven't got to feel bad for whatever you feel.
How you feel is how you feel.
So it goes a bit like what we were just saying actually in the loving kindness that we bring acceptance.
This is how I feel.
So we give our emotions the chance of the voice for a moment.
And then when you're ready,
Bring your awareness to your energy in your body,
Your energy levels.
How do you feel?
Maybe you feel spent after a day.
Or maybe you're feeling good.
But just notice how your energy levels feel as well.
And then when you're ready,
Bring your awareness to that sense of stillness and bliss.
The final kosher sense of stillness,
A sense of bliss that's in us.
Maybe it's actually in the gap that happens in the breath.
This is your breathing,
That natural pause that we have.
Maybe that's where you notice that stillness.
Maybe it's deep in your core.
And when you notice that place,
Just allow yourself just to be lost there.
Just allow yourself just to settle into that sense of bliss.
That sense of stillness.
Maybe it comes from just watching the natural rhythm of your breath.
Just allow yourself just to stay there.
.
.
.
Begin by lighting a candle.
Come home to yourself.
Come home.
Lovingly welcome into your home the person that you are.
Come home.
Let your hands find rest.
And let your hands hold the weave from your day.
Come home.
As we remember the day as it was,
Remember a moment of light.
A moment of life.
Gently revisit it.
Allow it to live again in your mind.
Be still.
Be grateful.
As we remember the day as it was,
Remember a moment that might have caused frustration,
Disappointment or fear.
And gently revisit it,
Allowing that again to live in your mind's eye.
If possible without judgement.
Be still.
Be accepting.
So now bring the moment of life and light and the moment of disappointment or fear.
And gently bring them in with the breath allowing the divine love within you to take both these moments.
Just releasing them over to that divine love within us.
Be still.
Be still.
And then in the closing moments of our practice think about tomorrow,
The things that you would like to bring into your day,
Things you'd like to do with your day.
And then gently trust for your tomorrow.
And then as I blow out the candle,
Just bring your awareness back to your breath.
So we've ended our practice at where we started.
Just noticing the breath rolling in and rolling out.
And then when you hear the three bells that will be the end of the practice for this evening.
And we'll do our grounding technique and then open our eyes.
So bring your awareness to the sounds around you again.
And then take your awareness then down to the chair supporting your body.
Or the cushion.
Then take your awareness then down to your feet on the floor.
Just noticing that firmness of the floor there.
Give your toes a bit of a wriggle around.
And then we'll take two breaths in and out through the mouth,
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
So take a lovely deep breath in.
And we'll do that again.
Lovely deep breath in.
And then gently open your eyes when you're ready and move nice and slowly.
