With Back to Basics,
The invitation is to set aside any preconceptions about meditation,
Or even the idea that you're about to meditate.
Sound fading into silence.
What else do you hear?
The sound of my voice emerging from the silence.
The bell has been rang,
So that is an indication that practice has already began.
But how can this period of practice be less formal and more relaxed,
And yet no less real or authentic?
A way of simply being with what you find,
Of turning towards presence.
So perhaps as a way of gathering ourselves inside our bodies,
We may take three slightly deeper breaths in together.
So breathing in,
Feeling the coolness of the air,
And breathing out,
Sinking,
Landing in the body.
Landing in again,
Feeling the fullness of the breath,
And breathing out.
And one more time,
Breathing in,
And this time as you breathe out,
Allow your awareness to sweep through the body toward the feet.
And if you need to rearrange your body so that it reflects awareness and a sense of presence,
That this is already a gesture of awakenment.
So noticing the movement,
And then the stillness again.
And you may be seated,
You may be lying down,
You may be standing,
Or even moving.
But noticing now the points of contact your feet make with the ground.
And noticing the texture of that contact.
My practice partner here is a very energetic cat whose claws are making contact with the carpet as she chases a ball around.
What is the quality or the felt sense of your feet right now?
Knowing that even the absence of sensations is a perfectly acceptable state of being,
State of noticing,
That it may be just this.
And that the only point of practice is to turn towards the question,
Can I be with this right now?
Just this,
The way it is.
Once again.
And the spaces between the sounds.
So we have the feet,
And if you are seated,
There is the seat,
A place of support.
You may of course be lying down or upright.
But either way,
It is from the pelvis that the spine extends,
Following the natural curves of the spine.
So you may notice the subtle undulations of movement as your body balances in stillness.
So I pray for you if you have any questions,
Whether you have any questions,
Please use the space below.
Okay,
Go.
And as my practice partner here digs her claws into a pillow,
We notice our hands.
And taking a moment now to arrange the hands in a way that they complete the posture.
So if you are seated,
You may fold them in your lap or have them rest comfortably on your thighs.
If you are lying on your back,
You may have your hands rest on your belly,
With the elbows supported by the ground at your sides.
Or if you are standing,
You may simply let your arms hang at your sides.
Whichever position,
See if it's possible to allow them to agree with gravity.
Allow for some heaviness,
A sense of release.
Can you see,
Can you feel the insides of your hands?
Is there a felt sense of the palm or the back of the hand?
Does your left hand have a texture?
And what about the right?
Does your breath have a rhythm?
So as we turn towards the qualities of breathing now,
It's noticing the sense of inflating and deflating,
Receiving the breath,
Followed by a sense of release.
How the breathing in elevates the shoulders,
And how they sink back down again as you exhale.
And so we let our awareness ride the rhythm of the breath.
You know,
It's fullness and simplicity.
We inflate,
We deflate.
Breathe in,
Let go.
We receive sounds,
Notice them pass away.
And in the same way,
We leave the front door and the back door of our consciousness open.
We allow thoughts to pass through,
Knowing that we do not have to entertain them.
We do not have to elaborate.
We simply notice what is passing and allow it to be.
So where there are sounds,
There are sounds which drift away into silence.
And where there are sensations in the body,
We allow them to be as they are.
And where there are thoughts and emotions,
We make space for those too.
And where there is breathing,
There is breathing.
There is rhythm.
There is life.
There is always the possibility of being,
Of presence,
Of gentleness,
Of kindness,
Of a light touch,
Of connection,
Of the simplicity of being.
Explicitly allowance,
