Take a moment to set up your meditation posture.
When you feel settled,
Start to focus on your breathing.
Scan down through your body,
Paying attention to the body piece by piece.
Beginning at the top of the head,
Notice the sensations through the back of the head,
Through the face,
Feeling into the throat and into the neck,
The top of the shoulders,
Feeling down through the arms into the hands,
Coming up to the clavicle and the top of the chest,
Feeling into the heart center and recognizing any emotional experience,
Feeling your way down through the torso,
Feeling through the hips and the pelvic bowl,
Down into the buttocks,
Feeling through the legs,
Both knees,
The lower legs,
Feeling the ankles and feeling the feet,
Noticing the feeling of your whole body sitting now in readiness for meditation.
Contemplate these two questions.
Why am I here to meditate right now?
And why do I meditate long term?
This is a contemplation meditation,
The object of which is a relationship of your choice.
In order to come into that contemplation with a calm,
Spacious mind,
We'll take the next few minutes to do concentration practice.
This helps bring the mind into a calm stability.
So you begin by noticing the rhythm of breath.
If you want to,
You can do some work to just slow down that breathing and allow it to come into fullness.
And then when you feel ready,
Bring the mental notation of four counts to four breaths.
Breathing in,
You count one,
Breathing out two,
The next breath,
Breathing in three,
Breathing out four,
And then start the four count again.
Breathing in one,
Out two,
In three,
Out four,
And start again.
It's perfectly normal,
You might have distracting thoughts for a while.
You just keep dropping them,
Coming back to your breath,
Using the counting to stabilize your attention.
Breathing in,
Out two,
In three,
Out four,
Breathing full and calm,
Slow breaths.
Count one more round of four,
And then let go of that mental notation.
And then you just witness the breath.
In a contemplation meditation we use a calm breath throughout,
And we also use questions to allow an opening to thought,
To reflection,
To contemplation.
The object for this contemplation meditation is a significant relationship of your choosing.
Another person with whom you have relationship.
Firstly,
Contemplate an aspect of the relationship with this other person that you would consider to be neutral.
Contemplating an aspect of relationship with this other person that you would consider neutral in nature.
Now shifting focus,
Contemplate an aspect or an area of relationship with this person which you might normally categorize as difficult.
From the calm witnessing position of your breath,
Witness or contemplate the feelings or the aspects of this part of the relationship which are difficult.
Keeping your breathing calm and regular.
Now shifting focus,
Contemplate an aspect of the relationship with this person which you might normally categorize as pleasant,
Easy or enjoyable.
Shifting that focus,
Now revisit the neutral aspect of relating with this person.
The context,
The time or the situation in which it feels quite neutral.
Just witnessing,
Watching,
Contemplating.
Shift focus again,
This time to the more difficult aspect.
Shifting focus one more time,
Now to the effortless,
Easygoing or pleasant aspect of relating with this person.
Just giving a small break here,
Now return to your breathing and you can bring back in that counting again.
Breathing in one,
Out two and carry on to four.
Breathing in one,
Out two and carry on to four.
Focusing all of your attention on the breath.
Doing one more round of four and then release the counting.
We'll come now to the final contemplation on this particular relationship.
And this is the setting of intention.
Firstly contemplating the question,
What is my intention for the next time I see this person?
And what is my intention for the long term of relationship with this person?
And this is the setting of intention.
You can revisit these intentions anytime.
We'll finish this meditation with a practice of metta.
Drawing this metta for yourself.
Firstly expressing the wish,
May I be free from danger.
May I be free from mental suffering.
May I be free from physical suffering.
May I have ease of well-being.
Bring all of your attention to your breath and use the next two or three breaths consciously to transition you out of this meditation.
