This meditation is designed for those who struggle with breath meditation.
Come into a seated posture.
You can sit on a chair,
With your feet flat on the floor,
Your hands resting in your lap.
And come into an upright posture.
Not stiff,
Just relaxed,
And allow the eyes to gently close,
Gently,
And just come to stillness for a moment.
And from this vantage point of stillness,
Can you feel the breath?
Although you intend to be still,
There is movement.
Where do you feel that?
Tune into that now,
And try to find the origin of the breath.
Where does it start in the body for you?
Try not to have any preconceived ideas.
Just look at the breath as if for the first ever time.
When you have found the origin,
Where the breath starts,
Can you feel if it moves?
An example would be,
If you feel it start in the lower abdomen,
Does it rise up and spread across the abdomen?
Maybe even moving into the chest?
That might not be where the breath starts for you.
We're all different.
Find what's right for you.
And see if you can be present for a whole in-breath,
The beginning,
The middle,
And the end.
If you manage that,
Can you sense the breath stopping,
A tiny pause,
And the out-breath beginning?
Can you be with the beginning of the out-breath?
Where do you feel that in the body for you?
Maybe you feel it in the nose or the chest.
There's no right place.
Wherever you feel it is the right place for you.
And can you feel the beginning,
Middle,
And end of the out-breath?
And if so,
Can you feel the pause at the end of that?
And then the process start all over again.
It's so simple,
But we complicate meditation.
We over-strive.
Simplify it.
You may even notice where the mind wanders away.
Does it wander in the pause?
Does it wander in the middle of the breath?
Can you notice the mind's wandered?
Just look at the thought that's carried it off,
And say in your mind,
Thinking,
Thinking.
This will unhook you from the thought,
And then place your attention back on this breath,
The one here now.
Do all of this with a very relaxed mind.
Don't try to achieve any special state.
Just soften.
Soften the effort.
Soften the body,
And allow the breath to soften.
Just be with the physical sensations that happen in the body as a result of the breathing process.
And look to see if you're interfering with the breath.
Try not to interfere with the breath.
Try to allow it.
Just allow the breath.
And be satisfied that even if you're only able to be with the beginning of the occasional breath,
That's enough to grow the practice.
It's a very difficult training that we undertake to be able to focus on something so neutral.
The mind is used to locking on to exciting feelings or painful ones.
This is why it's difficult to stay with the breath,
Because it's neutral.
It's not pleasurable,
And it's not painful.
So the mind isn't interested in it,
But most of our life is this way.
So the breath trains us to be able to be available for life in everyday,
Ordinary experience.
And then we can wake up to see that the ordinary is anything but ordinary.
Being fine with starting again,
With getting carried away with thinking,
And then coming back to the breath.
This is all part of the practice.
The practice isn't just being with the breath.
It's losing the breath.
Seeing that fact,
Waking up to the fact that we're carried away,
And placing the attention back on the breath,
Sustaining that attention for as long as we can,
And then being carried away again,
And on and on it goes.
Each time this cycle happens,
The mind grows stronger,
More aware,
More able to stay with the breath that happens here in the present moment.
Now let the breath just fade,
Recede from the spotlight,
And just be aware.
Aware of sound,
Physical sensations,
Smells,
Whatever shows up.
Be aware of that.
You may find that the breath is now making itself known,
And how you're not trying.
Absorb any peace that may have been cultivated,
And we'll bring the practice to a close.
So begin to move the body,
And when you're ready,
Open the eyes.
Regular practice of this meditation will soon have you able to be with the whole breath,
And then to string breath together,
Until you're finally happy with your progress.
