Hello and welcome to Path to Peace part 4.
If you haven't tried the previous meditations,
Go back and start at 1,
But you're welcome to try this if you feel ready.
There will be less verbal instruction from me and this is to allow you to have more space to meditate without me interrupting.
So,
Expect long periods of silence.
This is going to be a much more gentle guidance.
So,
Come to your seated posture.
Sit upright.
Allow the eyes to gently close.
And place your hands,
One on top of the other.
Palms facing upwards.
And place your hands in a comfortable position.
I practice with palms up,
One hand in another.
So,
You can try that if you don't already and rest your hands in your lap.
And bring your hands closer to your abdomen.
And as you do that,
Feel the shoulders open.
Feel the chest open as a result.
And see if you can feel this affect your posture.
If you observe,
This should bring you into a nice,
Well-aligned,
Upright and alive posture.
And then just relax the hands and arms.
Relax the spine too.
We want to be upright,
But that's supported by skeletal alignment,
Not by us struggling to hold an unnatural posture with our muscles.
And starting at the top of the head,
Soften the top of the head.
The forehead and eyes.
Cheeks,
Jaw.
Down to the neck and shoulders.
Relaxing the shoulders.
Softening.
Scan your attention down both arms.
Into your hands.
And feel the aliveness that lives in your hands.
Feel that right now.
Then scan your attention up into your chest.
Relaxing.
Noting whatever's present.
Perhaps you can feel the chest move with the breath.
And then round into the upper back.
Relaxing that too.
Letting go of anything you're carrying under the shoulder blades.
Let them just drop down.
Then scan your attention down into your lower back.
And feel the support of the lower back,
Holding your posture.
It doesn't need to be stiff,
Tense or rigid to do this.
It's very natural,
But that will mature in time.
Then take your attention round to the abdomen.
Let go of any gripping here.
Any holding.
Feel the gentle swell of the breath.
And then the contraction as the breath leaves the body.
Bring your attention to your buttocks and feel the weight as they meet the surface you are resting on.
And then down into your lower back.
Scan your attention down both thighs,
Knees,
Lower legs and into the feet.
Now just become still.
Stilling the body.
And bring your attention to the nose.
Weight around the area of the nostrils until you feel a gentle flow of air coming in and out.
And feel where that's strongest for you.
Is it towards the front of the nose,
Near the tip?
Or at the back where the upper lip and nostril meet?
When you've found this place,
Just rest your attention there.
Resting your attention.
On this one point,
Feeling the flow of air coming back and forth over it.
As the breath comes in,
You can say in your mind,
In.
And as the breath leaves,
Out.
Just in your mind,
Quietly.
This will help you to stay with the breath.
If you don't find that helpful,
Let it go.
Just be with the sensations of breathing at the nose.
The meditation object is the sensations at the nostrils of the breath coming in and out.
It's not the words,
In and out.
They are just a support.
So feel that as deeply as you can.
Without making too much effort.
Allowing your focus to be natural.
This is simple,
But so very difficult to do.
So no judgement of yourself when the mind wanders off the breath.
Just notice when that's happened and say in your mind,
Thinking,
Thinking.
This will unhook you from the thoughts.
And then bring your attention back to the breath.
Bring your attention back to this breath here now.
And simply repeating that over and over.
Even if it's a thousand times.
I'll leave you in silence now for several minutes.
Just to practice that and I'll occasionally prompt you to come back to the breath if you've wandered.
Are you with the sensations of the breath?
No judgement if not.
Just gently bring yourself back.
Seeing the thought.
Saying in your mind,
Thinking,
Thinking.
And bringing yourself back.
And being easy about the practice.
Don't go to war with it.
Don't struggle with it.
It's not a fight.
All of this is valuable.
The wandering of the mind.
The seeing of that.
That's a moment of awakening.
And then the returning to the breath.
Over and over we train like this.
Seeing if you can feel deeply the beginning of this breath.
The middle and the end.
And then the beginning and middle and end of the out breath.
And also notice the pause at the end of the out breath.
Don't rush to pull the air back in.
Allow it to come in all by itself.
And see if you're exaggerating the breath.
Pushing or pulling it.
To make it stronger.
If you are,
Simply let go of that.
Allow the breath to be natural.
If the breath becomes really soft,
That's fine.
That's an invitation to go deeper.
To lower our attention.
To meet the subtle breath.
Resting our attention on the breath.
Not struggling.
And we'll now bring this practice to a close.
Move the body.
Stretch.
And in your own time allow the eyes to open.
Have a wonderful day.
Repeated practice of this will bring you to deep stillness.
If there's too much silence and space here,
Go back and practice number 3.
Peace.
