Empty bowl meditation.
Sit comfortably and quietly with palms up and open,
Placed on your knees like empty bowls.
Open the mouth slightly and touch the tip of the tongue to the palate,
Behind the front teeth.
Pay attention to your breath.
Let the lungs breathe with no effort on your part.
Breath is the object of awareness.
Simply watch the movement of breath.
As you are watching the movement of your breath,
Pay attention to the touch of air entering your nose.
Cool air going in,
Warm air coming out.
Sit this way,
Quietly observing the breath for the first five minutes.
Follow,
Go with the air into the nose,
Throat,
Trachea,
Heart,
And diaphragm.
Then go deep down into the belly,
Behind the belly button,
Where you will experience a natural stop.
Stay in this stop for a fraction of a second,
Then follow the breath on exhalation.
As it reverses its course back up from the belly,
Behind the diaphragm,
Heart,
Trachea,
Throat,
Back through the nose.
During exhalation,
The air goes out of the body about nine inches in front of the nose to a second stop.
The first stop is behind the belly button on the inhale,
And the second is outside the body in the outer space.
At these two stops,
Breath stops.
At either stop,
You exist without breath.
In this stop,
There is no time,
Because time is a movement of the breath.
In the stop,
There is no mind,
Because mind is the movement of the breath.
There is a deep connection between mind,
Breath,
And thinking,
And breathing is the psychological part of breathing,
And thinking is the psychological part of breathing.
So in the stop,
There is a no mind state,
Only pure existence.
When you stay in the stop,
You are surrounded by peace and love.
Let the lungs breathe,
And you become the empty bowl.
Some feel more comfortable with the outer stop,
Others with the inner stop.
The outer stop brings relaxation,
The inner stop brings fulfillment.
Observe and follow your own comfort for the next 10 minutes.
Observe what came up for you,
Noticing how you feel inside your physical body,
Making note of any information,
Sensations,
Thoughts that stood out during your empty bowl meditation.
When you feel ready,
Slowly open your eyes.
Namaste.
