Cultivating Shamatha

This guided meditation session begins by reviewing the components of a strong meditation posture through introspection. Then the focus shifts to sensations of breathing. Subtle cues remind you to return to the object. Recorded at Sky Creek Dharma Center in April 2017.

Transcript

So we begin our meditation session by finding a comfortable seat.

You can be seated on the floor or in a chair.

Either is fine.

But if you are in a chair,

Sit up so your back is straight so you're not reclining against the chair with sort of a slumped curved spine.

Try to have a straight spine.

And as we take our first few deep breaths,

Draw your awareness into the room,

Into your body.

Set an intention that you're not going to squirm or move around for the next 15 minutes or so.

So,

Various threads of your mind that are connected to all the different parts of your life.

Just draw those threads in.

Reel them in.

All those other things,

All the business and relationships of your life,

All the things that happened before that might happen in the future,

Those things can all wait for a few minutes.

So just set them down outside the room.

Draw your consciousness into your body.

Begin noticing your breathing.

Begin slowing down.

Notice where your body is touching the ground,

The cushion or your chair.

Notice that your seat is stable,

The earth is supporting you.

Observe the stability,

The groundedness,

The connection and support provided by the ground beneath you.

If you're seated in a chair,

Notice where the soles of your feet are touching the ground.

If you're seated on the ground,

Notice how your folded legs create a sense of containment and collection,

Collectedness,

Drawing your awareness,

Your energy into your body,

Contained.

The spine is neatly stacked like a stack of coins,

Balanced.

You can play with this sensation a little bit by rocking back and forward,

Rocking left and right,

Noticing that balance,

Finding the neutral point,

The still point where you can sit comfortably upright and erect but without too much muscular effort.

Finding balance.

The hands are resting loosely on the thighs or in the lap.

Notice whether your hands are pulling you forward or pushing you back.

You can find the right spot for your hands by lifting your hands,

Tucking your elbows into your sides and then letting the hands rest where they land.

It's a way of finding the right spot so if they're too far forward,

It'll be pulling you forward and you'll have to compensate if they're too far back,

They'll be pushing you back.

You want your hands to be just in the right spot.

The shoulders are level,

Neither shoulder higher than the other.

The ears are level.

The head is neither pitched towards the left or right,

Neither too far forward nor backward.

Even as we feel the grounded stability of our seat,

We want to feel a sense of elevation and upliftment in the upper body.

So you can visualize that a thread connected to the crown of your head is drawing your spine upwards,

Both rooted and uplifted.

The shoulder blades are retracted onto the back body so we need to counteract the forward rolled shoulder position that many of us have from working at a desk,

Lifting the heart,

Retracting the shoulder blades.

The mouth is closed but the jaw is loose.

The lips are closed.

The tongue is on the upper palate behind the front teeth.

The eyes are mostly closed but they are slightly cracked to allow some light in.

Having the eyes slightly open is an important meditation habit to cultivate because it is a critical antidote to subtle dullness.

So we want to let a little light in.

The eyes are unfocused,

Looking forward at the insides of the lids,

But that little bit of light will prevent subtle dullness as you cultivate your meditation practice.

Having established a proper meditation posture,

Stable and relaxed,

We turn our awareness to the sensations of breathing,

The physical sensations of breathing.

Observe where you can feel the sensations of breathing in your body.

Maybe it's in your lower abdomen.

Maybe it's in your chest or up high behind your collarbones,

Underneath the collarbones.

Perhaps you notice the sensations of breathing in the sinus cavities as the air moves through your head.

A traditional place to observe the breathing is at the lip of the nostril,

Placing your mind in a very small location in your body,

Concentrating on that one little area and becoming deeply interested and invested in observing the physical sensations of the breathing.

So choose one.

Choose one spot where you're going to watch the breath,

And that's the meditation object that you're going to stick with for the next few minutes.

Don't bounce around from object to object.

Decide now and keep it.

Use your concentration to follow the entire duration of your inhale and exhale.

Watch it carefully every instant.

Notice when your mind has wandered from the object,

Sweetly,

Gently draw it back.

Develop watchfulness to notice when your mind has left the object.

Notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

Notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

Notice when your mind has drifted from the object.

Gently bring it back to the sensations of breathing.

Notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

Notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

Sharpen your awareness.

And notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

Observe the breath with vividness and clarity.

Sharpen your awareness.

Resolve to stay on the object for the last few moments with vividness and clarity.

And notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

And notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

And notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

And notice when your mind has wandered from the object.

Reviews

Fantastic direction given. I found this to be incredibly difficult because I have a strange eye condition that makes his suggestion about closing eyes (only letting in a little light in and keeping the eyes unfocused) very hard to do for long periods. My left eye is severely limited in vision, but my right eye wanted to be shut all the way. Doing this with both eyes, I hope I can get the hang of it!

I've kind of stopped leaving reviews because most are fine and if I happened to not like one, I wouldn't want to discourage others from trying it out. I liked this one, though. I appreciated that I didn't have to divide my attention between listening to someone talk and observing my breath. It was almost like meditating on my own with occasional, quick reminders to pay attention.

Very precise, higjly effective. I enjoyed this a lot. Full hearted recommendation.

Great lesson on the object of meditation as well as the posture. Thanks.

Purrfect!!! A very good balance (for me) between instruction, demand for strong focus on the object, and gentle reminders along the way.
A very useful tool for the development of the practice. Thank you.

Great and inspiring! Thanks

Thanks, this meditation is so simple and powerful! I really enjoyed and loved the moment🙏🏻🕯📿❤️ This shamatha reminds me of the guided meditation at Tushita meditation Centre in Dharamsala. So happy and grateful that I found it! Namaste 🙏🏻 🦋

Very informative

Perfect for me thankyou. Good delivery not too much talking

Great introduction to meditation. Very straightforward and helpful walkthrough of the essential mechanics of a meditation session... posture, position, technique, etc. It would be nice with better recording quality but the gentle hum is not distracting and it makes for a pleasant "white noise" effect. Good amount of quiet time at the end. I suggest periodically reminding the listener to stay relaxed as well as focused.

Excellent, technique subtle and effective

Great instruction! This is a foundational teaching for all meditators.