Let us now do a meditation on impermanence.
First,
Find a position that is comfortable for you,
One that gives you energy and ease.
Now close your eyes,
Or gaze softly at the ground,
With the eyes slightly open.
Now take a few deep breaths,
Watching the air enter and leave your body.
Watching the air go in and out.
Now scan your body for any obvious tension,
Starting from the top of your head down to your toes,
Allowing the whole body to be at ease.
Next,
Bring your attention to your breath,
And pay attention to the impermanence of your breath,
How it comes and goes,
The arising of the breath with the inhale,
The passing of the breath with the exhale.
See it as this constant flow of change.
Now bring the sensations of the breath into your consciousness,
The rise and fall of the belly,
The pressure in your chest of your lungs expanding,
The tingling in the back of your throat,
And the feeling of the air on your skin as it enters and leaves your body.
See how these sensations,
Too,
Are coming and going,
Arising and passing away.
And if you get distracted,
Just note the arising and passing of our focus,
The wandering mind,
The come and go of our attention,
And gently bring it back to the sensations,
Noticing how they arise and pass away,
Too.
Now bring your attention to another sensation,
Perhaps the pressure under your feet or butt,
The touching of your hands,
Any sensation at all,
And see how that,
Too,
Is changing.
Perhaps you can feel a throbbing coming and going at the beat of your heart,
Maybe some tingling,
Maybe a shifting of sensation,
Maybe it's moving around.
Now do the same thing with another sensation,
Observing it,
Seeing how that sensation,
Too,
Comes and goes,
Is ever-changing.
And now if you hear a sound,
Observe the coming and going of that sound,
How it arrives in the consciousness,
Perhaps it stays and changes a bit and then goes away,
Just listening to that endless coming and going of sounds.
Now observe your emotions,
Your state of being.
See how your feelings come and go,
How they are always changing.
Maybe you are becoming more calm.
Maybe you're becoming frustrated by your lack of focus.
Maybe you're becoming bored or impatient.
Maybe you're feeling a great peace.
Maybe some joy that you took the time to practice today.
Notice how these feelings arise,
They change,
Then they pass away.
And as thoughts enter your mind,
Whether they're repetitive,
Jumping from one topic to the next,
Whether they are rapid or they've slowed down,
They all come and go into our consciousness and back out.
An endless arising and passing away of thoughts.
Now expand to any phenomenon,
Any emotion,
Your thoughts,
A pain,
And just keeping our focus on how they change,
How they come and go.
And notice too how our attention bounces back and forth between the sensations,
The thoughts,
The sounds,
Our emotions.
As they come and go,
Our intention coming and going with them.
Just noting,
Just observing all of the inputs coming and going in our experience,
In our consciousness.
The flow of arising and passing away,
Coming and going,
Ever-changing,
Nothing graspable.
Just allowing everything to come and go,
Allowing them to carry out their journey,
Their own course,
And noticing this continuous flow.
And for the last minute of this meditation,
Continuing to allow this flow of experience,
The coming and going of all phenomenon,
Just observing.
