Coming into our meditation together,
Let's begin by just settling into this room,
Noticing sound,
Beginning with sound outside of the room,
And then noticing sound inside the room.
We might notice a quality of light or temperature.
We notice these things to start because it orients us to time and place.
It's the beginning of present moment awareness.
And then settling into the body,
Into this sitting posture,
And beginning with sitting,
And just know you're sitting.
Feeling the whole body posture along with sensing into the feet and the legs,
The bottom,
The back,
The neck and the head,
And sensing the front of the body,
The face,
The throat,
Torso,
Legs and feet,
Shoulders,
Arms and hands.
Seeing the whole body sitting just as you are.
You might sense the skin and then layer deeper,
Sensing all the flesh,
Which includes everything that isn't skin or bones,
Muscles,
Tendons,
Organs,
Fluids,
Everything.
And sensing the bones,
Maybe even visualizing your own skeleton,
That we are simply skeletons sitting here together,
The commonality of our bones.
Sitting and know you're sitting.
And become aware of the breathing and beginning by simply breathing and know you're breathing.
Nothing special to do.
Simply breathe.
Noticing the inhale.
Noticing the exhale.
And even that slight,
Sweet pause at the end of the exhale before the next breath begins.
There's nothing happening there.
The pause,
The rest,
And the body knows when to take the next inhale.
Now noticing if you feel your breath most obviously somewhere in your body,
Be it the belly,
The chest,
Perhaps the throat or the nostrils,
Or the whole body.
Wherever your breath feels most obvious,
See if you can drop your awareness,
Your attention,
Right into that place of breathing.
The slight movements the body makes with the breath cycle.
Drop in there.
See if you can stay there for a few breaths.
And the mind wanders.
Just notice thinking,
Maybe planning,
Remembering.
Soft mental note to just name the thinking.
Then come back to the breath gently and begin again.
Right here,
Right in this moment.
This breath,
This moment.
Good,
Don't cause.
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It's just the general sense of the body sitting just as it is.
And finding a place in the body that feels very comfortable,
A place where you can rest your attention,
That doesn't have any strong pull in either direction of pleasant or unpleasant,
But just a quality of comfort.
Might be the hands,
The elbows,
The ears,
The nose,
The forehead,
Anywhere that just feels comfortable for you.
Turn your awareness into that place,
Turn it towards that place and discover what does that actually feel like?
What are the sensations of comfort?
What are the characteristics?
Does comfort have a color,
A shape or a texture?
What is the size of comfort?
And the sensations.
A pulsing,
A pressure,
Vibration,
Sense of temperature.
And then noticing a place in the body that has got very strong sensation that you might categorize as discomfort,
Quite uncomfortable,
Strong sensation that is on the spectrum of unpleasant.
Noticing that place in the body as if you are looking at it from the outside.
Just observing its characteristics,
Size,
Shape,
Color,
Perhaps texture.
Just noticing what it looks like from the outside.
And there may be a general sense of the sensations as well,
Some stinging or ache,
Burn,
Tightness.
And then let that be and return to that place of comfort.
See if you can breathe into that place of comfort and let comfort fill you.
Noticing what comfort actually feels like.
And now moving back to the strong sensation and this time step just inside of it.
Imagine just moving your awareness to the inside edges of this discomfort.
And observing the characteristics from just inside the edges.
Again color,
Shape,
Size,
Texture.
What does it feel like to you,
Noticing those characteristics?
And letting that go now and coming back to the place of comfort,
The place where you can rest.
Place that might feel like safe harbor,
Relaxing into this place of comfort that is also part of your body.
What is it like now?
Take that in,
Let comfort pervade your whole body.
Now moving back to the strong sensation.
Check it out from the outside.
Has its shape or texture,
Size or color changed?
What is it now?
And now stepping inside of this,
Moving inside of it,
A little bit deeper,
What does that feel like?
What are the sensations as you move a little bit closer inside this area?
You know it well.
And as you exhale allowing yourself to move back into comfort.
Moving back into that place where you feel held and at ease.
Letting it fill you.
Trusting it.
And last time moving back into the strong sensation.
Moving inside of it as deeply as is comfortable for you to go.
And if staying on the outside of it is right and best for you,
Do that.
If you'd like to explore deeper into the center of this discomfort,
You can do that as well.
Your choice.
Noticing the characteristics,
Whether they've changed at all.
Knowing that this strong sensation is also part of the body,
Just as the place of comfort is part of the body.
And we have the capacity to include both comfort and discomfort in our experience.
And now letting that go and moving back into comfort.
Resting there.
Letting the discomfort fade into the background and allowing the comfortable place to be in the foreground.
Once again exploring the characteristics of comfort.
Can you relax and soften into the comfort?
Be held by it.
And now becoming aware again of the breathing.
Feeling how the breathing has continued to happen.
It nurtures us and keeps us alive.
And if you'd like,
Imagine now breathing in and out of the heart.
Breathing into the heart from all directions,
Especially noticing the back.
And then breathing out into all directions.
A couple breaths just like this,
This heart's breath.
Now I'll offer you some phrases of offering ourselves compassion and kindness.
These phrases that acknowledge our humanness and also our intention to be as well as is possible.
Just repeating these phrases silently to yourself as if you're giving yourself a gift.
Those things are as they are.
May I accept myself just as I am in this moment.
Because of the natural aging and circumstances of the body.
May I surround my limitations and challenges with respect,
Care,
And love.
And because we know that we are connected to one another and we need each other.
May I be supported with strength,
Steadiness,
And courage.
May I be supported with strength,
Steadiness,
And courage.
As I come back and we come back to this practice of cultivating awareness over and over again because it supports us.
We know that.
May I rest in the beauty and goodness of my awakening heart.
May I rest in the beauty and goodness of my awakening heart.
Once again sensing the body and the breath and even sensing the mind.
Seeing our whole integrated being of body,
Breath,
Heart,
And mind.
Seeing we can come back to this,
This awareness anytime with kindness,
With openness,
With compassion.
Once again sensing the body sitting just as you are,
The breath coming and going.
Noticing sounds inside and outside the room.
And coming back as you're ready.
