Bathing the Mind with Clear Awareness & Kindness

A breath meditation lead by Ajahn Achalo, taken from Collection 4: Compassion Meditation, Forgiveness, Contemplation of Not-Self.

Transcript

As we're sitting,

Just coming into the moment gently,

Just allowing a broad awareness,

Aware of the sitting posture and knowing that we're sitting.

Just getting a sense for the felt experience of the sitting posture,

Aware of your bottom,

Your thighs,

Touching the carpet,

The floor,

The cushion,

Just feeling,

Aware of those feelings,

And aware of your back,

A sense of upright,

And your shoulders,

Relaxing the shoulders.

When we come to meditate,

We're aiming for a focused but also a gentle quality of effort.

The back is fairly straight but not tense.

Let me consciously just let go of tension in that shoulder area.

It's useful to use the out-breath.

You can take a couple of deep in-breaths and on the out-breath consciously putting things down for now.

It's probably been a long day for many people.

Many things to attend to,

Many people,

Many sights,

Many sounds.

Turning the attention inward now.

When we come to do our breath meditation,

There's a chance to put down these other things for a while,

Have a bit of a rest.

So whatever happened today,

While we're meditating now,

We don't need to attend to that.

We can just leave the day where it is,

Already the past.

First come to the cushion.

It's good to try to feel the entire in-breath,

The nose,

The chest,

And the abdomen.

We're trying to feel the physical feeling.

Once we've located that physical feeling,

Then we try to place awareness on that feeling and then on the physical feeling of the out-breath.

Noticing the breath as it comes in at the nose,

Down through the chest and into the abdomen,

And then as it leaves the abdomen,

The chest and the nose.

If it's helpful,

You can use mental noting,

Counting.

Noting one at the nose,

Two at the chest,

Three at the abdomen,

And then three at the abdomen,

Two at the chest,

One at the nose.

When we use mental noting,

We're giving the thinking mind a task which can help restrain it from other thoughts.

One,

Two,

Three.

Three,

Two,

One.

Three,

Two,

One.

Three,

Two,

One.

Three,

Two,

One.

When we're training in mindfulness,

We're practicing noticing feelings in the body as just being feelings,

And thoughts as just being thoughts without adding anything else.

When we come to the cushion,

There usually is a sense of self living in a world,

Thinking about the past,

Worried about the future,

All of this is something that we add,

Which is normal.

When we come to the cushion,

It's a chance to put things down,

Have a break from the world,

Have a break from being somebody,

And have a break from other people too.

Just placing awareness on the breath,

And trying to establish a cool center in the middle of experience.

Where of the in-breath,

One,

Two,

Three,

Where of the out-breath,

Three,

Two,

One.

Similarly,

We can use the word buddho,

Budd on the in-breath,

Do on the out-breath,

Whichever you prefer.

The buddha was the one who knew the truth without confusion,

The one who was awake,

Undiluted,

Completely at ease and peaceful.

So we practice knowing the in-breath and knowing the out-breath,

And putting everything else down.

Placing awareness on those feelings,

Feeling of the in-breath and the feeling of the out-breath,

Being fully aware of breathing,

And trying to rest if you can in the spaces between the mind and the body,

Keeping the mind within the parameters of the body,

Not thinking about other places,

Other people,

The past,

The future.

So we practice knowing the in-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the in-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the in-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the in-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

The world that we see with our eyes can often seem so solid and so real,

But it's interesting when we allow awareness to rest with the breath,

Put down thoughts,

Close the eyes,

And the world is gone.

Similarly,

We perceive our bodies and our thoughts as very solid,

Very real.

But if we can keep our mindful awareness with the breath,

We also might notice a sense of spaciousness in the body,

That sense of solidity relaxing.

One in-breath,

One out-breath in just this moment.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

So we practice knowing the out-breath and knowing the out-breath.

Just trying to be mindful for a few more minutes of the feeling of the breath,

The in-breath and the out-breath.

Putting down to the degree that you can all other things.

Giving a quality of interest and a quality of care.

Offering this interest,

Offering this caring to this physical sensation.

So that way you can all this feeling of the in-breath and the air.

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We want to try to know the in breath and know the out breath very intimately.

Very closely.

Without any critical perceptions,

Without any judgements.

Dropping all of that.

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Allowing the body to be just as it is.

Quality of acceptance.

And allowing the breath to be just the way it is.

Simply knowing.

Placing this awareness with care.

And then relaxing also,

Relaxing into this awareness.

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Gently aware of each in breath.

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Mindfully attentive to each out breath.

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Reviews

He is a well seasoned grounded teacher~ I am incredibly thankful I found him! 🙏

Love it.

Lovely guided meditation with lots of silence. Integrated with loving kindness.

Appreciate Ajahn’s wisdom, thank you!

His meditation is deep and I respect his years of practice. 🙏🏻

Great for practicing mindful breathing with gentle and simple guidance, with plenty of room to actually practice

Very peaceful. I particularly found the longer pauses in this meditation beneficial. Nice to get the instruction and then have some time to simply
experience. Thank You Kindly.🙏🙏🙏

Calming the body and mind with a breath focus, opening the heart and mind, allowing love to be felt and cultivated. A healing balm indeed. Thank you.

Excellent, long, somewhat varied approaches to concentration on the breath and metta. Lots of silence. Thank you!

As the title says, bathing the mind. Renewing. Two years on, upgrading comment: Perfect, especially for these times.

One of my new favourites. Lots of silence. I enjoy that as an advanced meditator who experiences a lot of silence.

I am grateful for your teachings. 🙏

Ajahn Achalo is just very good at this.

Simple spacious peaceful

Thank you. Like sitting with a group.

An excellent basic meditation, breathing and loving kindness, really works.

Time flies by. Loved it a lot.

Positive, loving, kind, and thoughtful. Peace 🦋

What a wonderful meditation! I'm so thankful Ajahn shares these with us!

Thank you for the kind instruction and the warm peace to start the day 🙏💟