Guided Meditation 1: 10 Points Practice

This is a guided 10 points practice, offered by Reggie Ray, Spiritual Director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation. In this practice, we connect with the life of our body through relaxing tension and opening to the somatic experience of our body just as it is, without agenda.

This practice is done in a lying down posture. We lie flat on our back on a carpet, mat, or cushion. Knees up and tied together with a yoga strap or belt to reduce pressure on our lower back and psoas muscle. Feet are flat on the floor, at least hips width apart to provide stability. Head in a comfortable position, either flat on the mat or using a small pillow. Elbows on our mat. And hands crossed—right over left—resting gently on our lower belly.

Transcript

This is a guided 10 points practice offered by Dr. Reginald Ray, Spiritual director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation. In this practice, We connect with the life of our body through relaxing tension and opening to the somatic experience of our body just as it is, Without agenda. This practice is done in a lying down posture. We lie flat on our back on a carpet, Mat or cushion, Knees up and tied together with a yoga strap or belt to reduce pressure on our lower back and psoas muscle. Feet are flat on the floor at least hips width apart to provide stability. Head in a comfortable position, Either flat on our mat or on a small pillow, Elbows on our mat and hands resting gently on our lower belly, Right over left if they cross. So we're going to pass out our yoga straps and if they are, Are they passed out already? Good, Okay. And we're going to turn the lights off and we're going to lie down on our backs with our knees up, Tying the yoga strap above the knees. And you want to lie down in such a way that your feet aren't pointing toward the shrine, Which is a representation of our enlightened body. We can talk about that later. So we want to be very respectful of our own enlightened body, Our own sacred body. Other than that, Just be comfortable. You can spread out in the room if you want. You might like to just spread out so you have a little bit more room. You might want to put something under your head. That's good if you like that. Just so your head is up a little bit and takes a little pressure off your cervical spine. So when you're lying down, Have the strap tied tight enough so your knees are either touching or almost touching. And your feet are spread apart enough so it creates a triangle between the knees and the feet and the floor. So, You know, There's a certain kind of angle at which you're going to feel the most comfortable and that's what you're looking for. Everybody's different. But you want the feet spread enough so that the legs are leaning in toward each other. And then you can try adjusting. You can swing your knees back and forth and see where you really feel like you're able to relax in the most complete manner, Particularly in your pelvis and your upper legs. And we can cross the hands over the lower belly, Left hand under the right. So to begin with, We're simply going to begin to invite our body to communicate with us, With our conscious mind. And we're simply going to do that by beginning with the feet, Feeling the sensations in the feet. How much can you feel your toes? How much can you feel the ball of your foot? Arch in step, Just trying to feel the sensations involved. And coming up to the ankle. As you do this, You may notice that you'll see you're holding on in a certain place. And it could be actually far removed from the part we're attending to and you may begin relaxing. The minute you begin relaxing, You're making yourself available for more information than when you were tense. You're actually starting to open up your mind. And it's a very natural process. The body always is interested in delivering information to you, Always. The kind of walling off that we do where we push the body away, We push away all the information the body holds, Is unnatural. It's not found in Aboriginal people, That kind of walling off. It's very much a modern thing. But of course, Genetically we are Aboriginal people. So the minute we lie down and start relaxing, The imbalance between our conscious mind and our body begins to rectify itself. Coming up through the calves. We're just feeling now, Just attending. And much of our work is going to be developing a higher degree of awareness of what's going on in the body. Knees come up to the upper leg. Just trying to feel. We're not trying to come to any conclusions. We're not even trying particularly to conceptualize what we're feeling. We're simply trying to develop a direct, Immediate non-conceptual experience of our body. Inner thighs, Up high on the inner thighs where the so-as attaches. You can feel a lot of energy there, And you can also feel a certain amount of, You could say, Incipient emotion. There's a motion there that is tied up, And sometimes when you feel tension you actually have a vague sense of that. That there's some emotional content to it. You often can't make it out, But you know it, You can feel it there. The lower back pelvis. I'm just becoming acquainted now. Coming up along the spine. Again, We're going quickly here, And as we move you can feel there's a tremendous amount under the surface that could potentially come up, And eventually we'll be working with that. But at this point we're not. Shoulder blades. Then the front part of the chest, From the sternum up to the collarbones, Around the sides, Ribs. Just try to completely open your mind and just receive what you feel, What you sense in the body. Then the hands, Wrists, Arms. And then the head. As we do this we have a sense of very different kinds of terrain that we move through. The head just seems so very different experientially than the front of the chest, The sacrum, The pelvis, The legs, The feet. So we're just trying to simply receive what we're feeling, What we're sensing, What we're perceiving in our body. Without necessarily coming to any kind of conclusions or even thinking about it. As we do this, It's likely we'll become aware of certain physical feelings. Hunger or nausea or anticipation, Impatience. There's a lot of very important physical information that's coming through, And then there may be things that are more purely emotional. A sense of uncertainty, Fear, Whatever. Longing. Then we're going to begin the actual relaxation process, Notice the ten points practice. And this is something that you can do as much as you like. And it's, I can use it at the beginning of any meditation session or any bodywork session. You can take 40 minutes with it or you can take three. You know, It just depends on what you want to accomplish. So feel the earth under you and feel the contact of your two feet, Two sides of your buttocks, Your mid-back opposite the bottom of the breastbone, Sternum, Two shoulder blades, Two elbows in the head. Now of course our body is touching the earth in other places, And especially in between some of these, But the main thing is that these points are energetic conduits enabling us to release tension into the earth. So we're going to be working with these ten points especially. Two feet, Two sides of the buttocks, Mid-back, Two elbows, Two shoulder blades in the head. So we're going to start with the feet. We're going to start with the big toe. So feel the tension in the big toe. And you can feel the tension in the toe itself and also you can feel it coming up into the foot where the big toe joins the foot. It's almost as if the big toe is actually longer than its visual configuration because energetically it extends into the main part of the foot. So just feel the big toe from the inside. Feel the sensations and feel the tension, Particularly where the big toe joins the foot. See if you can put your awareness into that and let it begin to soften and release. And you can add the second toe. Feel the sensations, Feel the tension. And it's almost as if when you feel the tension in the second toe, It's almost as if the second toe begins to release slightly and elongate, It becomes a little bit more elegant and sophisticated. We take our toes for granted and we don't realize how much personality they have really and how much very unique kind of information they hold. We're so disrespectful of them. Then the middle toe. Again, Initially we may not even be able to feel it. Try to find the sensations of the middle toe. And again, Let the middle toe, Give it some room, Give it some real appreciation. Let it relax. Again, Maybe looking particularly at where the middle toe enters the foot. Let it extend, Let it really have the room to be itself and express itself, Which means elongating and again becoming more sophisticated. Maybe it can't be as sophisticated as the second toe because it's kind of in the middle and maybe kind of gets lost more easily. But it can go there, It can go in that direction. And the fourth toe. Again, Difficult to find, But when you find it, Let it relax, Let it elongate. And then the baby toe. Again, Let it relax, Let it elongate. So now all the toes are inhabiting a little bit bigger space than they were before, More relaxed. But the most important thing is the invitation has been put out for them to relax and become more what they are. And to really deliver whatever information they have for us to us. So it's no longer this one way hierarchical relationship of our conscious minds sort of dominating and using the toes. Now the toes themselves begin to have an equal voice, So to speak, In the relationship. Then we'll come into the ball of the foot, The inside ball of the foot. And again, You can just pay attention. Let the many, Many micro tensions, Probably dozens if not hundreds of micro tensions in the ball of the foot begin to soften and release. Then the outside of the foot, Behind the fourth and fifth toes. And again, The attitude of the conscious mind is one of gentleness, And I would even say love. It's an attitude of love in the sense of how you would tenderly make room for a small baby who's trying to move his arms and legs. And we need to take that attitude toward our body and toward, In this case, Our feet. So a sort of tenderness towards the outside of the foot. Now we're feeling along all the toes and then the part of the foot that is right behind the toes. Soften, Letting that soften, Letting the part relax and letting the tension really drain down into the earth. Then we come into the arch of the foot, The sweep from the ball of the foot through the arch into the heel. And in terms of its personality, There's one general thing going on in the arches. But of course the front part of the arch, The middle of the arch and the back of the arch, Each also have their own particular statement, Their own particular communication. So try to feel that. You can feel the tension there. The more we relax the tension in the arches, The more we can actually begin to feel the information that the arches are holding for us. And again, In the beginning it's usually about that we're hanging on and we don't need to hang on so much we could relax. That's what the body is telling us. You don't need to be so rigid. And come to the outside of the foot from the baby toe along the outside of the foot to the heel. Again, A very different feeling from the arch. Just try to be aware. And extend your awareness from that outer edge toward the interior of the foot so you're really feeling into the foot from the outer edge and sensing how the interior and the outer edge might be related. Then we have the heel. And you can try to sense the unique personality of the heel as well as you're putting your awareness there and attempting to identify the tension and let it release. Again, The more we relax and release, The more we become aware of the unique being of the heel. Achilles tendon. The more we become aware of the Achilles tendon, The more our lower leg wants to relax and let the tension of the Achilles tendon drain down through the heel. The only way you can really do this work is if you're willing to let go of me, Of the eye, And just be fully there in the feet. It's a work in progress. Initially we bounce around, Think about ourselves. We have a lot of judgments, Concepts, A lot of reactions, A lot of expectations, Whatever it may be. And the journey progresses to the extent that we can just kind of let those go and really be present in the part of the body we're working on. Ankle bones inside. And feeling the tension, Letting the tension dissolve down. Ankle bones outside. And then the very interior of the foot, Between the middle part of the sole of the foot and the top of the instep. So right in the internal density of the foot. Just try to put your awareness in there. Feel the density, Possibly feel the tension, And let that go. Tension is maintained by the ego, And when the ego invites the body to relax, It can do so. Layer by layer, It takes time. Shin bone. Bones hold tension as much as anything else. So try to feel the shin bone extending from the knee down to the ankle. Feel how dense it is. And feel the holding on that's going on there. And then let it begin to melt. There's a lot of language in the popular culture that understands so much about the body, And we tell somebody, Relax your bones. It refers to actually quite a deep level of relaxation. And there's something very inviting when someone says that to us. Come up to the knee joint. And again, We're just in the beginning here, And when we put our awareness into our knees, We run into a very complex web of tension, And often achiness and pain. And the idea really is to enter into all of that as much as you can with your awareness. Just kind of put your mind within the knee joint, Within the achiness and pain. Open to it and relax into it. And let the resulting release of tension slide down the leg through the feet into the earth. So relaxing the whole lower leg now, And we're letting the feet be the contact point, And we're letting the tension in the whole lower leg flow down through the feet into the earth. A continual flow of energy and tension downward. Then we'll come to the two sides of the buttocks. Let the buttocks sink into the earth. And let the whole body from the knees down through the hip joints, Then into the two sides of the buttocks. Let the whole, This whole part of the body relax, Release, Melt and let go. Just let it melt as a totality. And we'll take a look at the inside of the thighs, Up high where the thigh bone is seated in the pelvic girdle, In the hip socket. On the inside, The top three inches, Three or four inches, The psoas is attached, And you can feel a kind of buzzing energy there. You might feel actual tension, But you also might just feel the energetic, Heightened quality of that area, Which is tension in a sense. Let's try to relax right up in the crease where the thigh meets the pelvis. On the inside, Inside of the thighs, And then you can kind of slowly draw your awareness up around that crease toward the front of the body. So we're starting with the interior of the thighs, Right on either side of the genitals. And then we're just tracing the tension up the either leg toward the hip bone. We're just feeling that whole juncture of the leg into the pelvis. And by putting your awareness in there, You can begin to relax it and release the psoas and the other muscles that are involved. Sometimes letting go feels really definite and clear, And sometimes it's so subtle you can barely feel it. But when you're paying very close attention to a part of your body, Such as we are now, The release process actually is activated and is going on, Even if it's at such a subtle level we can hardly make it out. And then we'll come to the pubic bone, And it's the way it's seated on either side, Right and left, In front. The perineum between the genitals and the anal region, Letting the perineum relax and moving in through the perineum, A little bit into the body. Perineum has many layers, And we're looking for not only the surface, But also the interior of the perineum. We're working with the physical perineum, But also the energetic perineum. If you've had an episionomy, Perineum is physically traumatized or damaged, But the energetic perineum is really what we're looking for, Which has a healing impact on the physical perineum. Trying to notice where we are stuck, Where there's fear, Where there's pain, And relax that, Release it, And let that dissolve downward. As you know, In Chinese medicine, Pain is a sign of stagnant chi, And really in the body, Whenever we encounter physical or energetic pain, We're actually opening up the stagnant chi, And through releasing and relaxing, We are allowing it to enter back into the natural flow of the chi. So pay attention to any achiness, Any pain, Any sense of numbness, And put the intention into it that we're going to relax. Come to the sacrum and the tailbone. Feel the sacrum, Feel the tailbone, Feel the tension, And then release. Come to the outside of the hips. Very tight, Very tense. Again, An attitude of tremendous gentleness and tenderness toward our body, And holding the outside of the hips in a kind of loving awareness, Which is itself an invitation for the outside of the hips to relax and release. Then the pelvic girdle itself, The bones of the pelvis, Hip bones in front around to the back, Pubic bone, Hip sockets, As be tending to the bony part of your pelvis and inviting that to release through your intention. The more present you are to tension, The more you can put your awareness into the midst of tension, The more leverage you have, The more access you have to letting it go. As long as we separate from tension, We can't let it go. We have to enter into it in order to begin to release. Okay, So let's just take the pelvis and the legs and feet, And just feel into them as a totality. Feel the tension, Let it go, Draining down into your through the feet, Through the buttocks, As if your whole body is melting. Be looking for little tense spots as you do this, Especially in the lower back. Then we'll come up to the mid-back, Opposite the bottom of the sternum, And you can just let your mid-chest relax, Ribs on the sides down through the mid-back into the earth. Just really let yourself go, Just relax. Then the shoulder blades, And really feeling the tension behind the shoulder blades, Into the shoulder joints, The upper front part of the chest, The mid part of the chest, The body between the shoulder blades. Really looking for this whole upper part, Which is very tense, Very tremendous amount of emotional investment in the tension in the upper body, And entering the tension and inviting it to release. Then we'll come to the elbows, Let them sink into the earth, Drawing the tension down from fingertips, Hands, Wrists, Lower arm down into the earth, Shoulders, Upper arms down through the elbows into the earth. So the whole body now is just sinking, Relaxing, Letting go, Dissolving into the earth. And then finally the head. Be aware of the tightness of the face, Check the forehead, Eyebrows, Eye sockets, Optic nerve, Nose, Sinuses, Cheeks, Sides of the face, Mouth, Teeth, Gums, Tongue. The whole face and the whole skull just dissolve. And as you do this, There may be moments when you just sort of tune out, That's okay. You're just gone momentarily. And then we're going to take the whole body, The two feet, The two buttocks, The mid-back, Two elbows, Two shoulder blades in the head, And just let the body dissolve into the earth as if you died and we're seeing a time-lapse photography of your body just turning into dust, And dissolving down into the earth. So just let your relaxation be that complete, And you let go of everything. And as you do this, You can look and see where you may be holding out, Where you're not really letting go. And that's interesting information. Is it the head, Is it the mid-back, Is it the pelvis, Is it the arms, Where is it the feet? Where are you relaxing and where you feel like you're really holding back? And then where you're holding back, Attend to that, Try to put the awareness in more fully, And then release again. Now we're going to do a breathing exercise just to enhance this slightly. On the in-breath, You can feel the tension, And on the out-breath, Completely let go. We'll just do that for a minute or two. And the final expiration when you die is that idea on the out-breath. You're really completely letting go of everything. You can make the exhale really very smooth and very long, And then watch toward the end of the exhale how you really can release even more. Okay, So wherever you are, You don't need to particularly come back to where you were sitting right now. We're just going to sit up, Take a minute or two, And then come back to sitting position. But try to do so without tensing back up again. See if you can bring the relaxation that you're feeling right now into your sitting posture. As you're doing this, You might feel yourself starting to tense certain parts of your body. Just try to be aware of that. Just notice the transition. Now as we're sitting, Even if in the past you've been used to meditating by following your breath, At this point I'd like you to simply be in your body. Don't use any particular meditation technique. Just be in your body the way we just were, Kind of checking it out, Being with it, Seeing where you might be tense and where you might need to relax. So we'll just do this for a couple of minutes. So the awareness is in the body, It's pervading the body, It's roaming throughout the body. You can adjust your posture a little bit, You can move around to see how you're doing, And notice if any of the habitual ways that you sit in this posture are causing you unnecessary tension. So the mind is really open, It's completely open, And we're simply receiving the information of the bodily sensations. And we're not doing anything with that, We're just letting it register in our open, Empty awareness. To do that, We can be very present in the body, And that actually keeps the mind open. Check your shoulders, And often that's a place where we tend to hunch and hold. You can drop your chin a little bit and feel the back of the neck and the line from the tailbone up the spine through the back of the head, So just see if that's open. The front part of the upper rib cage is feeling relaxed. So really we're going to really be looking, Particularly when we're sitting up and when we're standing, Trying to become aware of how we move from a position of relaxation and a condition of relaxation into a more tense way of being. And when we find those transitions, We can soften them so that they don't become obstructions. The natural state of the body is complete and total relaxation. Anything else is imposition, And we're looking to melt gradually over time, Melt those artificial impositions of our ego. But to do that we have to find out, First of all, What it feels like to be relaxed, And secondly, Where are we tense, And everybody's different. Where are we tense, How are we tense, Why are we tense, Actually, Too. Are we trying to be good meditators? That's a source of unbelievable tension. The best way to relax is be the lousiest meditator you can. Another thing that causes tremendous tension in meditation is thinking. When we get caught in discursive thought, The body really freezes up, So hence the importance of staying within the body as we practice. Please continue this practice as long as you like.

Reviews

Really thorough journey through the body and a powerful framing method for approaching the relationship with the body and it's wisdom

Thank you 🙏🏽 deeply relaxing

For an overactive imaginator the lack of visualisation was great as well as focus on sense of ‘body’ just body as a thing not as yours. Lack of ego. Total relaxation. Yoga nidra style.

Fantastic. Every part of my body feels relaxed, appreciated and alive.

Perfect for the impatient. It’s exactly what you need. Presence is power.