Welcome everyone.
Welcome to our meditation today.
Today will be more of a traditional meditation,
Just an open awareness meditation where we'll notice the subtle sensations in the breath and the body.
This will be less of a guided meditation and more of a meditation for you to be present with yourself and to observe,
To observe the universe,
The universal laws within yourself.
Noticing the universal law of impermanence,
That everything comes and everything goes.
That each breath in is different than each breath out.
So we'll find a comfortable and seated position,
Sitting up tall.
If we'd like we can place a pillow underneath our hips,
Our sit bones,
So that we can release the psoas muscle,
The hip flexors,
And our back can be even straighter,
Allowing us not to fall asleep,
To be more present.
If at any time in this meditation your mind starts to wander,
Which inevitably will happen,
Whenever you notice,
If you notice,
Just smile,
Acknowledge that the mind has wandered,
Hello,
What's up man,
I see that you're going to wander,
And very gently ask to come back.
Hey man,
I see that you wandered,
But right now let's focus on the breath.
And then five seconds later it will wander again,
And we can do the same thing.
Expert meditators report more mind wandering than novice meditators.
And that's not because an expert meditator's mind wanders more,
Rather that they're more aware of how often their mind wanders.
So if our mind wanders,
No problem,
Just smile and notice.
Because when we notice the mind has wandered,
That means we're back in the present moment and we get another moment of presence.
So let's start deepening the breath.
And just start to be aware of the incoming breath and the outgoing breath.
Start to notice the subtleties and the nostrils.
Notice perhaps if one nostril is more open than the other.
Or perhaps the temperature of the air going in and the air going out.
For now we'll focus just on the edges of the nostrils.
Notice if the mind has wandered.
And if so,
Smiling and bringing it back to the present moment.
To the nostrils.
To the air coming in and the air going out.
A gentle awareness.
No force.
A gentle and subtle awareness.
Changing our lens now from the nostrils to the belly as we move our awareness down toward the belly.
Just taking notice as the belly rises and falls.
Notice perhaps if you're wearing shirts or clothing.
The experience of the cloth touching the belly as it changes with the in-breath and the exhale.
Perhaps you can notice the skin stretching,
Compressing.
Take the next few moments to observe the belly.
Again noticing if the mind has wandered.
Just bringing it back towards the belly.
Noticing any thoughts that may be passing by.
Allowing them to continue to pass.
Bringing your attention to the tailbone and the sitting bones on the ground.
Pressing into the sitting bones as our spine grows tall with ease.
So we slightly broaden the shoulders and tuck the chin.
Taking the next few breaths to center the mind,
To center the body.
To let go of any final thought.
We'll finish today with three ohms.
Ohm is the sound,
The universal sound that creates a vibration.
Allows us to release tension.
Allows us to connect through a frequency with other beings.
Through harmony,
Through sound.
As a form of connection.
Connection to the self,
Connection to others,
Connection to the universe.
If you'd like to join in we'll do three ohms.
Taking a deep inhale and exhale.
We inhale tail.
Oh.
Peanut.
In.
Oh.
Aum.
Aum.
Bringing our hands to heart center.
A little slightly bowing.
And gratitude.
For this deep peace.
A deep peaceful mindset.
A resonance.
A bow to non-attachment and non-reaction.
For the deep wisdoms that found us.
That has brought us to this peaceful state.
To all the wisdom and those who came before.
The enlightened in me sees and honors the enlightened in you.
Namaste.
