This is a guided meditation for the just sitting practice.
It's not just drifting or just grumbling or whatever else the mind gets up to.
Because we're also practicing awareness.
Bringing awareness to whatever's going on in the mind and the body.
And that makes a big difference.
So awareness will come and go.
And you can notice that.
Notice when awareness returns and you have a sense of being present again.
And notice the unjudging nature of awareness.
You don't have to make that happen.
It's just there.
So I'll make a few suggestions with periods of silence in between.
So you can try them out and see what you find helpful.
So just spending a minute or so preparing.
Setting up good conditions for meditation.
Encouraging your body to be as comfortable as it can be.
Relaxed.
Open.
And also awake.
Letting your eyes close or lowering your gaze.
Taking a few deeper breaths.
So just being present with whatever arises in your experience.
Perhaps that's sensations in the body.
Sounds.
Thoughts.
Images from your day or feelings.
And some of your experience might be pleasant.
Or perhaps some of it is unpleasant.
But awareness can still be there.
There's nothing awareness can't be present with.
So not trying to get rid of your current experience in order to meditate.
Letting your current experience be the object of your meditation.
Letting the mind go where it wants to.
And following it with awareness as best you can.
This just sitting practice helps us see the mind's content,
Its tendencies.
And as we get familiar with the content of the mind and less blown about by it,
We also see the mind's fundamental nature.
The flow of experience.
Arising.
Passing away.
And noticing how awareness also comes and goes.
How there is this experience of waking up into presence again and again.
So we're practising seeing thoughts as events in the mind.
Not buying into thoughts or immediately acting on them.
Not identifying with them as who I am.
And if you find it helpful,
You could try silently labelling what you notice in your experience.
You could say to yourself,
I'm present with thinking.
Present with a worry.
Present with the urge to get up.
And groupers on these thoughts,
These ideas,
These feelings,
Or these questions.
Your actions And if you like,
You can drop the labelling and just tune in to whatever's going on in an intuitive,
Wordless way.
If not much is happening,
Then just waiting for something deeper to emerge,
Noticing if there's boredom,
And opening to what else might be going on beneath the boredom.
If there are lots of thoughts present,
You could experiment with bringing awareness to the experience of thinking rather than its content,
The texture and rhythm and feeling of thinking rather than what it's about.
Is it speedy or floaty or tranquil?
Coming into the way thinking feels.
Noticing if there's any subtle pleasure in your experience just now,
And letting this just sitting be a practice of just enjoying.
And now relaxing back into a sense of the observer or witness,
A sense of presence,
Relaxing back into the awareness,
Which is bigger than anything that arises within it.
Feeling into the qualities of awareness,
Perhaps having a sense of its spaciousness,
Its unjudging nature.
Now dropping in the idea of bringing the meditation to an end,
Ending with an appreciation of the practice and of your efforts,
And taking the momentum of awareness into the rest of your day.
