If you are new to the Buddhist practice of body scanning,
I'd like to share a few key points to help frame this practice and its intentions.
This meditation comes from one of the original teachings of the Buddha,
The Satipatthana Sutta,
Or the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness.
You might have heard it referred to as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
In the first foundation of mindfulness,
Mindfulness of the body,
The Buddha outlines several practices that many of us are well aware of,
Including mindfulness of breathing and walking meditation.
We also receive a practice called mindfulness of the reality of the body.
This meditation was designed to help us cultivate non-attachment to the body by recognizing its individual parts.
By observing the body in this way,
We begin to understand one of the Buddha's most fundamental teachings,
That of impermanence.
If you practice body scanning regularly,
You'll start to notice how ever changing it is,
Even though most of the time we tend to view it as a very fixed and solid part of who we are.
By observing the body in an objective,
Detached way,
We become less identified with it,
Less enchanted by it.
And while this doesn't mean that we shouldn't take care of the body,
Rather we gain a certain kind of freedom when the body isn't tangled up in our sense of self.
In the body scan meditation,
We'll direct our awareness to sensations that may be present in the body,
But we aren't trying to change anything or arrive at a particular state.
This is different from the type of relaxation meditations you may already be familiar with,
Where you were guided to let go of held tensions in the body and to manifest feelings of calm.
You may nevertheless experience feelings of relaxation,
As this is a natural secondary response to bringing awareness into the body.
But in this practice,
Your only job,
If we were to call it that,
Is to notice and meet whatever arises with the spirit of loving kindness.
