The practice of mindfulness is very much in the service of freedom,
Seeing beyond the limitations of the mind and having a more expansive and open perspective on ourselves and our circumstances and on those around us.
In the law,
The writ of habeas corpus is regarded as a centerpiece to our liberty.
Habeas corpus literally means,
You have the body.
We spend so much of our time lost in distraction,
Caught up in thoughts regarding other times and places and circumstances,
Real and imagined,
That we lose touch with this body.
You have the body,
But you forget.
And the consequences of forgetting the body,
Of not going beneath the surface and resting attention on the sensations arising in and around the body,
Of not learning from direct experience to hold steady in the midst of agitation in the body,
The consequences in many ways is to lose our freedom,
To be lost,
Trapped and confined within the stories we tell ourselves,
The interpretations,
The narrative about what's arising moment to moment,
That isn't quite in alignment with what's actually arising moment to moment.
In this mindfulness practice,
We pay attention to the body.
We rest our attention on the sensations arising continuously in the body.
We remind ourselves again and again,
There is a body.
And so we begin this mindfulness practice by bringing ourselves into a posture that's upright and stable,
Noble and dignified as we breathe,
Lowering or closing our eyes and bringing our attention to the sensations of the body sitting in this moment.
The posture not too rigid,
Not slouched,
Comfortable,
Aware of the sensations arising in and around the body as we sit on this chair or cushion,
Noticing the sensations of where our body meets the cushion beneath us,
Of where our feet may be making contact with the ground,
Our hand resting one in the other or on our lap,
Aware of these touch points where our body,
This body,
Makes contact as we breathe.
.
.
Aware of where our clothes,
The cloth,
Makes contact with the skin,
The gentle resting of our attention,
Aware of where the air in the room caresses the skin,
Aware of this body in this moment,
Directing our awareness to the sensations in and around the eyes resting in their sockets,
Perhaps a tension,
A tightness,
As we breathe,
The sensations in and around the jaw,
The shoulders as we breathe in and out,
The belly riding along the wave of the breath,
Observing the sensations in the legs,
As we breathe,
There is a body.
As you attend to the sensations arising in this moment in the body,
You found the body,
You found yourself in this moment.
And as the mind wanders away from the body in those moments where we forget the body,
We remember this body that moves with the breath,
The torso expanding,
The rib cage lifting on the in-breath and softening on the out-breath.
Aware of the body.
There's nothing you need to do.
Being here is enough.
The sensations arising in the body are sometimes subtle,
Sometimes very noticeable,
Sometimes pleasant,
And sometimes they're unpleasant.
As we sit and rest attention on the sensations arising in the body,
We notice and are present for whatever arises moment to moment.
As we breathe,
There is a body,
Breathing,
Sensing,
Alive in this moment.
And when you're ready in the next moment or two,
With an awareness of doing so,
Lifting the gaze,
Opening the eyes.
