The practice of mindfulness is very much in the service of our freedom,
Seeing beyond the limitations of the mind,
And having a more expansive and open perspective on ourselves,
On our circumstance,
And those around us.
In the law,
The writ of habeas corpus is regarded as a centerpiece to our liberty.
It literally means,
You have the body.
That is,
Habeas corpus means,
You have the body.
We spend so much of our time lost in distraction,
Caught up in the thoughts regarding other times and places and circumstances,
Real and imagined,
That we lose touch with this body.
You have the body.
But we forget.
And the consequences of forgetting this body,
Of going beneath the surface to rest attention on the sensations arising in and around the body,
To hold steady in the midst of agitation in the body.
The consequences is,
In many ways,
To lose our freedom,
To be lost 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 arising in the body.
We remind ourselves again and again,
There is a body.
And so we begin this five minute practice by bringing our attention to the sensations arising in and around the body as we lower or close our eyes.
There is a body,
This body,
As we breathe,
Aware of the posture,
Upright and stable,
From head to toes,
Side to side,
Belly to back,
This body here,
Now.
Aware of the sensations arising in and around the body,
Where the body makes contact with the chair or the cushion beneath it,
The feet making contact with the ground,
The hands resting one and the other around the lap,
The cloth of our clothes and what we're wearing meeting the skin,
The air moving,
Caressing the skin,
Cool,
Warm.
As we breathe,
We are aware of this body.
Noticing the sensations arising in this body,
Sensations in and around the eyes resting in their sockets,
Perhaps a tension,
A tightness,
Sensations in and around the jaw,
Just noticing as we breathe,
The shoulders,
The belly,
The legs,
This body,
Which as we breathe,
Moves with the breath,
Aware of the torso expanding,
The rib cage lifting on the in-breath,
And softening on the out-breath,
The breath flowing through the body,
The body moving with the breath,
Aware of the sensations of the body as we breathe.
And when you're ready,
In the next moment or two,
Within awareness of doing so,
To lift the gaze,
Open the eyes.
