Settling into our seat,
Sinking the root of the body into the earth,
The sense of the lower body as a wide,
Stable base,
Support.
Inviting,
If it feels good,
A few deep breaths,
Clearing the breath from the upper body,
Emptying fully,
Filling to smooth out the constrictions of the day,
Let go with the outbreath into the evening.
Beginning the month with a reminder of the basic structure of this kind of meditation based in the comfortable and easeful body as much as we can find it,
Allowing effort to soften through the musculature,
Body to settle,
Release into its seat,
And receive the wave of the breath rising and falling.
If you work with something else as your anchor for attention besides the breath,
Like the sense of the body and its posture,
Or the rise and fall of sounds passing through,
Then orienting to those,
For those working with the breath,
Feeling the full breath in and out,
And connect our attention with the breath and the body.
We sustain that attention through the in-breath,
And turn around to the out-breath.
If the mind is busy,
It can help to think very softly the word in as the breath is coming in,
And out as it's going out.
And you can repeat that word through the length of the breath if that helps the mind to stay even more steady,
In,
In,
In,
Out,
Out,
Out.
We connect and sustain the attention with one area of experience,
Because the basic training in learning to see clearly and release the heart from its constrictions is to be able to focus our attention,
Stabilize the inner gaze,
And really see clearly,
Moment to moment,
What's happening,
How the conditions that we're in give rise to emotional responses,
To reactivity,
How we're always in relationship with the world around us,
Moment to moment.
We need to see it very clearly.
And to do so,
We need to gather the attention and settle it so that we can observe subtlety.
So you let the attention settle with the breath or with any stable anchor.
And the two activities of the attention are to connect and to sustain.
Connect and sustain.
At first,
Attention sustains for one or two seconds.
Think of it like the sound coming from a piano key when struck and held down or a string plucked on a string instrument.
The sound immediately begins to decay.
And so after a couple of seconds,
You need to strike again,
Connect again.
Connect with the beginning of the out-breath,
Sustain attention through the in-breath,
Through the out-breath.
And then at the turnaround,
Reconnect and then sustain attention through the other half of the breath.
Connect,
Breathing in,
Connect,
Breathing out.
If attention is dull or energy is low,
Brightening the body,
Emphasizing the in-breath,
Maybe opening the eyes.
If attention is bright but the body and mind restless,
Emphasizing,
Relaxing in the out-breath,
Settling.
This is the basic activity.
Connect and sustain.
Bring the attention to as much steadiness and relaxed brightness as we can.
With that as the foundation,
Then relaxing more and more into the sense of the whole body at ease.
The whole body receiving the breath.
The body is a field of presence,
Energy,
Clear,
Stable attention.
When the mind wanders and we notice it's wandered,
The noticing itself is the return to body.
You just pick up the thread of the breath or sounds or the body and begin again.
Connect and sustain.
