And the practice of sitting in meditation is a training in something that might seem like it should come naturally,
But so often doesn't.
This is the ability to rest,
To rest the body into stillness,
To rest the heart from the emotional storms of our life,
And to rest the mind from its constant or near constant spinning,
Grasping,
Spinning out stories about what's happening and who we are.
Beginning with the body,
When we come into the sitting posture,
It's helpful to sit in a way that is not effortful as much as possible.
So it's not important to sit low to the ground or cross-legged or in any particular posture,
But to sit in a way that takes as little musculature really as possible.
So it's nice to feel the knees supported,
Enough support under the butt,
Sit bones,
And that you can feel like the postural muscles in the back get to relax a bit.
The belly gets to relax.
One of the signs of the body is in a workable posture for meditation in the upright postures.
And of course,
If there's injury or other things,
You can practice lying down as well or standing.
But in the sitting posture,
One of the signs that the posture is well chosen is that the whole upper body can soften,
Shoulders,
Arms hanging,
Chest lifted without strain,
The back tall without clenching,
And the belly soft,
As best we can,
Letting go of the postural muscles of the core,
Resting into,
Trusting the structure of the spine and its beautiful curves.
Even as we age and the body becomes worn with that age,
Bears that age,
We continue to practice simply to find what's the most effortless posture today.
As we settle the body,
We may find it difficult to either remain still or difficult to remain alert.
The bodily energies of restlessness or dullness often show up first here.
If restlessness is what's happening,
Breathing deeply,
Focusing on the out-breath,
And really giving ourselves to stillness,
You can feel the vibration of restlessness through the body without needing to give in to the urge to fidget.
If there's strong pain somewhere in the body,
Any time during sitting,
It's absolutely fine to move.
The purpose is not to force ourselves into stillness,
But the opposite,
To find the pathway to settle into stillness,
Even joyfully delighting in stillness.
That takes some finding sometimes.
If dullness or sleepiness or heaviness,
Muddiness is the energy rather than restlessness,
Then it can be helpful to open the eyes,
Take in some light,
And uplift the body with a big in-breath,
Maybe really plant the hands on the knees and brighten through the front body.
A way of saying,
Yes,
I may be tired or worn,
But I can bring a brightness to my experience.
And again,
The balance is to do so without strain,
Without constriction.
This is also not about forcing yourself to stay alert,
But falling in love with,
Delighting in a kind of bright presence.
So we bring as much balance to the body as we can,
And we become aware of the bodily hindrances around energy.
And we just gently work to settle restlessness and uplift dullness,
Going for a balanced,
Bright,
Relaxed body.
As the body and its energies begin to be known,
We settle a bit into stillness.
The training becomes bringing the heart and mind also toward this kind of stability or stillness.
In the same way,
Not by forcing,
But by working skillfully with the energies that are there.
There's a lot of wanting.
We encourage a kind of letting go.
If there's a lot of hating or not liking,
Encouraging a kind of acceptance,
It's okay.
It's okay to want.
It's okay to not like.
But this is how this moment is.
I'm just here.
If there's sadness or happiness or any of the range of pleasant and unpleasant feelings,
The encouragement is to recognize them,
To know them.
You might name them,
Oh,
I'm a little grumpy or worried or curious or happy tonight or just kind of neutral.
Just knowing what's happening and then inviting the mood,
The feeling to be with the body in this relaxed stillness together.
Mind is the slipperiest.
We're not trying to stop thinking.
That would be constricting.
We're trying to fall in love with silence.
So just notice when there's a thought,
Often when you notice it,
It fades away.
Really let the body and feeling and sensation be full in your awareness.
And then notice when there's not words in the mind or images of something that happened or might happen in the future.
Not trying to stop anything or make anything happen,
But getting curious about that open space.
What's it like when the body is relaxed and still,
The mood is balanced and the mind pauses in its search for a moment or a few.
Notice that open space.
This is really the heart of meditation practice.
And all of the other instructions are tips on how to do this because it's pretty subtle.
The space usually just flies by and we don't notice it,
But notice it.
Stop whatever thought is going for the moment,
Pause it,
Let it fade out and notice the silence.
Notice a tensing muscle or postural structure like the shoulders,
Relax it or the face and then notice the feeling for a few moments more clear.
And then lastly,
Because this is difficult to do,
We choose an anchor,
A home base like the breath or the sense of the body sitting and just connect with the breath or the posture of the body as your home base.
Give the attention something to look at.
Notice the breath coming in and going out.
The breath is long or short,
Doesn't matter.
Make it comfortable.
You might give the mind something to do on the in-breath,
Think the word in or think breathing in.
On the out-breath,
Out or breathing out.
Just as a way to keep reminding ourselves that it's okay to come to rest here.
Part of habit,
Part of the addiction to stimulus and the fear of discomfort and boredom is that the thinking mind fills all the leftover space.
If there's not a strong pain in the body or a big emotion,
The mind does its thinking thing.
It's just a habit to fill the space.
Our training here is to notice that habit and be willing to do something else for a few moments.
Actually get interested in a less stimulated space,
A more neutral,
Quiet space.
Can be scary or inviting or confusing or just hard to find,
But it's there.
Right beneath all the waves of tension,
Emotional churning and scattered attention is a quiet nourishing space.
Learn to rest there,
Resting with the breath and body,
Returning to it whenever we notice we've lost it.
That space will become stronger.
It becomes a refuge.
It becomes the spring from which a kind of cool water bubbles up,
Nourishing our whole being.
We'll practice in this way,
Resting into stillness,
Returning to the breath and body,
Falling in love with open space through our whole being,
Resting there.
Quiet,
Loving,
Spacious,
Even for a moment,
Learning what that space feels like as a home.
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