Silent Illumination

Whole-body meditation that helps us relax into a space of easy, open awareness.

Transcript

I'm Mark Nicholbine for the Secular Buddhist Association and this is a 20 minute silent illumination meditation.

Silent illumination comes from the Chan tradition of Chinese Buddhism and it's intended to bring us into an awareness of the inherent stillness of the mind.

It does so by bringing our awareness to the sensation of the entire body sitting.

So if you begin by taking a sitting posture that allows you to be upright and relaxed,

We'll begin.

And we'll begin by taking some deep cleansing breaths,

Breathing in deeply into the abdomen,

Holding it for a few moments,

Allowing the awareness to follow the breath into the body and then releasing and allowing the entire body to relax on the exhale breath.

So breathing in,

Holding and exhaling.

Once again breathing deeply into the abdomen,

Allowing the awareness to follow the breath and exhaling entirely.

And now taking several more of those breaths at your own pace.

And we begin silent illumination practice by relaxing the body entirely.

You may wish to imagine a flow of warm relaxing energy slowly flowing through your entire body from head to toe.

So feeling the muscles of the scalp become heavy and loose.

Inviting the eyes to relax in their sockets.

Inviting the muscles of the jaw to relax.

Allowing the neck and the shoulders.

Allowing the arms and hands to relax.

Letting that flow of relaxation move through the chest and the belly.

Allowing the muscles of the upper back.

Allowing the muscles of the lower back to become heavy and loose.

Allowing that relaxation flowing through the pelvic area.

Through the thighs,

Lower legs,

The feet.

And just feeling that warm wave of relaxation moving from head to toe.

Noticing any tension or holding that you might notice in the body.

And just inviting it to relax,

To loosen,

Become heavy and soft.

Taking as much time as you need to,

To simply allow the body to completely relax.

And noticing as you do so how the awareness expands into the body with that sense of complete relaxation.

And just feeling that warm wave of relaxation moving through the chest and the belly.

Allowing the body to completely relax.

And just feeling that warm wave of relaxation moving through the chest and the belly.

And now we begin our silent illumination practice by bringing the awareness to the sensation of the entire body sitting here.

Feeling the sensation of the entire upright and relaxed body in one field of awareness.

Just feeling the outline of the body.

The contact of the body's surface with your seat,

Your clothing and the air around you.

Letting the whole body gently rise and fall with each breath.

The sensations of the body.

Its density and solidity.

The dignity and upright nature of the sitting posture.

And just allowing the entire body to be held in the field of awareness.

Investing the awareness into the sensation of the whole body sitting here.

And just feeling the sensation of the entire body.

And just letting the entire body be in the center of the center of the center of the center of the body.

And as with any meditation practice if you notice your mind beginning to wander.

Maybe taken off with a thought stream.

Simply bring it back.

No need to judge or be hard on yourself.

Just kindly lead the mind back to the body.

As if you were leading a child by the hand.

Sensing into the whole body sitting here.

And just letting the entire body be in the center of the center of the center of the center of the center of the center of the center of this body here.

Noticing the quality of awareness right now.

If the mind's strayed,

Once more bringing it back to resting in the field of awareness that holds the entire body sitting here.

And if you notice some tension has crept back into the body,

Perhaps the scalp or the face,

The jaw,

Perhaps the shoulders have tightened a bit.

Take some time once again to invite them to relax,

To become heavy and smooth.

And then once again allow the mind to rest in the field of awareness that's holding the whole body sitting here now.

And then once again allow the mind to relax,

To become heavy and smooth.

And then once again allow the mind to relax,

To become heavy and smooth.

And then once again allow the mind to relax,

To become heavy and smooth.

And then once again allow the mind to relax,

To become heavy and smooth.

And now in this final minute giving up any attempt at meditation,

Letting go of any effort,

And just allow the body to relax.

Allow the mind to relax.

Let everything settle just the way that it wants to do.

For the Secular Buddhist Association,

I'm Mark Nicholbine,

And I hope that this guided meditation will be of benefit to your practice.

Reviews

An excellent meditation. Well paced and delivered. Simple but powerful

Thank you. The simplicity of this meditation is its strength. More of this, in longer sessions!

Beautifully spacious! Exactly what I needed this morning. Thank you.

This is a perfect meditation for me for the days like today when I want minimal guidance and maximum silence.

Perfect balance between silence and instruction. This will become one of my favorites.

Nice. If you can do another one that's 30 minutes and without the background noise it would be nice.

I appreciated the silences and guidance for full being relaxation and meditation practice. Thank you.

Perfect meditation. The guidance is non intrusive with space to practice in silence. Thank you! 🙏

That was wonderful thank you. I feel so very relaxed from my head to my toes.
It was beautifully constructed meditation with the perfect mix of guidance and silence 🙏

This was a wonderfully effective meditation; relaxing and a great alternative to constantly taming the monkey mind. Beautifully done!

Thank you. Nice balance between guidance and silence.

Nicely spoken, with quiet spaces enabling deep mind, body relaxation & meditation 💫🙏🕉️🕊️

The periods of silence helped a lot, and the delivery was perfect

Lovely. I especially appreciate the unguided segments. Thank you

I love these meditations. Really helping me with my practice

Great conscious start to the day. Very calming sound in the backgroung 🙏

To the point
As is
Om

Beautifully paced mindfulness meditation without music. I really like it a lot! Thank you very much for providing it!

Clear guidance, relaxing voice and not at all bothered by this background noise that people have mentioned, thank you SBC

A very good meditation. Helped me to be present. I liked the breathing at the beginning, the focus on the whole body, the calmness of Mark's voice and the natural sounds in the background. Thank you!