Anapanasati Contemplations: Guided Meditation

This is the last guided meditation of the Anapanasati series. There is no teaching at the beginning, though there is a short introduction. This meditation covers all four sets of Anapanasati contemplations.

Transcript

So our last meeting here,

Friends.

We were sitting at our Thanksgiving table the other day,

And all of my children were there,

Which is nice.

Of course,

Two of them live at home,

But my third was there.

We were just naming things that we were feeling grateful for.

One of the things that I am grateful for is the support that I'm receiving in following a new path.

I'm in partial retirement teaching,

I just go half days,

And starting within the next week or two,

I begin to do in-home hospice visits here in Chatham County.

And I'm plowing along in this course I'm taking in contemplative care,

And my wife is giving me the leeway to do it.

I have a lot of gratitude to her.

And I have a lot of gratitude for you all too,

You know,

Who have been here with us in the last couple of years.

I have nothing to say.

Ha ha ha ha!

That would be unusual.

I know,

Right?

What do you all want to do?

You want to do sort of the same old seven and six as my grandfather used to say?

Guided meditation?

Okay.

We'll go ahead and find your posture.

Do a quick scan through the muscles of your face,

Around your eyes,

And your jaw.

Take a few good deep breaths that allow any tension there to melt away.

See how your shoulders are,

Your arms,

Your hands.

Begin to root into your posture.

Your weight beginning to sink.

Body upright,

Proud in your practice,

Content.

Gcong!

You you I'd like to invite you to just develop a sense of gratitude Times are hard and times are strange,

But we still have so much to be grateful for and it's easy to lose sight of that So much that we want to react against,

So much to be fearful of And yet We have friends or family Spiritual paths The example and teachings of the Buddha And the wisdom accumulated through 90 generations down to this present day We have Sangha We have Sangha and we have our practice Gratitude like joy is something we need to hold ourselves open to And both of these are helped along and grown by a presence of mindfulness in our lives Our practice is not upon a sati meditation are based in mindfulness of the breath Awareness of the breath has been the bedrock of so many spiritual practices throughout the history of humanity You've heard me say it a hundred times your breath is your closest friend Always there when you need it Never absent Always there waiting for you to remember Take a few minutes and develop a sense of mindfulness and awareness of your breathing Take a few minutes and develop a sense of mindfulness and awareness of your breathing Take a few minutes and develop a sense of mindfulness and awareness of your breathing Allow your belly to soften Be aware of the movement of your diaphragm Fill your lungs with the breath of life Allow your awareness to begin to settle into your body to diffuse throughout your body Throughout your body Our sutra reads,

Breathing in I'm aware of my whole body Breathing out I calm my body Be content in this moment In a union of breath and body Present Still content I feel tonight a sense of joy Joy for the many times that we've spent together Joy for the friendship that we share our sense of sangha And this cultivation and awareness of joy is a strong and important piece of the work we do A solid base from which to explore A rock on which to stand as we begin to search through our feelings,

Our reactive patterns and then our deeper thoughts and emotions Let your awareness of breath and body move into that peripheral awareness Bring a sense of awareness to your feelings Some are pleasant,

Some are not,

Some are simply neutral The danger lies in our clinging,

In our aversion And so as you sit and as you move through your days with equanimity See your feelings occur,

Watch them come into being Allow them to move through their cycle of existence,

Like a life cycle Feelings come into being,

They exist for a time And our practice is to not cling to them,

Not to push them away But to open our hands and just be with them And watch them fade as they inevitably will One by one,

Over and over again Remember each time a practice of non-attachment Is not detachment They are unreal and we're meant to experience them,

But we're not meant to hold them Our feelings are sticky wickets,

They impede us as we try to move As we try to do our best in community,

To do our best in our own practice of mindfulness When we hold our feelings,

They snag at us like thorny bushes And so we know what to do We know how to clear that brush And our landscape of experience begins to open And we feel more calm,

More steady More open,

More accepting Such a gift to ourselves,

Such a gift to others And as the brush of feelings moves aside,

Fades away The landscape of our mind lies open before us The third set of contemplations begins,

Breathing in I'm aware of my mind,

Breathing out I'm aware of my mind Keep your energy rooted in your body So often when I reach this point in the continuum of steps,

I remember to find my breath,

To find my body,

Even just for a moment So that the awareness of my mind joins that,

Rather than my energy drifting back up into my head And there they are,

The thoughts on which we ruminate Sorrows of the past,

Worries of the future Remembrances of wonderful times,

Things that we look forward to Plans,

Regrets,

They're all there They're meant to be there And it's right mindfulness and right action to process these things,

To share our joy,

To make amends But our minds love to be busy Sometimes we process over and over again,

We plan over and over again Here we cry over and over again So we train ourselves to embrace the impermanence of thought To allow thoughts to rise Move into being,

Exist for a time And in our open hands,

Fall away One by one,

Over and over We practice with compassion for ourselves,

Compassion for others And as we become more skillful with our thoughts and the processes of our minds,

We begin to find a sense of gladness Breathing in,

I gladden my mind.

Breathing out,

I gladden my mind.

And our minds become more peaceful,

More open.

And in this space,

Our concentration can deepen.

And things begin to shift We find ourselves beginning to feel liberated from hindrances such as doubt,

Worry,

Ill will If only for a time But I believe that each time we feel that sense of liberation,

It strengthens upon the last time we felt that sense of liberation The more we practice,

The more this grows and the easier it becomes to recognize these things and to be skillful To be mindful Joamine family.

.

Embracing impermanence is key to the whole structure as key as is our awareness of breath.

Understanding impermanence as real,

Unavoidable,

Positive,

Relieving.

The fourth set of contemplations,

Contemplations of dharmas or objects of mind,

Have less to do with the thoughts that we find than how we direct our minds toward what as we go forward.

Concepts such as impermanence,

Interdependence,

Things rising and falling dependent upon causes and conditions,

No self.

Or even more simply,

Just moving through life with an understanding and a reliance on the four noble truths.

Ideas which have changed the lives of so many in recovery,

Out of recovery,

To recognize that there is suffering,

To understand its causes,

Clinging,

Aversion,

To know that our suffering can be impermanent,

That it is impermanent,

Subject to change,

And that we have a path forward,

The eightfold path.

As our mind settles in clear,

It opens space for us to bring a more full consideration of these things,

To understand their full implication in the ways that we can approach our lives.

Which always bring me around to what I feel are the two most important things,

Compassion,

Gratitude.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Everything coming together in the open space of the mind, thank you.

Grateful for the chance to experience your teachings

Wonderful session. I felt like I was in the room. So much ease, lightness and wisdom. Joy abounds. Thank you.

Great way to end the series but hopeful for more eventually. These are great practices...calm instructions, quiet pauses to practice and wonderful Darmha. Now I will just start again at the beginning. Thank you. ☮💖🙏