Nurturing An Unbiased Mind (Live Recording)

This meditation takes the meditator through the stages of focus and concentration to a state of mental clarity. This practice allows you to welcome and acknowledge thoughts, mental stories, sensations without engagement and the feelings that are consequence of those mental stories. It is crucial in these times when clear and unbiased communications are much needed.

Transcript

So as we start this meditation,

We try to be as much comfortable as possible.

It's used to my meditation sessions now that meditation for me is all about being and feeling comfortable.

So if you're sitting on the floor,

Have your back straight,

Legs crossed.

If you're sitting on a chair or a couch,

Back straight,

Open chest,

And make sure your feet is flat on the floor.

Either you can feel the floor,

Helps you get grounded.

And if you're sitting on a cushion or on the floor,

Notice your sitting bones touching the cushion on the floor.

We start taking a couple of deep breaths,

A deep inhalation.

As you do,

You notice your torso tends to rise.

Take that as an opportunity to straighten your spine,

Open your chest,

And you can exhale through your mouth.

Notice the downward movement.

That's your cue to relax and let go.

Deep inhalation.

And a long and soft exhalation,

Noticing how your body let go,

Your muscle relax.

Once again,

Deep inhalation,

Fill in your lungs,

Through your nose,

And let the air go through your mouth,

Slowly and gently noticing the downward movement.

Take this as an opportunity to relax your muscles.

Once again,

The deep inhalation.

You're basically telling your mind,

Well,

I'm going to meditate now.

And when you exhale,

You're telling your body,

Well,

We're going to relax.

Last one,

A deep inhalation.

A soft and gentle exhalation through your mouth,

Noticing the downward movement,

And letting go of the tension.

Now returning to a regular breathing,

A soft and gentle inhalation.

A soft and gentle exhalation.

Just enough breathing.

Not too much,

Not too little,

Just enough.

Breathe through your nose.

If you want to keep your eyes closed,

That's okay.

If you want to leave them open,

That's totally okay too.

Just as you leave them open,

Just do not focus on anything.

Just give it a gaze or downward gaze towards the floor or the table.

Make sure your eyes are relaxed.

Soft and gentle inhalation.

And a soft and gentle exhalation.

Clarity comes as a next step after focus and concentration.

After we finish this concentration exercise through our breath,

We're going to explore,

You know,

Clarity of thoughts and senses without engaging with them.

Which means is that we're not going to,

We will welcome thoughts and sensations.

We will acknowledge them,

But we're not going to engage with them.

One of the challenges of our daily lives is not engaging with our thoughts.

You know,

Our minds,

Our mind creates stories.

And we do have the natural tendency to engage with those stories.

There is a Buddhist monk that says,

Don't bite the hook.

It means do not engage with those thoughts.

You know,

Those thoughts created by your mind.

You just acknowledge it unbiasedly.

And you say to yourself,

Oh,

Okay,

That's just a thought.

It will go away.

So those thoughts created by our mind that tend to distract us,

That lead us to engage with them.

And by engaging,

It brings us a lot of sensations,

That unwanted sensations.

Like anxiety,

Like sadness,

Like guilt.

You know,

Those sensations are created based on a story that our mind created.

And we engaged and we believed.

And that's where comes suffering more than we already have.

So keep on breathing slowly and gently.

Slow and gentle inhalation.

Slow and gentle inhalation.

And slow and gentle exhalation.

What clarity brings you is the ability to acknowledge what is really going on.

Okay,

So you can decide what to do with it.

That's it.

It's like there's an image that one of my teachers tell,

Is clarity is when you have your wind chill.

You cause wind chill,

Full of mud.

And then you start wiping it and,

Oh,

That's where I have to go.

Oh,

This is what's going on.

You start seeing beyond the wind chill,

Beyond the mud.

What the mind does,

It imites your judgment,

Your understanding.

A soft and gentle inhalation.

Just enough breathing effortless.

And a soft and gentle exhalation.

I'll leave you there,

Exercising concentration through your breath.

Softly and gently.

Obviously your mind will try to pull your attention away from your breathing exercise.

That's okay,

You acknowledge it and return to the breath.

To the rhythm of the breath,

The depth.

Just enough.

Make friends with your breath,

I'd like to say.

Breathe through your nose.

Relax your forehead,

Your eyes,

Your cheekbones,

Your jaw.

Relax your shoulder.

Relax your chest,

Your belly.

Relax your arms.

Relax your hands.

Relax your fingers.

Breathe gently and softly.

Relax your legs,

Your feet.

Relax your toes.

Breathe gently and slowly.

Softly.

Once again,

The mind or sensations or noises,

Smells,

Whatever is going on outside or inside yourself will try to distract you from this breathing exercise.

That's okay.

That's natural.

All you need to do is acknowledge it and gently return to the breath.

When I say return gently,

I'd like to add a mindfulness component to what you're doing,

Which means that you're not doing this automatically.

You know what you're doing.

You're telling yourself,

I'm going to return to the breath.

Or you tell yourself,

Oh,

I'm having thoughts that are distracting me.

That's part of being mindful during the meditation.

Soft and gentle inhalation.

Soft and gentle exhalation.

If you feel any trials or any sleep,

That's totally okay.

Just give it a stretch.

Open your chest,

Take a deep breath and return to your breathing.

All right.

So often gentle inhalation.

The soft and gentle exhalation.

Engage with not the act of breathing,

But the sensations of the breath in your body.

Up to now we were pretty much engaged with the act of breathing.

You know,

Depth,

Length.

Now look inside your body and see what are the sensations that your breath brings.

It can be the tingling sensation on the tip of your nose or the cold air touching the back of your throat.

Or it can even be the rising and falling of the body as you inhale.

One of the main characteristics of concentration is curiosity.

Be curious about the sensation.

Like when I focus on the rising and falling of my body,

I am curious about when it starts.

Is there any inherited sensation like the muscles,

How they react?

Do they act against the movement?

Are they the ones trying to bring it back to the original position?

So try to be curious about what's going on.

Don't engage with it.

It's interesting.

This happens.

OK,

As we start to bring some clarity to our mind.

Now gently welcome your thoughts.

Welcome sensations.

Welcome everything to you,

To your body,

To your mind.

As you welcome them,

Don't engage with them.

Just welcome.

You know,

If a thought,

An image,

Or a smell comes to your awareness,

You're welcoming.

Like if an image of yesterday's,

If a memory of yesterday's lunch come to your mind,

You just say,

Hey,

Welcome Sunday lunch.

Or if your,

If your leg is numb,

You just say,

OK,

I welcome this 50 sensation or lack of.

Don't engage,

Just acknowledge.

We don't need you to do that.

We don't need you to do that.

We don't need you to do it for everything.

Just be conscious,

Whatever your mind brings you,

Whatever memories,

Images,

Or those movies that project that out of the back of your mind.

Just welcome,

Acknowledge,

And let it go.

It will go away.

But don't forget the breathing is soft and gentle.

Soft and gentle breathing.

Soft and gentle inhalation.

Soft and gentle exhalation.

As you're welcoming and acknowledging those thoughts,

Sensations.

Or you can be emotions too,

If you feel anxious.

Just welcome it.

Don't push it away.

Just welcome.

Just let it come.

It will go away.

Don't push it away.

Make it feel welcomed.

Don't forget the soft and gentle inhalation,

And the soft and gentle exhalation.

Breathe through your nose.

Softly and gently.

As you screen through your thoughts,

Sensations.

And welcome and acknowledge it and move on.

Just move on.

Don't engage.

Don't question.

Don't ask yourself why or how.

Don't need to engage.

Don't need to do it or you need to do the technology.

You'll notice that the thoughts and sensations that you had like two minutes ago,

They're not with you anymore.

They're gone.

As long as you don't engage with it,

They're gone.

Soft and gentle inhalation.

The soft and gentle exhalation.

And you'll notice that the thoughts and sensations that you had like two minutes ago,

They're gone.

If you are feeling any body discomfort,

Like your legs or the posture,

Just acknowledge it,

Bring your attention to it.

Make whatever adjustments you need,

Just to the point where you get to the comfort,

The comfortable position.

Don't overdo it.

Be mindful about it.

And slowly return to your exercise.

Just welcoming and acknowledging.

Just welcoming and acknowledging.

If you do not engage with it,

If you do not bite the hook,

There's no damage.

No stress,

Overload,

No anxiety,

Nor guilt.

No,

None of those negative emotions that come along with the stories our mind tells us.

Now gently and slowly bring your awareness,

Your attention back to your breathing,

The sensation of the breath that you were exploring before.

As you softly and gently breathe.

Don't leave yourself walls lumped.

One minute.

Deobal.

And when you feel ready,

Take a couple of deep breaths,

A deep inhalation,

A deep exhalation.

Soft,

But deep.

Open your chest.

Wiggle your head.

Throw them back sideways,

Your shoulders back in front.

Stretch your muscles.

Now gently and slowly open your eyes.

Get used to the light,

To the colors,

To the objects of people around you.

And just stay there,

Returning from your meditative state.

I like the clarity meditation helps on its own.

One of the daily challenges,

Especially with communication with people,

It helps us be more objective,

Unbiased,

And the communication,

It's a whole lot better when you are in a clarity state of mind.

So this meditation,

I really like it because it really has those benefits,

Especially nowadays that we are quarantined with other people inside the house,

And now more than ever we need to have better communication.

Okay,

I hope you liked it.

Thank you so much for meditating with me.

You have no idea how important this is to me.

And I'm here Mondays,

Wednesdays,

And Fridays at 6.

30.

Okay,

I hope to see you again.

Bye.