Hello and welcome to your meditation practice as part of the Open Heart Project.
My name is Susan Piver and I am delighted to be able to sit with you in meditation.
If you're new to the Open Heart Project,
Welcome,
A very warm welcome.
We're going to do something a little bit different than what we normally do in most weeks,
So just FYI.
We're just going to sit.
I'll give the instruction.
We're going to sit for a slightly longer period than normal.
We usually sit for 10 minutes today.
This week we're going to sit for 15 for a couple reasons.
One is in the last few weeks of videos I've felt,
I feel like I've been like,
Let's talk about death,
Y'all.
Let's talk about sadness.
Let's talk about loss.
These are important things and I'm happy.
I know it sounds weird to say one is happy to speak of those things,
But anyway,
I'm glad I did.
But this week I want to dial back a little bit on the intensity and just focus on the technique and just review the details together carefully.
Also,
As some of you may know,
My new book came out,
Start Here Now,
And it is an introduction to meditation practice and sort of summarizes the things that I say most often in the Open Heart Project.
It was very much inspired by our work together,
So thank you.
But also I've been traveling a fair amount and teaching on the basics of the technique and I just feel very inspired and enthusiastic about the beauty and value and simplicity of the meditation technique itself.
So we're going to start basically now-ish.
Let me just begin by saying that meditation,
Among many other things,
Is about the placement of attention.
You're asked,
And if it's your first time,
Don't worry,
You'll understand this as we go forward.
You're asked to place attention on your breath,
The inhale and the exhale,
And then when attention strays,
Which it does because we're human and normal,
That's no problem,
You just come back.
So the placement of attention is the foundation of the practice.
The essence of the practice is placing it somewhere,
Noticing it when it strays,
And learning how to bring it back.
This is a very valuable skill in our modern day when our attention is normally,
At least speaking for myself,
Just bouncing constantly all day long from screen to email to telephone call to idea to billboard to magazine article,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah.
In this practice we reassert our agency over where that attention goes because normally it feels pulled and sometimes it is,
But actually we have more say than we may think.
So it's about where you place the attention and working with it as it skitters and floats and disappears and returns and so on.
But as we begin,
It behooves us to just consider briefly what is meant by attention.
If this is what we're working with,
What does that mean exactly?
So you may have done this with me before,
If so,
Please enjoy doing it again.
If I ask you right now to place your attention on your left knee,
You can.
You don't have to look at it,
Just boop,
Boop,
There it is.
Oh,
I have a left knee.
I wasn't thinking about it moments ago,
Probably.
Just place your attention on your left knee and now place it on your right knee.
And now put it back on your left knee.
And put it back on your right knee.
So nothing shifted on the outside,
But something moved between those two points,
Knee to knee.
And that something is your attention,
Your awareness,
And that is what you place on the breath in meditation practice.
So it's a little different than thinking about the breath or observing the breath.
It's more a quality of being with the breath.
So I hope that makes sense.
And without further ado,
Let's practice.
So get settled,
Please,
Whether you're seated on a cushion on the floor with your legs crossed loosely in front of you,
Like me,
Take my word for it,
Or in a chair.
And if you're in a chair,
It's totally fine.
Just please sit with your feet flat on the floor.
And as mentioned,
This is going to be a little bit longer than our normal practice.
It's going to be 15 minutes.
So if you've been practicing for 10 for a while,
Here's your chance to practice for a little bit longer and just see how it goes.
So there are three things to be mindful of in meditation practice.
And the first is your own body.
So the practice begins with the way you take your seat,
Not even your posture,
But sort of how have you taken your seat?
Have you taken your seat like,
Oh,
Okay,
Let me get this over with,
You know,
Understandable.
Have you taken your seat with a sense of,
I've got to do this right.
Let me,
You know,
If not,
I'm going to be really upset with myself or with a sense of sort of self-doubt,
Like,
Well,
I probably can't do it.
So just notice.
I'm not saying that you should have an ideal state of mind,
But notice what state of mind you sit with and let it go,
Whatever it is.
And simply sit up straight.
And the sitting up straight is also a kind of declaration of your humanity and aliveness because you're not sitting up straight like someone told you,
You better,
You better shut your mouth and sit up straight.
That is not included in the meditation technique.
My favorite analogy is to sit up straight like a tree.
Trees don't get up and move around.
They are firmly rooted.
And imagine that from your waist down,
You are rooted in the earth and this is your root system and it holds you in place firmly and strongly and kind of without a lot of comment.
You're just sitting and up from your waist,
Like the trunk and limbs of a tree,
Your trunk and limbs blossom.
So let there be a sense of upward rising in the torso,
A kind of fountaining up while the lower half continues to root down and just enjoy this sense of simultaneous rooting and aspiring.
That's a good sort of state to be in.
Too much of one or the other can get confusing.
The hands rest,
Palms down,
Just above the knee and just let your arms hang from the shoulders for a minute and then bend at the elbow and then just place your palms.
That is usually the optimum point where you're not pulling yourself forward or holding yourself up.
Maybe you'll get a cat to come visit you.
Yes,
You always seem to show up at these times.
And let the shoulders relax and let the belly relax.
The chin is tucked a little bit so the back of the neck is long.
And this is just to avoid any repetitive strain from sitting for too many days like this or like this or like this.
And the mouth is closed but the lips and teeth can be slightly parted and the tongue rests on the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth.
And the reason the mouth is closed in meditation practice is because you don't have to talk,
Which is so great.
You don't have to contribute anything,
You don't have to prove anything,
You don't have to offer or participate in anything other than your own sense of being.
So let yourself really fall silent.
It's quite lovely.
The breath comes in and out through the nose.
Just however it does is fine.
We already all know how to breathe so no instruction is required.
And the eyes remain open and the gaze is cast down to a spot about six feet in front if you're in a meditation shrine room and you have that much.
Otherwise,
Just some spot that's comfortable for you to rest your gaze given the proximity of your screen.
This is an important part of the instruction.
We're not closing our eyes and trying to withdraw.
Our eyes stay open and the gaze is soft because this is a practice of wakefulness and we are practicing maintaining our awareness and mindfulness with distraction.
When the eyes are closed,
Yes,
There may be less distraction,
But if you have to always go like this in order to maintain your awareness,
Then you could get hit by a car or,
You know,
I'm kind of joking,
But it's not practical.
We're cultivating the ability to be awake in our life,
Not to be great meditators.
So the eyes are open and the gaze is cast down and let the eyes soften.
Let all the muscles around the eyes relax.
And notice that the sit bones continue to root down and let the crown of the head rise up a little bit.
So there's this sense of upward and downward at the same time.
Now place your attention on your breath.
What you move from knee to knee.
Place that on your breath and just feel yourself breathing.
Feel yourself,
Your attention coming in on the inhale and feel it riding out on the exhale.
So the labeling of the thought sort of helps you go,
Okay,
Now let me go back to my meditation technique,
Which is breathing and gently bring your attention back to your breath and begin again riding in and flowing out.
And please,
Please believe me when I say it does not matter how many times you have to do this.
It doesn't.
What matters here is you are working with your mind.
And just like working with a muscle group,
It strengthens it.
So we'll sit together,
Breathe,
Cat-pet a little bit.
And should you become distracted,
Meaning you're totally absorbed in thought to the point you've forgotten about your breath,
Oh,
Label it thinking,
Let go and come back.
Okay.
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