What follows is a meditation on the mind,
Engaging the two different ways of meditating on the mind,
Holding and releasing.
Begin by getting yourself comfortable,
Upright,
Either in a chair or cross-legged,
Your back should be straight,
Your shoulders upright and not slouched,
The head slightly looking downwards.
The eyes can be open in this meditation without focusing on anything and blinking as much as you need to.
Tongue at the top of the mouth and the hands either on the knees,
Upwards or downwards,
Or the right on the left with the thumb gently touching.
And then we begin with an intention,
Setting our mind,
Not just focusing on ourselves but thinking about all living beings and the reality that everybody wishes to be happy just as we do,
Nobody wishes to suffer just as we don't wish to suffer.
And understanding that the primary source of that suffering lies in the mind and we make the intention to develop our own minds so that we become more and more able to be beneficial to all living beings.
And then begin by taking a few deep breaths,
A nice long breath in,
Long breath out and try and let everything go as you breathe out,
Let go of any tension,
Busyness or stress.
Another long breath in,
Long breath out and one more.
And then bring your attention into the present moment,
Let the past go,
Don't be in the future.
Bring your attention gently to your breathing,
Breathing normally through the nose for the first few moments,
Just be there,
Let your attention rest with the breath going in and the breath going out.
And then gently and gradually shift the attention from the breathing onto the mind itself,
Not the thoughts and the feelings and sensations but the clear sense of awareness underneath those,
Situated more at the level of the chest rather than the head.
Use analogies to get as clear an idea as you can of this level of mind,
A clear dawn sky,
A clear lake,
The sense of the level of our eyes while we're meditating.
Get a feeling for this clear sense of awareness below the thoughts and feelings.
Once you have a reasonable image or sense of that level of the mind,
Gently hold your attention there,
Using gentle effort,
Rest your attention there with a clear sense of awareness.
When you get lost in thoughts or distractions,
Notice and gently bring yourself back.
Using gentle mindfulness,
Hold yourself there on that sense of awareness and have introspection in the background,
Watching over,
Ready to bring your mind back when you become distracted.
Rest your attention just with that clear sense of awareness.
When you lose your attention,
When the mind becomes distracted,
Just notice it's become distracted,
Let the thought or feeling,
Sensation,
Whatever it is,
Let it go and gently bring yourself back to the mind,
Back to that clear sense of awareness below the thoughts and rest your attention there with gentle effort,
And then refreshing our mind,
Bring our mind back if we've wandered,
Come back into the awareness.
Now we move into the releasing part of the meditation.
To do this,
We simply need to drop the effort.
We don't have to resist thoughts,
We don't have to come back from them,
We don't have to stop them being there either,
We just have to not pay attention to them.
Don't reify them,
Don't rub up against them,
They're just thoughts.
Allow yourself to rest in the natural state of the mind,
Let go of all effort and as you do so,
You should feel the mind and body deeply relaxing,
The subtle level of tension which is always there within our mind and body,
But even that disappears,
And we're resting effortlessly in the clear,
Late nature of the mind.
Resting there if thoughts or feelings or sensations come up,
We can let them be there,
We don't have to push them away or come back from them,
We just simply don't engage with them.
They're on the surface,
We can let them stay there on the surface,
We remain resting in the depths of our mind,
Effortlessly paying attention only to the clear sense of awareness.
Stay resting in that clear sense of awareness for another minute or two,
We're completely relaxed but we're completely attentive at the same time,
Clear but stable,
And effortlessly resting with the nature of our clear mind,
And then we finish our practice by dedicating the virtue,
The positive energy we've created,
May that become the cause to lead ourselves and everybody else,
All living beings out of all suffering,
And may it become the cause to lead ourselves and all other living beings into complete happiness.
