Welcome,
My friends.
Samatha meditation is the foundation of Buddhist practice.
Samatha means peaceful abiding or tranquility.
Samatha is considered a referential meditation,
Meaning we use the body and the breath as reference points to stabilize the mind.
So wherever you are,
Start by feeling your connection to the earth,
To whatever you are sitting on,
Feeling grounded.
If you're cross-legged on a cushion,
Letting your posture be upright,
But also relaxed.
If you're on a chair,
It helps to sit on the front third of the seat,
With your spine naturally erect and elongated,
With your shoulder blades gently back and down.
This allows your heart area to open up.
Connecting with the stability of your spine helps you feel regal and majestic,
Strong and fearless,
While the openness of your heart area helps you feel receptive and open and attuned.
Allow your head to be aligned with your heart.
For some of us,
This might mean bringing your head back slightly,
With the back of your neck elongated and your chin slightly tucked.
If you're sitting,
Plant your feet squarely on the ground.
Your body here is your personal piece of earth,
Your connection to the earth herself.
So approaching your posture with some dignity,
Placing your hands on your thighs,
Not too far forward,
Not too far back,
Just relaxed and at ease.
And allowing yourself to come into a sense of balance,
Front to back,
And right to left,
And aligned top to bottom.
We all have different bodies and different capabilities,
So adjust the posture to your own needs.
The important thing here is to be open and receptive.
Begin with your eyes closed to help you gather your mind and invite even more direct contact with your body.
You might decide to keep your eyes closed throughout the meditation,
Which can help cut down on distractions.
Or you might try opening your eyes after a few minutes of settling.
Meditating with your eyes slightly open can help bring a meditative quality into the rest of your day,
Mixing meditation with daily life.
So experiment and see what works for you.
If you choose to open your eyes,
Keep your gaze down about six feet or so in front of you,
With your visual field open and relaxed,
Not focusing on anything in particular.
This invites the mind to open to a mental field that can accommodate anything.
Traditionally in Samatha,
Your mouth is slightly open,
With the tongue resting on the roof of the mouth.
But do what feels comfortable for you,
Lips parted or closed.
The important thing is to let your jaw unhinge and be completely at ease.
Now with your posture settled,
Simply bring your attention to the movement of your breath,
Wherever it is most vivid for you.
If you notice any areas of tension in the body,
Letting the breath move into that area and dissolve the tension.
And then bringing your awareness back to the simple movement of your breath,
Wherever it is most vivid for you.
You might notice the movement of the breath in and out of your nostrils,
The sensation of the breath on your upper lip.
You might notice the air a little cooler as it enters your nostrils and slightly warmer as you exhale.
You might notice the sensation of the breath in your chest as your ribs expand and relax.
And you might notice the sensation of the breath as it moves down into the belly.
The way your belly rises and falls,
Gently as a sleeping baby.
Breathe as if your whole body is breathing.
Not so much imagining the breath or visualizing it,
But deeply feeling the breath,
Being the breath.
Let your mind ride the movement of each breath.
You're not watching the breath,
You are the breath.
The breath is you.
You are the tide moving in and out of your body.
As each breath passes out of your nostrils,
It dissolves into the atmosphere,
Into space.
As your breath goes out,
Letting it dissolve.
Breathe out and dissolve.
With each relaxed exhalation,
You are letting go a little more,
Holding onto nothing,
Opening and dissolving.
Now bringing your awareness to the tiny gap at the bottom of the exhalation and the top of the inhalation.
And letting your mind fall into the silence of that gap.
The silence below the surface of things,
Below all activity,
Below all movement.
And letting yourself fall into that alive stillness,
Merging with that alive stillness.
The stillness that is the backdrop of all things,
That is the silence between your heartbeats,
The silence between your thoughts,
The silence between notes of a song,
The stillness between two waves of the sea.
Letting yourself fall into that stillness,
Into the alive presence that's there.
Feeling how each breath connects inside with outside.
In the stillness beneath the breath,
There is no you,
No world,
Only the alive presence that with each tiny vibration loves life into being.
With each relaxed out-breath,
Letting your awareness mix with space,
Letting your mind mix with space.
And whenever anything distracts you from your breath,
Simply say to yourself,
Thinking,
As though gently popping a bubble with a feather and then returning to the breath.
Thoughts are not a problem.
Your heart beats,
Your lungs breathe,
Your brain thinks,
It's natural.
Here you're simply deciding not to engage the thoughts.
No need to grasp onto them,
No need to push them away.
Just letting them drift like clouds across the great expanse of your mind.
Noticing how the clouds pass but the sky is always present,
Silent,
Immense,
Never disturbed.
Gently bringing yourself back to the breath.
Each one its own living thing,
Each breath alive.
Noticing how it takes no effort to breathe,
Letting the breath breathe you.
You are being breathed by life.
Just letting yourself enjoy that sensation of being breathed by life.
Feeling the deep intelligence of the body.
How your body knows how to breathe.
How it mirrors the natural rhythms of the planet,
Her tides,
Her rotation,
Her orbit.
The ever stable movement of night into day,
Season to season,
And the flawless phases of her moon,
Stable and reliable and perfect.
Feeling how the stillness at the bottom of the breath gives rise to all of this,
To all movement,
To all life.
How that quiet,
Alive presence permeates everything and resting,
Resting in that space as long as you need to,
Drinking deeply from it,
Drawing nourishment from it,
From this very essence of who you are.
We invite this deep awareness into our meditation so that we can invite such deep awareness into our daily life,
Into every interaction,
Every decision.
So drinking from this space,
Knowing that any time,
Even in the most challenging moments of your day,
Tonight or tomorrow or this week,
You can always access this still place.
This quiet awareness at the depth of your being,
Always available in every breath.
Trust yourself,
My friend.
May all beings be safe and protected and free from inner and outer harm.
May they be happy and contented.
May they be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May they experience ease of well-being.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be at peace.
May all beings be free.
