Samatha meditation is the foundation of Buddhist practice.
Samatha means peaceful abiding or tranquility.
So wherever you are,
Start by feeling your connection to the earth,
To whatever you are sitting on,
Feeling grounded,
Letting your posture be upright but also relaxed.
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 attuned.
Your body here is your personal piece of earth,
Your connection to the earth herself.
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 or you might try opening your eyes after a few minutes of settling.
Beginning with your eyes slightly open can help bring a meditative quality into the rest of your day.
If you choose to open your eyes,
Keep your gaze down about 6 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.
And 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 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.
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.
Breathe out and dissolve.
With each relaxed exhalation,
You are letting go a little more,
Holding onto nothing,
Opening and dissolving.
And 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,
The stillness that is the backdrop of all things,
That is the silence between your heartbeats,
The silence between your thoughts,
The stillness between two waves of the sea.
Letting yourself fall into that stillness,
Into the alive presence that's there.
Seeing 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,
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.
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,
Drinking deeply from it,
Drawing nourishment from it,
From this very essence of who you are,
Always available in every breath.
May all beings be happy,
May all beings be at peace,
May all beings be free.
