What Is Meditation? 3 Part Series (Intro & Part 1)

Here I am introducing a 3 part series that will guide you into meditation, and an understanding of what it is for you. Keep in mind - there will be a lot of talking and redundancy throughout this series. This is in an effort to strongly stress the attitude and approach to meditation. These tracks are meant to be listened to once or twice, to ultimately assist you for when you sit in silence by yourself (because silence is when the rubber hits the road). But of course, play the tracks as many times as you would like. I hope you enjoy yourself and that this series guides you well.

Transcript

Here I will be strongly emphasizing a few fundamental points regarding what it is in meditation that we are doing,

What we are not doing,

Common misconceptions,

And the general attitude we engage when approaching meditation and our experience.

Now I want to be clear that this is a sharing of my own experience,

Which has shown to me to be very helpful to people who I have taught,

But is by no means a declaration of what meditation necessarily is,

As there are countless views about that,

Whether in agreement or disagreement with each other spanning centuries of practice.

So if you will,

Take what I say here sincerely,

But also lightly,

And let it inform your own discovery of what meditation is,

In whatever way it naturally does for you.

Over the next three meditations,

The beginnings will start all roughly the same to settle the body and mind,

And then move into the specific theme for that meditation.

Thank you for joining me.

Meditation number one,

Attitude,

Approach,

And attention.

Here we're going to explore and clarify the attitude that we engage,

How we approach the dynamics of our experience,

Both inner and outer,

And the simplicity and role of our attention.

So you can start by settling,

Finding a place where for the next 20 minutes or so you feel that you won't be disturbed,

And that you can stay as still as you can in the body.

So in finding your seat,

You can start by letting the eyes close,

And maintaining somewhat of an intentional posture.

It's not too important,

But it's important enough to keep us alert.

So the eyes are closed,

We've found our seat,

And we'll start by letting the musculature in the face completely relax.

Noticing anywhere where you are holding on to tension in the face and in the head,

In the forehead,

In the eyes,

And now doing the same for the shoulders.

If the shoulders are a bit shrugged,

Completely letting them relax.

So we have relaxed the face,

The shoulders.

Now down into the lower belly in the abdomen,

Letting the abdomen be soft,

And letting the breath come down into the lower belly,

Almost as if the lower belly was receiving the breath.

So again,

Face,

Shoulders,

Belly,

Breath.

And now the legs,

Releasing any unnecessary tension,

And I say unnecessary because to maintain an intentional posture,

We also maintain some amount of tension with that.

But what we're doing here is releasing unnecessary tension,

Tension that we're probably unconsciously holding on to.

So now that the body is settled,

You've found your seat.

Notice the sounds around you,

Whether it's in the room that you're in,

Or if you're outside.

Just offering your attention to the sounds entering your experience.

And you may have noticed already the sound of your mind,

That you're thinking,

And you can't quite stop thinking.

That's totally okay.

It's just like that you cannot stop the sounds around you.

So you don't need to struggle with that,

Even though it may feel confusing or difficult of how not to struggle with that.

So again,

Face,

Shoulders,

Belly,

Breath,

Legs,

Continuously releasing unnecessary tension.

So just like we let our tension drop,

We're also going to let our attention drop.

So feeling your connection with the floor below you,

Or the seat or cushion,

Feeling your own sense of weight,

Feeling gravity pull you into your seat,

Noticing that sense of pressure.

And each time that you've noticed that you've begun thinking about something else,

Just seamlessly,

Without judgment,

Return your attention back to your connection with the floor,

With your seat.

It doesn't matter that your mind is doing what it's doing.

Again,

Face,

Shoulders,

Belly,

Breath,

Legs,

And then letting attention settle down.

Really letting it arrive.

At your direct concrete experience of your simple connection with your seat,

Wherever the body is in contact with the earth.

And even if you're not sitting directly on the earth,

You are connecting to earth's most fundamental force,

Which is gravity.

And by really feeling the body and its weight into your seat,

You really are connecting with the earth.

And so we don't put our attention here to the exclusion of any other part of our experience.

We're not blocking out sounds,

We're not blocking out other bodily experiences,

And we're also not blocking out thoughts.

It's a common conception that we need to suppress our thoughts,

Or try to block them out,

Or try to not think of them.

But it's only natural that we think in the way that we do,

And that we get lost in our thoughts the way that we do.

It's something that in meditation we notice about ourself.

We notice the tendencies and habits of our mind and of our attention.

In fact,

We unavoidably notice it.

So again,

Relaxing the face completely,

The shoulders,

Letting the breath be down in the belly and the legs.

And over and over again,

We are offering our attention back to our connection with our seat.

And not because it's more special than any other part of our experience,

But having a point of focus is an encouragement for your attention,

For your attitude of being awake,

To this moment,

To this experience,

Which,

By the way,

Includes your mind.

It includes all of the thoughts that you enjoy having,

And all of the ones that you don't enjoy having.

But the point is,

Is that we're here with it.

And so this focal point for our awareness,

This continual returning our attention to our seat,

To our connection with the floor,

With the earth,

It's a way of orienting our attention.

And we're not looking for something special in it.

As soon as you start looking for something special,

Looking for a meditative experience,

Looking for the point where you finally feel like you're doing it right,

Or looking for anything other than the simplicity of what it is,

You've stopped participating,

Or encountering your experience as it is.

Whether that feels peaceful,

Restless,

Boring,

Serene,

Or anything in between.

Again,

Face,

Shoulders,

Over and over and over again,

Letting attention settle back down.

Whether you get taken away from it a hundred times or more,

Doesn't matter.

Just know that you are going to be the way that you are.

And in that sense,

There's nothing outside of meditation.

The entirety of your experience,

From the body,

To the sensory experience,

To the stillness that you feel,

To the peace and quiet,

To the random thoughts,

To the superficial,

Is all part of this.

And if we're going to really sincerely participate in meditation,

We have to be willing to always be considering that.

That this is meditation,

In all of us.

In all of the ways it does feel like it,

In all of the ways that it doesn't.

Face,

Shoulders,

Belly,

Breath,

Attention,

Settled.

Just very simply,

Gently opening the eyes,

Noticing the visual field,

Noticing the stillness of what you see.

And that concludes this meditation.

And if you'd like,

You can stay with this for as long as you'd like.

And thank you for joining me.