So I'd like to start by inviting everyone to find a comfortable position for yourself in meditation with your right leg over your left leg,
Your right hand on your left hand,
Or if you're sitting on a chair sitting fairly upright and whoever you're sitting the way to put your hands together is with the index finger of your right hand touching against the thumb of your left hand and your hands turn palm upwards in your lap.
But in practice you can adopt any other looser variation of this position which helps you to feel more comfortable when you're meditating.
Pretty much anything except lying flat on the floor.
The important thing is to feel that you are alert while at the same time feeling relaxed and your body position should be comfortable enough that your breathing and your circulation are unimpeded and to minimize any possible aches or pains,
Anything that might disturb the continuity of your attention.
And to start with we relax every muscle of our body,
Relax every muscle starting with the muscles of our forehead,
Our eyebrows and our eyelids,
Taking special care to make sure that our eyes are only very gently closed and careful there's no pressure around our eyes.
We never squeeze our eyes closed when meditating but close our eyes only very gently.
In the same way we might close our eyes to go to sleep.
From there we relax the muscles of our face,
Our neck,
Both of our shoulders,
Both arms,
Hands and fingers,
All the way down to the tips of our fingers,
Relaxing them all completely before moving on to relax the muscles of our chest,
Our trunk and our abdomen,
Both of our legs,
All the way down to the tips of our toes,
So that eventually all the way from the top of our head right the way down to the tips of our toes there's no remaining part of our body with any sort of stress or tension anymore.
If you do notice any stress or tension still remaining in your body then try to relax it as far as you can because the body that is completely relaxed will have the feeling as if it seems to melt away into the atmosphere around you,
Leaving us with no more worries about our body anymore and allowing us to turn our attention instead to relaxing our state of mind.
The way we relax the mind in preparation for meditation is by letting go temporarily all the thoughts about the things in our lives,
Putting aside any worries or concerns,
Either it be about work,
Friends,
Family,
Study or any other thing,
And instead we keep our mind on the task in hand,
On working with the mind while at the same time filling our mind with a sense of happiness and joy as if our whole mind were filled with tiny particles of that happiness and joy,
Filling the mind so completely that there's no room left in the mind for any other sort of thought.
We make our mind spacious,
Light in weight,
Radiant and refreshed because all these qualities are qualities of a mind which will slip easily into a sense of harmony and unity.
As we embark on the meditation ahead and when we feel relaxed both in body and in mind,
Very gently and using no effort at all,
We can cast our mind back to that imaginary picture picture mentioned a few moments ago,
Some sort of bright object in the mind,
Perhaps something like a shining sun,
A full moon,
A twinkling star or perhaps a sparkling diamond,
Whatever you find the easiest to imagine and bear in mind that it may be more of a feeling than a picture,
Almost as if you sense the presence of the object by how it feels,
By its weight and texture,
Its shape and position,
So either a visual object or an object that we detect by how it feels.
We imagine the object is floating a short distance in front of our face,
Not worrying too much if the actual object is not very realistic because that will develop over time.
We imagine it effortlessly while reducing the object down in size until it's only two or three millimeters in diameter and floating in front of our nose,
In front of the left nostril for ladies,
In front of the right nostril for gentlemen,
At a point known as the first base of the mind and having reached this point the object stops still and we make the object as realistic as we can while hearing the sound of that traditional mantra passing through the mind with words such as samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Which are the Indic words for a bright object imagined in the proper way,
But in fact you can swap in any other mantra or affirmation which you feel happier with just as a mechanism to help clear the mind of thoughts.
And from there we move the bright object slowly upwards within the space of our nose,
Inside the left nostril for ladies,
Inside the right nostril for gentlemen,
Moving slowly upwards until it reaches a point inside the nose,
Just next to the corner of the eye.
Here once again it stops still and we make our object as realistic as we can while hearing the sound of the mantra passing through the mind with the words samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
And from there the object moves slowly backwards on eye level into the center of our head until it comes to a place on our midline right between our two ears,
A place known as the third base of the mind.
Here once again the object stops still and we make the object as realistic as we can while at the same time hearing the sound of the mantra passing through the mind with the words samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
And bear in mind that if you lose touch with the object at any point in this sequence you can just come back to where you last saw it,
There's no need for you to start all over again.
And from the center of our head the inner object continues on its journey now downwards,
Moving downwards on our midline until it comes to a point at the roof of our mouth or at our palate,
A point known as the fourth base of the mind.
And here once again the object stops still and we make the object as realistic as we can while at the same time hearing the sound of the mantra passing through the mind with the words samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
And from the roof of our mouth the object now continues on its journey downwards,
Moving downwards within the space of our throat until it comes to a point just above our Adam's apple,
A point known as the fifth base of the mind.
Here once again the object stops still and we make the object as realistic as we can while at the same time hearing the sound of the mantra passing through the mind with the words samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
And from the center of our throat the object now continues on its journey downwards journey downwards into the space of our body.
At this point we might imagine that within ourselves is just a hollow shell,
No organs or tissues,
No muscles or bones,
And our bright object is moving downwards on our midline,
Down through our chest,
Moving downwards through our torso,
And eventually moving into the space of our abdomen and on the level of our tummy button.
If we were to imagine two thin lines,
One running from our navel horizontally through our back,
And a second line running from the right side to the left side,
The point of intersection of these two imaginary lines is known as the sixth base of the mind.
Our inner object moves downwards until it aligns with the intersection of the two lines,
And once again it stops still as we make the object as realistic as we can while hearing the sound of the mantra passing through the mind with the words samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
And from that point at the level of our navel the object now moves upwards the distance of just two finger breaths,
They're moving upwards this time from point number six.
We come to the final point in the sequence which is known as the seventh base of the mind,
And having reached this point then we don't need to move our imaginary object anywhere else.
We maintain our inner object at this point within ourselves which also happens to be the center of our diaphragm,
Also happens to be our solar plexus,
Also happens to be the point where the breath turns around between the in-breath and the out-breath.
So we maintain our inner object at this point now as continuously as we can for as long as we can at a point that is the true center of gravity of the body.
All the while we hear the sound of the mantra samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
Samma arahang,
As if the source of the sound is the same place down at the seventh base of the mind,
While always keeping our inner object as realistic as we can at the center of ourselves.
If we find our attention wandering away onto other things each time we just bring it back again to the seventh base of the mind as before.
If the inner object disappears we can conjure up a new one,
But if it changes we just follow it in its new form lightly and gently.
And as we continue with this exercise what we'll find is that the inner object will become gradually clearer to us.
Also the feelings in the mind will become gradually clearer,
At the same time the number of thoughts in the mind will become gradually less,
Less and less and less until our inner object comes to what's known as a standstill at the center of ourselves.
In the beginning we may find that the mind has a tendency to wander,
Sometimes wandering to the sounds around us,
To the thoughts in our head,
Or to the sensations in our body.
Especially if we're new to meditation we shouldn't feel disappointed by this,
But as soon as we realize we just bring our mind back again to the inner object within us and the sound of the mantra until eventually our awareness will build up a sense of familiarity with this point at the center of ourselves and the mind will start to stay at the center of the body more or less by second nature.
For now we cultivate the mind on track at the center of ourselves by means of our inner object and also by hearing the sound of the mantra in our mind over and over again for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time.
We continue to keep our mind on track at the center of ourselves with a light and gentle attention as continuously as we can for as long as we can.
Each time the mind wanders as it inevitably will we simply bring it back again until the mind starts to feel more at home at the center of ourselves.
At the same time in tandem with the visualization at the center of ourselves we continue with the sound of the mantra coming up from the same place within ourselves over and over again with the words Sambha Araham,
Sambha Araham,
Sambha Araham over and over again until at a certain point in our meditation we may find that the sound of the mantra will die away of its own accord and if there are no more thoughts popping up in the mind anymore we'll be left with nothing but a pure,
Clear,
Shining mind at the center of the body.
If there are no more thoughts at this point to irritate the mind then there's no need for us to restart with the mantra anymore.
We simply cultivate the mind in stillness at the center of the body and as that mind enters upon a sense of stillness then the feelings of happiness and purity and brightness will start to arise by themselves as an automatic by-product of the process.
So for now we cultivate our mind in silence lightly and gently for a few more moments maintaining our mind at a standstill at the center of ourselves.
Each to our own meditation for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time.
