So we start by closing our eyes very gently,
Closing our eyes in the same way we'd close them to go to sleep,
Squeezing our eyes closed but just letting our upper and lower eyelashes touch gently together and to relax our body we start by taking a few deep breaths to ourselves,
Breathing in to the full extent of our lungs and then breathing slowly and smoothly out again.
Once again we breathe the cool refreshing air from around us and when we breathe out we may feel that we're letting go of any worries or concerns still lingering on our mind.
Meditation is mostly about our mind but to create the conditions that allow us to work effectively with the mind we need to relax our body first of all and the way we do this is by what's known as a body scan which means scanning down through the whole of our body relaxing each and every muscle as we go.
So starting at our forehead we relax any tension in the muscles there and we relax our eyebrows and our eyelids checking once again that the way we've closed our eyes is as gentle as possible we let the muscles of our face become soft,
Relax our jaw,
Relax our jaw taking special care that we have not clenched our teeth together before moving on down to relax our neck and let our shoulders drop to their natural height from there we relax our arms,
Our forearms and then our hands and fingers so that our hands are resting only very gently in our lap and then continuing on down we relax the whole of our torso,
Our chest,
Trunk and the muscles across our tummy before moving on down to relax our legs all the way to our feet and our toes until there's no remaining part of our body with any sort of stress or tension anymore.
If we do notice knots of tension remaining anywhere in our body we do our best to relax them as far as possible almost to the point that our whole body seems to disappear or melt away into the atmosphere around us and this will allow us to turn our attention inward to the feeling inside us that sense of warmth and well-being and of inner space something which by any other name we might call our state of mind and even our mind needs a little bit of mood setting to ensure the success of the meditation ahead.
The way to do that is to put aside any worries or concerns still weighing on your mind,
Any regrets from your past or plans for the future to leave nothing but the present moment leaving nothing but the here and now while we bring our awareness back within the space of the body to a safe place,
A safe haven for the mind that some people have described as being like a bunker that protects the mind because for as long as our mind is all located on the inside of us it's somehow shielded against the impacts of the outside world so inside ourselves we conjure up a sense of happiness and joy in the mind and if those feelings don't come automatically to us then you might cast your mind back to a time in your life when you did feel truly happy thinking not so much about the place or the situation but more about the feeling itself that it brought you on the inside that warm fuzzy feeling and you can conjure up the same feeling within yourself now almost as if it were tiny particles of happiness and joy growing and spreading inside yourself until it fills up the whole of your body and mind leaving no space inside yourself for any other sort of thought and when you feel relaxed and refreshed both in body and in mind very gently and using no effort at all you can imagine that inside your body is just an empty space like a hollow cavity with no organs or tissues no muscles or bones or as if your whole body has been transformed into a sort of transparent bubble with nothing on the inside and within this empty space of our body and mind we can call to mind a picture of something like a bright shining sun or alternatively a full moon a star or perhaps a sparkling diamond but this time we are relocating that imaginary picture to bring it within the space of our own body we don't worry too much if the actual picture is not very clear even if it's vague we accept it anyway and we should bear in mind that for about half the people who meditate it's going to be more of a feeling than a picture in which case we can guide that object down within the space of our body by how it feels the warmth or the shape and texture of the object in any case we bring the object slowly downwards within the space of our body almost as if we were slowly breathing the object down to the deepest point of our breath or as if we were gently swallowing the object down within ourselves to reach the very deepest point of our stomach and once it reaches that point or a point that feels comfortable for us down inside ourselves all we have to do is gently maintain the inner object at the center of ourselves as continuously as we can for as long as we can not letting our attention slip away anywhere else if we can help it if we do find our attention wandering away then it's not the end of the world we just bring our attention back again to the inner object and if the inner object disappears then we can just think of a new one as for the possible problem of there being thoughts in the mind the thoughts are at a low level and often we can just ignore those thoughts treat them like unwanted guests to the point that they will eventually die down into silence all by themselves almost like guests that might go away if you starve them of attention they will eventually go away all by themselves even without a confrontation but if you're one of those people who tends to have a lot of thoughts in the mind there may be the case that you need to make use of the traditional mantra hearing the sound of the words samma arahang or your own equivalent not saying the words out loud but hearing them silently coming out from the center of your body as if that were the source of the sound in other words the same place that you see or feel the inner object so we hear the words samma arahang samma arahang samma arahang over and over again lightly gently continuously leading the mind deeper at the center of the body but at the same time freeing the mind of any extraneous thoughts until the mind comes closer and closer to an approximation of silence within in the beginning it may seem that there are a lot of thoughts with very few gaps in between but as time goes on in the meditation the gaps will become longer until the thoughts are less numerous than the gaps themselves and you'll start to discern a sense of connection between your mind and the center of yourself as some people observe in their meditation if they apply the mind only very gently not trying to force anything not trying to hurry anything along serving with a very light and gentle attention it may be possible for the inner object to start to change and transform on its own in which case you just follow the inner experience follow the way it evolves without interfering without changing it back to what it was before always focusing at the center of whatever you see or feel within yourself and the byproduct of that inner transformation will be a mind that gradually becomes karma that will gradually shed any negativity giving rise to a sense of inner knowledge a sense of mastery a sense of clarity from within which seems to cleanse us from the inside and these changes for the good will stay with us long after the meditation itself so for now we focus gently at the center of ourselves focusing with the same lightness of a feather floating down to touch on the surface of some water with the same care that we might use to thread a needle in other words no hurry no hurry no force just a sense of lightness that will be rewarded with an increasing sense of joy from within we continue in this way just for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time so don't forget if your mind wanders off onto other things each time you realize simply bring your attention back again to the center of the body as before whether it's a hundred times or a thousand times your mind wanders off just keep on bringing it back each time and you'll start to notice that from spending more time spending more time wandering and it spends in place little by little your mind will start to become settled more than it wanders and the feeling will build up of being connected with the center of your body if the inner object disappears you can think of a new one if it changes just follow it in its new form always at the center of whatever you see or feel and with meditation practice makes perfect it's always something that we need to work at just as we might work at a new language or a new sporting skill the things that we do regularly become things that we become adept at for some things like physical exercise two or three times a week will be enough to keep you fit but for meditation a little each day is mostly what we would consider ideal as a way to move forward in our meditation practice we practice a little each day before long we'll start to see some improvement in the ease with which we can meditate we find that we're able to go further in the same length of time or achieve a greater sense of peace there'll be a gradual accumulation of peacefulness within ourselves especially toward the end of the practice there'll be a sense of well-being that builds up inside ourselves a sense of calm that seems to be fostered within the mind and it'll be a sense of calm that stays with us even as we get up from our meditation to do other things we'll still feel calm from our meditation as if it's something that we carry around with us when we're new to meditation sometimes the sense of calm will wear off after a while especially when we come across things in our lives that are irritating or annoying to us as we become more adept in meditation the sense of calm will become more robust more resilient and it will stay with us in spite of the challenges we encounter in life until eventually there'll be a seamless connection both inside and outside of our meditation practice when we've got our eyes closed sitting on our meditation mat then that would be called meditation proper when we've got our eyes open doing other things maintaining that sense of calm is known as mindfulness meditation and mindfulness hand in hand can help us maintain a sense of well-being throughout our day which is really what we're aiming for so for now we continue to keep our mind on track at the center of ourselves lightly and gently using only the very lightest of touch to keep the mind in place each to our own practice just for a few more moments in silence until we come to the appropriate time
