So we start by settling ourselves down into a comfortable position for meditation.
Closing our eyes as gently as possible.
Slowing ourselves down by breathing deeply and taking a few moments to check down through the whole of our body.
To relax each and every muscle as we go.
All the way from the top of our head,
Right the way down to the tips of our toes.
Relaxing all the tension of the muscles in between.
The ideal posture for our meditation is a position of poise,
Where the whole of our body is fairly upright.
While being comfortable,
Almost as if there were a thread running from the top of our head,
All the way down through our back.
Almost as if we were suspended by that thread,
With our body leaning slightly forwards and upwards,
Extending the back,
Allowing us to breathe easily and also making it easier to find the centre of our body.
Inside our mind we reconnect with the best of our meditation,
Not with particular experiences that we've had,
But with what we can remember of the feeling that accompanied that.
A sense of joy or wellbeing that accompanied the best of our meditation,
By conjuring up the same feeling all over again.
Somehow it helps us to return to that same place in our meditation again,
With a sense of lightness,
A sense of the whole of our body being filled with happiness and joy.
And imagine that inside our body is just an empty space,
A hollow cavity without any organs or tissues,
Muscles or bones.
Or alternatively,
As if our whole body is like a bubble,
With nothing on the inside,
And completely transparent skin.
Or maybe as if the body has disappeared completely,
And is like inhabiting a space of our own creation.
Whatever our experience of the inner space,
We allow the focus of our attention to make its way gradually down to the centre of our body.
Not just the place where we are looking with our mind's eye,
But actually as if our mind's eye has moved downwards to that central point.
As if our head had completely disappeared,
And all our faculties,
Whether it be perception,
Memory,
Thought and cognition,
Have come together in a single place at the centre of ourselves.
So we are actually located down in our centre,
In the same place as our meditation object,
Rather than looking down on it from some place above,
Equivalent to where we'd expect our head to be.
For some of you already acquainted with the observation technique,
It's simply a question of seeing what's already there,
And following that without interfering.
Simply being attentive at the centre.
For those amongst you who are better versed in visualising some sort of meditational object,
It may be a visual object like that of the shining sun,
Or it may be a tactile object such as an imaginary invisible fruit,
Felt at the centre,
The point of the turning of the breath on the same level as the diaphragm.
Whatever our approach to keeping the mind on track at the centre,
We try to do so continuously,
With a feather-light touch,
An unbroken and exceedingly gentle attention.
Bringing our attention back,
If it pivots away to any other distractions around us,
Or following it if there is some sort of transformation in the mind.
If the thoughts are few and far between,
We do our best to ignore them.
Certainly not letting a first thought proliferate into a second or a third.
Only as a last resort using the mantra,
If the thoughts are really too many to deal with.
So we cultivate our attention in this way,
Lightly and gently,
Each to our own practice now,
For a few more moments in silence.
Thank you.
.
.
.
So we continue to keep our mind on track at the centre of the body,
The whole of the time,
Lightly,
Gently and continuously,
Always at the centre of whatever inner experience we have built up for ourselves,
As a result of our meditation so far this session.
For some people the inner experience will amount to a sense of brightness at the centre of oneself.
For others it may be more of a feeling,
Something like a sense of wellbeing,
Again centred at the seventh base.
For others still it may be images large or small,
Centred around the middle of our body,
Sometimes small like objects,
Sometimes much larger like whole vistas or panoramas,
Where we are actually smaller than the images we see.
But whatever inner experience we have,
We touch our mind gently at our centre,
So gently,
That it's almost as if we are hardly touching at all,
Touching with the lightness of a warm fingertip,
Touching the surface of some new fallen snow,
Touching the snow so gently that there'll be a melting away at the point of contact,
Where solid becomes liquid and liquid becomes vapour,
Spreading outwards,
Rarifying outwards and spreading like the ripples on the surface of a pond,
Ever wider from the point of contact.
In this way we extend our inner experience initially to the whole of ourselves,
Filling ourselves with the light or that sense of wellbeing,
Or expanding the inner picture to fill the whole of our body,
By a process known as the spreading of loving-kindness.
And we make the affirmation at the centre of ourselves,
That may I be well and happy,
Free from all suffering.
And then we extend the same loving-kindness beyond the boundaries of our own being,
Outwards into the room around us,
Extending outwards in all directions around us,
Like a halo or an aura,
To encapsulate all the sentient beings around us in the room,
Where we're sitting for meditation.
And we start to return some of the benefits of meditation to the world around us,
By making the affirmation at the centre of ourselves,
That all the living beings here in this room be well and happy,
Free from suffering,
And live together in peace and harmony.
Further outwards to the whole building,
Wider to the whole neighbourhood,
Outwards to the whole municipality and the city limits.
Almost as if we are extending our loving-kindness across a map,
Seen in bird's eye view,
In ever widening circles around us,
Taking in all the sentient beings therein,
With the wish that,
May all these beings be well and happy,
Live in peace and harmony.
Especially at this time when so many people feel isolated or pinned down by negativity,
We extend our loving-kindness as a torrent of peace,
A cold height,
Extending outwards,
To bring happiness where there is suffering,
And increasing the happiness where happiness is scarce.
Even wider to the whole state of California,
Two neighbouring states,
To all the lower 48 states,
Wider still to the whole of North America,
With the wish that all living beings here on this continent be well and happy,
Free from suffering,
Live together in peace and harmony.
And wider still to all the continents of the world,
As if we were extending loving-kindness across the entire face of this planet,
With the affirmation at the centre of ourselves,
That may all living beings,
Whether on the land,
In the air,
Or in the sea,
Be touched by our loving-kindness,
That these living beings be well and happy,
Free from suffering,
Live together in peace and harmony,
That world peace become a reality within our own lifetimes.
And we can spread loving-kindness in all the six great directions,
Almost as if we were extending a beam of loving-kindness outwards into the universe around us,
To the front and to the back,
Without limits,
To the right and to the left,
Without boundaries,
Above and below,
Without end,
Extending loving-kindness to all living beings here in the universe,
So that no living being,
Without exception,
Is left untouched by our loving-kindness,
Again with the same wish for all living beings to be well and happy,
Free from suffering,
Live together in peace and harmony.
And for the last few moments of our practice,
We can extend the loving-kindness toward particular loved ones we may be thinking about,
By holding them close within the brightness,
Or our sense of well-being at the centre of ourselves,
Thinking of their name or their face,
Sending loving-kindness to them in particular,
Especially if we are separated by huge distances,
Extending loving-kindness to those for whom we feel a particular debt of gratitude,
Toward those still living,
Or even those who have already passed,
Trusting that the purity of our loving-kindness can extend across the huge gulfs of space and time,
To reach those loved ones wherever they are to be found.
We extend our loving-kindness in this way for the last few moments of our practice together.
