So start by closing your eyes very gently.
Adjust your posture so that your back is fairly straight,
So that you're breathing easily and your circulation is unimpeded.
Put your hands gently in your lap with your right hand over your left hand and the index finger of your right hand touching against the thumb of your left hand.
You can be sitting in a half lotus position or you could be sitting on a straight back chair.
As long as you're not going to fall asleep halfway through then the meditation should go successfully for you.
And follow the breath deep inside the body while scanning down through the whole of yourself,
Relaxing each and every muscle as you go,
The muscles of your forehead.
Letting your eyes gently close rather than closing your eyes.
Letting the muscles of your face become soft,
Relaxing your jaw especially,
Being careful not to clench your teeth together.
Then relaxing your neck and shoulders,
Letting your shoulders drop to their natural height.
Relaxing your arms,
Forearms,
Hands and fingers so that the way your hands rest in your lap is as light and gentle as possible.
And continuing on down,
Relaxing the whole of your torso,
Chest,
Trunk and your abdomen,
Both legs all the way down to your feet and your toes.
Until no part of your body remains with any sort of stress or tension anymore.
The same way you can relax your state of mind,
Putting aside any worries or concerns in your life as if you are alone in the world.
A person with no past and no future,
Really focused in the present moment and on the task in hand.
Conjuring up a sense of well-being within yourself as if well-being were made up of tiny particles inside yourself,
Particles of happiness and joy that grow and spread to fill 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.
Imagine the whole of your body to be nothing but a hollow cavity or an empty shell.
Perhaps you might prefer to think of your whole body as being like a transparent bubble with nothing on the inside.
And in the middle of the body on the level of the diaphragm is where the in-breath will go to the deepest point inside.
The center of the body that we are particularly interested in is the breath's turning point where the breath pauses for a moment between the in-breath and the out-breath.
You could call this point the source of peace within.
Allow the consciousness or the feeling inside to befriend and become familiar with the center of the body inside as our awareness remains internalized with the centering mind.
All you need to do is gently maintain that inner image that you've conjured up or inner feeling at that chosen point at the center of yourself.
This is the way by which the mind finds its equilibrium and rests gently at the center of the body.
Since this point is the essence of peace and some believe the essence of life itself,
Something that is always bright.
Our subjective feeling can detect the brightness on the inside.
The feeling is just how we feel and what we feel without any questions about why.
But the feeling tells us that we are inside and all within is bright for as long as we maintain the mind softly centered in the process of our meditation.
Every time the mind is at the center of the body it has the possibility of reconnecting with the inner spark.
So maintain your attention gently inside the body and allow the mind to return to its original pure state.
Amid the brightness allow the mind to expand.
Let the area,
The volume of brightness expand and enlarge to an endless horizon.
Allow brightness to enlarge without limits radiating forever outwards.
Amid the feeling of contentment in the surrounding inner brightness a point at the very center of the body is the brightest of all.
The tiniest point in the middle of the brightness is like detecting diamond brightness sparkling in the middle of the full moon brightness.
All around the brightness of the moon envelops us but we touch our attention gently at the most precious and diamond bright place in the middle of the full moon brightness.
Observing the brightness of the diamond in the enveloping moonlight allow the mind to delight in the diamond brightness.
Same brightness as that that is found at the center of the lotus in the Tibetan Om Mani Padme Hum chanting.
Allow the mind to rest gently within the body.
Allow the mind to be surrounded by the feeling of brightness all around.
This physical body of ours will deteriorate and become more decrepit over time.
But the light of serenity inside keeps us forever young.
The physical body can grow old but the internal being remains ageless always bright and shining over time.
So we gradually become one and the same as the feeling of brightness within the body.
We can beautify the inner being by meditation to magnify and multiply the inner light of serenity so that inner agelessness is in our own hands.
We can make our life brighter and brighter by meditation and we could make the world brighter as well by sharing the inner light by radiating the brightness from the inside out while reminding yourself that your time of meditation should be the best time of your day.
So now we continue to maintain the mind at the center by observing the inner bright diamond sparkle in the middle of the moonlight brightness for a few more moments in silence.
You you you you you we continue to maintain our awareness at the center of the body the whole of the time delighting in the diamond bright sparkling at the center of the enveloping moonlight and share this kind of brightness with all around us.
We share by radiating the brightness outwards initially to fill the whole of ourselves wishing ourselves to be well and happy free from suffering with the full force of forgiveness for ourselves and then we share this brightness with all around us.
We share by radiating the brightness outwards into the environment around us.
As meditators we are like sentinels of all that is bright and wholesome on this earth.
If a single meditator can bring brightness and wholesomeness to our planet imagine how bright and beautiful the world could become if everyone in the world reconnected with the inner light.
So delight in expanding the brightness outwards initially to the whole room where you are sitting for meditation and wider outwards to the whole building the whole neighborhood almost like an aura or a halo that you are extending around you outwards to the whole city wherever you may be whole state neighboring states the whole country all the continents of the world until our brightness extends across the whole of this planet with a sense of compassion and forgiveness for all no matter who or what they may be until the area of brightness feels infinite it grows and expands wider and brighter throughout the world with a wish that everyone on earth could one day reconnect with their inner light while remaining mindful of the precious nature of the opportunity all of you have taken in giving yourself the chance to gain inner light for your own benefit so we continue gently to maintain the mind at the center by observing the bright diamond sparkle in the middle of the moonlight brightness for a few more moments in silence
