So if you'd like to start by finding a comfortable position for yourself in meditation,
A position of poise by which you feel you could sit for a long,
Long time without having to move around too much.
Your hands rest palm upwards on your lap so that you have a fairly upright posture.
And you can close your eyes very gently,
In much the same way you might close your eyes to go to sleep.
So to relax and to slow down,
We start by taking a few deep breaths to ourselves,
Breathing in to the full extent of our lungs,
Before breathing slowly and smoothly out again.
Once again we breathe in the cool,
Refreshing air from around us.
And as we breathe out,
We may feel that we're letting go of any previous worries or concerns at the same time.
From there we take a few moments to make sure that all the muscles of our body are properly relaxed,
A process otherwise known as a body scan.
Starting at the top of our head and working our way gradually down through our body,
Relaxing each and every muscle as we go.
So we start by relaxing our eyebrows and our eyelids.
Once again making sure the way we've closed our eyes is as gentle as possible.
Just in much the same way we might close our eyes to go to sleep.
As for the muscles of our face,
We allow them to become soft,
Perhaps smiling slightly to ourselves but taking care that our jaw is relaxed and that we're not clenching our teeth together.
Before moving on down to relax the muscles of our neck.
If our shoulders are tense,
We allow them to drop to their natural height.
Before relaxing our arms,
Forearms,
Our hands and fingers.
So that as our hands rest in our lap,
They seem to do so only very lightly.
Continuing on down,
We relax all the muscles of our torso,
Our chest,
Trunk and the muscles across our belly.
Before relaxing both of our legs,
All the way down to our feet and our toes.
Until 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 we do notice any tension remaining,
Then we do our best to relax it as far as possible.
To leave us with a sensation that the whole of our body seems to have melted away into the atmosphere around us.
Leaving no sense of discomfort in our body anymore.
So that we can turn our attention inward,
Inwards to the sensation of warmth,
Well-being and spaciousness within the space of our body.
Something which by any other name we might call our state of mind.
Our state of mind is also something that needs to be as relaxed as possible to pave the way for the meditation ahead.
The usual way to relax the mind is by letting go of all the normal things that we tend to worry about in our lives.
No matter whether it's thoughts of work,
Friends,
Family or studies.
We put all of these thoughts on one side for now.
At least for the time that we're meditating together.
If you do have particular things which seem rather important to think about,
Then again you can put them on one side for now.
Making a mental note that you can always come back to worry about them later.
We also let go of any regrets from our past or plans for the future.
And what that leaves us with is the present moment and the task in hand.
Which is a space in our lives that we've created for ourselves only by taking a great deal of trouble.
It's not that often that we get to recharge the batteries of the mind.
It's only by gathering together with our fellow meditators that we can really focus on making sure our mind is properly relaxed.
So we try to make the most of this opportunity,
Bringing our mind back from a thousand different things in the outside world to a single place of stillness on the inside.
Because it's almost as if on the inside there is a sense of peace.
Somewhere at the centre of our being,
Which was probably there all along,
But which up until now we've failed to notice.
But as we bring our attention back from all the distractions in the outside world,
We engage with this inner feeling of peace more and more.
To the point where the whole sense of peace on the inside seems to pervade every last molecule of our being.
To the point where there's no space left in our mind for any other sort of thought.
And when we feel relaxed and refreshed,
Both in body and in mind,
Very gently and using no effort at all,
We can imagine that inside our body is just an empty space or a hollow cavity.
Or if we prefer,
We might think of our whole body as being transformed somehow into a sort of transparent bubble with nothing on the inside.
For those who've been meditating longer,
It may seem as if our body has disappeared entirely,
Leaving just some great empty space.
But a space that we know is our own.
But whatever form this inner space takes,
The space within our body,
Again very gently and without rushing the process at all,
We can remember back to that picture of the bright shining sun which we had a few moments ago.
Maybe yellow or red in color,
Orange or white.
But this time,
Instead of appearing in the sky,
The bright sun appears within the space of our body,
Shining with a cool,
Clear light.
A light which is soft,
Perhaps rather similar to that of the full moon rather than the sun itself.
And in the beginning,
The actual picture may not be very clear to us,
But we accept it anyway.
Even if it's rather vague,
We hold that image in our mind as continuously as we can,
For as long as we can.
While trying to avoid letting the mind spin off into any other distractions.
However,
If we do notice that the mind has become distracted,
Perhaps by external noise,
As soon as we realize,
We simply bring it gently back again to the center of the body as before.
If the inner object disappears,
We can always think of a new one.
And apart from that,
We just maintain the object as continuously as we can,
For as long as we can.
Possibly using our feeling in the case that we seem to feel the image rather than seeing it.
Rather a possible problem that may come up in meditation is an excess of thought.
And for many people,
The stream of thoughts in the mind is almost continuous,
To the extent that it's quite hard to find a single break in the thoughts,
To give ourself that sense of peace and quiet.
In such a case,
To open up a space between the thoughts and the mind,
We might make use of something known as a mantra,
Which is basically a word that we repeat to ourselves silently,
As if we hear the sound of the word coming up from the center of our inner object.
The traditional mantra that goes with this meditation method are the words Samma Arahang,
Samma Arahang,
Samma Arahang.
And we hear the sound of those words coming up as if like a silent music from the center of ourselves,
From the center of the bright object,
Over and over again,
Gently encouraging the mind to become free of thought,
While at the same time linking our awareness more closely with this point at the center of ourselves.
And it's also worth mentioning that we need to be as gentle as possible with the mind,
While we're meditating,
Because any trace of force,
Any temptation to rush,
Needs to be put on one side as something which is not helpful for our meditation progress.
What we need to use in the meditation is a sense of lightness,
A sense of openness,
And allowing things to happen on their own,
Rather than feeling that we have to create experiences in the mind.
So now for a few more moments in silence,
We cultivate our attention at the center of the body,
Keeping it on target with our bright object at our center,
Possibly while also repeating the sound of the mantra to ourselves,
Samma Arahang,
For as long as there are remaining thoughts in the mind.
Now we take a few more moments for us to practice on our own in silence,
Until we come to the appropriate time.
Now again,
If your mind wanders off onto other things,
Each time you realize,
You're not aware,
Simply bring your awareness back again to the center of the body as before.
If the inner object disappears,
You can conjure up a new one,
But if it changes,
You just follow it in its new form,
And your practice may turn into something more of an observation practice rather than a visualization as a result.
If there are still thoughts popping up in the mind,
And the thoughts are few and far between,
Try to take more notice of the spaces between the thoughts,
And allow those thoughts to die down into silence all by themselves.
If the number of thoughts is too many to deal with simply by letting them become more peaceful,
Then we can always make use of that traditional mantra,
Hearing the sound of the words Samma Arahang,
Samma Arahang,
Samma Arahang,
Over and over again in the mind,
Until our thoughts become more manageable.
The important thing about meditation,
Apart from our gentleness with which we apply the mind,
Is a sense of continuity,
A sense of consistency.
We keep our mind on track in this way,
Lightly,
Gently,
And consistently,
For a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time.
Be입 doка.
You you you we continue to keep our mind on track at the center of our body the whole the time lightly gently remaining with whatever inner experience we have built up for ourselves as a result of the meditation so far today and for those who feel able at this point we can start with our practice of loving-kindness where we generate feelings of loving-kindness for ourselves and for all others and in beings in the world in order to put ourselves in a suitable feeling of loving-kindness and compassion it may help to start with the image of a dear friend or a family member who we care deeply about it could even be a pet that you care about and you can imagine that person or living being is right there in front of you and you can connect with the feeling of loving-kindness that you have for them and with the feeling of gratitude that they're in your life and imagine those feelings growing and expanding outward from the center of your body as if you capture that feeling of loving-kindness and allowed it to spread through every single cell in your body from the top of your head all the way down to the tips of your toes radiating outwards from your center and in this way we start by extending loving-kindness towards ourselves first of all with the wish that may I be happy may I be healthy in body and mind may I face my difficulties with good grace and serenity may I take care of myself in happiness and taking note of these feelings of compassion care and kindness we send these feelings towards ourself with a sense of tenderness and openness and as these feelings grow and radiate more and more outward from the center of our body eventually to cover our entire body we can imagine it forming something like a protective bubble nonetheless we imagine sending these feelings further outward still reaching outwards to the people we care about imagining them being uplifted in body mind and spirit as they are touched by our loving-kindness and the care and gratitude that we have for them in this way we continue cultivating and generating the feelings of loving-kindness expanding them to the other living beings sharing the room with us spreading the feeling of loving-kindness outwards from our center so it reaches all those other people and beings further outwards we can extend the loving-kindness to our friends and our family we might send loving-kindness to those in our community even to those who we might not know very well we might even share loving-kindness with others with whom we do not see eye to eye but we make the wish that may all of these people especially those in our meditation community be safe be happy and peaceful may they be healthy in body and mind may they be able to face their difficulties with good grace and serenity and may they experience peacefulness and contentment in life and now we imagine these feelings growing and expanding beyond this room outwards into the neighborhood throughout the entire town where we live and the surrounding suburbs imagining the many different people our fellow townsfolk extending good wishes to them and to every living being whether it be those on the land in the air or in the sea we imagine sending our feelings of loving-kindness across the entire country further to the whole continent eventually to all the continents of the world extending around the entire globe touching people and sentient beings on every continent all those beings with whom we share our planet including animals of all species all living beings and we imagine the feelings of loving-kindness growing and expanding up into the atmosphere and throughout the entire universe for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time you.
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