MA 33L Homecoming For The Mind (Live)

Meditation from the Thai Theravada tradition following a modernized interpretation of Boran Kammatthana. This live-recorded track explains how checking in at the center of our body is the equivalent to bringing the mind home to its natural point of equilibrium within.

Transcript

So we'd like to start by adjusting yourself into a comfortable sitting position,

Whether you're sitting on a chair or on the floor,

Just set aside a little bit of time to make sure your body is adjusted to be as comfortable as possible,

Try to keep your back fairly straight,

But adjust your posture so that you're in a position by which you feel you could sit for a long long time without needing to move around too much,

So whatever posture you choose,

Put your right hand over your left hand with the index finger of the right hand touching gently against the thumb of the left hand,

With your hands resting palm upwards in your lap,

We join our hands together in this way because if the index finger slips away from the thumb it will give us advance warning of napping on the job,

And we breathe deeply to ourselves,

We allow ourselves to feel the breath softly making its way through our nostrils,

Through our airways,

To the space within our belly,

Breathing deeply to ourselves we feel the air filling our lungs slowly,

Expanding our chest,

Leveling our shoulders,

From there we exhale slowly and gently,

And as we breathe out we may feel that our entire body is becoming settled,

Relaxed and content,

And we might regard meditation as the opportunity for our mind to make its way back to its true home,

To the place where it belongs,

The source of our own inner peace,

So we start by closing our eyes very gently,

In the same way we close our eyes to go to sleep,

The way we close our eyes should be in such a way that we don't close our eyes too tightly,

With no pressure on our eyelids,

Never squeezing our eyes shut,

In effect we allow our eyelids just to droop,

And this is the very first step on the journey of home coming from the mind,

From there we bring our attention back to become aware of the sensations within our body,

Simply by observing our sitting posture,

Taking a little bit of time to adjust it to perfection,

Just in case any part of us is feeling blocked,

Tense or tight,

And we continue to adjust our body until our circulation is unimpeded from top to toe,

And once we find ourselves relaxed in our sitting posture,

We can relax further by releasing tension in every single muscle of our body,

And to this end we scan down through our body,

Starting at the top of our head,

As we bring our attention back to relax it there,

Move our attention down to relax our forehead,

Down to our eyes,

Nose,

Through both of our cheeks,

All the way down to our chin,

Feeling that the muscles of our entire face have become relaxed,

We allow that tide of relaxation to move down through the back of our head,

Into our neck,

We allow the relaxation to spread down through both shoulders,

Along both arms,

To our hands,

Until we can feel any tension dissipated from our fingertips,

We continue on down by turning our attention to relax our chest,

We allow the stream of relaxation to move down through our abdomen,

Through our legs,

All the way down to the tips of our toes,

Until we feel satisfied that our entire body feels as relaxed as it can be,

With every muscle loosened up completely,

And feeling at ease,

And we'll be able to tell when our body is truly comfortable,

Because it will feel spacious on the inside,

It will feel as if the boundaries of our body have gradually disappeared,

And everything seems to become alive,

Spacious and refreshed,

And in the same way that our body needs to become relaxed for meditation,

We also need to free the mind of any worries,

Frustration,

Irritation,

Or any of the problems that we might be keeping suppressed,

By shedding them all,

Unburdening our mind,

And letting them go,

Whatever negativity may still be lurking in our mind,

We let ourselves become free of it completely,

Because the real origin of freedom in the mind is unburdening ourself as far as possible of any residual negativity,

It's almost like spring cleaning our mind one step at a time,

And as the negativity disappears little by little,

There will increasingly be a space within the mind for peace,

Purity,

Happiness and wisdom to arise,

So for the moment we let ourselves become as free as possible from any potential disturbance,

Letting it go completely,

As a second step in the mind's homecoming on its journey toward inner peace,

And we might conjure up in the mind a feeling that we are filling up every single cell of our body,

With a feeling of joy,

Serenity and happiness,

Until that feeling seems to pervade every last cell of our body,

At the same time we empty our mind of all thoughts,

Engaging instead with our feelings,

Our sensations and our awareness,

And we gently gather together all our awareness,

Sensation or consciousness,

In an area somewhere around the centre of our abdomen,

Allowing our attention to engage with that sense of comfort,

And if we ever lose touch with that sense of comfort,

We can gently make an adjustment at any time to return ourselves to the best state of relaxation that we can manage,

Again regarding this as the homecoming for the mind,

And you might imagine that you are sitting alone,

High on a mountain,

With an uninterrupted view to the horizon,

Although you are sitting alone but you don't feel lonely,

Alone but content,

Top of a mountain,

Free from any interference,

Completely carefree,

Perhaps with a slight breeze blowing right through your body,

To the extent that your body feels light in weight,

Almost as if it's floating weightlessly,

Melting away into the atmosphere around you,

Until the sense of relaxation from the inside seems to be continuous with the carefree surroundings that extend away,

All the way to the horizon,

And you can allow yourself to be in the very middle of that space,

A space in which there's no disturbance,

No intrusion,

Just our private haven of peace,

Where we can be entirely ourselves,

And in essence this is a space in which we can continue to free our mind of any residual negativity,

Feeling that we're becoming one with nature around us,

And the more we can let go,

The lighter and more spacious our own mind will be,

Until we can feel the center of that space within ourselves as the true home of the mind,

So we bring the mind back home by gathering our attention and letting it gently rest in our center space within the body,

The center space for the moment is any place inside us that feels tender and comfortable,

And we can place the attention there as gently as we can,

Once our mind finds its way to where it needs to be,

There will be an automatic arising of joyfulness and contentment in the mind that doesn't require anything more,

Our internal sensations will be ones of satisfaction and feeling replete,

And all we need to do is maintain our awareness of that comfort as a sense of inner peace,

Which gradually emanates from within,

And enfolds our own mind,

Embraces our consciousness with a light and gentle feeling,

That this is where the mind truly belongs,

That this is where true peace and purity can arise,

And our job as a meditator is simply to maintain our mind,

Our awareness at this point,

Allowing our true nature to become full of peace and positivity,

The feeling it gives us will be one of being unblemished and pristine,

Clarity and purity,

And all we need to do is maintain our awareness within this center space for a few moments longer,

Letting it merge with that inner space,

If you feel that you need some sort of anchor for the mind,

You might like to slowly visualize some sort of bright inner image,

Perhaps something as light as a bubble within yourself,

A bubble that is crystal clear,

Floating free and weightlessly at the center of yourself,

And you might imagine that a similar bubble settles at the center of your body,

Delicate and fragile,

And all we need to do is maintain that picture of the bubble inside ourselves with the gentlest possible attention,

You might imagine the bubble remains motionless or shimmering at the center of our abdomen,

Soft,

Delicate and gentle,

We may discover that that bubble has its own illumination from the inside,

Or that it becomes gradually brighter,

Perhaps even as bright as the sun in the morning or at midday,

But with a white light,

A brightness that is cool and soothing,

Perhaps more similar to the light of the full moon at night,

And it's a brightness that comes with a sense of peace and a feeling of ease,

With a sense of illumination from the inside,

From the center of ourselves,

And all we need to do is maintain our awareness,

The feeling and sensation at the center of that inner bubble,

Just lightly touching that feeling within the bubble with our awareness,

While keeping our mind calm,

Still and relaxed,

Keeping the mind focused in stillness,

Softly and gently,

It's not unusual for the mind to wander or get tangled up in thought,

But if this should happen to you,

If you start to have wandering thoughts,

Don't try to stop yourself from thinking,

Just slowly guide your feeling or the focus of your awareness back to the bubble again,

Always softly and gently,

Bringing the attention back to the center,

For however many times it takes for the mind to start to stay centered almost by second nature,

At this point in our meditation all the thoughts and distractions will seem further away,

As if in the distance,

And all we have to do is simply observe the true nature of peace and tranquility,

The sense of depthening of the mind that is awareness,

So still,

So soft,

So gentle,

And at this point all we need to do is observe,

No matter what we may feel,

See or experience in our meditation,

Because each experience will lead us in the direction of that inner peace,

Just observing whatever feeling or whatever visuals we may see with a still mind,

We continue in this way lightly and gently observing at the center of our body for a few more moments in silence until we come to the appropriate time.

We continue to keep our mind on track at the center of the body the whole time,

Always feeling the connection with our sense of inner peace,

To the point that we can start to understand what peace really is,

Start to have a feeling of confidence in the capacity of human nature to put itself in touch with that inner sense of peace,

In a way that we feel the sense of shared humanity with everyone else throughout the world,

So we continue to check in with ourselves,

Continue to check in with a sense of peace and harmony and serenity within ourselves in a way that strengthens our determination to look for that sense of common humanity in our work,

In our lives,

In our relationships,

To bring out a sense of integrity and virtue in every place,

But for now we just keep our mind in stillness at the center of ourselves softly,

Gently and continuously,

Keeping our mind on track inwardly in silence as we continue our homecoming journey for the mind towards inner peace for the last few moments of our meditation in silence.

Thank you.

Reviews

Truly lovely practice. Sometimes I just need a little guided meditation and this one really centered me for some reason. So grateful to find such a wonderful teacher. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🖖🕉