So we like to start by settling yourself down into a comfortable posture for your meditation If you like to close your eyes very gently and find a comfortable position for yourself with your back and spine in an upright,
Although relaxed posture and you can withdraw your attention from any thoughts by taking a few slow,
Deep breaths to yourself inhaling fully and exhaling slowly allow your body and your breath to settle naturally and you might like to check how you're feeling right now in this present moment taking note of any sensations in your body just creating a space for those sensations to arise while letting them be and each time we meditate to make sure our body is as relaxed as possible we do what's known as a body scan,
Scanning down through the whole of our body while relaxing each and every muscle as we go so we scan down from the very top of our head relaxing the muscles of our scalp allowing that wave of relaxation to scan down through our face relaxing our eyes and our eyelids allowing our jaw to loosen while relaxing our lips imagining the tide of relaxation to flow down through our neck and our shoulders and from there relaxing our upper arms allowing the relaxation to make its way around our elbows down through our forearms,
Around our wrists through the palms of our hands all the way down through our fingers to our fingertips allowing them all to relax completely from there we allow the tide of relaxation to continue on down as we feel our lungs relaxing and contracting relaxing our upper back relaxing our spine and our lower back relaxing our abdomen and our stomach and then allowing that tide of relaxation to move further on down into our upper legs around our knees through our lower legs around our ankles the heels,
The soles of our feet all the way down to the tips of our toes until we're left with the feeling as if the whole of our body has become free of any stress or tension our whole posture being one of comfort allowing us to forget about our body as far as possible so that we can turn our attention to relaxing the mind in order to put ourselves in the mood for the meditation we might imagine that we're sitting in our favorite place in nature around us there is no one and nothing we are sitting in a beautiful place where we feel safe and secure you might imagine that the weather is beautiful that the sky is clear and vast and beautifully blue in color you might imagine feeling the warmth of the sun on our face and our skin or the touch of a gentle breeze brushing softly against our skin leaving us with a sense of ease and contentment allowing us to set aside any thoughts we might be having of the past or the future but rather cherishing the here and now these precious moments that we have set aside for ourselves for our meditation and having created a sense of happiness and spaciousness both in body and in mind at this point we might envision inside our body to be completely empty without any muscles or tissue or organs just an empty space inside us but one filled instead with a sense of happiness and joy and within this empty space of the body we allow our attention very softly and gently to make its way down within the space of the body to a point located two fingers width above the level of our navel somewhere around the area of our diaphragm or our solar plexus and if you're not sure where the center of your body is actually located then anywhere in the general area of the stomach will do and as an anchor for the mind we might envision a bright object within ourselves such as a shining sun,
A full moon or a star at the center of our body sometimes in this meditation tradition we even can imagine a crystal ball as the object of our meditation as a symbol of spaciousness that is easily accessible which is familiar to us but however you decide to anchor your awareness even if it's nothing more than a feeling that you have an object at the center of yourself maintain your attention evenly,
Steadily at that point remain in touch with that inner object by means of that good feeling that you've built up so far in your meditation feeling the presence of that object at the center of yourself for some people there may be an excess of thoughts in the mind and if the thoughts are at a low level maybe it's possible to get away with simply ignoring those thoughts but if you find you still have thoughts arising in the mind even when you ignore them you might try making use of that traditional mantra hearing the sound of words such as samaarahang samaarahang samaarahang coming up as if from the very center of your body resonating from the same place that you have your inner object while allowing the mind to settle naturally and peacefully at the same point you find your mind wandering as soon as you notice then bring it gently back again to the center and if the inner object disappears you can simply think of a new one the object changes on its own,
There's no need to change it back again,
You just follow it in its new form your practice may become one of observation rather than visualization and as we meditate more we become more familiar with the idea of there being a space between our thoughts a space between where one thought ends and another one begins because we start to find that we're able to step back from the thought we always take for granted and this allows us to gain access to that sense of spaciousness in the mind the spaciousness that lies beyond those thoughts allowing us to touch upon that sense of clarity in the mind that brings with it a sense of resilience and stability and as we engage with that sense of spaciousness more and more we also notice the way in which any previous stresses and strains in the mind seem to gradually melt away leading us to yet deeper levels of inner peace in the meantime we still have to work with the phenomenon of the wandering mind and the thoughts arising we need to learn to observe these mental phenomena treating them as nothing more than the manifestation of impermanence in our mind observing without interfering how the thoughts and emotions arise and pass away naturally in the mind without getting caught up in these treating them as no more significant than clouds or turbulence passing through a blue sky that is essentially clear by identifying with the stillness that is the backdrop to all these thoughts we learn to access something deeper that is of the nature of deep peaceful intuition and wisdom and once we have our first glimpse of it,
Then to be something we recognize in future meditations motivating us further to continue to develop these skills to the point that even if a sense of restlessness arises in the mind we can even learn to watch the restlessness while disassociating from it while remaining all the time in contact with that sense of spaciousness in the mind as our mind becomes unhooked from that restlessness or angst allowing us to settle yet more deeply as we meditate for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time for some loving kindness meditation you you you you you you you simply bring your awareness back again to the center of the body as before if the inner object disappears we can conjure up a new one with changes we follow it in its new form and for those who feel able towards the end of each meditation traditionally we pick up on the positive energy whether it be something we see like in our illumination something we feel like a sense of well-being or imagery within the mind large or small and we place our mind very gently at the center of that inner experience often we can allow that inner experience to spread outwards from that central point as part of a practice known as the spreading of loving kindness where we cultivate and generate feelings of compassion for ourselves and thereafter toward all sentient beings in the world it is important for us to have that sense of compassion or loving kindness as a starting point and in this respect we might start with the image of a dear friend or family member who we care deeply about it could even be a pet that we care about and imagining that that person or loved one is right in front of you you connect with the feeling of loving kindness that you have for them the feeling of gratitude that they're in your life you can imagine those feelings of loving kindness growing and expanding outwards as if from the center of your own body imagining this feeling of loving kindness extending outwards through every cell of your body all the way from the top of your head right the way down to the tips of your toes radiating outward from your center and in this way we start by extending loving kindness toward 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 taking note of these feelings of compassion,
Care and kindness,
Tenderness and openness we send forth these feelings to ourself and from there if we can we imagine these feelings growing and radiating outwards from the center of our body initially to the whole of our body almost like a perfect protective bubble and extending beyond the boundaries of our own body outwards into the whole room around us like an aura or a halo taking in all the people around us reaching out to all the people who we care deeply about imagining them uplifted in body,
Mind and spirit as they respond to our loving kindness,
To the care and gratitude we have for them and in the same way we continue cultivating and generating these feelings of loving kindness expanding them further outwards to the whole building the source is our center but the radius of our loving kindness extends to the whole building wider still,
To our friends,
To our family to all the people in our neighborhood even including those who we might not know very well we might even extend loving kindness toward others with whom we might not see eye to eye we extend that loving kindness with the wish that may everyone in our community be safe,
Be happy,
Be 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 we imagine these feelings growing and expanding further still,
The whole town,
Borough,
County then to all our fellow townsfolk,
Extending to all living beings,
To the very borders of our country neighboring countries,
Entire continents,
On the land,
In the air or in the sea until our sense of loving kindness extends across the whole of the face of this planet touching people,
Sentient beings on every continent with the wish that all living beings be well and happy,
Free from suffering,
Live together in peace and harmony that all peace become a reality within our own lifetimes for the final few moments of our loving kindness meditation we might imagine the extent of our loving kindness expanding outwards into the whole universe,
Extending our loving kindness in this way for the last few moments of our meditation in silence you you
