So we start by settling ourselves down into a comfortable position for our 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,
And relaxing all the tensions 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,
And extending the back,
Allowing us to breathe easily and also making it easier to find the centre of our body,
And 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 the best of our meditation in the past,
A sense of joy or wellbeing that accompanied the best of our meditation that we can remember,
And if we can conjure up that feeling inside us,
Then it will bring us back to the same quality of mind we enjoyed last time round,
And somehow it will help us to return to that same place in our meditation again,
With a sense of lightness,
A sense of the whole body being filled with happiness and joy,
And we imagine that inside our body is just an empty space,
A hollow cavity,
Without any organs or tissues,
Muscles or bones,
Alternatively as if our whole body is like a bubble,
With nothing on the inside,
And with a completely transparent skin,
Or perhaps as if our whole body has disappeared completely,
And it's like inhabiting a space of our own creation,
But whatever our experience of that inner space,
We allow the focus of our attention to make its way gradually down to the centre of our body,
At that place at our solar plexus which I mentioned earlier,
Or on the level of our diaphragm,
Not just the place where we are looking with our mind's eye,
But actually as if our whole awareness has moved down to that central point,
As if our head has disappeared completely,
And all our faculties,
Whether it be perception,
Memory,
Thought or cognition,
Have come together at a single place at the centre of ourselves,
So we are actually located down at our centre,
In the same place as our meditation object,
Whatever that might be,
Whether it's something that we visualise,
Or something that we feel,
So rather than looking down on it from somewhere above,
It's as if we are there with the object itself.
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 a shining sun,
Or it might be a tactile object such as an imaginary invisible fruit,
Which you can feel at the centre,
At 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 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,
Making use of a 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,
Until we come to the appropriate time.
So we continue to keep our mind on track at the centre of the body,
As continuously as we can,
For as long as we can.
Our mind wanders away to anything else around us each time we realise we just bring our attention back again to the centre as before.
If the inner object disappears,
We can conjure up a new one.
If it changes,
We just follow it in its new form,
Observing the way the inner experience evolves in the mind.
If thoughts return,
We do our best to ignore them.
And if the thoughts are too many to simply ignore,
We may make use of that traditional mantra,
Hearing the sound of the words,
Sammā rāhān,
Sammā rāhān,
Sammā rāhān,
Coming up from the centre of the body.
In the meantime,
We continue to maintain our awareness with the very lightest of touch,
A feather-light touch at the centre,
Letting our mind settle into silence until there's nothing but the inner experience for us to follow at the centre.
We continue in this way for a few more moments in silence until we come to time for our loving-kindness meditation.
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've built up for ourselves as the result of the meditation so far this evening.
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 of the mind.
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.
Whatever inner experience we have,
We touch our mind gently at the centre,
So gently that it's almost as if we are hardly touching at all,
Touching with the lightness of a warm fingertip,
In contact with 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 well-being,
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 body,
Outwards into the room around us,
Extending outwards in all directions,
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 may all living beings here in this room be well and happy,
Free from suffering and live together in peace and harmony.
We spread the loving-kindness further outwards now to the whole building,
Wider to the whole neighbourhood,
Outwards to the whole borough,
The whole county,
Almost as if we were 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 in that area with the wish that may all these living beings be well and happy,
Live in peace and harmony.
Especially at this time when so many are feeling isolated or pinned down by negativity,
We extend our loving-kindness as a torrent of peace,
A cool tide extending outwards to bring happiness wherever there is suffering,
Increasing the happiness where happiness is scarce.
We extend loving-kindness outwards to the whole of the South East,
Whole of England,
Whole of Great Britain,
British Isles,
Whole continent of Europe,
With the wish that may all living beings here on this continent be well and happy,
Free from suffering,
Live together in peace and harmony.
We extend our loving-kindness across the face of the globe to all the continents of the world,
As if we're 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 and free from suffering,
Live together in peace and harmony,
That will peace become a reality within our own lifetimes.
We can extend 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 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 might be thinking about,
Holding them close within the brightness or our sense of well-being at the centre of ourselves,
Thinking of their name or their faith,
Extending loving-kindness to them in particular,
Especially if they are separated by huge distances,
And extending loving-kindness for those to whom we feel a particular debt of gratitude,
Towards 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.
Thank you.
Thank you.
