So,
If you like to,
Start by finding a comfortable position for yourself in the meditation practice.
Sitting up fairly straight with our two feet flat on the ground,
If we can,
And our hands resting palm upwards in our lap,
Adjusting our body in order to be able to forget about it as much as possible.
We tend to find a position for ourselves by which we feel alert and yet relaxed,
Not leaning too far forward nor too far back,
Not leaning to the right nor to the left,
But finding a position of poise for ourselves,
Making sure our breathing and our circulation are relaxed and unimpeded,
And adjusting the position of our body to minimise any possible aches or pains,
And at this point,
If we haven't already done so,
We might gently close our eyes,
Closing our eyes in much the same way we close them in order to go to sleep,
And then we scan down through our body,
Relaxing each and every muscle as we go,
Starting at our forehead,
Relaxing any tension in the muscles there,
Relaxing our eyebrows and our eyelids,
Making sure our eyes are only very gently closed,
From there we can allow the muscles of our face to become soft.
Relax our neck,
And let our shoulders drop to their natural height,
Relaxing both arms and forearms,
All the way down to our hands and our fingers.
From there we can relax all the muscles of our torso,
Chest,
Trunk,
And the muscles throughout our core,
Relaxing both legs,
All the way down to our feet and our toes,
So there's no remaining part of our body with any sort of stress or tension anymore,
Almost as if any knot of tension we might be feeling in our stomach has loosened itself and slipped away,
And any pit of unfulfilled longing in our heart has gradually and without our really noticing been filled in,
Patched like a pothole,
Not quite the same as it was,
But good enough,
Leaving ourselves with a feeling almost as if our body has melted away into the atmosphere around us,
So we have no further worries about our body anymore,
And once our body is completely relaxed,
We can also turn our attention to relaxing the mind,
Remembering to keep this journey of meditation simple and uncluttered,
Remembering there's no carry-on luggage allowed,
And the easiest and most efficient way to lighten up our mind is to forget temporarily about all possible worries or concerns in our everyday life,
No matter whether it be thoughts of work,
Friends,
Family,
Studies,
Or any other thing,
Not thinking about plans for the future,
Not thinking about any regrets from the past,
But keeping our mind entirely in that present moment,
And connecting with the experience of sitting with our eyes closed out of doors,
And whoever we might be,
Just by stepping out of doors tonight,
Outside the security of the rooms inside,
We have opened ourselves up to the infinity of the night,
And although our eyes are so used to artificial light,
That they may have forgotten how to see by starlight,
But with our inner mind's eye,
We can take in the great expanse of the heavens above,
In a way that frees us to comprehend the truth,
And set us finally free,
So we pick up on that sense of happiness and joy,
The freedom we feel from being unencumbered by four walls around us,
Perhaps casting our mind back to a time in our lives when we felt truly happy,
As if that feeling were composed of tiny particles of happiness and joy,
Completely filling the mind,
Allowing us to feel refreshed on the inside,
As we cherish that feeling of happiness and joy inside us,
Just for a few moments,
As if all the happiness were radiating outward from the centre of ourselves,
As if our mind were completely empty of worries,
And when we feel relaxed and refreshed,
Both in body and in mind,
Very gently and using no effort at all,
We welcome our awareness back from its wandering,
It may return in pieces,
Or in tatters,
But we gather the pieces together within us,
And those fragments of our mind will be happy to be back together again,
After being lost for so long,
And to this end,
We allow our attention to settle and centre,
To a point somewhere around the middle of our stomach,
As if our whole body were just an empty space,
Or a hollow cavity,
Without any muscles or tissues,
Without any organs or bones,
And again very gently,
Without using any effort at all,
We cast our mind back again to that picture of our mind,
Perhaps of a bright shining candlelight,
And if it's not very clear to us,
We can always take a sneak peek at the candlelight around us,
And then gently close our eyes again,
And what we're aiming for is an inner image that we have without holding onto it,
Having without holding,
And for that imaginary candlelight inside us,
We might imagine the candle flame shining from the very centre of our stomach,
Shining from inside,
Holding the object very gently in our mind,
With a minimum of gentle attention,
As continuously as we can,
For as long as we can,
And without letting the mind wander anywhere else,
If we can help it,
If the mind should wander to sounds around us,
To sensations in our body,
Or thoughts in our head,
As soon as we realise,
We simply bring our mind back again,
To the centre of the body as before,
And if we're new to meditation,
Whether our mind wanders a hundred times or a thousand times,
We should pay no attention to how frequently the mind tends to wander,
It's our job merely to bring the mind back again to the centre of the body,
And continue as before,
If our inner object disappears,
We can conjure up a new one,
It doesn't really matter whether we see the object clearly or not,
We can just make do with that object even if we cannot perceive it clearly,
Even if it's only partly visible,
Even if it seems to remain in the shadows,
Even if it's not as clearly seen as with the naked eye,
At the same time we avoid entertaining any thoughts in the mind,
And sometimes as if we were just resting in the trough of a wave between the thoughts,
And if we are silent in our mind,
We can keep our energy at the low part of the wave,
Just noticing the shape of things and the flow,
Just accepting the drift of things and shifting away from the endless temptation to get entangled in that thicket of thoughts,
So staying with the space between the thoughts,
For instance when the mind is still inventing the next thing it's going to think about,
But if we find that the mind is still swirling around with thoughts in the head like bees in a hive,
It might be necessary for us to make use of that traditional mantra,
Silently repeating to ourselves the sound of the words such as Samma Araham,
Samma Araham,
Samma Araham,
Over and over again,
The sound of the mantra seems to come like a sound of music resonating from the centre of our body,
For as long as it takes for the thoughts to die down to a manageable level,
So for now we keep our mind on track at the centre of our body,
Resting the mind gently,
Lightly,
With whatever inner image or feeling we've managed to capture use your own practice in silence for a few more moments now,
Until we come to the appropriate time,
So we continue to keep our mind gently at the centre of the body,
Lightly checking in with whatever inner experience we've built up for ourselves as a result of the meditation so far this evening,
For some people that inner experience may be some sort of inner feeling of well-being that gradually becomes clearer at the centre of the body,
Or it may be a sort of hazy illumination,
Maybe a sense of light without any particular form inside us,
Or it may be some sort of imagery perhaps like the candle flame that we started out with,
Or perhaps something new that has emerged on its own,
But whatever we have at our centre we place our mind very gently in the middle of that,
Very gently at the centre of the inner experience,
And by touching very gently with our awareness what we'll find is that there is a spreading outwards of that inner experience from the central point,
Almost like an energy radiating outward in all directions from the point of contact,
And we can visualise this pure energy at our centre taking the form of a crystal sphere that grows larger in size until it encapsulates the whole of our own body,
As we emanate a positive intention toward ourselves,
Full of love and self-compassion,
A sense of going easy on ourselves,
And again from our centre we can allow the same sphere to extend beyond ourselves,
Growing larger,
Reaching out to those around us,
Reaching out to the whole neighbourhood,
Reaching out further into the world,
Again emanating that positive intention as if pure energy is spreading outwards in all directions all around us,
Full of love and compassion toward all,
With the wish that those with suffering become free of any sadness and pain,
And with the wish that those already experiencing happiness will be happier still,
We can emanate our positive intentions across the whole country,
To neighbouring countries,
All the continents of the world,
Across the entire globe and beyond,
Wishing everyone everywhere be well and happy,
Dwelling in peace,
And although we might think that our positive energy is minuscule compared with the problems of the whole wide world,
With its firemen and its rubble,
Its confusion and its fallen,
The pigeons without food,
The people of the camps,
Those who have nowhere to sleep,
In the face of such adversity we emanate positivity,
Wholeness,
Intact friendship,
Waging peace on the world,
Like candlelight pushing back the darkness,
With the pure intention that our loving kindness help all to regain their footing in the world,
To gain clarity amidst confusion,
Compassion in the face of cruelty,
Offering refuge or just a place of uplift to those who are feeling down,
So we make good wishes for ourselves and for others,
Extending ever outwards with brightness and goodwill,
As we share this peaceful energy for the benefit of all we know,
And even towards those we don't know,
Ever wider across the universe,
For the last few moments of our meditation together.
