Sitting With Non-Striving

The bulk of human activity is spent “doing” and trying to change things. This frequently shows up in meditation as we want more of what we like and to get rid of what we don’t like. This pressure is felt as striving, or straining to be different, go somewhere else, or do something else. This twenty-one-minute practice brings a flavour of Non-Striving to sitting meditation. There are some distracting background noises after 15 minutes, an opportunity to not strive for a perfect practice.

Transcript

So let's begin by setting our posture and noticing maybe the difference here between making a conscious change in our posture and striving for that posture to be a certain way to be perfect, To be the right way, The correct way. And maybe becoming aware that it is now different from how it was just before, That maybe there is a sense of intentionality to it, A sense of purpose, And yet that it doesn't have to be a particular way. Just allowing your posture to unfold as it is. So noticing how it feels in contact with ground or chair. How the particular posture that you've chosen feels from the inside. How you can sense the posture that your body is in without using your eyes to see the posture. There's a sense that you can feel your body in place, You can feel where it is, What it's in contact with. So really feeling into whatever's here, Maybe in your facial expression or the expression of your body, Or generally. And then starting to pick up your breath, Starting to become more fully aware of the breath that was here already. Just letting the breath breathe itself. Being aware of the tendency we all have to want to soften, To deepen, To regulate our breath. Notice we have that some ways of breathing are better than others, More effective than others, More relaxing than others. Seeing if we can just breathe without a sense of striving for a particular way of breathing. Not striving for the perfection of breathing. Recognizing that this isn't breath work, It's simply breathing. Simply observation of breathing. Seeing the full duration of the in breath and the full duration of the out breath. And can we just lay that out in our mind? As best you can, Just following, Just noticing, Just breathing. Breathing with the movements of breath, And breathing with the stillness between breath. Noticing where in the body the breath is experienced most particularly, Most vividly, Most intensely. And now tuning in as best you can, As closely as you can to that particular part of the body. Maybe in the nostrils, The throat, The chest, The abdomen. Without making a hierarchy of them, Just noticing where the breath is, Where you're feeling it. Then bringing your attention to your body as a whole, Here breathing in this moment. Any strong sensations, Any pains or aches, Any sense of lightness or ease. If you get a sense of ease or relaxation from your body as a whole or some particular part of your body, Simply being with that. You're not trying to make it happen, Not trying to hold on to it to prevent those pleasant feelings from passing away. And if you're experiencing discomfort somewhere physically in your body, Noting that sense of aversion, Of wanting it to go away, Wanting to not feel it. And seeing if you can just be with the experience without the trying not to. Maybe seeing if there's space for a single breath. You could just fill that part of the body, That discomfort, That pain, That ache, With a single breath before the sense of aversion and not wanting creeps in again. As if you could just find a slight space, As if you could just find a moment. And now bringing your attention from your body outwards to take in the environment around you. Starting to notice those sounds picked up by your ears, Interpreted by your brain, Yet originating from somewhere outside our body, Somewhere else. How some movement, Some vibration passes through the air and is heard. And we don't have to try to hear. We don't need to seek sounds. We can simply experience them. Sounds will arise in our experience or they won't. And we can simply experience the spaces between sounds. Perhaps noticing that there's particular sounds that seem constant. That were there in the background and then as we brought our attention to sounds, Suddenly seemed to be rushing in our ears, A constant movement, Pressure. Noticing our relationship to these sounds. Some we might find pleasant, Relaxing and rhythmic. We might find our attention flowing with the sounds. We might find that we want more of these sounds. Maybe other sounds we find unpleasant. We find them irritating, Frustrating. We try to block them out. To not hear them. Yet here they are. We cannot choose to simply look away. Close our eyes. They are heard or not heard. And just as sounds seem to arise from nowhere, Come into our experience. Maybe stay for a while and then replaced by other sounds. So too are thoughts. Having a sense of our thoughts just arising in every moment. Like sounds they have a form. They have a coming and a going. Sometimes they can be soft like whispers. Sometimes they can be harsh and urgent and demanding. Or like shouts. Seeing if we can just be with our thoughts in this moment, Just as they are. Aware of them yet unmoved. Not resisting them. Just surfing them. Those thoughts which are challenging, Just seeing if we can ride them. Just as a boat at anchor in a storm is moved by the seas. Sometimes the waves may wash over the boat. They cast it around. Yet the boat remains anchored. The boat remains itself. Just noticing what's arising here. What there is to notice and experience. In your posture, In your breath, In your body. Sounds and in thoughts. Just striving for it to be a particular way. Just sitting, Being with it as it is. Noticing that it may change. That it changes of its own accord. Not because of some effort that we made. Now as this sitting practice begins to come to a close, Starting to bring some movement. Maybe bring some deeper breaths, More grounding breaths. Starting to open our eyes if they were closed. Starting to focus on the next moments of your day. Going back to balance.