Music Dear friends,
Welcome to this meditation where we will try to learn to live a life of greater awareness.
I hope this works for you and that it brings you peace and happiness.
It's good that we are sharing this time together.
Let's begin by seeing if we can centre ourselves and manage to come into the present moment.
We are here in body but we may not yet be here in spirit.
We've all experienced feelings of detachment from presence.
You know the feeling.
We might find ourselves mulling over the events of the past or worried about something that might await us in the future.
Both of these tendencies keep us away from mindful awareness of the present.
So let's pause for a moment and see if we can bring body and mind into harmony.
Bring them together in this time and in this place.
Becoming really present in the here and the now.
First of all,
It's important to make sure that we are comfortable,
Really comfortable.
Meditation is not an endurance test.
So above all,
Let's make sure that we are in a comfortable position.
Feet firmly on the ground.
Hands,
Wherever they are comfortable,
Maybe on our knees or on our laps.
Eyes closed or at least cast down towards the floor.
Backs reasonably straight but not rigid.
Dropping the shoulders.
Let the shoulders relax.
Notice the difference straight away.
Let the jaw and the mouth relax.
Just letting things be.
And becoming aware of our breath.
Just noticing the breath coming in and going out.
Not taking any especially big breaths.
Simply observing the breath as it is.
As we breathe in and breathe out.
And just being here.
And not so much even noticing the breath,
But seeing if we can become aware of ourselves as we pay attention to the breath.
Notice ourselves noticing.
As if you are looking at yourself from the outside.
You might say,
I notice myself noticing my breath.
Let's see if we can stay with this as an exercise in gentle concentration.
Just doing our best.
No need to stress over it.
But notice how good it feels when we sit in awareness.
And if we lose concentration,
No worries.
Just return to the breath.
Whenever we notice we've lost awareness of it,
Just return to the breath.
One minute now for this practice.
Welcome back.
A life of greater awareness is possible,
But like any other skill,
It requires practice and training.
We practice,
We gain a little ground,
We feel how good it is,
But then we might lapse.
We get caught up in the rush of daily life.
There's no need to beat ourselves up when this happens.
No worries at all.
We just get up,
We dust ourselves off and we start all over again.
Inch by inch,
Metre by metre,
We gain a little ground every time we begin again.
So let's have another run at practicing concentration and awareness.
This time we are going to focus on something in the room where you are sitting.
You might have an image or a candle,
Something that you keep in your meditation corner.
Whatever that object is,
Again,
Not so much noticing the object,
But seeing if you can become aware of yourself paying attention to the object.
Once again,
As in the case of the breath,
Notice that you are noticing.
Trying to become aware,
Really aware that you are not just looking at the object,
But you are conscious of the fact that you are looking at it.
So just as we did in the case of the breath,
Let's give ourselves one minute for this.
And as before,
Just do your best.
No stress.
No worries.
If you lose concentration,
Just remember to come back to noticing.
And try to be conscious that you are noticing the object.
So let's give ourselves one minute for this.
Welcome back again.
It's not easy to live a life in awareness as much as we might like to,
Even though we see that it feels good when we try it.
It's so easy to be caught up in the doing of things.
So easy to operate on autopilot.
But an awareness practice like this helps us to become more conscious of our day to day existence in the world.
And it makes us more grateful for the gift of our existence.
That gratitude is a gift in itself.
And if we can become really aware,
We will go through our days with much greater ease.
That will be better for us and for the people we meet.
We won't find ourselves automatically reacting when we are faced with difficulty or when someone pushes a wrong button on us.
Now you might ask,
How can I manage to bring this into everyday life?
First of all,
You will find it helpful to formally sit and practice aware sitting.
If you can manage this for a few minutes in the morning,
It can get you off to a good start and a more aware day.
But the events of the day will offer you other opportunities to stop and to return to awareness.
For example,
We all brush our teeth regularly every day.
Instead of just looking in the mirror as you do this,
Stop and notice that you are brushing your teeth.
And become aware of the fact that you are looking in the mirror.
Notice the difference between doing something and noticing that you are doing something.
Every time you manage to do this,
You are living a wonderful present moment of awareness.
And we all have trigger events that can help us with this practice.
For example,
Today's first sit in the car.
The wheeling out of a bike.
The first sit beside another passenger in public transport can bring to mind the thought that we are all here together on the journey of life.
We can generate a feeling of empathy for the stranger sitting next to us.
None of us knows the difficulty that another person might be suffering.
A list of possible trigger events is as varied as each of our lives.
In our final pause for reflection,
I invite you to decide one or two trigger events that you will use to help you on the exciting road to living a life of meaningful awareness.
These are the days of our lives to be cherished as they are lived.
Let's have this final one minute pause.
Let's have this final one minute pause.
So thank you very much for taking part in this exercise in mindful awareness.
I hope this practice will be life enhancing for you.
Remember to give it a try.
Call it to mind as you brush your teeth.
Put it into practice when you meet one of the trigger events that you've decided upon.
So now let's just close our eyes and come mindfully into the present for our closing thought.
This comes from Shantideva.
May I be an aisle for those who yearn for land.
A lamp for those who long for light.
For all who need a resting place,
A bed.
For those who need a servant,
May I be their helper.
For as long as space endures and for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I too abide to dispel the misery of the world.
Namaste.
Thank you.
