Hello,
My name is Ben Connolly and I'm going to do a guided meditation.
This will be an opportunity to integrate two of the main ways of meditating from the Yogacara of Buddhist tradition,
What we call Vipassana and Shamatha.
So here Vipassana will refer to actively noticing specific aspects of our experience in particular ways,
So mindfulness,
And Shamatha refers to objectless meditation,
Choosing an object and there is no goal,
Nothing that we need to attain in the practice.
And these two meet in this tradition both start tending to the breath,
All this access to Shamatha in Yogacara texts.
So I'm just going to invite you to find a posture of the body that feels stable and optimally feeling your upper body lifting and opening upwards,
So sitting in some way where you can feel the energy,
Upward extending energy of your spine.
And let's just bring some attention to places where the body is in contact with the ground and the chair where we are supported.
As we're sitting we can just keep coming back to the physical sensations in the body and if they feel out of alignment or just need some care you can just gently move the body and reorient it so it can be stable and upright.
Taking awareness now to settle down in the physical sensations in the lower abdomen,
Probably noticing that the body expands a little bit as you breathe in and contracts with the exhalation.
So that's already an opening to stimulus,
But really force you togall away the feeling So if you find that you are having a lot of trouble,
I'm just going to start by feeling some settling of awareness in the breath,
In the lower abdomen.
And just open up your field of attention to include the whole body.
And you may find that at times you are very focused on some mental activity,
Like thinking.
And if that occurs,
You can just gently bring the awareness back into the feeling in the belly,
The body breathing.
And just open up your field of attention to include the whole body.
And as we are experiencing awareness of the body,
Let's see if we can expand our attention to include emotion or feeling.
You may not notice any feeling or emotion and that is fine.
You don't need to pin this down or figure it out.
This is like listening if you are in a quiet room.
So you are choosing to care and attend to the aspect of experience which is emotions.
But you may not notice anything and that's okay.
I think you might not notice sound in a quiet room even though you are listening.
Awareness settling in the body.
The sensations of breathing throughout the body.
Noticing if emotion or feeling is present.
And if you find your thinking like there are swords moving through the mind,
You don't need to do anything to them.
Shifting attention from mental activity because it needs less attention and care right now.
And turning it towards the body and any feelings or emotions that arise.
Because these really can benefit from attention and care,
Just noticing.
You have to present yourself in a serving dressing.
Just Both hands raised as yes and no.
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If it seems confusing or mysterious,
Where are my feelings?
What does it mean to notice my emotions?
That's okay.
This isn't about figuring it out.
This is about caring.
Just turning towards.
Even if you're not sure quite what you're listening for or what you're hearing or why,
You can still listen.
This is usually not enough.
.
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We're choosing here to notice the body and attend to it and notice emotions and feelings and attempt to them.
And as we do this,
There are so many other phenomenal things.
Heard,
Thoughts,
Visual images,
Whether the eyes are open or closed,
And maybe smells or tastes.
We don't need to do anything to any of those things.
Just allowing the whole field of awareness to be known.
Maybe you want to use brushes toIDA in your eyes.
You can let the awareness be so broad,
Naturally including physical sensation,
The body as experience,
Emotion,
Visual images,
Thoughts,
Sounds,
Maybe trusting that we don't need to fix,
Judge,
Or control any of it.
So,
For the last few minutes,
Of this meditation practice,
I will be quiet,
And you can just let what is known and awareness be known.
What if you find that your experience is dominated by thinking,
You could actively bring the attention into the breath and the body.
Having settled there,
Just let the field of awareness expand to encompass the whole,
All the senses,
What is felt.
This is not about creating some particular and special state of mind.
This is not about being something other than who you are.
Are.
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