Preparing The Ground For Just Sitting

This guided meditation, offered by Vincent Horn, is designed to help prepare the ground for the practice of "just sitting." Often, we take sitting for granted. But when you are mindful of your posture when you sit, you're able to better prepare yourself for a meditation practice.

Transcript

So,

Yeah,

I wanted to talk a little bit about just sitting.

It's interesting because in the Zen tradition,

Like I said,

Typically,

At least all the Zen contexts I've been in,

There really aren't instructions given on how to sit or practice.

Sometimes a little bit with the posture and where to put your hands or breath counting.

But when it comes to the,

You know,

What sort of a pinnacle practice in Zen,

Shikantaza,

Which means just sitting,

There are no instructions.

The idea is like you kind of have to figure it out as you sit.

In a way,

By giving any kind of concepts or instructions or pointers toward what it is,

There's the real danger of creating some idea in our minds of what it is we're doing when we just sit.

And then if we have this idea in mind about what we're doing when we just sit,

Well,

We're not actually just sitting.

And so that's,

I think,

Part of the reason that the Zen tradition errs on the side of confusing shit out of people.

And I think there's a lot to be said for that,

You know,

Pedagogically.

That said,

For some of us,

It can be helpful and useful to get sort of instructions or pointers toward how to just sit.

I remember following along with Reggie Ray's program called the Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness,

Which originally he was just calling just sitting.

There in that program,

Which is like a 10 CD thing,

You get very detailed and systematic instructions that culminate in this very simple embodied experience of just sitting.

Reggie describes the practice in this way.

He says,

It isn't meditation.

It's being at one with your body,

Surrendering to your body.

That's how he describes the somatic practice of pure awareness,

Just sitting.

The Sufi poet has a great pointer to this as well.

He says,

Just rest there right now.

Don't do a thing.

Just rest.

Remember your separation from God,

From love is the hardest work in this world.

Just sit there right now.

Don't do a thing.

Just rest.

In a way,

I don't think it can get much simpler than that.

Just sit there right now.

Well,

We're already sitting,

So we don't need to do anything else.

And what is it like to just rest into sitting?

What's it like to be at one with our bodies,

To surrender to our bodies?

I found one way to get in touch with this,

Prepare the ground for just sitting,

Is to start by getting in touch first with the area in the body where we tend to reside,

Most of us,

In the head,

The head center.

So I'd suggest here,

If you could feel into your head to actually surrender into the head,

Feeling what it's like to inhabit the space inside the head,

The knowing mind.

And then just rest,

Noticing what it's like to be here,

Inhabiting the head.

See if you can intuitively feel your way into the very center of the knowing mind,

And then just rest,

Feeling it from inside.

See if there's any way your body or posture wants to realign itself once you've contacted that space inside the head.

For me,

The top of my head lifts up a little bit and the chin tucks in.

Now what I propose is to let your attention begin to sink down,

Bringing the knowing mind with it.

As you exhale,

You can feel the knowing mind sinking down through your body,

Gradually moving toward the heart,

Toward the center of the chest,

The heart mind,

Just resting,

Letting it sink all by itself,

Releasing downward,

Letting yourself be held by the ground beneath you,

And by your own frame,

Letting the knowing mind sink down into the heart mind,

Emerging in the center of the chest.

And then just rest.

Just let yourself inhabit the chest,

Inhabit the heart.

Just being the internal space of the chest,

Being one with the heart mind,

Letting the breath arise from below,

Breathing up from the ground into the heart where attention rests.

Taking space for anything that arises in the space,

Turing it directly from inside.

Right here we can begin to drop further still,

Bringing the knowing mind and the heart mind down toward the belly,

Toward the core of our body,

Toward the center point of gravity,

Down toward the gut mind.

If it helps on every out-breath,

You can feel the knowing mind,

The heart mind sinking down further still through the body,

Letting your body adjust if needed.

It feels like that's appropriate.

If you notice resistance,

A pushing upward,

Not wanting to sink down,

You can also fold that into your embodied awareness,

Noticing,

Wow,

This too is felt and can be known in the body.

This too is part of my experience,

This pushing,

This resistance.

No need to resist the resistance.

Taking space for everything.

Letting attention settle down to the lower abdomen,

To our second brain,

To the core of our embodied experience.

Breathing up from the ground into the belly and then releasing down till all three minds become one.

The knowing mind,

The heart mind,

The embodied mind,

Merging at the center and breathing into the center.

See what it's like to shift from breathing from the ground up or from the nose in.

You can touch that center,

Ground the center.

See if you can invite your breath to arise from that center,

Breathing from within the body,

Letting the breath breathe itself.

Notice any forcing or pushing and fold that in.

Consider that as part of your embodied experience,

Nothing left out.

Just sit there right now.

Don't do a thing.

Just rest.

Letting the body meditate us.

So much less work when the body meditates us.

And from here,

We'll go further down still,

Letting our attention,

Sense of knowing to step further down toward the ground,

Toward the earth,

All the way through the legs and feet.

And down to the earth beneath us,

The quality of beneath or below,

Feeling into what is below.

On the out breath,

You can let your attention drop,

Feeling into the trap door beneath you,

Let that one we can relax into and release opens.

Sense of falling downward can occur.

See if you can let yourself fall groundlessly down,

Down,

Toward and beyond the center of the earth.

Letting the body of the earth from which all bodies arise,

All life arises here.

Letting our awareness return to our true home.

Not leaving the body,

But feeling the earth as an extension of our bodies.

And the infinite depth beneath us releasing to free fall,

But a trusting free fall.

There's nothing to be scared of and letting go until from where we came from.

Just like coming home.

You can relax.

Letting your attention drop,

Feeling into the trap door beneath us,

All life arises here.

Let yourself feel the blessings of the earth,

The sustenance that it provides you,

The stability,

The assuredness,

The deep stillness.

As you breathe in,

You might feel those blessings arising up and in to your own physical body.

You might notice your posture shifting,

Adjusting to be in alignment with this connection to below.

Letting the body adjust you.

Assuming any resistance that's present.

This too.

Letting your attention drop,

Feeling the earth as an extension of our bodies.

Reviews

Awesome!! 😊🙏❤️

Thank you for sharing.

Excellent! Felt incredibly spacious. Thank you!