Zen Counting The Breath Meditation

A 25 min guided Zen breath counting meditation (susokukan) in English, read by Daizan Skinner Roshi.

Transcript

The Zen meditation practice of counting the breath.

In this meditation practice we'll be learning how to hold our attention on one object of meditation,

In this case the breath.

Like all Zen meditation practices,

It can be done lying down,

Sitting,

Standing or walking,

But here we'll be practicing sitting.

So come into a comfortable sitting meditation position.

First,

Settling the body in uprightness.

The quality of uprightness and balance in your body creates a corresponding mental state.

If you're sitting on a chair,

Have your knees separated and your feet flat on the floor.

Have your knees below your hips.

If necessary,

Lift your seat if you need to so that your knees are lowered.

If your back is weak in any way or untrained,

You can use the chair back or support.

You may find a cushion helps as well.

But if you can,

Sit without support.

You might also want to explore sitting on a stool without a back.

If you're kneeling,

Have your knees wide with some kind of support under your tail,

A cushion or bench.

If you're sitting cross-legged,

Use a cushion to lift your pelvis and sit on the front half of it so the pelvis is tilted and your knees can come to the ground,

Creating your triangular base.

So in all these cases,

We want to create a stable triangular foundation between your knees or feet if you're on a chair and your sitting bones.

Sway your body once it's upright a little bit side to side,

Forwards and backwards.

We're looking for a balanced,

Effortless uprightness.

Take a few moments now to become really aware of the solid,

Grounded,

Relaxed and yet upright poise.

Rest your hands in your lap.

Let your shoulders relax,

Have your neck long,

Your head balanced directly above your sitting bones,

Your chin in such an alignment that you could hold an orange beneath it.

Let your gaze rest down on the floor in front of you and let your eyes be soft.

If you wish,

You can keep your eyes a little bit open as they rest down or you can allow them to fully close.

Have your mouth closed and your tongue soft and resting on the roof of your mouth.

Allow your whole body to relax,

Your shoulders to drop away from your ears.

If at all possible,

Breathing gently through your nose.

If you have to breathe through your mouth,

That's possible as well.

Become aware of your breath as low down in your body as you can feel.

Perhaps you may even be able to feel the gentle up and down movement of your belly.

Take a moment just to tune in to how your breath feels right now.

As you become aware of your breath,

Start to mentally count.

In breath one,

Out breath two.

In breath three,

Out breath four.

And so on,

Up to ten.

And then coming back to one.

Your awareness,

Your focus resting on this low feeling of your breath in your belly or as low as you can find it.

Very simple.

Just counting.

Just breathing.

As the body is relaxed,

So too is the breath.

We're not trying to change or control anything at all.

Just allowing your breath to be as it is right now.

Now as we do this,

Be aware that we're maintaining an open field of awareness.

The breath,

The counting is the centre of your attention.

But you're allowing thoughts,

Feelings,

Memories,

Perceptions to naturally arise and pass.

You don't have to try to stop anything or ignore anything,

But the breath and the counting in the centre of your focus.

Anytime you get distracted or lose count,

Just coming back to one.

In breath one,

Out breath two and so on.

No need to judge or blame,

Just simply coming back and carrying straight on.

Where you got the thoughts,

The experiences,

Your thoughts,

Becomes the result of your As your body relaxes,

Your mind naturally can become more focused,

And very naturally your breath tends to become more light and gentle.

Just allowing it to happen.

Sometimes you may feel like there are so many thoughts or feelings arising that you can barely hear your breath or your counting.

That's fine,

Just do your best to stay with it.

Sometimes things can become much quieter.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it,

What you do with it.

You just let it come,

Let it go.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it,

What you do with it.

Your focus,

Your presence.

Your presence.

Just staying with your breathing,

Your counting.

Just letting it come,

Let it go.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it,

What you do with it.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it.

It's not what arises that's important,

But your relationship to it.

You may find as your mind naturally becomes more and more settled,

And you're regularly getting to ten,

That you could explore simply counting the out-breaths.

Out-breath one.

In-breath.

Out-breath two.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And then back to one as before.

Or if at any point you feel more distracted,

Like you need a stronger anchor for your awareness,

Then you can come back to counting both your in and out-breaths.

Exploring and finding whatever is good for you.

Counting both your in and out-breaths,

Or simply counting just the out-breaths.

Counting your awareness on your breathing low down in your body.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

And so on,

All the way up to ten.

When it's the end of your meditation period,

It's always important to be very gentle and give yourself plenty of time.

Slowly becoming aware of the edges of your body,

Your skin,

The crown of your head.

Begin swaying your body a little bit side to side.

And you can feel ready,

Taking a good deep breath and having a good stretch.

Reviews

Very nice guided session! Your voice really relaxes me after a day at the office. Thanks so much!

Very beautiful meditation and what a warm and kind voice! Thank you

Thank you for helping me reset my practice. I needed this simple guidance today!

Exellent introduction and very good guidance. Thank you

Perfect meditation! Thank you for your guidance. 🙏

Best and most authentic zazen experience I've had in a while. Thank you for your guidance!

A wonderful calm meditation and a very fine voice. Many thanks for your kindnesd guidance 🙏

This was a very relaxing meditation. I felt the calm and appreciate the guidance. Definitely a keeper 🙏

Very grounding and peaceful, perfect combination of instructions and silence. Thank you 🙏💗

Perfect! Usually don’t prefer guided meditations but so glad I did.

Very helpful. I appreciate the progression from counting in and out to counting only the out.

Your calm voice makes this easy to follow. Thank you.

I do prefer counting the in-breaths personally, I find it better to settle, though it is harder to focus on as it leaves lots of space for the mind to wander away as well. Than you for this 🙏

This is my daily for focus. Beautifully done! Sooo helpful.
Thank you and blessings…

Very good introduction to Zen technique.
Simple and beautifully paced.
I liked his kind voice too.

This is an excellent, well-paced introductory Zen meditation. Thank you!

Lovely calm voice and prompting was timed so nicely. Reassuring and peaceful.

I appreciated the positioning cues at the beginning but also how you pulled back as time progressed to allow the sitter to focus on the process in silence. Thank you 🙏

Peaceful, easy feeling now. Thank you and Namaste

Very simple and soothing