So begin the meditation by finding the appropriate posture.
You can take a few moments to explore the posture that you're in.
Make any adjustments that are needed so that the body is supported,
Stable and steady.
It can be helpful to use the contact of body with seat and with ground as a place of anchoring the attention,
Rooting the attention.
And also to explore the balance of uprightness and ease,
Particularly in the back of the body.
So I'll take a few moments to settle the awareness in the body in this way.
Feeling the body sitting here,
Grounding and rooting in the contact of body with seat and ground.
And having the sense of the uprightness and the balance in the posture.
So the awareness is very much in the body.
And feeling the body space,
Particularly the area of the belly and the chest,
Opening to any sense of gratitude that is available to you right now.
Any experience of gratitude that is available.
And it can be quite delicate,
Quite mild.
Just gratitude for the opportunity to do this,
To practice in this way.
Gratitude perhaps for the conditions of your life that are making this possible.
And then from that sense of gratitude,
Opening to your intention for this period of practice.
What's your intention?
What is it that you wish for?
What fruit do you wish for this time to bear?
What do you wish to nourish?
And don't try too hard to find anything,
Just opening the awareness.
If you're dropping in the question into the heart space,
Into the body space,
Do I wish to nourish?
Maybe that a word or a phrase comes back,
Maybe more feeling or an image.
That's all great.
Let's open to that and feel that.
And then the next step in this practice is to align with a sense of motivation.
That I can do this,
Whatever this is going to be,
I can do it.
Kind of a sense of being your own cheerleading squad,
Believing in yourself.
I can do this.
I can show up to this.
Feeling that motivation,
That commitment without too much tightness.
It can be a feeling of alignment,
Like the uprightness of the body,
An inner alignment,
An inner poise of your being with your intention.
And maybe there's some energy that comes with this.
And so balancing that energy with some relaxation,
That's our next little step.
So just relaxing the body,
You can scan gently from the head down through the body,
Inviting the body to relax.
And as you invite the body to relax,
It's just an invitation.
You might find the heart and mind also relax along with the body.
So inviting whatever can relax to relax.
Receiving and allowing what does not relax in awareness.
Not building up tension around that.
And then aligning your heart,
Your intention,
Your motivation with kindness to yourself.
May this be an act of kindness,
This practice.
May I meet myself with kindness and my experience with kindness.
And sometimes it can be a question,
An open question that we gently offer to ourselves.
What would kindness look like right now?
And as you bring in this alignment with kindness,
Attunement to kindness,
You can either feel yourself or you can imagine yourself feeling more calm,
Becoming more calm,
More contented.
See if you can smile very gently,
Bring a soft,
Gentle smile to your face,
Like the smile of the Buddha or of the Mona Lisa actually.
Just a gentle smile.
So we've done all these as the first part of our practice,
And you can come back to any of them as a support as you do this meditation.
Come back to gratitude.
Come back to your intention for this time,
What you would like to nourish.
Come back to a sense of motivation that you can do this.
Invite the awareness into the body and scan through the body,
Relaxing any tension that you find,
Meeting any tension with receptivity.
And then exploring the possibility of kindness towards yourself.
May this be an act of kindness to myself,
May it be an act of kindness in the world.
And as you do that,
Feeling any calm,
Content that comes up,
Or imagine yourself being calm,
Being contented,
And bringing into being in your face a gentle smile,
The smile of the Buddha.
And from here,
We'll open to the experience of the breathing in the body.
So take a little time to follow the breath as it flows in and out through the body,
Noticing if there's a particular area in the body where you feel the breath more directly,
Where it's more available,
More perceptible.
Might be the nose or the throat,
Chest or the belly.
And if there is a particular place like that,
Rest the attention,
Rest the awareness there,
Meeting the breathing as it arises and passes as it moves through the body in that particular area.
If you don't find a particular area where the breath is more accessible or you can feel it more directly,
Then just stay with the totality of the flow of the breath through the body.
Feeling that movement of the breath flowing in and out,
The breath energy filling up the body and then emptying out again.
So we're keeping that attitude of kindness in the practice.
We're also bringing interest into the experience.
Can you be interested in this breath flowing in and out of the body?
Have you ever met a breath exactly like this one?
From time to time,
Depending on the particular state of your mind right now,
You'll find that you've wandered away from the breath.
The mind is very restless,
It will happen really frequently.
If it's more stable,
It will happen less frequently,
But it's pretty guaranteed to happen.
When you notice that the mind has moved away from the breathing,
No big deal.
Right now you're found,
You're no longer lost.
Can you celebrate this?
Can you blow your inner party whistle and go,
Yay,
I'm here.
I'm found.
Sending a message to your brain,
To your mind,
That this is a good thing to be found.
And then rest back into awareness of the body and the breathing,
Flowing through,
Flowing by,
With interest,
With kindness.
With interest,
It's helpful to have a quality of playfulness that keeps the interest interested,
If you like.
So noticing what happens if I zone in and I pay more attention to the details of the breathing,
To more detail.
How does that feel?
Does that feel good?
Does that feel interesting?
What happens when I zoom out and I take in the breath from a bigger perspective?
The breath as a rhythm or as a flow moving through the whole body?
How is that for you?
Noticing as you play if there's a particular way of attending to the breath that feels more enjoyable,
Brings more ease or space or calm.
And then staying with that,
Playing with the breath,
Playing with the way you're paying attention.
Noticing which ways feel better,
Feel more alive,
Bring more ease.
Rest there.
Stay with that practice.
Stay with that exploration.
Playing with one breath at a time.
Noticing any well-being,
Any calm,
Any ease that arises.
And spending time with that.
Remembering that gentle smile,
The smile of the Buddha.
Can you invite it right now?
How does that impact experience?
Meeting this breath as it arises in the body?
Unique.
Can you meet it with interest,
With kindness?
Opening,
Opening to the breathing.
Opening to this moment.
Opening to the ease and the space of this breath,
Of this moment.
Anchor
