Mindfulness of the Breath Audio Transcript

So establishing yourself now in a sitting posture that embodies wakefulness and dignity, either cross legged on a suitable cushion and mat on the floor or on a meditation bench or a straight back chair, allowing your head and neck to be balanced on your shoulders and the whole of the torso to be erect, but not stiff, placing your hands on your knees or together in your lap in a comfortable way, and allowing your shoulders to be relaxed and dropped, letting your pelvis provide a stable base to support your upper body, aware of the sensations of contact with the cushion or the chair. In other words, as best you can, sitting with the qualities of a mountain, fully present in the body, stable, grounded, and with an element of uplift to the posture itself.

And when you're ready, becoming aware of the fact that you're breathing, bringing your attention to the belly as it expands with the in breath and deflates with the out breath, or to the passage of air in and out at the nostrils, or anywhere else that the breath sensations are accessible and vivid for you. And just feeling the breath coming into the body and leaving the body.

Riding on the waves of the breath sensations with your full attention as best you can, moment by moment by moment, and breath by breath by breath as we sit here. In touch as best you can be with the full duration of each breath coming into the body, and the full duration of each breath leaving the body, feeling the breath sensations as they flux and change moment by moment by moment. It's best if you can stay with the breath at a particular location in the body for an entire practice period.

So if you start with the belly or with the nostrils, then the suggestion is to stay with the breath sensations in that region rather than to jump around. In that way, we are cultivating a greater intimacy and familiarity with the breath and a greater stability of attention.

So just letting each breath come and go of its own accord, feeling the sensations of the breath moving in and out moment by moment by moment. Of course, you may rapidly discover that it's not so easy to keep your attention on the breath. It doesn't take long to realize that just as in the body scan, the mind has a life of its own and will invariably take off into the past or the future, planning or worrying, liking or disliking, daydreaming or reverie, impatience or boredom or even sleepiness.

This is totally normal and not a problem at all. When you notice that your mind is no longer on the breath, then noticing what is on your mind in that moment, and then gently letting go of whatever it is, which doesn't mean pushing it away, but just recognizing it and letting it be as we escort our attention back to the belly or to the nostrils, back to this breath, whether it's an in breath or an out breath.

And once again, reestablishing the breathing center stage in the field of awareness. And if the mind wanders away from the breath a 100 times, as it surely will, each and every time when we become aware that it is someplace else, we gently and patiently note what is on our mind in this moment, whatever it is. Perhaps even making a light mental note, such as thinking, thinking, or planning, planning, or worrying, worrying. And without being harsh or critical or judging of ourselves, we simply recognize what is arising for what it is and let it be as we come back to feeling this breath in this moment and begin again and again and again, each time for the first time, each moment, the only moment. Since our lives are unfolding here and now and only here and now, no matter what our thoughts are telling us.

Since it's in the nature of the mind to wander, it's not that you are failing at meditation if your mind doesn't stay on the breath. It's that you're discovering something exceedingly important about the nature of the mind itself, and that is that it waves just as the ocean waves. So it's never a matter of putting a stop to it, trying to shut off your thinking or make your mind go blank, but rather familiarizing yourself with the nature and the ways of your own mind and cultivating a deeper intimacy with it through gentle observation, grounded in an awareness that is bigger than thinking and wiser than thinking and usually kinder than thinking.

An awareness that grows out of our bringing the mind back to the breath gently but firmly over and over and over again, allowing each in breath to be a new beginning and each out breath a complete letting go. So sitting here now, mountain like, fully awake, with a light touch, resting in awareness, not forcing anything.

But as best we can, being fully in touch moment by moment with the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body, and coming back over and over again when we lose touch with it momentarily as we stay here sitting. Soon, you will hear the sound of a bell to signal the end of this segment of the sitting meditation practice. If you are extending your practice today to include 1 or both of the following tracks that expand the sitting practice, then just continuing right through the bell with a seamless continuity of moment to moment awareness. Otherwise, please use the sound of the bell to mindfully bring this period of formal practice to a close.