Sitting Meditation Audio Transcript

As we begin this period of sitting meditation, taking the time to establish yourself in a comfortable, relaxed sitting position with the back erect, but not stiff. Your hands resting on your thighs or in your lap, and if you're sitting on a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Allowing the eyes to gently close or, if you prefer, letting your gaze focus softly on the floor about 4 feet in front of you. And when you're ready, bringing your attention to your body. Feeling the spine lifting upwards out of the pelvis.

Feeling the head balanced at the top of the spine. Letting the shoulders drop. Opening the chest. Gently tucking in the chin. And now sensing the weight of your body pressing down, aware of the sensations where your buttocks come into contact with a chair, cushion, or bench.

Feeling the patterns of touch or pressure where your body or feet make contact with the floor. The sensations where the hands rest on the thighs or on each other. Settling into the sensations of sitting as you find them in this moment. And now allowing any thoughts to recede into the background and gathering your attention and letting it settle on the movements of the breath. Aware of the constantly changing pattern of sensations as the breath moves in and as the breath moves out.

Focusing your attention wherever you experience the sense of the breath most clearly. It might be on the movements of the breath in the lower abdomen or in the chest, or on the sensations at the nostrils and upper lip as the air moves in and out. It's helpful to choose a single focus and stay with it for the whole session rather than moving around from one focus to another. In this guidance, I'll use a focus on the breath down in the lower abdomen, the belly. The sensations of gentle stretching as the breath moves in and the abdomen expands, and the sensations of gentle release as the breath moves out, and the abdominal wall falls back.

You may find it helpful to place a hand on the belly. Feeling the abdominal wall pressing gently against the hand with each in breath, and feeling the abdominal wall sinking back beneath the hand with each out breath. There's no need to control the breathing in any way. Just letting the breath breathe itself. Seeing if it's possible to feel the sensations of breathing all the way through each in breath and all the way through each out breath.

Perhaps noticing the slight pause between the end of each out breath and the beginning of the following in breath. And the slight pause between the end of each in breath and the beginning of the following out breath. Just letting the awareness rest gently on the movements of the breath. And, of course, the mind will wander from the breath. That's just what minds do.

So whenever you notice your awareness is no longer on the breath, simply pausing long enough to register where the mind has gone. Then releasing the attention. And with as much kindness as you can, gently returning the awareness to rest once more on the sensations of the breath, rising and falling in the lower abdomen. Remembering that however often the mind wanders, the breath is always there for you to return to. Your anchor to reconnect you with the here and now.

Your way to make a fresh start in any moment. And when you're ready, now allowing the field of your awareness to expand around the movements of the breath to include as well sensations throughout the body, all the way out to the skin. Perhaps getting a sense of the contact of the air with the skin. Getting a sense of the body as a whole as you sit here. Aware of the breath within the larger space of awareness of sensations in the whole body.

Sensations of touch, pressure, or warmth where the buttocks make contact with your chair, cushion, or bench. Sensations where the hands rest on the thighs or on each other. Sensations where your body or feet make contact with the floor. Awareness filling the body. Bathing the body.

Feeling a whole body alive and awake. Perhaps noticing how sensations arise, last for a time, and then disappear or change into something else. And at a certain point, you might like to explore the possibility of intentionally changing the breadth of your focus of awareness as if it were a zoom lens, sometimes focusing in closely to explore sensations in a particular region. Other times, expanding the awareness to take in the wider field of the body as a whole.

So if you become aware of sensations in one part of the body that are particularly intense or seem to be calling for your attention, seeing if it's possible to intentionally bring the focus of your awareness right up to and into the region of greatest intensity.

As best you can, exploring the detailed pattern of sensations you find here. Where the sensations begin? Where they end? Where they're most intense, how, if at all, they change over time, whether they move around the body as you explore them. Not so much thinking about the sensations you find as allowing yourself to actually feel what is here to be felt.

And if you become aware of unpleasant sensations, noticing how your body is reacting to them. Any sense of tensing or bracing or pushing away. Any sense of aversion. Where in the body are these effects most intense? Do they change over time?

Seeing if it's possible to recognize your body's habitual pattern of reaction to unpleasant sensations. Your aversion signature. And perhaps now exploring the possibility of deliberately widening the focus of awareness. Becoming aware of a larger sense of the body as a whole and of the constantly shifting pattern of sensations within it. Sensing the flow of life throughout the body.

And if, as you do so, you become aware of any unpleasant sensations, perhaps seeing if it's possible to gently hold those sensations within the wider space of awareness, to sense them within the bigger pattern of sensations. As if you were cradling all the sensations of the body in a kind, spacious, all inclusive awareness.

And now when you're ready, letting go of awareness of sensations in the body and shifting the focus of your awareness to hearing, bringing your attention to your ears, and allowing the awareness to open and expand to receive sounds as they arise, wherever they arise. No need to go searching for sounds or listening out for particular sounds. As best you can, simply allowing your awareness to be open to receive sounds from all directions.

Sounds that are near. Sounds that are far. Sounds that are obvious. Sounds that are more subtle. Aware of the space between sounds.

Aware of silence. As best you can, being aware of sounds as sounds, Bare auditory sensations. So whenever you find you're thinking about sounds, whether you like them, what they might mean, seeing if it's possible to come back to your direct experience of sounds in the moment. Aware of their loudness, their pitch, whether they're changing from one moment to the next. And whenever you notice that your awareness is no longer focused on sounds in the moment, gently acknowledging where your mind has been, and then reconnecting with awareness of sounds as sounds, letting this be your anchor back to the here and now.

Just as before, you use the breath as your anchor. Aware of sounds arising, lasting for a time, and then passing away. Aware of any moments of stillness, of silence between the ending of one sound and the beginning of the next. Perhaps sensing the space out of which sounds arise. The stillness.

Resting in that stillness. And when you're ready, letting go of awareness of sounds and refocusing your attention to focus on thoughts as events in the mind. So just as with sounds, you focused awareness on them as they arose, developed, and passed away. So now, as best you can, bringing awareness to the thoughts that arise in your mind in just the same way. Noticing thoughts as they arise, focusing attention on them as they pass through the space of your mind, and seeing them eventually disappear.

There's no need to try to make thoughts come or go, just letting them arise and pass naturally, just as you did with sounds as they arose and passed away. Some people find it helpful to bring awareness to thoughts as if the thoughts were projected on the screen at the cinema, sitting, watching the screen, waiting for a thought or image to arise. And when it does, as best you can, paying attention to it so long as it's there on the screen, and then letting it go as it passes away. Or you might find it helpful to see thoughts as if they were clouds or birds moving across a vast, spacious sky. Or as leaves moving on a stream carried by the current.

And if any thoughts bring with them intense feelings or emotions, as best you can, noting their emotional charge and intensity, and simply letting them be. No need to react to them in any way. And if at any time you become aware that your mind has become unfocused or scattered, or it keeps getting drawn into the drama of your thinking and imaginings, you might find it helpful to shift your focus of attention to see how the thoughts and feelings are affecting your body. If you don't like what's happening, you may feel a sense of contraction or tightness in the face or shoulders or torso, a sense of wanting to push away your thoughts and feelings, A sense of aversion. And simply remembering that whenever you find yourself repeatedly lost in thought, you can always come back to the breath and to a sense of the body as a whole sitting here, breathing, using this as a focus to anchor and stabilize your awareness.

And now seeing if it's possible to let go of any specific focus of attention, such as the breath or sounds or thoughts, and to simply be open to all experiences that arise in the field of awareness. As best you can, receiving all experience with a friendly, wholehearted attention. Aware of each experience within the wider spaciousness of the mind. And if no particular experience is asking for your attention, seeing if it's possible to just rest in the field of awareness itself. Resting effortlessly in the simple sense of knowing.

Sitting here, awake, alert, with no agenda. Not needing anything to happen, not needing anything to be different from how it is right now. And in the last few minutes of this sitting, perhaps returning to the simple practice of mindful awareness of the breath. Knowing when you're breathing in. Knowing when you're breathing out with kindness, In silence.