BASIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR MEDITATION ON THE BREATH
Settle into the body. Experience what it is like to be alive in this body at this moment. Feel the vibration of life. Survey the “mood” states today…today’s weather. Energetic? Calm? Tired? Anxious? Peaceful? Fearful? Etc. Don’t try to change anything, just notice.
Take a moment to relax what is easily able to be relaxed. Soften the facial muscles. Relax and “unhinge” the jaw. Allow the shoulders to settle down. Soften the belly and hands.
Reflect for a minute or two on some elements in your life that you are grateful for. “Feel” what gratitude really feels like. Bask in that feeling.
To further enhance receptivity allow a “smile” into the mind, eyes, heart and lips.
Open to sound. Resting back like a satellite dish, not chasing the sounds, very alert and accepting of whatever sounds are occurring. Hearing with the quality of “bare attention” — feeling the energy of the sound without trying to analyze, categorize or figure the sound out. Allowing the sound to “wash through” un-resisted. Allowing yourself to be massaged by the sound. Notice that you can hear without any effort. Sound just arises and passes by itself in the open, spacious, sky-like awareness of the mind.
Now, moving the attention to the body. Experience some of the “touch points” of the body. The pressure on the sitting bones, the touch of feet on the floor, the touch of the hands wherever they are resting, the touch of the clothing and touch of the air moving across exposed skin are all “touch points.”
Feel the overall sensations of pulsing life in the body. Noticing that these sensations arise and pass away just like sounds in the open spacious sky-like quality of the mind.
Notice now that breathing is happening…..by itself. Explore the breath. What is it like? Long? Short? Deep? Shallow? Smooth? Coarse? Forced? Easy? Etc. Find the portion of the breath that is most predominant and comfortable for you and make that portion of the breath the “refuge,” the “anchor” or “home base” for this sitting period. Rest in your anchor and observe all the nuances of today’s breath. Experience the gently rocking motion of the breath, the primordial ebb and flow of the breath. You may want to try supporting the mind being with the breath by using a quiet notation in the mind like rising-falling or in-out etc. Noting with a voice in the mind about as heavy as a dragonfly’s wing. Bring yourself up close to the breath. Be snug but gentle with it like a baby carried in a snuggly. Not too tight but not too loose. See if you can develop a reverence and affection for the sacred breath that has served you so well.
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