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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Drawing on the words of Dogen, a 13th century Buddhist monk, we cultivate stability in the body along with a vast and spacious quality of heart and mind.
Beginning the meditation by adopting
as comfortable a position as possible.
The key things to look for is
relaxation and yet alertness.
In the meditation we're going to do
today is based on a wonderful saying
from a great Zen master called Dogen.
And it goes like this.
Body like a mountain, heart like
the ocean, mind like the sky.
So we'll see if we can get a taste of
these qualities during the meditation.
To begin with, let's really
arrive in the body, in the moment.
Taking a deep breath in, and on the
out-breath, resting right down into
the points of contact between the
body and the chair or the floor.
And seeing if you can give the
whole weight of the body up to
gravity, resting and settling.
And feeling into a quality
of stability like a mountain.
Body like a mountain.
Allowing awareness to inhabit
the legs and the torso and
the arms, the neck, the head.
Resting here in each moment.
Grounded, steady, strong, like a mountain.
And coming inside breathing
in the whole body.
Can you get a sense of breathing
in the abdomen and the belly?
Swelling and subsiding,
swelling and subsiding.
And the chest and the
whole back of the torso.
And seeing if we can get a sense of the
volume of the whole torso, expanding
a little bit in all directions on the
in-breath and subsiding a little bit
in all directions on the out-breath.
A sense of 360 degree breathing,
making sure this is natural,
we're not forcing or straining.
But it's as if we let our awareness
drop very deep inside the body
and then our awareness rides.
The movements and sensations of breathing.
And expanding to have a sense of the
whole body participating in this quality
of breathing, the whole body opening
a little bit in all directions on
the in-breath, subsiding a little bit
in all directions on the out-breath.
And now the next great phrase
from Dogen, heartt like the ocean.
And of course, oceans are
vast and they're deep.
Imagining an ocean on a still
day where it's vast, it's deep.
a sense of pliability and fluidity.
And perhaps coming to rest on the heart
center in the body and tuning into our
emotions as we sit here, as we lie here.
What's your emotional weather?
Bright, stormy, cloudy, overcast, clear.
Just getting a general sense of what
your emotional mood is, if you like that,
you're bringing into this meditation.
And placing it within this
broad, vast ocean of awareness.
Just as the ocean is fluid and
changing, allowing your emotions
to be fluid and changing.
For any point you feel overwhelmed, then
broadening awareness to be aware of the
whole body, breathing in the whole body.
You feel a bit numb and cut
off, you don't really know what
you're feeling, that's fine.
But perhaps being a bit more curious,
coming closer, resting in this ocean of
your emotional life, seeing what arises.
And allowing our emotional life to
be fluid and open like the ocean.
Coming into being, passing away,
coming into, being, passing away with
a sense of vitality, a sense of flow.
And seeing if we can be curious
about what we're experiencing,
letting go of any judgments.
Simply arriving inside, the
emotional side of our experience,
as best we can, moment by moment.
Moving on to the next great phrase
from Dogen, mind like the sky.
Mind like a clear, blue,
vast limitless sky,
tuning into any thoughts that
are flowing through the mind.
We all have thinking going on most
of the time, that's really normal.
So just noticing what thoughts are
present and seeing if we can let
them flow across the blue sky of
awareness, the blue sky of the mind,
just like clouds come into being,
pass away, come into being, pass away.
Usually what we do is we jump onto
our thoughts, we over-identify with
our thoughts, we get carried away
or else we suppress our thoughts.
We think we shouldn't be
thinking when we meditate.
But instead we can see the practice
about changing our perspective on
the thinking mind, on our thoughts.
Acknowledge that they're there
and neither suppress them nor get
carried away, but let them pass
across the mind, like a cloud.
Can you get a quality of expansiveness
in the mind, openness and the
mind, like a clear, blue sky.
And now let's broaden our awareness
to hold these three phrases, these
three qualities in our awareness.
Body like a mountain, stable, grounded.
Heart like the ocean, vast, deep fluid.
Mind like the sky, boundless,
clear like a clear, blue sky.
And allowing all of our experience
to arise and pass away, arise
and pass away, moment by moment.
So we're resting in a very
receptive, broad, open awareness.
And as we bring the practice to a close,
bringing the weight of the body to the
foreground of awareness, breathing in
the body to the foreground of awareness.
Perhaps forming an intention to
take this quality that we've touched
into into our day, something we
can come back to again and again.
Stability in the body, openness
emotionally, clarity in the mind.
And when we're ready, we can move
the body and gently and quietly
re-engaged with whatever's coming next.
Thank you so much for
practicing with me today.
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