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Guided Meditation: Steadiness of Aim

I offer my warm greetings and my warm wishes for this meditation session. It's a very fortunate thing, I believe, to be able to sit and meditate. I don't take it for granted, even though I've been doing it for my adult life. To be able to connect with oneself, connect with reality, with life, with freedom, with intimacy, with love, with appreciation, with gratitude, with ease, and with honesty—an honest connection to what's really happening for us, the truthfulness of the moment even if it's difficult. There are so many things that meditation can do in different settings, different ways that it's fortunate to sit here with our experience.

The topic of this week is equanimity, and one of the things that supports equanimity is concentration. For the purpose of this meditation, I'll define concentration as a singleness of purpose or singleness of aim, or a steadiness of aim. The analogy for it is that of a boat moving through the water. The boat is heading, maybe to harbor, and there's a clear spot where it's heading towards. It might be far out at sea, but it sees the harbor, and it just heads steadily for that harbor. As it does so, all kinds of waves and water and maybe driftwood or different small things are floating in the water. But the boat stays steady on this point and allows the water just to wash off the side of the hull. The bow of the boat cuts through the water with steadiness and aim for where it's going. Whatever else it encounters with the water just washes off to the side.

I don't think of it as being dismissive of the water. The boat needs the water to float and to be able to move. It's not aversive of the water. It's just steadily not stopping for the water, moving ahead and letting everything just wash by its hull.

In the same way, it's possible to sit with the steadiness of aim on the breathing. It's not necessarily easy to keep the steadiness, but the steadiness of returning, the steadiness of beginning again, the steadiness of just resting and staying—this is the harbor. This is the refuge here with the breathing. All kinds of things might arise, and allow it to just wash right by. Allow you just to be what it is. You don't have to be against it, or reactive to it, or judge it, or get excited by it. Just let it wash by. If a difficulty arises, there's no need to get involved with it as a difficulty. If it's a joy, there's no reason to get involved with it as a joy. Just hold the steadiness with the breathing. In that way, the tendency to get activated by the things that float by in the water won't activate you, and the mind will stay steady and equanimous with all things that wash by.

So, take a meditation posture and gently close your eyes. As you are right now, can you allow for a gentling of your innards, a gentling of your being, your body? Perhaps by relaxing the muscles that are tense. When our muscles are tense, it's kind of like we're holding ourselves against reality, away from it, or even away from ourselves. Relax as deeply as is possible for you, while sitting upright, without slumping in any way.

Softening all around the face. The face works so much at expressing ourselves to others and to life, responding and reacting. Give the face a vacation, letting the muscles of the face release from the skull.

Soften and relax the shoulders, releasing and allowing the pull of gravity on the shoulders. And then maybe soften in the chest. Maybe something just behind the ribcage can settle back, settle back and down. See if what's behind the chest, the ribcage, can also relax and come to rest.

In the muscles that are behind the skin of your belly, deeper than where your skin touches your clothes, see if the belly muscles can relax and soften, so there isn't a pulling away, pulling backwards in the belly.

And the hands and the arms can soften.

Let's see if you can bring a gentleness to the mind, simple kindness, easy kindness, and a willingness to be here in your body—aware and attentive, curious, appreciating the opportunity to be here with your lived experience.

Within your body, as part of your body, become aware of your breathing. Become aware of how your body experiences breathing. You're not so much in the control tower looking at the breathing, but you're in your body. You're in the boat, feeling the gentle movements of breathing, the very slight, gentle rocking of the body boat as you breathe.

Gently but determinedly, set your course, your aim, on your breathing. Experience the sensations in the body, in the belly, the chest, or the nose, wherever it's easy for you. Experience those sensations almost from the inside of the sensations, in intimacy.

As you sit here, settling down into the experience of breathing, every time you exhale, let go of your thoughts and re-establish the aim, the connection to your breathing.

In guiding a boat, piloting a boat through water, the pilot is constantly making ever-small adjustments. Always attentive, always present, heading for the harbor, heading for the course. Stay with your breathing.

Mind wanders off? Come back. Mind wanders to the left? Come back. Mind wanders to the right? Come back. Mind wanders up into the head? Every time you exhale, reset the course. Every time you inhale, reset the course on the breathing. Just breathing, relaxing the thinking mind, the brain, so you can settle into the journey of just being with the breath. Allow everything else that arises to wash right by.

No need to get involved or react to whatever is happening. If you can just stay with the breathing, let everything else wash by, like a boat heading straight through the water, letting the water just wash off the sides of the boat, leaving a wake as things are left behind.

Gently, lovingly, determinedly, hold your course, steadily being with your breathing.

Every in-breath and out-breath, hold the course with the breathing. Let your thoughts that have come up just wash right by. Don't be involved in them. Just be involved with your breathing.

Give no thought, no concern, to the mind that wanders off in thought. As soon as you notice, let it wash through. As soon as you notice, begin again with your breathing, steadying yourself on the breathing in and breathing out.

If there are strong emotions that pull you away from the breathing, see if you can let those just wash by, for however long they're there, wave after wave. Hold the course on the breathing, not being bothered by anything.

When the mind is equanimous, and not bothered by all the water that washes by, it's easier to have a steadiness of purpose, to just hold the course with what's important, not with attachment or aggression, but with an ease and unbotheredness. With whatever degree of concentration and equanimity that arises from meditation, it's one of the great things to turn that ability to hold a steady aim towards having goodwill and care for others.

To now arouse the thoughts, the intentions, and the wishes for the welfare and happiness of others. A steady gaze of care and kindness. As if you're sitting on a hill, in a relaxed, easy way under an oak tree, and you can gaze out across the world, and you have the good fortune to be able to gaze with care, kindness, and love for all beings.

Consider how today you might express your steadiness of purpose for the purpose of supporting others, lightening their load, caring for them, bringing joy and happiness. How you experience yourself in meditation can bring equanimity, unbotheredness, and ease to meeting the challenges of this world.

May it be that we come into this world that's so challenged with the steadiness of care, love, and generosity. May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy and safe. May all beings be free.