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Guided Meditation (56) Tranquility and Steadiness

Good day, greetings, and happy sitting here. Seeing the greetings on the chat and the names, thank you all.

The topic is still samadhi^[1]. I like to sometimes translate this word as "to be composed." That is a wonderful concept that brings together some of the qualities of samadhi: landing on some place, being established, being calm and centered, and being steady with the experience that we're focusing on.

I have gone into the wilderness, up in the mountains where there were no trails, but there were cairns—little piles of stones that people had built that indicated more or less the direction to walk. We would hike along, look for the cairns, and find our way.

If I hadn't known about cairns, or was just fascinated by everything up there and looking at everything equally, I wouldn't have found the way forward. If I was really scared about running into trolls up in the High Sierras in California, and was constantly looking out for trolls, I also wouldn't have found my way because I wouldn't have seen the cairns, even if I knew to look for them. But if we know to look for cairns, then we know how to find the way.

The same thing applies to meditation. We can be afraid of trolls and spend our time looking for them, or we can be searching for long-lost treasures in the world like lottery tickets, and we don't really pay attention to what is really here. But there are cairns—markers or signposts—that are helpful to recognize for samadhi. By recognizing them, we find our way.

There are many signposts, but I would like to emphasize three of them now. One is to be steady, having a certain kind of steady composure with the experience. When we hold ourselves steady, when the gaze is steady, when our composure or attention is steady, we are looking for that part of our attention that is steady, or can be steady, and we are steadying ourselves in that.

The second signpost is quietude, a tranquility, or maybe a serenity. Even if we are agitated, we might be able to pick out the corners of the mind, the heart, or the body where there is some tranquility or quietude, and include that to orient ourselves. We can say, "Oh, this is the place. This is the way forward here." But if we don't recognize that quietude, that tranquility, then we don't see the signposts.

The third is non-distractibility—a non-dispersal of the mind, a non-distractedness. Even if we are 99% distracted, we might pick up the signpost of the way in which the mind is not distracted, not dispersed, not spinning out in centrifugal force, scattered in all kinds of thoughts and ideas. As samadhi begins becoming stronger, there is a stronger and stronger feeling of the mind not being dispersed, scattered, jumping around, or fragmented. The mind starts feeling composed, quiet, and centered. It is a feeling that the mind is really here now.

These are three signposts that we can follow.

Guided Meditation Practice

Take an upright meditation posture. If you're lying down, upright means laying with a certain dignity, vitality, or openness that expresses an integrity, wholeness, or confidence in being here.

Gently close your eyes, being a little bit delightfully serious at the beginning of a meditation to prepare yourself so that you can really be here in the sacredness of the present moment. Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. The deep inhale is an affirmation that indeed you are here, that you've showed up. Here I am. I'm showing up for this. Deep breath, filling the torso not just with air, but with sensations, expansion, and maybe even confidence. Here I am.

Then, take a long, gentle exhale, letting all of that go. Let go of tension and holding.

Let your breathing return to normal. We prepare the mind and the heart by relaxing the body; all these are very closely connected. Relax the muscles of the face, around the eyes, and the jaw. Soften and release the shoulders, the area around the shoulder blades, perhaps the outer edge of your shoulders as they turn around to go down the arm, and the very top of the upper arms.

Perhaps relax the chest, softening in the chest. Then relax the belly in such a way that the weight of the belly gets lower and settles into a foundation in the lower torso.

Then, gently place your attention, your mind, on your breathing. Wherever you're going to be primarily focusing on breathing, imagine that attention is gently placed on that area, clearly settling into your breathing. Again, this is an affirmation that here is where you're going to walk, here is where you're going to be present.

Make some small adjustments in your breathing to make it more comfortable, relaxing some part of the musculature. Breathe a little slower or faster, a little deeper or shallower, whatever makes it comfortable for you.

Adjust how you are with your attention. Is there some way that your attention can be less forceful or strained, less up in the control tower trying to stare at the breathing, and more that the attention and awareness is within the breathing itself, in the sensations of breathing?

Notice whatever quietude or tranquility there might be here, even if it's in the cracks between any agitation, on the side, or deeper inside. Let the thinking mind become quieter, slower. Maybe the thinking mind can even be more gentle, so it's easier to notice the quietude and tranquility. Let that tranquility be part of the atmosphere within which you are mindful of your breathing.

Notice whatever degree of stability or steadiness you can establish with your breathing. Notice whatever steadiness on breathing is here for you.

Then also notice any way that you are non-distracted. The mind is not scattering out into all kinds of thoughts. Even if you are doing that, look for the signposts. Look for that part of you which is not that way, that is capable of being undistracted with your breathing. Relaxed, calm, steady, undistracted. These are the signposts that point you to samadhi, to staying present, to being intimate with the experience of breathing, one breath at a time.

When you notice yourself thinking a lot, look for the quiet and tranquility here. Let that tranquility of mind spread and open up further, so it's easier to stay with your breathing.

Cultivating Goodwill

As we come to the end of the sitting, you could begin by remembering that we're still meditating. There's nothing you have to say to anyone or do for anyone for the next few minutes. There's no responsibility or obligation to do anything but sit here quietly.

In the privacy of just sitting here with nothing you have to do, can you somehow let your heart open? Let your kindness open to think of people around you, here on this YouTube sitting together, or in your homes, communities, or places of work. Think of them with goodwill. It can be a very private goodwill; they don't have to know about it, you don't have to do anything. Just open your kindness and goodwill.

In a sense, be aware of these people around you within the quietude and tranquility that might be here. Without needing to bring them too close to you, just there in the privacy of your own heart, perhaps you can feel, sense, or extend the sentiments of these words:

May you be happy. May you be safe. May you be peaceful. May you be free.

If, in the safety and privacy of meditation in your own heart, it's easier to have goodwill for others, stay close to that. You don't have to confuse it with what you actually do or feel obligated to do. Stay close to that place where it's private, maybe even secret, trusting that having goodwill for others will somehow spread from you with benefits for the world.

May whatever benefits that come from this practice this morning spread from us like the scent of a rose spreads out into the garden. May the benefits that we've had today waft out into the world for the welfare and happiness of all beings everywhere. May all beings be happy.