This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Meditating in the Body

I offer my warm greetings here at our meditation time. We might be in different places around the globe, but we're here at this present moment together. It's a fortunate thing to be sharing meditation in community, even if it's through the medium of our electronics.

I want to welcome you to your body. Ideally, we learn the welcome that's waiting for us in our body. Our body does really well in our being present for it, so much so that sometimes I think we have two bodies because they're so different from each other: the one that we have when we're not aware of it—not conscious, not centered in it in a mindful way—and the other one where we are mindful, conscious, and aware in the body.

It does the body a lot of good if we can be aware of it, but aware with a silent or quiet mind. A mind that's not reacting, ruminating, spinning stories or predictions, having self-pity, or all kinds of ideas. A tremendous amount of exhaustion comes from the spinning of the mind.

Whether the body is comfortable or uncomfortable, I hope that you will find that the body welcomes you to be aware. If it's uncomfortable, then it's even more important to be aware of the body, but with the mind quiet. See how quiet you can have your mind be, and sit in the middle of your body with your body, even in the middle of the discomfort. If the body is a place of comfort, then sit in the middle of that and let the mind become quiet so you don't get caught up in preferences, maybe kind of indulging in the comfort. Just be simply present with a quiet mind.

Place your body in a meditation posture. This care around the posture is the beginning of being embodied or turning the attention to the body. In the Zen tradition I practiced with, it seemed like the longer someone practiced Zen, the longer they would adjust their posture when they first sat down to meditate. They would sway back and forth quite far. Some of them would drop their head down to one knee and then the other knee, forming a little ritual of getting the body stretched, opened, and balanced.

The swaying back and forth and sideways is a way of finding a center in the body. Perhaps it's no coincidence that the longer someone practices meditation, the more care they give to their posture, partly because they have a reference point for sitting in a balanced, meditative way.

Gently close your eyes and feel your body from the inside out with a quiet mind, which does not involve preferences, concerns, fears, or desires. As if you're doing it for the first time ever, be curious about what your experience of the body is now. What's your body's experience? Let your attention roam around your body.

If you find that your center of gravity for attention is up in the thinking mind, as you exhale, can you lower your attention—your center of awareness—into your body? It is kind of like you're lowering yourself into a delicious pool of water. Lower yourself into your body, down through the shoulders, the arms, the chest, the belly, all the way down to your sitting bones and your legs.

Within this body, as part of this body, allow the body to take a few long, slow, deep breaths to give you a fuller experience of being in the body and feeling it from the inside out. As you exhale a little bit longer than usual, use that as a way to relax and let go into the body, softening. Then let your breathing return to normal.

Continue as you're sitting here: as you breathe in, feel some part of your body where maybe there's still some tension, holding, or discomfort. On the exhale, soften and relax. Imagine you're draining the tension from that part of your body. Breathe in, and then breathe out to relax and soften.

Begin to settle into your breathing. You might imagine that who you are in your essence—whatever that might be, though Buddhism says there's no essence at all^[1]—is found in the middle of your body breathing. You are not up in the control tower, not ahead of yourself, not behind, and not apart from your breathing, but somehow in the middle of the body breathing.

As you breathe in, you expand with the in-breath, and as you exhale, you settle and relax back into the center of it all. This is an imagination which perhaps supports an intimacy with the body breathing.

Continuing with your breathing, in your peripheral awareness, notice any global feeling of comfort or any global feeling of discomfort, pleasantness, or unpleasantness that you might feel. Let it be that way without any conflict. Either way, let it be an encouragement to let the mind become quieter and stiller, with the breathing at the center of it all. Breathing into the comfort, breathing into the discomfort—just breathing as a massage of all things.

Stay intimate with the breath. If the mind wanders off, let the mind become quieter. Think in softer, quieter ways. Let the mind become quieter, and then in that quietness, begin again with the breathing. Feel the full inhale and the full exhale, and then use a little remembering, encouraging yourself to be available for the next inhale so you maintain a link between one breath to the next. Have a continuous awareness of breathing, allowing the mind to get quieter and softer.

You probably don't need to be thinking what you're thinking right now. It's probably okay to quiet your mind and accept the invitation and the welcome to your body breathing.

With your peripheral awareness, become aware of the global body in whatever way is easy, in terms of its level of comfort or discomfort, restlessness or calmness. With the breathing at the center, sitting intimate with your breathing, allow the breathing to touch the comfort and discomfort in a reassuring way. Allow the breathing to breathe through it or with it, while the mind becomes quieter and stiller.

The mind does not have to react. It doesn't have to be involved with the intimacy and the touching of the body with the breathing. Trust the body. Trust the body that's aware and mindful. Follow along, accompanying your body and accompanying your breathing within a quiet, open, expansive mind.

Dedication of Merit

As we come to the end of the sitting, you might consider the good fortune of being able to sit in meditation for half an hour. To feel safe enough and undisturbed enough to be able to meditate, to have the time and the wherewithal to do it. Many people in the world do not have this. They don't have the time, the privacy, or the luxury of space to be alone to meditate. Many people don't know about meditation; they don't know that they can put their thinking mind down, that they don't have to keep spinning out and being worried, angry, upset, or greedy.

May it be that this good fortune that we've had to sit and meditate—whether it's been challenging or not challenging—reminds us of the people who don't have this fortune. May we extend our wishes and our goodwill to them and to all beings. May the goodness and the benefits of our meditation turn us into people who share this good fortune with others. We dedicate the merit^[2], the fortune, and the benefits to the welfare and happiness of others.

As we come out of meditation, may we be quietly and peacefully oriented to spread kindness, goodwill, and friendliness out into the world. May it be that all beings become happy. That all beings be safe. May it be that all beings are respected and valued. May it be that all beings become free and peaceful. And may we all together share in happiness, goodwill, and peace, and these good hearts that we can touch into. May all beings be happy.