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Guided Meditation: Simple Continuity

Warm greetings, and we'll continue with our mindfulness of breathing. One of the ways of approaching mindfulness of breathing is to appreciate its simplicity, and that it is a simplicity that, if you stay constant with it, becomes a continuity thread running through your life and through the meditation. It tends to reveal a lot; it's kind of like a reference point for understanding what's happening in our lives in a clearer way.

And so the difficulties you might have with staying with the breath are as important as the breath meditation itself, because the function of breath meditation is to highlight some of the attitudes and activities of the mind that are operating in daily life but maybe we don't really see very well. So, don't feel discouraged by the difficulties you have with mindfulness of breathing. What I hope you can do is not stop because of those difficulties, but rather just continue. Trust that breathing. Trust the mindfulness of the breathing. Trust it more than you trust your discouragement, distractions, reactivity, disappointment, or whatever it might be. Just simply trust staying with a breath.

It's kind of coasting along, kind of like pushing a scooter along. You might run into all kinds of challenges going uphill, bumps, traffic—all kinds of things that might interfere with your progress on the scooter. You might feel disappointed. You might feel somehow it's not going well enough. The important thing to do is to just keep pushing. Just keep going, going, going. Because if you stop pushing the scooter with your foot, the scooter doesn't go anymore. The scooter doesn't care whether you feel excited or discouraged about pushing it. It doesn't care whether you get attracted by the sights around you. The scooter, in a sense, only cares that you keep pushing, keep pushing off.

So in a simple and even simplistic way, the function of mindfulness meditation is to reveal attitudes, impulses, distractions, and tendencies of the mind which are common in daily life. You can go, "Aha, there's my old friend. There it is again." But don't give in to it. Trust the breathing. Hold the course. Stay there. And hopefully, do so in a tranquil way, in an equanimous way, just a matter-of-fact way.

To experience tranquility in meditation, there has to be tranquility. So allow yourself to be a little tranquil. Feel the tranquility regardless of what's happening, including if there's a buzz or sounds around you that are distracting. Just stay with the breathing. And if things seem important to attend to, breathe through them, breathe with them. Don't let anything be a reason to lose touch with your breathing.

Sitting upright, in a literal or a metaphoric way, and gently closing your eyes. Before doing anything else, appreciate yourself for breathing. Appreciate your breathing. It is said that we breathe 23,000 times a day. It's one of the most regular things that you do, ongoing things that you do, and it provides tremendous support for our lived life.

Simply feel and sense that breathing, and take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the particular ways that you're breathing now. Without any idea, hopefully, that it needs to be different, or that it's not quite right. Just familiarize yourself with how it actually is. Take the time to get to know an old friend you haven't seen for a while.

Then gently, ever so gently, maybe lovingly, take some slow, deeper breaths. When you inhale deeply, maybe appreciate the expansion of your rib cage, the stretching, the opening, the filling of your lungs. We breathe in by pushing the diaphragm down, which pushes the intestines and the lower belly out if we're relaxed. And a long, slow, deep exhale. Maybe lovingly allowing the rib cage to contract, the diaphragm to relax. Appreciating whatever sense of release that comes with exhaling. Breathing in and breathing out.

Then letting your breathing return to normal. As a way of settling into the breathing more fully, see if you can relax your body. Relaxing the belly downward into your pelvis, your pelvic cavity. Relaxing in the shoulders, releasing the shoulders, the shoulder blade area. Softening the face around the eyes. And then softening in the mind, softening and quieting your thinking, letting go of your thoughts.

As you let go, turn your attention back to your body breathing. Settle into your breathing like you're settling in for the long term. Just the breathing. Each inhale and each exhale is a gentle push on the Dharma^[1] scooter, keeping you in the Dharma, in the present.

Perhaps you can turn your trust over to your breathing. Or more appropriately, trust the mindfulness of your breathing, the awareness of breathing. Not so much aware from the control tower where you think, but aware from the body's vantage point, from the body's ability to sense the sensations of breathing.

If anything takes you away from your breathing, it's okay. Just recognize that, but continue with your breathing. Hold the course. It's more like everything else is just scenery that's passing by. Stay on the scooter. Stay with your breathing.

It takes a tranquil mind to recognize tranquility. And somewhere within, in some little corner at least, you might find some tranquility, some calmness. Perhaps that tranquility or calmness can support the continuity of awareness on breathing. So the awareness of breathing itself feels calm, has some peacefulness to it, with infinite patience.

Ever so slightly, have a small smile on your lips, turning up the corners of your mouth. And perhaps in some modest way, you can feel more pleasure or enjoyment of sitting here, mindful of breathing. Trusting your breathing.

Dedication

As we come to the end of the sitting, perhaps whatever constancy and continuity you have with mindfulness of breathing can support the continuity and constancy of your goodwill, your kindness, and your friendliness towards others. Trust friendliness and trust goodwill more than all the things that would convince you not to have it.

Reflect at the end of a period of meditation about how this meditation might, in some small or maybe big way, support you in bringing more goodwill, kindness, and friendliness into your daily life. It's not just wishful thinking that we dedicate the benefit of the practice to the welfare and happiness of all beings, but it's also because we turn our attention to do so, to contribute to that possibility.

May it be that whatever merit and benefit has come from this practice be for the welfare and happiness of all beings everywhere, including ourselves. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be free. And may all beings delight in tranquility and peace.