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Guided Meditation: Receiving and Allowing

One of the really helpful ways for many people to meditate is to meditate with the constancy of the breathing. Even if you end up controlling your breath a little bit, it's okay. There's a way in which you can just hang in there with how regularly in-breaths and out-breaths come. And it can be a little protection from drifting off in thoughts and getting caught up in other things—getting preoccupied or reactive—just being with that: the thread of breathing.

And to help that, it can be helpful to have a few attitudes. One of them is, when you inhale, you're receiving. You're receiving, certainly, air going into your lungs, but the sense of just being in receptive mode to allow, to receive the expansion of the rib cage, the movement of the diaphragm, the expansion maybe of the belly, the air going in through your nostrils—just receive.

And when you exhale, to really allow. Allow release to happen, the letting go, the contraction, the falling down of the chest, the return of the belly. So that there's a regular movement of receiving and allowing. Receiving and allowing, which is often a very different attitude of the mind than maybe what we're usually up to: wanting, or protecting, or worrying, thinking, trying to do all kinds of things, asserting oneself, straining, trying to attain. To receive and to allow as a way of settling deeply into the present moment, of really being here, this time, in this place. To gently support the mind to have the trust and the contentment to not have to think so much, not feel compelled to entertain itself, or solve things, or review, or plan.

So, sitting upright—and that could be metaphorically, if you are lying down, in a chair, or on a cushion—and gently closing your eyes if that's comfortable for you. And then to take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Maybe do this gently, maybe even lovingly, as a way of caring for yourself.

And as you exhale, a long exhale, maybe a little longer than usual by releasing more, allowing the exhale to go to a kind of completion, not forcefully. Breathing in deeply and feeling the ribcage stretch, expand, and exhaling, relaxing the whole body as you release.

And then to let your breathing return to normal. And again, as you're breathing in a somewhat normal way, to again feel the expansion of the body as you breathe in, and then to relax the whole body as you exhale. Softening the face, the shoulders, the chest, and the belly.

And then to also relax your mind, as if your mind is a muscle. Maybe you can feel the energies of the mind, the tensions, the pressures. Maybe you can feel a hardness. As you exhale, to soften the mind, perhaps allowing the mind to spread wide, like a wide, still lake where all the waves have settled.

And then to now receive the inhales. Feeling the body breathing, feeling the body expand, open up as it receives. Receive the whole experience of inhaling, the body inhaling. Not so much the air, but to feel, to experience the body inhaling. And allowing the exhale.

And if it's helpful for you, you can very softly say to yourself in the mind, "receiving," as you receive the inhale; "allowing," as you exhale. Receiving might be a kind of opening oneself to experience the inhale. Allowing might be a releasing, so the exhale can move towards completion.

And at the end of the exhale, maybe allowing a teeny moment of a pause, or almost a pause, so the body more naturally receives, more naturally begins the inhale. As you exhale, letting go of your thoughts, letting go of your thinking, so there's a greater sensitivity to the experience of exhaling, a greater allowing. Gently letting go of thoughts, so there's a greater sensitivity to the receiving of the inhale.

Ever so gently, you might sit up a little bit straighter so there's a little sense of strength in your spine. And that strength perhaps gives a little bit more fullness to receiving. The awareness that receives the inhale receives all the sensations in the body that get activated as we breathe in, in the chest, the diaphragm, the belly. And with a stronger spine, a little strength in and dedication to allowing, allowing the exhale, so you ride the exhale all the way to the end.

Staying closely connected to the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. Letting the in-breath wash completely over you as you receive it.

Reflections

And then, as we come to the end of the sitting, meditation is part of the wider Buddhist path. Meditating is part of the wider path. It can be helpful at the end of a meditation to connect your meditation practice with benefiting the world, offering to live in some way for the welfare and happiness of all. Not necessarily in any dramatic way, but just simple ways.

So for this meditation, you might reflect: When is it useful, when is it helpful for others for you to receive them? To be in a receptive mode of mind, to receive them into your heart, receive them into your listening, rather than asserting oneself or quickly rushing ahead in a conversation. And when is it useful for others that you offer them the gift of allowing? Allowing them to be who they are before wanting to change them. How is it that receiving and allowing others can be a support for them, help them grow and relax and be happy?

And may it be on this day that in the ways that we encounter people, the ways that we communicate with people, in the ways that we think about people, that we do so in a way that receives them, allows them to be, so it's supportive for them. So that for this day we can contribute, knowingly or unknowingly, to the welfare and happiness of all beings.

May this meditation session spread out into the lands with goodness, generosity, and care. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be free. Thank you.