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Guided Meditation: Quieting the Mind

Good morning, good day, good afternoon, good evening, and here we are. A little time to meditate.

As an introduction to this meditation, I'd like to say that the focus—especially within early Buddhist meditation—is not to discover who we are, but to discover what we're doing. In doing so, we discover what we don't need to do because it brings us suffering^[1].

Part of the reason to sit quietly and not do so much is to begin noticing, much more carefully than we usually do, what we're actually doing, what we're driven to do, or what we want to do. So sitting quietly, not moving the body. If you're brand new to meditation and have never done it before, you might notice how much the body wants to move and scratch itself, or bolt, or adjust itself in all kinds of ways. Learning for the body to be relaxed and at ease, and not needing to move, is a great blessing.

It is the same thing with the mind. We sit down and we realize, layers upon layers, how compulsive the mind is to think, to want, and to do things. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, except that some of the things the mind does bring suffering, stress, and distress. We start discovering what the mind is doing, and realize another possibility: the mind doesn't have to do those things. The mind can get quieter and more peaceful, letting go of and shedding some of the activities that are not serving us at all. That opens the possibility of doing things in the mind that do serve us, that benefit us, and benefit the world.

To discover what we're doing, and that process, also involves beginning to do very simple things that are more useful. One of those things is to be mindful. That's a kind of "doing," though in reference to how people usually do things, it can seem almost like you're not doing anything—just being receptive. But it's a quiet action of the mind, a silent listening and observing that helps us to see what we're doing and what we might like to stop doing, let go of, or allow to disappear.

Taking a meditation posture that allows your body to be both alert and also still. Of course, you can move a little bit during the meditation if that's important, but the idea is to have a posture that relatively allows you to experience physical stillness.

On the exhale, settle in. Let go into some place within your body where you might feel more stability, more stillness. As you exhale, relax the muscles of your body as a way of letting the body settle into more stillness. Excuse me for my cough. More stillness.

When the muscles are held or tense, that's a doing; it's an activity of the muscles. Relaxing the muscles allows them to move to stillness, to less doing, maybe even to rest.

Also, relax the mind and the thinking activities. Maybe by quieting the thinking or slowing it down. Maybe relaxing any mental tension, or any tension around the forehead, temples, or anything behind the forehead or within the skull.

There's an analogy that an active, agitated mind is like choppy waves on top of a lake. With time, those waves quiet down, and the lake becomes still, flat, and serene. In doing so, the surface becomes more see-through. Someone standing on the shore can look down into the bottom of the lake, see the fish, the rocks, and whatever is there.

Allow the mind to become quieter. Perhaps that allows you to see, among other things, the impulses the mind has to do, to act. Maybe for these few minutes of meditation, you can trust that it's okay to do very, very little. Trust that there is so little you have to do mentally to figure out, think about, or plan. It is safe and appropriate for these minutes to rest the mind from all things except just being aware of what is. Being mindful of breathing, and maintaining a receptive awareness.

Not searching out for something, but allowing reality to show itself to you. As if your job is to have the quiet, clear surface of the lake, so what's in the lake will show itself to you in the body, in the mind. Just here, mindful.

Perhaps being anchored, being connected to your breathing as the lifeline to the present moment. If your mind is doing something, what would it be like to put that to rest? To relax any extra doing beyond being mindful, being aware of what is.

Closing Reflections

As we come to the end of the sitting, I'd like to mention that one of the goals of Buddhist meditation is to not be overactive physically or mentally in such a way that there's no clarity of attention. To not be overactive so we don't really know ourselves or what we're doing clearly, and not overactive so that we don't see and aren't attuned to the people around us in the world.

In that way, there's a little saying: Be still and gaze upon all things kindly. Be quiet and gaze upon all things kindly. Just still enough, just quiet enough, that we can be involved in the world in beneficial ways. We know ourselves, we know the world, and others, so that we have time and wherewithal to be in the world kindly, generously, friendly, and maybe even happily.

May it be that this practice we have of being mindful, this meditation practice today, will inspire us and motivate us to listen better, to pay more careful attention to others, and to be more present for ourselves, so that we can stay connected to our wellsprings of kindness, friendliness, and generosity.

May it be that this practice that we do benefits the world through our kindness, our friendliness, and our generosity. So that we live a life that expresses:

May all beings be happy.^[2]
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be free.