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Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of Mind

Introduction

Good day. Good beginning of the week.

So, it's probably a little confusing for some of you that we've switched now back to meeting at 7:00 a.m. for the meditation. I think it was quite wonderful for many of us to be starting at 6:45 last week and have the 45-minute sitting. The plan is to do that again next week, starting on Monday. Then we can assess for one week and decide whether to continue this way, do it once a month, or not do it at all.

In terms of the sixteen steps of mindfulness of breathing, we've gone through the first eight, and today is to introduce the ninth. That is to become aware of the mind. Knowing the mind: breathing in, one knows the mind; breathing out, one knows the mind.

What exactly the mind is, is a fascinating topic. Maybe there's no final decision to be made about what the mind is. Some people call it the mind-heart; some people call it the heart. The Pali word is citta^[1], and I'll talk more about it later. But for now, I want to say, using an analogy, that if you're driving, maybe on a long trip with a car, you notice that slowly the windshield is getting dirty. It slowly, slowly builds up over time. Driving is so important; you're very focused on the traffic, the road, the driving itself. So you're focusing on what's beyond the windshield, and you don't really notice the windshield. But the windshield is getting more and more dirty, and what you also don't notice then is the strain to have to look more carefully through the dirt.

This is an example of how we might not recognize the filter through which we are aware of things, because we're often focusing on something in particular. Just like when we think, we think about something. So our awareness is usually about something we're aware of, but how we're aware is not really so easily seen or prioritized. With driving, if you could stop at a gas station and wash your window, and then get in the car, you go, "Wow, now it's clean." That is impressive, and you realize how much easier and more relaxing it is to drive without straining through the dirty window.

So this is what the topic is for today: mindfulness of the mind. It will take a while to really explain what it is, but with that introduction, please begin in your meditation posture.

Guided Meditation

If your mind's going to be about something, thinking about something, aware of something, be aware for a few moments of your posture. To really become even more aware, you might kind of sway back and forth, rock back and forth, and re-establish your posture. Maybe making smaller movements as you really get settled. Make small adjustments, really feel where the posture is comfortable or not comfortable, aligned or not aligned in a way that works for you. Maybe there can be small adjustments, and then letting the body become still.

Now the focus of attention can be the stillness of the body. Just what it's like to have the body still, not moving. And if in feeling the still body there feels like more adjustments are needed, please do.

And the next focus of attention can be the breathing of the body. Wherever breathing is most easy for you to experience: in the belly, the movements of the chest, movements of the air going in and out through the nostrils.

And then to take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Three-quarters full, and for as long as it's comfortable for you, a long, slow exhale. Long, slow exhale. When you get to the end of the exhale, briefly, maybe just barely perceptibly, pause before you inhale. Pause so the inhale really feels like it wants to start itself, and allow it to start.

And then letting your breathing return to normal. Now bring your attention to focus on the parts of the body that might be easy to relax. Maybe the muscles of the face, the eyes. Almost like the muscles of the face can be spread wide to the side. Maybe where they can sink down, sliding down the bones of the skull.

Perhaps as you exhale, the softening of the shoulders, releasing of the tension, and then softening the belly. If it's difficult to soften and relax the belly, be content to do it in very small degrees. Maybe relaxing around the place of most tension.

And then let your attention receive the experience of the body breathing in the belly, the chest, the nostrils, or globally, all of that in some easy way. Maybe letting there be a little pause at the end of the exhale, maybe just barely perceptible, a relaxed pause. And then allow the inhale to start itself. Receive the inhale. Receiving the inhale in awareness. Riding the release of the exhale. Releasing yourself with the release of the exhale.

Releasing your thoughts as you exhale. And as the thoughts release, maybe there's more space in the awareness to feel the fullness of breathing in and breathing out.

And then also notice if there's any tension or pressure, agitation in the mind. And as you exhale, perhaps you can soften the mind. Release the tension of the mind. Soften the thinking muscle. Maybe the sense of the mind becomes more open, expansive. The mind has more room. Lots of room in which breathing in and breathing out is known.

And then become aware, as you're following your breathing, become aware of how you're aware. What's the attitude or mood that comes along with being aware? What's the mental atmosphere?

Is the general mood or atmosphere, the attitude of the mind, is it pleasant or is it unpleasant?

Is it more on the side of contentment or of discontentment?

Is the quality of the mind, does the mind feel more small, located in a particular place, or does it feel more large, expansive, maybe difficult to locate in any one place?

The general quality of your mind, your inner life, your mind-heart. What's the emotional tone? Not of particular thoughts or impulses, but the background tone or the atmosphere of it all.

And without any kind of judgment of how it is, what happens to you as you gently, honestly recognize something about the quality of the mind? The mood, the attitude, the atmosphere.

Not to be thinking about this, but more feeling or sensing. A quiet awareness of the mood of your mind state, the state of the mind.

And then, whatever state of mind you have, if you're aware of it, breathe with it. As if breathing accompanies it, breathes through it. Or like the state of the mind accompanies the breathing. Breathing in, knowing the state of your mind; breathing out, knowing the state of your mind.

In the way that you might experience humidity in the air, or the warmth of the sun standing in the sun, see if you can experience the state of the mind. The overall mood, overall gestalt of the inner mental life.

Let's say, characterized by a wanting, characterized by an aversion, pushing away. Is it characterized by confusion?

Is it characterized by stability and presence, or by distraction and jumping around? It's all okay. Just experience it as it is for you.

Breathe with it.

And if it's possible to relax the mind or expand the mind, so the boundaries of whatever mind is are soft boundaries, open boundaries, no boundaries. And resting into that expansive mind, settling into the open mind, and breathing through it, breathing with it. Breathing at the center of it.

And then, as we come to the end of the sitting, maybe you can discern that, or know the difference between a mind that is small and closed and involved in itself, and the mind or heart which is open. Open to receive and feel the world around it.

Maybe the difference can be like trying to talk and see someone through a closed glass door, and then having the door open, and then seeing them and talking, being with them. To open the mind, to open the heart, for it to be expansive and wide. And the mood and atmosphere, the state of mind, receptive and available.

And in this mode, either doing so or imagining it so, take in the people of your life. People you might see today, or talk to today, or think about today. People on the street in your neighborhood and in your communities. And to let them be received or known with a heart, the mind wide open. At least for these minutes or two we're sitting here at the end of meditation. A time and place where it's safe to be open-hearted.

And then see if there's a greater sensitivity, a greater tenderness, heartfeltness, in considering these people when the heart, the mind is open.

And then taking the idea of whatever benefit that's come from this meditation practice, let it be offered up and be offered for the welfare and benefit of others. Whatever calm or centeredness or peacefulness, may it be transformed into kindness for the world, care for the world. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe^[2]. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings everywhere be free.