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Guided Meditation: Imagination for Concentration

Good day, good evening, and good morning to everyone. It's a funny thing to be sharing "here and now" across different time zones and places. It's a wonderful way that "here" can be at different time zones, or "now" can be at different time zones at the same time.

I think that human beings are using their imagination all the time. Imagination is more subtle than flights of fantasy; rather, it's the little images we have of what's going to happen or what did happen. When we meet people, we imagine things about them. We imagine what's going to happen tomorrow. Sometimes these imaginings are detrimental—they undermine us. Especially if they are frightening or disturbing imaginations that we repeat over and over again, they slowly begin to create a mood, a disposition, and sometimes almost a personality through the constancy of what we imagine.

Meditation practice is certainly a wonderful time to learn how to put down some of these imaginings. When we let go of thoughts, we're also letting go of imaginations. When we come back into the present moment, we're letting go of what we imagine or assume will be tomorrow, or at other times in other places.

However, we can also use imagination to give us a little edge—a little clarity to help us stay here, be present, and ride this out. I've used lots of analogies over time, and these analogies are all acts of imagination. They give us a feeling, a kinesthetic association, that provides a better sense of what it means to stay with something continuously, compared to a simple instruction like, "Okay, sit down, stay with your breath, and don't leave it."

For example, there is the idea of riding a scooter: every time your mind wanders off, you push back into the present moment, and then you coast along on the present moment until you need to come back and push again. Or, if we're staying with the breathing, we might imagine it's like waves. As I've frequently suggested, it's like we're surfing on the waves—the in-breath lifts us up on the wave, and then on the out-breath, we're surfing the front of it going down. Or maybe not surfing, just simply being gently lifted and falling.

When my son was quite small and had trouble sleeping, I sometimes had him imagine that he was an otter floating on its back to sleep at night. He would imagine resting on top of a wonderful, peaceful sea, with a kelp forest all around underneath. The gentle swells would come up and down, and with his breathing, he was the otter being lifted and settled, lifted and settled with each wave. Generally, after a while, he'd fall asleep.

All these little acts of imagination are not meant to put us to sleep here, but to encourage us to stay present by showing us what it feels like. As I said yesterday, the Buddha gave an analogy for breath meditation, which is that of a lathe worker holding a lathe knife or chisel against the wood turning in the lathe^[1]. In order to cut the wood properly, the chisel must be in continuous contact with the wood. The idea of a lathe turning around and around was the Buddha's analogy for the cycles of the in-breath and out-breath. Awareness is like the chisel, where the point of awareness is centered somewhere with the breathing, and then it doesn't leave; it just stays connected as the cycle goes around and around.

If that image doesn't mean much to you, here is another one. When I was in college, I took a massage course. The instruction was that if we had to get more oil to continue the massage, we should never lose physical contact with the person receiving it. You must always keep one hand touching the person's arm, or some other part of the body, as you reach for the oil and apply it to your hand. I interpret this idea of always staying in touch and maintaining physical contact to represent the physicality of breathing. Just stay there with your chisel, stay there with your hand, or stay there on the waves riding up and down.

Don't be busy with all those images; rather, find one that speaks to you. If using the image is better than the alternative—meaning you are less likely to wander off into thoughts and unsupportive imaginations—then stay with the image until it is no longer needed, and you are able to simply stay there with the breathing.

Guided Meditation

So, taking a meditation posture and gently closing your eyes.

Even saying the words "gently closing your eyes"—I hadn't thought about it, but it also evokes the imagination, the idea of gentling, which perhaps has value that travels beyond just the eyes.

Sitting quietly and gently in the body. Shifting gears so that you are settling down into your embodied experience.

Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Like big swells, big waves that lift you up, expand you, and then let you down the other side of the wave as you exhale, relaxing your body.

Let your breathing return to normal.

Soften and relax parts of your body. As each part of your body relaxes, imagine it's becoming soft like a cotton ball.

Relaxing the muscles of the face. Softening the shoulders. Softening the belly.

And also, as you exhale, softening the mind. Quieting the mind. Distilling the mind into a soft place.

If any part of your body or mind feels hard or brittle, imagine that your awareness is like a soft cotton ball. It gently supports or holds whatever is hard or challenging.

Then, settle into the body's experience of breathing. Feel the physical sensations that come into play as you breathe. The sensations of inhaling are different than the sensations of exhaling.

Settle in to stay with the sensations of breathing with some continuity. Like a chisel against the bowl being lathed, or like the continuous contact of the waves as one floats on their back on the gentle swells of the ocean, lifting up and lifting down. Or the continuous stroke of a masseuse. Yes, as we receive a massage from the inside as the lungs expand and contract, and as the diaphragm pushes and releases.

Settling in gently, steadily. See if you can have continuity with the breathing. Let the thinking mind become quieter, softer, stiller, so the center of gravity of attention shifts from thinking to breathing.

As if breathing is the center of the universe. As if breathing is home for these minutes that we're meditating.

Riding the waves of breathing. Letting go of imaginary futures, imaginary other places, and the imagination of things which are not here and now. Instead, use the imagination to be intimate with our lived experience of here.

Allow yourself to feel whatever satisfaction or gladness comes from not being so lost in thought. Not perpetuating thoughts which undermine or trouble you. Be glad to be intimate here, now. Perhaps even allow yourself to feel the joy of just being alive, breathing, and content sitting here, embodying yourself.

Reflections and Dedication of Merit

The more that we are preoccupied in thought and distracted by thinking, the more we are lost in imagination, and the less in touch we are with others. The less distracted and preoccupied we are, the better what's best in us can come forth to meet other people.

Love, gratitude, compassion, and friendliness all shine, flow most easily, and manifest most when we are not distracted or preoccupied. When we are present for others, that is the vehicle—the channel—by which our positive attitudes manifest.

May it be that, to whatever degree you are more settled, calmer, clearer, and more intimate with yourself from this meditation, you register that. May you take that in, feel that, and imagine how you can stay this way, or stay close to it, so that your warmth for others can be palpably expressed, and your love, compassion, and kindness can better flow.

May it be that what you learn about being non-distracted supports you in cultivating greater goodwill for the people around you, known and unknown, strangers and intimates. May it be that what you learn through this practice serves as a means by which you live a life that betters the lives of others—in small ways, in big ways, in intentional ways, and unintentional ways.

May the benefit and the merit^[2] of our practice together be for the welfare and in support of all beings everywhere.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.