Become Stillness

Okay, so let's meditate for a couple of minutes. You can sit up for this part, you can lie down for this part. If you start sitting up and halfway through you get tired and you wish you were lying down, just quietly slide down onto your back at that point. If you start on your back and halfway through you wish you were sitting up, just quietly come to a seated position. I'll be talking through a little bit of it and then I'll be quiet, but again the technique is conscious immobility.

This won't be real long, but it will be a few minutes. And, in order to survive comfortably, I recommend that here at the beginning you always start with step number one, which is get the alignment of your body just right. If you're sitting up that means like train yourself to sit as erect as possible. Meditators have found that the straighter you are, the more comfortable you'll be for the longest duration of time. So like learn how to sit erect.

I recommend that you tip forward first so that you can wriggle the buttocks backwards. And when you wriggle the butt back you'll feel that you're on the frontal edge of the sitting bones and then just delicately bring your torso up to vertical, gently bring your belly backward toward your spine and you'll feel how the sitting bones plug evenly into the floor and then snuggle your seat. Snuggle your seat into the floor and just get grounded. Get grounded through whatever's on the ground. It's sort of like you're sitting in the sand at the beach and you snuggle your seat into the sand and you get perfectly contoured support.

Notice also that when you snuggle your seat like that, it's not just your seat that jiggles or wobbles, your whole body gently wobbles. I would vote like sort of like for the first half a minute or full minute or so, just wobble gently so you start feeling how liquidy you can get. Notice that you get increasingly grounded, liquid everywhere, sort of like you're a piece of jello. You jiggle the jello, the whole piece gently jiggles and you let yourself grow tall, like go up to and through the top of your head. And with your awareness up there at the crown of your head, let all the scalp muscles relax.

It'll feel like the top of your head begins to just gently bloom open. It'll feel like you're merging with the inner sky of mind. And then from that openness up there, just let your awareness leisurely float down through your head, through your neck, into your shoulders, down through your arms, relaxing your hands, down through your torso, down through your waist, into the hips, down through the legs, relaxing your feet, just so you just gently wash yourself clean and then find the ripple of your breathing. It's sort of easy to notice because you're learning to sit there and be absolutely still, like you're not moving. And yet right in the midst of that there's a tremendous amount of subtle movement going on, most notably the ripple of your breathing.

Notice where you're noticing your breathing. It's easy to feel it in your nose. It's easy to feel it in your belly, but you can feel it other places also. In fact, the more relaxed you get, the more you'll feel the ripple rippling freely everywhere. And so the idea is to sit absolutely still without holding yourself still.

And again, the only way to do that is by relaxing. And so for example, go to the very crown of your head again, just sort of linger up there. Notice that you can linger up there. And notice that you can feel the ripple of breathing in the crown of your head. Be aware of any tension in that area and then just skillfully let the tension level diminish.

And you'll feel the ripple of breathing rippling a little more freely. Slide down a little bit to the area of your forehead and all around through your head at that level. Be aware of the level of tension in that area. Let the tension level diminish and feel the gentle ripple of breathing all around your eyes, all through your face. Be aware of the current level of tension.

Let it diminish. Feel the free flow of rippling breathing. Let your whole body become like that. Just getting as tension free as you can be. And notice how the subtle joy begins to creep up on you.

And notice how the subtle joy begins to creep up on you. Notice how the subtle joy begins to creep up on you. Just keep getting into it a little bit more than you already are. You've got another two minutes. Let go and let go and let go and let go.

And notice how the subtle joy begins to creep up on you. And last couple of seconds here. Bring your awareness to the area of your nose. And notice whether there's a subtle fragrance in the air that you hadn't picked up on yet. And just breathe with a little more conscious appreciation than normal.

Let it feel like mystical breathing. And notice how the subtle joy begins to creep up on you. And then just let your head bow down. Wait for the right moment. And then open your eyes and just watch yourself getting used to the colors and the shapes.

And then let your head come up.