Gaia Standing and Sitting Guided Meditation

I can't have the windows open, the curtains open, because there's too much light and you wouldn't be able to see me, unfortunately.

Puran pujani Dhamman pujani Sangham Pujyami. Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sama Sambuddhasa. Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sama Sambuddhasa. Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa buddhang saranam gacchami dhammang saranam gacchami sanggang saranam gacchami Tuthi Ampi Bodhan Saranam Gacchami Tuthi Ampi Dhamman Saranam Gacchami Tuthi Ampi Sangam Saranam Gacchami Tatthi Ampi Bodhan Saranam Gacchami Tattyaṁ vīdāmaṁ śāraṇaṁ gacchāmi Tattyaṁ vīsaṅgaṁ śāraṇaṁ gacchāmi anati-katha-veramani-sikapadan samadhi-ami adhinadana-veramani-sikapadan Samadhi Ami. Kame sumi cacera. Vairamani sikapadan. Samadhi Ami. Musavada. Vairamani sikapadan. Samadhi Ami. Suramraya. Majjhapamadhatana.

Now the one thing I forgot to mention was that sometimes the line drops, unfortunately. It's happened very rarely, so I think it doesn't happen now.

Standing posture. Make sure you feel balanced, steady, grounded, and then just lifting up through the top of the head, standing tall. I'll just spend a moment relaxing the brow, the jaw. If there's tension there, you can clench the jaw and relax it. Shoulders, you might need a good squeeze. Hands joined in front or by the side, whatever's comfortable. Just acknowledging that posture, the energy rising up through the spine, top of the head, lifting you up. Everything else just hanging off. Relax. Just acknowledging that posture.

And now draw your attention to the soles of your feet. What can you feel down there? Can you isolate the sensations of pressure? What about sensations of temperature, coolness or warmth? More subtle sensations that tell you what you're standing on, sponginess of the carpet, see if you can find a word. Just acknowledge how these sensations are continuously changing as the body rebalances itself.

And acknowledge how these sensations arise, whether you want them to or not. Not under our direct control.

Taking your time now, just come up the body, see what you can feel on the surface of the body, inside the body, areas that seem to be void of feeling. When you get to the abdomen, can you feel the sensations caused by the breath there, the rise and fall of the abdomen? Any other sensations there, maybe a bit of tension? What about the stomach area? Can you feel the breath there? Any other sensations, tensions? Can you feel the breath in the chest? Or is that fairly relaxed? Or maybe tense. What do you find there? Feel the heartbeat. Shoulders still relax. The jaw. The brow. When you get to the scalp, scan it like you did the soles of your feet. What can you feel there?

Now without moving the eyes, just become aware of what's outside you. So the shapes and colors in front of you. Any sounds? The atmosphere of the room you're in. And if there's somebody in the house or flat, sense their presence, even immediate neighbors or pets. So attention is entirely out there.

Now at the same time, bringing the in here, the breath, the feet and so on, both the inside and the outside. So this is the bubble of our consciousness. This is our world. This is what we're creating moment after moment. Nobody else can know it. It's our universe. We're always at the center of it. So we may as well relax. Just relax into this present moment, wide awake. And as it were, hang in the middle.

Just allow the attention to be drawn now to something you see, something you hear, something you feel. Don't choose. Relaxing, abiding in the present moment wide awake in this mode just being we can let go of ideas of achieving something so in that mode we're always doing something now for some future result but in this mode there is no result this is the result there's no reason for being it just is

Relaxing. Dwelling in the present moment, wide awake. In this mode, just being, there's no future. So there's no need to plan. You can drop all that. We're never going anywhere. We're always arriving.

Relaxing, inhabiting the present moment, wide awake. In this mode, we're being very passive. We're not reacting. We're not responding. We're just observing, feeling, experiencing whatever manifests. In which case, we don't have to present somebody, a person, a personality. We can, as it were, sit back in an anonymous position.

Relaxing, abiding in the present moment, wide awake, achieving nothing, going nowhere, being nobody. In this mode, we're developing five of the seven factors that lead to liberation. The awareness, of course, and then there's that steadiness of attention and the effort needed to maintain just that. A background sense of calmness, because we're not trying to achieve anything. And a quality of equanimity. A balanced mind, a balanced heart. So a mind that's not coming from a particular view or an opinion. Open-minded. A heart which is not coming from prejudice, fear, aversion, even preference. Open-hearted. Open-minded, open-hearted.

That's the platform upon which we bring that sense of curiosity to investigate the Buddha's teachings. A direct experience of the Buddha's teachings by observing ourselves, feeling ourselves, experiencing ourselves intimately.

Now, this mode is also very important in ordinary daily life, just to be able to stop like this after a phone call or a WhatsApp, after you've eaten, after you've done a piece of work, whatever, you stop and just see if there's any accumulation. There might be some irritation. There might be some overexcitement. On the other hand, you might be peaceful and joyful. So it's a case of recognizing that.

And when it's something unwholesome, you just wait there. Just let it exhaust itself a little bit. If it's wholesome, of course, then you receive that with gratitude. Then there's enough space, enough stillness to see the next intention. If we can see these intentions, we'll have enough time to decide whether it's wholesome enough, skillful enough. But if it's unskillful, you just wait for that desire to exhaust itself. And then you're liberated from it. If it's wholesome, skillful, you empower it, of course.

Just in this very simple way, we can change ourselves. But it takes this level of mindfulness, attentiveness, awareness. So our next intention is to sit. So try to take your time. So part of the Mahāsi technique is to go slow. The more you slow down the body, the more you can see the mind. The mind slows down. You can see the process by which we create this world.

And there's also a noting and noting small little notes, lifting, moving, placing, partly to stop the mind wandering and partly to really push the attention towards what we're feeling, sensing, observing. So see if you can find these little words. At first, for those for whom it might be the first time, it seems a little false. Well, it is, of course, but it's there as a technique. And very slowly, you'll find yourself quite used to doing these little notes and even around the house with something physical. Washing pots and stuff. It just stops the mind from wandering, keeps your attention to the task.

Intending to sit. So now make sure that your posture, whether you're sitting on the floor, cross-legged or on a chair, on a kneeling stool, doesn't really matter. What really matters is the back, the spine. Just make sure that it has its natural curvature and that you're pushing up from the lower muscles, the muscles around the base of the spine and around the abdomen. When you do that, the breath of the abdomen becomes pretty clear.

So you're pushing up from there, gently of course, up through the top of the head. There you are, sitting tall. And then as usual, just pass your attention down the body, just relaxing the brow. Eyes gently closed. Jaw. Lips together, teeth apart. Shoulders, give them a squeeze if there's tension in there. And hands on your lap, whatever is comfortable. So just acknowledging that posture, the energy running up the spine, everything else, relax.

Draw your attention now to where you feel the breath most in the body, the chest, the stomach, the abdomen. Now if you are already established at the nostrils, feel free to stay there. So just adapt my instructions to the nostrils. So as the breath rises, as the body rises, the abdomen rises, just a little noting word, rising, as it falls, falling.

And just relax on the breath. Just get in touch with it. What does it feel like? If the mind is wandering, as soon as you come out of the dream, really recognize and acknowledge the mood, the emotion, the attitude which is driving it. Let go of the story completely. It's not important. Thinking, thinking, worrying, worrying. And then just draw the attention back to the breath.

Just relaxing the attention on the gentle sensations caused by the breath. Just allowing them to bring silence to the mind, calmness to the heart, stillness to the body. Rising, falling.

If the mind is wandering as soon as we wake up really recognize and acknowledge the emotion the mood the attitude which is driving the mind driving the imagination let go of the story worrying worrying planning planning irritation irritation judging judging whatever and then as soon as you've acknowledged it just come back to the breath determined to stay there feeling sleepy or tired lift the spine you can open the eyes first just a little just to let the light in but you can open them wide keep the attention inward though and you can even stand up just relaxing the attention on the breath as we begin to feel

More focused see if you can get a little closer just to catch the very beginning of the inbreath just stay with it to the very end the very beginning of the out breath stay with it to the very end now if when you do that you feel you get tense have more of the impression of sitting back within yourself and receiving the breath rising

If the mind is very busy, you can note more quickly. As we become more focused, more relaxed, just choose your own time when you can open up to whatever draws the attention within that field of awareness. If it's a sensation coming from the body, some discomfort, some pain in the knee, for instance, if it draws your attention, we don't go looking for anything. If it draws your attention, go there, feel it, experience it intimately. It might be an emotion, a feeling, a mood within the body. If it draws the attention, go there, feel it, experience it intimately.

But when the mind moves, always come off the mind, come off those stories, recognize and acknowledge what's driving it, the emotion, the mood, the attitude, and then come back into the body and see if you can feel it. If you can't feel anything fine just go back to the breath the breath is our anchor it's our reference point when we're confused we just begin again with the breath rising falling

And see if you can find little noting words for everything that you're experiencing. If something doesn't come naturally, just say feeling.

Becoming more aware of how we are relating to what we're experiencing, reacting to it. How when something is pleasant, we're drawn to it, want to maintain it, want to develop it. How when something is unpleasant, we want to push it away, get rid of it, turn our attention away from it, ignore it. Can we become aware of those reactions? This is the desire that the Buddha is pointing to when he says it's the direct psychological cause for our suffering. Is that true for you?

Becoming more aware about everything we're experiencing is in process. Everything is arising and passing away. Nothing ever repeats itself. Each breath is similar but not the same. Everything is transient, impermanent. Is there anything reliable?

When we're practicing Vipassanā, we've discovered, keep discovering within ourselves a sort of observation post. We've become an inner observer, inner feeler, inner experiencer, just watching the process of this psycho-physical organism. Can we make it more plain to ourselves that everything we are experiencing is an object of our awareness? The pain in the knee is down there. Emotions are in the body down there. Images appear before me up here. They're always other.

You can make that distance more clear to yourself by being aware of the distance. So you're aware of the distance between the knower upstairs here in the head and the knee down there. Even between the knower and the image that's in your mind. Everything is an object. Can the perceiver be the perceived?

As the knower the feeler the experiencer on this observation post establish their looking feeling experiencing what is arising and passing away everything that is being experienced is happening of its own accord the body offers sensations and feelings whether we want it to or not

The heart begins to emote all sorts of emotions, moods, whether we want it to or not. And the mind, oh mind, forever thinking, imagining, whether we want it to or not, nothing is under our direct control. How can it be me?

Letting go now of all instruction. Have absolute confidence in this intuitive awareness that we are, allowing it to make its own insights. No need to think, no need to guide it. It now knows everything it needs to know to liberate itself from suffering. All we have to do is allow it to watch, to feel, to experience intimately, whatever draws its attention within that field of awareness. Don't do anything. Don't change anything.

When we come to the end of a sitting, it's good to reflect a little bit. One question we can ask is, how diligent was I in bringing myself back to the present moment? How committed was I? If I felt that my effort was good, I should congratulate myself. If I thought I could have been more diligent, then I should encourage myself.

How did I deal with the various physical and mental states that arose? Just choose one of them restlessness sleepiness. Continual thinking. Big emotion. Just choose something that happened there, how did you deal with it, did you know what to do. If you thought you were skillful, then again, congratulate yourself. If you thought you could have been more skillful, well, encourage yourself. Next time I'm feeling sleepy or whatnot, I'll immediately open my eyes.

Which of those three characteristics of existence was most prominent for you in this sitting? The process of desiring, wanting, not wanting? Was it more the impermanence of things, the transient nature? Or was it that everything was an object not under our control, not me?

We can also make a resolution. It can be quite specific, such as the one, if I feel sleepy next time, I'll really open my eyes immediately. I won't hang about. Or it can be just a general commitment to mindfulness, affectionate mindfulness, mindfulness with a good heart.

When we come out of a sitting don't just jump out of it. Open the eyes slowly gently very good so I hope you found that a