Susan Kaiser-Greenland guides us by means of one of many oldest meditation practices known as “Sit and Know You are Sitting.”
One of many oldest meditation practices can be one of many easiest: Sit, and know you’re sitting. Let’s give this straightforward respiration observe for consciousness a strive:
1. Get snug, along with your again straight. Shut your eyes and loosen up. Gently transfer your consideration away from what you’re pondering to the sensations in your brow and round your eyes. Soften and let go of any pressure. Smile slightly and soften your jaw. Let your shoulders really feel heavy and drop away out of your neck. Calm down your higher arms, your decrease arms, your arms, your fingers.
2. Calm down into your breath. Place one hand over your coronary heart. Let your shoulders drop much more. Really feel your breath transfer your hand up, then down, up down, up down. Now transfer your hand to your stomach, soften, let go and relax. Inhaling, know you’re inhaling. Respiration out, know you’re respiration out. Let your arms relaxation simple in your lap and let go of any pressure in your higher legs. Soften your knees, soften your decrease legs, let your ft really feel heavy and sink into the bottom.
3. Discover the sensation of respiration. Discover how your physique feels as you loosen up and drop. The a part of your thoughts that’s noticing—that’s consciousness. It’s nothing particular. You don’t must search for it. You don’t must do something in any respect. Awareness is always here. Settle in and keep along with your respiration for a couple of moments. Belief that your breath will discover a pure rhythm. Belief that consciousness is at all times right here. Inhaling, know you’re inhaling. Respiration out, know you’re respiration out.
The a part of your thoughts that’s noticing—that’s consciousness.
4. In case your thoughts will get busy, don’t fear, that’s what it’s designed to do. To regular your consideration silently, say “in” once you breathe in, silently say “out” once you breathe out. Ideas, pictures, and sensations, they’ll come and go. The aim is to note them with out interested by them. Don’t attempt to cease them. Don’t attempt to make them go away. Don’t attempt to change them, they’ll change on their very own. No must mirror on them now. There’s loads of time to do this later. No want so as to add something to your expertise on this respiration observe for consciousness. Simply stick with it, when sounds seem, hear them, when sensations seem, really feel them, when ideas and pictures come to thoughts, discover them. That’s how we sit and know we’re sitting.
5. Watch what’s occurring in your thoughts and physique the best way you’d watch a film or a TV present. The storyline will twist and switch, threads of the plot will move by, one thing new will emerge. You don’t must search for this present, simply settle in, loosen up, and it’ll come to you. Notice how those thoughts and sensations and pictures, they don’t have a lot heft, just like the plot in a film there’s no actual substance to them. Nothing substantial to dig into or to hook onto, nothing to close down, to push away, or to alter.
6. You don’t must do something in any respect. Let go and settle again, loosen up your thoughts, smile slightly bit, sit and know you’re sitting. Earlier than we shut, take a second to note the ever-changing, at all times related net of causes and situations that result in this and each single second. If somebody involves thoughts who has been useful, silently say thanks.
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