Breath, Body, Mind, and the Question
Respiración, Cuerpo, Mente y la Pregunta
A guided meditation that moves from counting breaths through body awareness to watching the mind and asking who is experiencing it all.
Breath, Body, Mind, and the Question
Counting the breath
At first it's best to keep your eyes closed,
but if you have more experience meditating,
you can explore with your eyes open.
We only care about breath right now.
It's very focused.
We choose a number, and I recommend an odd number.
Something like 13,
because if we choose 10,
the mind is going to become very automated.
We want to be aware of when we reach the chosen number.
So we choose a number. Pick one, but say 13.
We do nothing with the breath other than observe.
The breath is going to happen naturally.
At the end of the exhale, we count one,
and at the next exhale, two.
When you reach your chosen number, say 13,
you turn back.
You reach 13 and then you start going down: 12, 11.
You hit one and you go back.
If at any point you don't know what number you're at,
or if you're going up or down,
that means the technique has worked,
because it has shown you that you left, that you got distracted.
If that happens, you celebrate
and start again from one.
So now we're just going to spend a few minutes trying that.
Natural breathing.
If you forgot to count, keep counting.
So that's the taste of a simple, basic, and powerful technique.
You can do that at any time,
especially if you are overwhelmed or distressed.
Five minutes a day or an hour a day.
Sensation of breath
Vipassana starts with the awareness of breath as well,
but it's just the sensation.
We don't count.
We start with the sensation of the air flowing through the nose
and any sensation you might have in the upper lip.
It's extremely focused.
And the focus does not require effort.
In fact, it's the opposite.
The sensation is already there.
Steady attention to the nostrils and the upper lip.
It's very soft.
Sink into that sensation,
let it become your universe.
It's like a wave you can surf,
just touching that sensation.
It's always with you.
Delightful, intimate.
Soft.
Body scan
When you feel you can have a steady attention there,
you can move up to the rest of the body.
We'll do a body scan,
which is basically diving into the richness,
the mystery that is the experience of the body.
It's a caress,
a loving embrace,
not unlike holding a very young baby
with attention.
You can explore the top of your head
and any sensation you might have there.
Notice sensations are not static.
They move and flow like a fluid.
That is the aliveness.
Follow that stream of sensations slowly downwards.
Gently let it go down
with an open curiosity
to really, intimately know that sensation.
You have never sensed your face as it is right now.
Completely new and intimate.
Your eyes, nose.
Don't try to produce any effect, just sensing.
Don't look for relaxation or anything like that.
Just intimacy.
Your ears,
back of the head.
If you notice tension, just bring a soft touch
and don't try to undo it.
Just keep moving down.
Neck, shoulders.
Aware of the breathing sensations.
Chest, diaphragm, belly.
Into your arms, elbows, hands,
always diving into the raw sensation.
Through your legs, thighs, knees,
just as if a fluid is dripping down through all of your body,
down to your feet.
If you feel you're very distracted,
you can revert to the sensation of breath in your nose and the upper lip,
or back to counting the breath.
As you settle, you go back to the body's sensations.
Expanding awareness
Bring the awareness to all of your skin.
Notice that sensations are not located specifically at the skin.
Notice sensations beyond your skin,
a blurry, tingling sense of body beyond the skin.
That aliveness, like a field.
Outward,
including the room and the sounds,
as if it was all one body.
Your body being the universe of all of your experience.
No real boundaries or limits anywhere.
Just one infinite body.
Watching the mind
Now we move to purposefully look directly at the mind.
This body awareness, a spacious sense of being,
and from there, watch the movie.
Don't try to stop it or change it.
In fact, let it run loose.
Watch the mind.
If there's inner dialogue, thoughts,
notice that dialogue is not you.
Even if it's saying "I," it's just thoughts.
Mind consists of images and sounds,
just like a movie,
which are also mind.
Nothing of what the mind does means or says anything about you.
It is just the movie playing.
Any thought of "I," "me," it's just that: a thought.
If it really was you, then who's watching it?
Who's noticing it?
Noting
Now we're going to give the mind something to do.
We switch from observing to using the mind.
This is called noting,
which is taking notes.
You let your attention move towards anything in your experience,
scanning your universe:
body sensations, sounds, even thoughts.
You just note them by naming.
I'll do it out loud, slowly.
Foot.
Back.
Hand.
Head.
Voice.
Engine.
Arm.
Breath.
That requires a different kind of focus.
As you notice thinking and distraction,
you note simply with a word like "thinking" or "wandering" or "distraction,"
then go back to sensations, perceptions.
At first you can do it steady and slowly,
and then try to go faster.
You can repeat a few times to stay steady on something before you keep moving.
For example:
inhale, inhale, inhale,
exhale, exhale, exhale.
Inhale, inhale.
Exhale, exhale.
Or: thinking, thinking, thinking.
It requires a different kind of willpower,
but let's do this for a few minutes.
If you're pulled to thinking,
just repeat "thinking, thinking"
and pull your way out, back to sensation.
Maybe start with the breath.
Anchor in breath with inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale.
Self-inquiry
Now we're going to move to what is called self-inquiry.
In a sense, it's moving away from all of this.
It's just the question: who am I?
You ask the question, who am I?
And you don't try to come up with an answer.
You ask again: who am I?
You notice you experience your sensations.
You experience your body.
Therefore you cannot be your sensations.
You experience sounds.
You cannot be the sounds.
You experience thoughts.
You cannot be the thoughts.
So again you ask: who am I?
And right after the question,
just remain open
in a state of empty looking.
Almost as if waiting for the universe to give you an answer.
Who am I?
You ask and you remain open, waiting.
Notice that any thought cannot say anything about you,
because any thought is other than you.
Who am I?
Who am I?
There is something here.
There is something that is hearing,
something that is seeing thought,
something that knows that it is.
What is that?
You ask: who am I?
Let the question sink in.
Keep asking and waiting.
Who am I?
Let the unknowable come forward.
Who am I?
See everything that you are not.
Every possible answer is a thought, sensation, sound.
Who am I?
Keep asking.
You notice you get distracted, going to thought.
Drop it and ask again: who am I?
Open, waiting.
Keep coming back to the question.
Let it point to mystery,
and let the unknowable come forward.
Everything you have experienced
is only known as a memory, which is thought.
Anything that could happen in the future
is imagination, which is thought.
Anything you know about this universe, others, your life, and you
is thought.
You are not that.
Not this, not that.
Who am I?
The point is not to get or have an answer.
It's to see what we are not
and to allow for the presence of being to come forward.
Recognize thoughts.
Ask again: who am I?
Let thoughts go into the background.
What is here?
Mystery, unknowable, undeniably present.