Practice - How one might begin (Part 1)

In the beginning.....

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, good morning. Someone suggested that we review basics of meditation techniques. And so here we are. We've gotten as far as pushing the button to listen to this program. What comes next? Well, we've already established a desire to meditate. So this is the most important aspect of it is we have made a determination within ourselves to gather and share, to practice, to work towards improving oneself. This goal in and of itself is ninety-nine percent of what's important to accomplish. The rest of it, well, let's just follow through. Finding oneself in a comfortable posture, what does this mean to me or to you? It's going to vary on a day-to-day basis, or even an hour-to-hour basis. So, without further ado, what is in this moment now the posture one wants to assume? Is it sitting upright in a comfortable posture or possibly laying down or even standing up? Again, this is your choice. Remembering we are unique, as is the moment. We need to make this consideration and this acceptance and kindness towards ourselves all the time. Let's assume it's in an upright sitting posture, just for the sake of argument and of utilizing our time. I've learned over my practice to find a comfortable posture by putting something under the rear of my buttocks to help me lift up the back of my body underneath the coccyc vertebrae, the rear of one's butt, so that it is more or less in a level plane with one's knees. And in so doing this, one finds the spinal cord is in a more aligned and shh upright orientation. What this means is the curvature of one's spine is reduced. So we're not hunching over our front of our body, but we're upright. We're like an antenna. We find ourselves sitting in such a manner there is a freer movement in our body side to side, and we can slowly circulate our bodies from one direction or the other. And doing this now, just gently and practicing it, being aware. And finding again a sense of calm, of peace, of just sitting there, being aware of the motion that one's body is still going to be in. Because everything is in motion. It is the natural state of energy to be oscillating. There is movement going on. It is impossible not to be moving. Being receptive and sensitive is a crucial part to our goal. What are we finding going on in this very moment of time in what we call our present? Or what people like to say, be here now. We find ourselves possibly rocking, undulating through the efforts of our heart squeezing blood through our vascular system. This is very much possibly what one can feel. We feel a sense of a shimmering or a vibrational tone to our body's activity, our motion, equally always there. Maybe this isn't a form of motion, but it well it is. Is the heat that we feel. And of course, this is one of the most easily attained awarenesses we can share. We feel our heat emanating from our body, so indeed it is in motion, having originated in our chests, in the movement of our lungs as they rise and fall, as our diaphragm also rises and subsides. Also, our heart squeezes and relaxes again. These motions of these bodily processes of circulation and respiration are the culprits, if you will, of the heat being emanated not only through our body, through the vascular system, through the warming up of our blood, and thereafter the rest of our body's cellular structures, yet also emanating through our skin, into the atmosphere, into the environment surrounding us. It's going on right now, when we think about it, with an open mind, which brings us to being a witness to what we are accomplishing, not in a state of judgment, but in awareness, wishing to obtain a more peaceful and calm transition as we are awakening our inquiring minds. Our hands. I like to put my hands together as I have them right now. I have fingers to fingers and thumbs to thumbs and palms lightly pressing each other, so the heat emanating from our bodies is more easily felt when one's hands are pressed together because it's two different parts of one's body emanating the heat, and together it's magnifying it twice as much. Similarly, the quaking and shifting and motion, the shimmering of our body in the first place is also much more noticeable this way, twice as noticeable as we are focusing and concentrating our awareness in this place, in this very way. We also find being in an upright posture is a positive force for ourselves, because we are also more alert. It can be this way laying down also, or standing up, but particularly so when we're sitting in a posture where we're having our buttocks slightly raised, where our spinal column is coordinated where each of our vertebrae are aligned, one stacked on top of or beneath the other, in a more relaxed, in a more stable way. You can call it this. Our heads are basically level. Our eyes, if they were open, because I recommend that we close our eyes to help us focus, would be looking straight ahead. And this way also it keeps our chin up rather than down and allows our airwaves, our windpipe, to be more open rather than closed. If one puts their chin on one's chest, you'll find you are constricting your airflow. And we don't want to do this. Similarly, another tool, another tactic we use to open our chest for increased volumes of free flowing air, is to raise your shoulders gently and then press them back, and then allow your upper arms and shoulders to relax back down again, remembering gravity, pulling us down towards the center of this sphere we call our home, the planet Earth. And here we are, relaxed and calm, transitioning, our mind more full of these thoughts of our physiology rather than distractions we might have had a few minutes ago. Being aware, being receptive, being sensitive, being a witness objective to what we're feeling, and our sensitivities to our senses, which we share. We've closed our eyes, but there are still images one can conceive of, even more so if one is in a sunny location or in a room or an environment where there is light one can see through one's eyelids a orangey red glow. This is the blood and the skin where the energy of light is passing through. And we have our imaginations, our ability to have visualizations. We have who knows what in the way of communications, transpiring eighty-six thousand four hundred moments in every day. All of these things going on simultaneously. Being here now, one begins to witness one's own miraculous nature as a bundle of miracles. It's not difficult to do. And even with this, to raise in oneself a sense of humility. Having just reviewed all of these different facets of our own being, we begin to realize the inherent truth in these thoughts we're sharing. And we're only talking about what's within our skin, behind our noses, not even thinking about the immensity of creation of which now we are gathering our thoughts. The depth of space, the flowing of time. It really is awe-inspiring, creating reverence and astonishment at just what we are a part of. And being here for positive reasons, reaching out, wanting more, we are thankful, full of gratitude for having an opportunity such as this, to be alive, to be aware, to be seeking self-improvement. This is the basis of my own personal sacred sayings. I suggest you find one's own, using someone else's or creating something one can refer to daily, often, to help refresh, remember, make more poignant, help create a sense of awe within one's own being. It helps one bring a sense of positivity to what we consider our practice, which is a kindling of our souls, our hearts. What we are doing in this very moment, being here now. So we have the basic posture already assimilated. What next might we do to again even heighten this mindful meditation that we have embarked upon? This journey we're sharing right now, today. Well, come back tomorrow and find out more. This is the beginning of our journey. But time has quietly and quickly slipped away. Let's save the rest of this till tomorrow. But in the meantime, the music is going to continue for another minute, and I asked you to consider as far as we have gotten on our journey already today how amazing our capabilities are.