This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Cultivating Gentleness; The Five Precepts (1 of 5): Refrain from Harm. It likely contains inaccuracies.
The following talk was given by Maria Straatmann at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time of day it is for you. Welcome to today’s sit and talk. My name is Maria. I’ll be with you this week and particularly this morning.
I invite you to settle in. Find a place of comfort and ease. A place where you can just be here. Allow yourself to just be here. Find a place of sitting or lying down or standing, whatever posture is most comfortable for you that allows you to be present in this room, awake, alert, and at ease.
And if it’s easy for you, close your eyes, take a deep breath and let it slowly out. And as you breathe out, let that breath anchor you to all that is around you. Let it be a way of easing yourself into this time. Maybe take another breath and slowly let it out.
Allow the process of breathing to simply be that: the process of air moving in and out of your body. Allow the body to simply be here with the process of being alive.
Notice your body slowly settling, coming to rest in its position. Whatever that position, resting, but so very much here. Feel yourself connected to the earth, to the surface you’re on. Know that you are on this surface.
Take note of your body on this surface. Your toes, your feet, your knees, your hips, your bottom, your waist, your shoulders. Let the shoulders sink down. You can feel your elbows, your hands. Let your head rock slightly on the neck until it hangs just suspended from the center of the top of your head. Soothe your forehead, the tops of your cheekbones, along the edge of your jaw. Just relax and notice your breathing again.
Allow this body to be here, unguarded by anything but the breath. Just the safety of breathing in and out. No need for any other thoughts. Just here I am with my breath. This body and the breath for now. Just this.
Are you still with your body? Are you still in the room? Still here in this space? If not, gently, oh so gently, come back to here. It’s in this moment here that we’re most awake. No jarring. Just here. Just like this. Just as we are.
If there are troubles, we can just let them be there and just breathe. It’s okay for now. We’re safe right here because right now we’re just sitting, just standing, just lying, just walking. Just this.
Has the breath become more shallow? Has it become more deep? Stay with the breath. Stay in the room. As the mind wandered, gently bring it back. Just for now, just be here. Know the being here part. Just be here.
And how is the breath now? Be with your breath like a loving parent with a child who cares what’s happening. How are you breathing? Is the breath soft? Nurture