Practice 5 · Single Object Meditation

Alright… let's begin.

Find your place, where you can be stable, supported, and still.

Shut your eyes, as you would shut the curtains round the world.

Check in before we do anything. What do we have at the moment? What is the condition of your body? Heavy? Light? Restless? Relaxed? And your mind: is it swarming, drowsy, peaceful, inquisitive?

No verdict... a gentle greeting to the self.

Now, speak to your mind, as though you were talking to a dear friend: “Now we will practice together, just a few minutes. We shall see what we find.”

When you're ready, guide your attention, slowly, deliberately, to your breath. There is no necessity to modify it. Just meet it where it is.

Notice how, as soon as you arrive, your mind begins to give you little bits:

• The coolness of air as it comes in.
• The gentle warmth as it leaves.
• The mute rise and fall of your belly.

Begin softly noting in your mind: “Inhale…” with each in-breath. “Exhale…” with every out-breath. Like two oars in water, dipping, one after the other, even and slow.

You will find, as you keep time to this beat, that you will be carried away. It will drift to an idea, to a recollection, to a feeling. You could be in tomorrow's meeting, last week's discussion, or what to have at dinner.

And this is the point: you did not select that. It's just your automated system doing what it's built to do. All the thoughts, all the feelings, all the pictures are postcards of your life, drifting to the surface.

Take heed also of how your system passes between two natural states:

• Contraction: when you have trouble with the practice, that little pulling in, that feeling of “No, I do not want this.”
• Expansion: when you are focused and managing to keep focus, that softening, that leaning forward into “Yes, more of this.”

See whether you can view this as a curious filmmaker studying their own film, not attempting to recreate the scene, but merely watching the story.

When you find yourself elsewhere, remind yourself: I have a perfectly functioning mind. Then, without violence, draw your mind back to the breath, your support in this moment.

Sit in silence for five minutes.

And once more, be with your breath. When you find you have been swept away in thought, or in the feeling of wanting to move, scratch, or peek, stop and ask yourself: Was it my thought? Was this feeling a choice of mine?

No. And there, you simply go back. Breathe in. Breathe out. Like coming home.

Sit in silence for five more minutes.

Now, slowly let your attention widen, as if you're zooming out the camera lens. Feel your body sitting here. Feel the air on your skin. Be aware of the silence following the practice.

Breathe deeply in, before you open your eyes, and let it go.

Thank your mind: you came, you did your job. And do thank yourself, indeed, for taking this time.

When you're ready… gently open your eyes. And just notice.