In the blog category “Guided Meditations”, I will provide detailed explanations for all the guided meditation tracks that I will place in the Resources section of this website. These blog posts will be hyperlinked from the “Guided Meditations” page under “Resources” menu option where these meditation tracks in mp3 format will be placed for streaming or for downloading.
The breath is a very useful object in mindfulness meditation. We breathe all the time. The breath itself is a neutral object. Mindfulness of breathing meditation works mainly through us withdrawing our attention from distracting thoughts and redirecting our attention to the physical sensations of the breath coming in and going out. By doing so, we anchor our mind to the present moment and stop it from proliferating thoughts, emotions and fantasies. It is a very simple exercise. Every time we find that our attention has wandered away from the breath, we gently let go of whatever our minds are holding on to, and return back to the breath. Over time the mind becomes calmer and our emotional states become more balanced and positive, and our experience becomes more positive.
Guided meditations are like training wheels for meditation practice. There are many different variations of mindfulness of breathing guided meditations available from many teachers. They have varying degrees of instructions interspersed throughout the meditations. They are all good and useful. The guided meditation tracks I provided are “bare-bones” in the sense that they have very little instructions in them. The total duration of the meditation is 22:27 minutes. There are five blocks of approximately 3 minutes each of complete silence in the track.
I use a variety of guided meditations in my practice. There are times when I need more guidance, especially when I feel my mind being very turbulent. Yet there are other times when I feel that I need just a bare minimum of guidance. These are the times when I use my own meditation tracks. It is good to have a wide variety of such practices at my disposal as I feel that I can pick up and choose the most appropriate tool when I need to meditate.
Towards the beginning of this meditation, I request that we intentionally cultivate an attitude of patience, gentleness and kindness towards ourselves before we begin these exercises. It is very important that mindfulness meditations be accompanied by a sense of openness otherwise their effectiveness may be diminished. Towards the ending, I request that we dedicate the merits of this practice to ourselves as well as to all others by affirming these statements:
“May I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I live with ease.
May all beings be happy, may all beings be peaceful, may all beings live with ease”
At the end of the day, we are practicing mindfulness meditation not just for ourselves but also for all others.
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