prefer links to audio files? 1 Body 2 Feeling 3 Mind 4 Insight Stages Anapanasati 1 of 4 I suggest you have your eyes closed and just allow as much as you can your attention to settle in all the quietening, stilling processes of the body most of these happen just on their own but it's good to establish awareness at the base of the body at the sitting bones at the pelvic floor planted as it were on the great earth and feeling from those two sitting-bones the lift of the great spinal column to the base of the skull which tips slightly forward and feeling from the crown down through the core of the body to the pelvic floor a line otherwise known as the central channel the aligned pelvic floor hara or navel centre heart, throat, and crown and then taking your attention to the breathing just allowing the body to breathe and in the stages known as the long breath and the short breath we are just noticing the quality of the breath is it a relaxed or is it a constricted or in some way an awkward breath and the breath just needs to find its own way to become long and relaxed and easy by observing and being still in the body we encourage the breath to become long and easy or longer and easy in a general way and as that breath becomes longer and easier we can start taking our attention to the whole of our body as partaking in the movement of the breathing so feeling the way the whole body is affected by the breath breath by breath feeling the movement throughout the entire body from head to toe so allowing the breath to incorporate everything in your experience don't hold back just give everything to it every element of that body experience that is being breathed through allow every part of the body to become more still more calm more settled as you continue with the breathing in the body now the emphasis is on calming the entire body system just letting it settle from head to toe don't be too concerned about making progress with it it comes in fits and starts just keep going with the work of bringing peace to the body to all the different parts of the body with the aid of the breath gentling stilling and settling each tiny part with a mind of kindness and curiosity with calming each part of the body we are not trying to push down the natural activity not trying to lock down the functioning of the body, clearly so in a middle way between imposed calm and a natural calm the breath can help the breath brings awareness BELL @43 min Anapanasati 2 of 4 Carrying on this morning with the anapanasati sequence. So spend the first few minutes settling into the body descending into the body experience letting go into the relief of just being with the body and the breathing and all the sensations of the body and the pelvic floor and the lift of the spine to the base of the skull the face and the head gentle the shoulders relaxing back the chest open and the hands placed so that the chest can remain open experiencing the core of the body from the crown through the throat heart and the navel centre the hara and the pelvic floor allowing the breathing to find its own place the natural long breath which just means the relaxed easy natural breath it's easy with you looking at it so observing how each breath is the breath doesn't feel self-conscious and in your own time letting your awareness of the breath spread spreading through the body so feel the whole of the body in relation to the breath the whole body being breathed from head to toe and when you feel the whole body being breathed like this you can also allow the entire body to relax profoundly and to become still as it's breathed it's as though the touch of the breath is bringing that message calm down settle down be at peace to every part of the body that it touches and now as the body stills observing the whole body or going through it part by part and experiencing feeling what feeling is there and looking particularly in this stage for pleasant feeling as the body is breathed in the head is there pleasant feeling in the thorat the heart etc. just look through the whole body experiencing pleasant feeling noticing in feeling in the feelings that are there what is pleasant what is of the nature of priti what is delightful maintaining the awareness of the breathing maintaining awarenss of the full body as you experience within the body what there is of pleasant feeling delightful feeling delightful sensation pleasant physical sensation still aware of the naturally rising and falling breath pervading the entire body and now looking throughout the entire body of feelings of happiness deep happiness are there any feelings like that arising anywhere in the body or throughout the whole body feelings of sukha deep happiness it's also connected with feelings of deep safety fearlessness we're very secure very settled so alongside this deep experience of body there's also this other element of heart or mind you're already in it looking at the feelings ...just looking at the whole of the mind or the heart as opposed to body they seem rather inseparable but as the feelings come and go feelings of sukha and dukkha pleasant and unpleasant feeling sensation experience so experiencing along with the body sensation the heart-mind the citta we may interpret this as the experiencer the perceiver or we can just see it as part of the overall experience of the body heart mind experiencing pleasant feeling unpleasant feeling moving towards pleasant moving away from the unpleasant breath by breath aware of the whole field of the mind and as you establish yourself in this stage of experiencing the whole of the heart-mind the whole field of citta becoming more intimate and trusting and familiar breath by breath as you let yourself go into it allow the citta to become more gentle more peaceful more settled more tranquil even with the variety of different sensations so that the whole experience of the citta becomes smooth and gentle and settled BELL @43:30 Anapanasati 3 of 4 Carrying on with the anapanasati today we are going into the third of the four sections tetrads this is about experiencing the mind, basically the citta we've already had a bit of an introduction to it through the body and also through feeling so leading up to this point, really so spending some time recapturing those previous stages on the body and the feeling so settling into your meditation posture and letting your awareness tricle down through the body right down to the pelvic floor right down to the earth beneath and the stability of the earth brings stability to the physical posture from the two sitting bones through the great structure of the spinal column supporting the skull relaxing the shoulders the face the eyes and the brow aware of the whole inner core of the body through from the pelvic floor, right up through the different centres of the body navel heart, throat and the crown and allowing the breath to settle down in its own time it could take quite a bit of time getting to the point where the the breathing flows rises and falls naturally even though it's being looked at it doesn't mind and the whole body is being breathed and at some point the whole body feels like settling down relaxing quietening and stilling with each breath and you may experience this quietening stilling and settling as delightful as pleasant so experiencing pleasant feeling and happiness in the body in the experience of meditating just what's there and looking at the feeling in our experience looking at all feeling and responses that are arising and continuing to relax with that resting it's the beginnings of awareness of the mind the citta so observing very calmly what arises so now we are in the stage of experiencing the citta the heart-mind it's about the part of our experience that is knowing knowing sounds knowing feelings knowing thoughts knowing responses knowing the body can you explore this knowing quality that which knows knowing the breath breathing in breathing out experiencing the citta the heart-mind and spending some time relaxing with that so that it's observed as a natural process it doesn't it doesn't feel self-conscious as we are looking at it broadening out the attention broadening out the attention so that this quality is seen overall the quality of knowing maybe it'll help if we go onto the next stage now where we appreciate this amazing aspect of our experience – appreciating, gladdening gladdening the citta gladdening the heart-mind so this is a little bit like self-metta it's here the metta or the goodwill develped in relation to the knowing quality, the citta which is not the self the whole practice is like this resting experience of knowing experience of the citta, heart-mind which is also resting in feeling which is also resting in the body it is a natural feature of our being so letting its nature clarify as we breathe with it and as we feel the gladness accepting in this way and having our awareness settled breath by breath in this quality of the citta has a naturally concentrating integrating kind of knitting together quality knitting together with the feeling and the body and the gladness, too the gladness is a bit like the agent so here in this stage of concentrating the citta breath by breath it's not that you do anything apart from just appreciating the experiencing more and more clearly the nature of this knowing quality knowing feeling knowing the body knowing all the responses and sensations so with each sensation and response that arises seeing also its inner knowing quality its known quality and then in the final stage of this set of four breathing in and out liberating citta not identifying it as me or mine allowing everything that arises and passes away and that is known and seen and experienced and felt to arise and pass away to do so without clinging without holding on BELL @ 45 min Anapanasati 4 of 4 We'll go through the whole of the anapanasati sequence this morning and I'll try and make it so that we spend most of our time on the last bit. so simply once again opening up to the experience of the body as it is right now the whole of the body the whole experience seated on the earth let that connection have a stilling stabilising influence so connecting with the whole of the body the inner body and the structure of the body while you allow the breathing in the body to find its natural rhythm will start to find its natural rhythm so keep bringing your attention back to the texture of the breathing and the feeling of the breathing and however the breath is whether it's quite awkward bit unbalanced somehow or whether it's smooth as silk allow the whole body to be breathed anyway and see how gradually this awareness of the breathing if it's light lightly held it calms the body tranquilises the whole system of the body and letting this breathing through the body also include the dimension of feeling and sensation and looking for pleasant feeling looking for the presence of deep happiness and allowing into our experience whatever sensations and feelings that there are in the moment just allowing it all to be there and relaxing with it letting the whole experience be peaceful breath by breath turning our attention to the citta the mind and the heart that which knows that which knows sensation and feeling knows whatever arises appreciating this amazing quality and bringing gladness gladdening the mind this mind is not separate from the feeling it's not separate from the body it's the knowing aspect so spend some time now just appreciating this quality this particular quality in our experience let it show itself through resting in it and as we rest in it more and more over the next few stages this is naturally integrating or concentrating just allow each breath to reveal the citta the different forms and arisings within the citta looking again and again at the manifestations of the mind and appreciating how they arise and pass away the manner in which they do that and seeing how impermanent they are breathing in breathing out connected to body feeling and mind contemplating the impermanence of all that arises in our experience breath by breath giving attention to the fact that all manifestations do come to an end allowing ending to be there to be true and looking at our experience to see endings with each breath contemplating the involvements of attachment of clinging and the attachment of pushing away which is a kind of attachment considering that all these could cease all these pushings away and clingings to are not necessary and could drop away could cease completely and finally in the last few minutes actually letting go where we can BELL @45 min