21 Day Dhyana Sadhana - Day 1 - Deep Body Awareness

Day 1 for the 21-Day Dhyana Sadhana, 21-Day Meditation Practice daily online retreat as we approach Divali 2024. 

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1-minute clip intro for our start today! 

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Meditation Transcript

I invite you to sit up straight. Make sure your spine is strong and aligned. If you're sitting on a chair, you can have the feet flat on the ground. Don't sit leaning against the back. Make sure the spine is self supported. Relax your shoulders, relax your face. And when you're ready, I invite you to close your eyes and just listen to the sound of my voice. Staying in tune with me.

Take a moment to notice. Here I am. Take a slow, deep breath. Slowly in and out. Slowly in and out. Again, please. Slowly in and out.

Today we open up the awareness of the body, the physical body.

Give attention to your breathing, controlling the flow of air, becoming very skillful in using your breath.

When you breathe out, empty your lungs. Totally empty the lungs completely. Squeeze the muscles, and when you breathe in, slowly fill the lungs. Allow the lungs to expand and then release again.

And stay with this very deliberate, conscious breathing. Notice the flow of air into the lungs through the air passageways. It's cool when it enters and the air becomes warmed in the body. And as you exhale, the warm is flowing out.

As you breathe out, relax your body as you breathe in. Come into a place, a posture of ease. Where there is no fight, there is no tension. There is no resistance to the flow.

Embrace the moment, the feeling of the breath moving in and out of the body.

If there are thoughts moving in your mind, that's okay. Don't react to your own thinking.

There's no need to control your thoughts. Just allow and refocus and experience the feeling of your breathing.

Anchor yourself in that experience. Of breathing in your body. What secrets does the breathing hold?

Breathing is life.

With each exhale, the body is one breath closer to returning to the earth.

And as you breathe in, the life is held and sustained in the body.

Breathing is sacred, controlling life and death, controlling the flow of energy. Within this human experience, observe the breathing. There are mysteries in it.

When you balance the flow of breath, inhale equal to the exhale. The body becomes more stable.

The mind begins to slow down, to become more focused. And we begin opening up to that energy dimension within us. The experience of subtle energy.

Wow. Each breath holds such power.

As you inhale, feel how it nourishes your body.

As you exhale, feel how it cleanses your body.

Just by staying disciplined with the breathing,

a feeling of freshness comes to the body. It is renewed.

Now use your mind to mentally scan your body.

Just noticing the position of your limbs, noticing your sitting posture, noticing which muscles are active, which muscles are relaxed.

Open up to observe the structure of your body, the bones and joints.

Just notice the condition, the feeling.

Observe the surface of your skin, the feeling of the air in the room resting against the skin.

And then as you inhale, take your awareness deep inside the body.

Notice the surfaces of your lungs.

If you're able to, focus on the physical beating of the heart, the rhythm of that muscle, open up your awareness to the organs held in the gut.

The movement of the diaphragm as you breathe. And make sure to move the mind a little bit downwards in your gut to feel the kidneys, the digestive tract, the pelvic diaphragm, and that area of the reproduction.

By opening up the mind to the body, you are deepening that relationship, that connection, mind body connection.

The body is nourished by your attention. You are giving it energy. By focusing in this way, let each breath strengthen your body, nourish your body.

Open up your awareness to hold the entire body from the crown of your head, to the soles of the feet, to the tips of the fingers, and come into the axis of the body, the spine, and hold the entire spine.

And when you breathe, feel as though you're breathing with the whole body. When you inhale, the entire body stretches and expands. When you exhale, the entire body relaxes. Inhale, stretch and expand.

Feel that even the skeleton is opening up, loosening the joints, stretching the spine. And when you breathe out, it gently collapses and relaxes. Inhale, stretch and expand, and you're stretching the connective tissue, opening up the body.

Feel how it's elastic. It wants you to breathe out. And exhale. Release. Try to feel that elasticity in the body in stretch and expand the body opening up the body and out. Notice how the body feeling the condition is changing.

There is more aliveness and alertness holding the entire body in the awareness. Let's gently affirm in your mind, sending the message from the mind to the body.

I nourish and support my body with my breath.

I am relaxed and at ease with the flow of life.

I stay conscious and alert to my body. May it serve my spiritual path and my spiritual process.

I support and nourish my body with my breath.

I am relaxed and at ease with the flow of life.

May my body continue to support my spiritual journey and my spiritual process.

Now focus on your chest. Center of the chest. Location of the spiritual heart. There's an energy center there.

Breathe into the chest, energizing the heart space.

Center yourself in your heart as you prepare to and come back to the world to reengage with the world.

Let's meet the world in our heart and let's hold the body in that heart space, loving the body, accepting the body, being kind towards the body, even as we engage in the play of the world.

Breathe into the chest. Open up that heart space. And breathing out.

Now doing some abdominal breathing on the inhale. Breathe into your gut.

Expand the abdomen. As you breathe out, pull the abdomen in. Tighten the abdomen. Fold the navel towards the spine. Breathing in.

Expand the abdomen. Breathing out. Pull it in. Here we are strengthening the gut, that energy center there to steady the body, to bring strength to the body, to engage with the world.

One more time, please. In and out. Now tune into the five senses. Listen to the sounds around you. Notice the touch. Sense of touch in the body. The weight of the body resting in your seat.

Notice the eyes are closed. The sense of taste and smell. Take a deep breath, nourishing your senses.

That's very good. Come all the way back, fully alert.

And just take a moment to observe how these few minutes of meditation, how do you feel?

Know when the moment is right for you. With a few gentle blinks, I invite you to open the eyes.

END

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Reflection

1. What did I observe in meditation? 
2. What was striking in the meditation experience? 
3. What was challenging for me today? 

Feel free to ask your questions and post your reflection in the comments if you wish for some feedback.