Resting at Home Meditation

Resting at Home Meditation

By Leo Babauta

Try this now, if you’re somewhere where you can sit in quiet(ˈkwīət) (even on a train(trān) or bus) for a minute or two:

  1. Sit still, ideally(īˈdē(ə)lē) in a position where you feel stable and grounded.

  2. First check in with your body(ˈbädē) — how does it feel right now? What sensations(senˈsāSHən) can you notice? Is your posture(ˈpäsCHər) upright(ˈəpˌrīt) and relaxed(riˈlakst)? What kind of energy(ˈenərjē) are you feeling in this moment? What does it feel like to be alive right now?

  3. Then check in with your breath(breTH) — is your breathing relaxed? How does this breath feel? What is the texture of this breath? Keep your attention(əˈtenCHən) on the breath for a few moments.

  4. Next, expand your awareness(əˈwe(ə)rnis) to everything in the room, including yourself. Not anything in particular, just a general open awareness of everything, eyes open, taking in all sensations, receiving them, not labeling them. Don’t judge(jəj) anything, don’t fix on anything in particular(pə(r)ˈtikyələr), just open yourself to awareness of a field(fēld) of sensations, your own body included in that field, not separate(ˈsɛp(ə)rət) from anything.

  5. In any of these steps, if your mind starts to wander to thoughts, just notice that (without judgment) and gently come back to your awareness of the present(priˈzent,ˈprezənt) moment.

If you can rest in this open awareness, coming back when you wander … what can happen is that you yourself can drop away. Not your body or your awareness, but your conception(kənˈsepSHən) of yourself. We all have this idea of ourselves, a structure we’ve created that is “me,” but in truth it’s just a mental concept. With an open awareness, this conception can drop away. Try it for a minute or two, and see if you can let that mental concept of yourself drop away, so that you’re just a part(pärt) of everything in your awareness.

What I’ve found is that in the moments you can do this, it feels like you’re coming home.

Think about what it’s like to come home — either to your home at night, or to your childhood home after being away. It’s like coming home to the familiar(fəˈmilyər), to the comfortable(ˈkəmftərbəl,ˈkəmfərtəbəl), to a sense of belonging. This is where you belong, where you are loved, where you can be at rest. That’s the feeling that you can get if you rest in open awareness, with your sense of self just dropping away.

Rest in this sense of coming home. Rest in this place of stillness, of connecting to the infinite(ˈinfənit).

https://zenhabits.net/still/