Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this ten-minute instruction, Amy Miller teaches a foundational counting-breath meditation method. She begins with detailed postural setup: spine extended, legs either cross-legged or straight depending on whether seated on a cushion or chair, hands positioned with palms up and thumbs touching, neck and shoulders relaxed, eyes lightly closed or open with gaze toward the nose tip. Before starting, practitioners establish altruistic motivation, remembering they meditate not only for personal peace but to become wiser and kinder for the benefit of others. The core practice is simple: bring attention to natural breath at the nostrils or the rising and falling of the abdomen, then count each complete cycle of inhalation and exhalation as one. When the mind inevitably wanders, there is no judgment—simply notice the distraction, release it gently, return to the breath, and restart the count. Accessible to complete beginners.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1.14 Meditation_Counting the Breath – Copy.mp3
UUID: a2107b81-2707-4b32-816b-4be94f679314
Teacher: Amy Miller
Collection: Nutshell no details (Amy Miller)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~437
Put yourself in a comfortable posture for meditation. And just to briefly review, the most important feature is to make sure your spine is as extended as possible so that the back appears to be straight. The legs are in one of the lotus or cross legged positions if you are seated on a cushion on the floor. If you’re in a chair, just have your legs straight down and not crossed. The palms rest near the lap with the right palm on the left, face up with the thumbs touching.
The neck and shoulders are very relaxed and the head is slightly tipped forward with the eyes lightly closed or slightly opened, focused near the tip of the nose. The tongue can be curled, touching the upper palate of the mouth. And just take a moment here to check your motivation. As much as you can, create an altruistic motivation for doing this meditation right now. So you can think that you are meditating not just for your own individual benefit, but that you are taking the time now to meditate to become more open, more peaceful, so you can become a wiser, kinder person and be a benefit to all others.
So just bring your awareness right now to your breath, a normal, natural breath. You can focus on the air moving in and out of your nostrils. Or focus on the rising and falling of your abdomen, whichever you feel is more comfortable. You don’t need to follow the air all the way into your body. You just want to focus the attention on the little space just outside the nostrils where the air enters and leaves, or just that activity of the rising and falling of the abdomen.
And your job right now is to keep your mind focused on the breath. You may find many distractions arise, pulling your awareness away from the breath. But you don’t need to attach to them now. You don’t need to have a judgment or a criticism about them. And you don’t need to tell yourself, I can’t meditate.
In this type of meditation, As the mind wanders off the objectthe breathall you need to do is keep bringing the mind back to the breath. You bring it back again and again, and that’s meditation. So, to focus a bit more clearly, you can count your breaths. One inhalation, one exhalation is one. So see how far you can count before your mind wanders.
When it does, become aware that your mind is wandering. Bring it back to the breath, and begin counting again at one.